After a lot of hard work, I have released my new synth as a beta. It’s called Tangle, because it’s a modular synth where you connect modules by ‘wires’ and we all know that wires always tangle. You can grab the demo and have a play. If there are bugs, please be patient, it’s hard to test for all DAW host and OS combinations, so there will inevitably be incompatibilities to begin with. I’m working hard to iron all these out ASAP!
After a making a couple of mistakes in my Mangle release yesterday, and a hard day of fixing them for today’s update, I posted a frank account of what I find difficult about audio development, where the promised preset banks for The Mangle are, and some other bits ‘n’ bobs.
I have released version 1.1 of The Mangle, with many bugs fixed, and a sleek new visual style.
Finally, The Mangle reaches version 1.0! There is also now a demo version, so you can try before you buy. The demo version doesn’t allow you to save presets. There are still only a very few presets bundled with The Mangle, but I’m working on a large pack, which all owners of The Mangle, past and future, will receive on release.
I’m nearing a final release - beta testers are now putting a “release candidate” through its paces. If all seems well, The Mangle will finally come out of its rather long beta. This has been my first experience building software for release to the general public, and it’s been a lot harder than I anticipated. Especially since I chose to make a product which has to run on 2 operating systems, in 3 plugin formats, in 64 & 32bit versions, to be run in any one of dozens of hosts (some of which I hadn’t even heard of before I began). Dealing with the many permutations of setups has been challenging to say the least, but I think I’m very close!
It’s taking longer than I hoped, but I’m slowly getting there… Version 0.9b contains lots of performance and feature updates. One of the best things is that there are now 4 sequencers per voice. The sequencers are very flexible, allowing tempo-synced patterns, and you can even use them to create crude custom-shaped LFOs.
TLDR: I’m releasing a new update for The Mangle today. I hope to have the final version done by December, and I’m sorry about not communicating enough on the KVR forums… Over the last few months I haven’t been steering this ship as well as I could have. I haven’t communicated well with my paying customers, and I haven’t delivered any updates for about 3 months. I’m really sorry about that.
Yang Kyoungjong was a Korean soldier who was conscripted into the Japanese army. He was captured by the Soviets, and later forced into a Soviet penal military unit to fight the Germans, who captured him in the Ukraine, and (you guessed it) pressed him into fighting for them. Finally he was sent to occupied France, where he was captured by the Allies after D-Day. After the war he lived in the USA until his death.
I’ve been holding off upgrading to Logic X for two main reasons: I’ve been totally broke, and I’ve read that it was very buggy, as is traditional for a new Logic release. Well Apple just released the largest ‘minor’ update I’ve ever seen for Logic. The changelog is gargantuan! And it looks like most of the niggles people were experiencing have been addressed.
Using Apple’s professional products can be an excercise in frustration. Their heritage of good design and focus on ease of use makes their professional offerings very approachable and often more elegant than their competitors. But their policy of total radio silence, though effective when surprising the world with their latest consumer gadget, is downright unsettling for professionals, who need to know that the software they rely on for their living is being taken seriously.
This update gives me heart that Apple hasn’t forgotten Logic, or consigned it to prosumer Macbook-bait. Time to upgrade!
Phew. After quite a few late nights this week, the Windows version of the Mangle is ready for beta testing. There’s been a terrific response to the Mac release, so I wanted to ‘strike whilst the iron’s hot’. Happy Mangling!
It’s been a long (but happy) week, and I unplugged all day today. When I came back to the internet I found sales had kind of… exploded. Turns out Richard Devine tweeted about The Mangle. Thanks Richard!
Excellent article showing how the popular narrative about skeumorphism is wrong, and what it really means for design:
One day in the not too distant future, print will cease to be anything but an historic process. The materials that we print now will be replaced by surfaces, the molecules of which will change their color to create text, images and movies — imagine a sheet of paper with the interactive abilities of a tablet. In that exciting future, you’ll still find the echoes of a medieval monk, ensconced in a library somewhere in northern Italy, painstakingly illuminating a copy of the Bible.
This list was previously buried at the bottom of my previous post, “Mangle beta release announcement”. However, I realised it didn’t really belong there, and was liable to be missed. So if you’re the owner of a shiny new beta Mangle, read on: I’m planning to write a full html manual for the Mangle, but it’s not ready yet, so in some ways you’re on your own. However, I think most features should be relatively self-explanatory, but there are a few that are not, or are hidden.
For the last year or so I’ve been working on an audio plugin (VST/AU). I will be releasing it as an early access beta in a matter of hours, and you’ll be able to get it here. It will be at a discounted price for the moment, to reflect the fact that you will experience bugs. Of course, buying the beta version entitles you to updates (which will be frequent during the beta period) and the full version when it comes out.
Wow, this is a blast from the past. I’d even forgotten I ever had one of these, but this thing made me fall in love with computers as a kid. Alfred Chicken, Beneath a Steel Sky or Cannon Fodder anyone?
For the last year or so I’ve been working on an audio plugin (VST/AU), and I thought my poor neglected site deserved a bit of a redesign too. And a blog! Sure, why not? More info on the Mangle will follow shortly, but here’s a little on why I’m doing a blog: First off, I decided it was high time I got myself a web presence in text form. Many of you will be aware that I have a sadly neglected Youtube channel.
This blog is a mixture of announcements, links, tutorials and anything I find interesting.
Expect topics ranging from audio synthesis & programming to historical curiosities, taking the scenic route of personal opinion.