Looper's Delight Archive Top (Search)
Date Index
Thread Index
Author Index
Looper's Delight Home
Mailing List Info

[Date Prev][Date Next]   [Thread Prev][Thread Next]   [Date Index][Thread Index][Author Index]

Re: VST Host & Effects on PDA



At 2:06 PM +0200 7/4/06, Buzap Buzap wrote:
>  > I remember seeing a blurb on a mini-Ableton clone in one
>>  of my synth magazines last year.
>
>Actually, if there is a "mini-looper" for PocketPC - it would be 
>really awesome!!
>Not for anything series for me, but I'd like to jam with myself or 
>work on some ideas while travelling.
>
>So, is there a simple "pocket looper" you know of?

Well, I found the back issue to which I was referring (Dec. 2005 
issue of Keyboard.  I should have just done a search online for the 
article in the first place: 
http://www.keyboardmag.com/story.asp?sectioncode=30&storycode=12175 ).

The software is Bhajis Loops ( http://www.chocopoolp.com ). 
Unfortunately, it's not as cool as I remember it (but then again, 
what ever is?).  It does seem to be an homage to Ableton Live, but on 
Palm OS.  There are two serious shortcomings, however.  First and 
foremost, it does not seem to accept live input.  You have to either 
record or input .WAV's separately before working with them.  Second, 
and contrary to my first impression, it will *not* act as a VST host. 
However, it includes almost 20 native effects on its own, so you can 
already do a lot with what's there.  And of course it's pretty fully 
functional otherwise, especially with the pattern and wave editors.

Otherwise, I spent a nice chunk of time looking around for something 
on Win CE or Palm that would work with VST's.  No luck yet.  I did 
find a few neat things for tweezing backing tracks (i.e. drum and 
bass accompaniments).  For instance, at the aforementioned Chocopoolp 
site, there's a little widget called Microbe that allows you to 
manipulate 8 drum tracks and 2 synths.  There are quite a few 
Trackers ported over to either Palm or Win CE too.

And if you are indeed interested in dropping your rhythm section in 
your pocket, this would also be a good time to throw in a plug for 
PSP Rhythm ( http://www.psprhythm.com ) and PSP Kick ( 
http://www.pspkick.com ) -- both for the Sony PSP.  PSP Rhythm is 
particularly nice, IMNSHO, because it attempts to model some of its 
functions from the Elektron Machinedrum SPS-1.  Both are pretty neat, 
however, and the PSP platform is excellent for these sorts of 
homebrew music apps.  I'm waiting for someone to finally work out the 
kinks for live input, then the PSP would really be a viable 
alternative for music softs.  Oh, and it's a really, really kewl game 
and movie machine too, for when you're stuck in the bus/plane 
travelling to the next gig.  :D

        --m.
-- 
_______
"Somewhere between anticipation and nostalgia we should have been happy."