4Pockets offer 5 apps at a discounted price this week. The offers end July 8th and include:
- Neon Audio Editor – $12.99 to $8.99
- MIDI Strummer – $9.99 to $6.99
- Euclidean Sequencer – $9.99 to $6.99
- MIDI Layers – $7.99 to $5.99
- Visual MultiBand Compressor – $8.99 to $5.99
Neon Audio Editor
Neon is a lightweight digital audio editor and recording plugin compatible with any AUv3 host. It supports most major iOS file formats, and allows simple drag and drop between plugins. The editor allows you to import audio from a file or the system clipboard, as well as the ability to record incoming audio.
As an editor it supports all the usual functionality you would expect as well as being able to edit samples on a per sample basis at extreme zoom levels.
Neon also contains a number of built in effects that can be applied to the whole file or a selection. Effects can be previewed and tweaked prior to applying an effect.
Neon can also be used as a clip launcher within an AUv3 Host, with the ability to remotely trigger one shot or looped samples. The Warp function can automatically adjust the tempo of a clip to the host tempo without affecting pitch.
Neon also features a slicer which allows you to cut up a sample into multiple slices that can be played back via an incoming MIDI controller.
MIDI Strummer
MIDI Strummer is an AUv3 plugin designed to simulate guitar strumming and picking techniques. It can used to generate MIDI note data which can be sent to either an external synth of choice or the internal soundfont engine.
The inbuilt soundfont player allows you to import all your favourite .SF2 and .DLS soundfonts and use them as a sound source. MIDI strummer has a set of 16 definable chord pads that can hold a series of chords, which in turn can be triggered remotely via MIDI messages or by tapping the pads.
Use the pattern editor to create a series of picking or strumming patterns that can be tranposed to the selected chord pad.
Song mode allows you to chain these chord patterns together to form songs combining both picking and strumming patterns within the same song. Enable 6/12 string on a particular part to emphesize a pert by adding depth.
Strummer also features a number of audio effects that can be used to enhance the audio from the soundfont player. These include overdrive, distortion, tremolo, chorus, phaser, graphic EQ, digital delay and reverb.
Euclidean Sequencer
Euclidean Sequencer is an alternative incarnation of the classic step sequencer that has become very popular in the modular realm. It is based on Euclidean rhythms developed by computer scientist Godfried Toussaint in 2004. Euclidean rhythms have their roots in Greek mathematician Euclid’s algorithm, which involves using the greatest common divisor of two numbers to place hits in a sequence as evenly as possible across a set timing divisions.
In practice this is actually simpler than you might think, and Euclidean Sequencer is a great way to auto generate complex musical sequences with no prior knowledge of how it actually works.
Euclidean Sequencer is an AUv3 plugin that can be loaded inside any popular host application that has flexible MIDI routing.
You can define up to 4 Euclidean rhythm parts, each part is referred to as a band. The bands are labelled A-D and colour coded RED, ORANGE, GREEN and CYAN. Together these 4 bands create a pattern, and you can create up to 16 seperate patterns per song patch.
Since each band can specify its own note sequence and output MIDI channel, you can create some quite sophisticated rythms patterns, driving 4 seperate instruments at once. Even better you can seamlessly switch patterns to create even longer evolving sequences. Patterns follow a specified key, scale, or defined chord.
You can even use MIDI input to automatically make note sequences conform to the currently playing chords.
Please note: This is an AUv3 plugin instended to be used inside your favourite host DAW such as AUM, Cubasis, Loopy Pro etc. It will work with any app that has flexible MIDI routing.
MIDI Layers
MIDI Layers is an AUv3 MIDI plugin designed to allow sophisticated routing of MIDI data in hosts such as AUM or Cubasis.
Have you ever wanted to play multiple instruments from a single master keyboard during a live performance? Would you like to be able to set up keyboard splits, crossfade layers or create an ensemble of layered instruments? If you answered yes to either of those questions, then MIDI Layers may be your solution.
Layers allows you to create up to 12 scenes, each with up to 127 layers, spanning your entire master keyboard. These scenes allow you to seamlessly switch between various layer mappings at any time during a performance.
Each layer controls the MIDI output, which can be routed to one of MIDI Layers 16 output ports and 16 channels. So if you have 5 layers in your scene, each layer is able to divert MIDI key input to 5 destinations, allowing you to control 5 instruments from one master keyboard.
Layers can overlap, meaning you can create an ensemble of two or more instruments. Layers can also have cross fades so that you can fade from one instrument to another across a specified range. You can also control the velocity curves of a layer if you need to emphasize note velocity at a certain set of octaves.
Each layer can also be remapped so that you can target a different key range on the destination instrument. This allows you to have several single note layers that can target specific drum machine samples for instance.
You can assign a song per scene, or have several scenes containing parts of the same song. Switching scenes is simple, using the on screen scene buttons, via AU parameters, or you can even add a special control layer to a scene which can then be triggered via your master keyboard.
It is also possible to assign a Program Changes to a layer. When you switch scenes, each layer can fire off its own program change to your destination instruments.
Each scene can be assigned its own scale, which enables you to play using only the white notes so say goodbye to wrong notes.
Finally, layers can be assigned to mute groups, allowing you to quickly turn on/off groups of layers with a single key or button press.
Visual Multiband Compressor
Visual Compressor is a 4 band compressor/expander which has the ability to analyse audio in real time giving an accurate and reliable spectrum representation of your signal as well as visual feedback of compression or expansion levels. It’s uses range from final mastering of songs to dynamic manipulation and EQing of drum tracks.
What makes this different from a normal compressor is the ability to compress or expand frequency ranges rather than the whole mix, with up to 4 bands available. This allows you to say tighten up a wayward snare drum while adding that extra punch to the bass drum while leaving the rest of the track intact.
Each of the 4 configurable frequency bands can be modified using drag and drop operations directly on the graph making it easy to understand and quick to configure. Turn on the labelling option for colour coded details. Each band can function as an EQ allowing raising and lowering the bands gain by +/-24dB. You can assign either a compressor or expander to each of the bands.
The compressor allows you to compress excessively loud sounds that exceed a specified threshold. Each band has configurable attack, release and ratio settings.
The expander can be used to expand sound exceeding the threshold while compressing anything below it. This makes it useful for adding dynamics or even for noise reduction of a specific band.
Each band has mute and solo buttons so you can audition what is coming through a certain band, great for use during band frequency setup. There is also a bypass option which removes a band from use and reduces CPU load.
You can load and save custom presets as well as copy and paste settngs between instances. This is great if you need to setup multiple instances with the same settings.
One of the cool features is the ability to save up to 3 mixes and switch between them for comparision. These mixes are actually saved as part of custom presets and as the saved state in your DAW.
This is the third of three products which will make up part of the ‘visual’ range of effects.
For more information on the apps, click here:
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