SongStarter is now JamDeck

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We’re pleased to announce that a new, major update to SongStarter is now available. We’ve made many improvements to SongStarter and are continuing to shape the entire experience to make it an even better environment for songwriting.

As part of this new release, we’ve given SongStarter a fresh new look and a new name that better fits where we’ll be taking it in the future: JamDeck.

JamDeck is SongStarter remixed, refined, and evolved.

It’s the SongStarter you know and love, the songwriting environment that gets you creating and capturing music, but is even more refined now. JamDeck 1.1 is available today as free upgrade for all SongStarter owners.

Visit the new JamDeck website today for more information.

Now with Drum Kits, and lots more.

New in JamDeck 1.1:

A Redesigned User Interface
The new, sleek user interface drops you right into the Jam Setup screen to streamline startup even further.

New Instrument Browser
Includes Categories, allowing faster access to pianos, orchestral instruments, etc.

New Instruments
Since SongStarter 1.0, we’ve continued to add new instruments with every release, and JamDeck 1.1 is no different. New instruments in JamDeck 1.1 include Tack Piano, Harp, Jazz Guitar, Nylon Atmosphere, Sweep Pad, Piccolo, Rock Organ, Synth Bass, Synth Strings, Sweep Pad.

Drum Kits
We’ve added 5 drum kits, so you can now make beats with JamDeck. Laying down a quick beat and throwing a few instrument tracks over top has never been easier. (And with the Freestyle Recorder, you can lay down a beat without even picking a tempo.)

New Drum Loops
We’ve doubled the number of drum loops available, bringing the total to 29. The new beats are extremely fresh.

Mastering Presets
We’ve built on the multi-band compressor we introduced in SongStarter 1.0.2 and added more DSP modules to create three simple, but effective mastering presets that keep things simple, but enhance the overall sound of your jams.

Loop Recorder Erase
A new “Erase” button for the loop recorder allows you to clear specific sections of a loop, great for fixing mistakes. Simply hold down the erase button when you hear the section you want to clear, and it gets swept away.

Transport Controls
Pause and rewind buttons have been added for basic transport control.

MIDI Sustain Pedal Support
Most of the pianos and some of the other sampled instruments now support MIDI sustain pedals. These MIDI CC messages are also captured by the Loop Recorder and exported.

More Soundcard Options 
The preferences dialog got a bit of an upgrade as well, adding an API filter and buffer size (latency) setting for advanced users. JamDeck 1.1 also has improved compatibility with ASIO recording devices.

Improved UI Performance
Users with slower computers will notice animations are a bit smoother in this release.

Bug Fixes 
Over a dozen bugs including:

  • Fixed a bug saving muted loops.
  • Fixed a bug with increased capture latency after changing recording devices.
  • Fixed a rare crash when switching sampled instruments while playing.
  • Tweaked the volume of a few slightly unbalanced instruments.

Windows 8 Support for our VSTs and Apps

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With the Windows 8 launch coming on Friday, now is a good time to remind our users that all Oscillicious VST plugins and stand-alone apps are fully compatible with Windows 8, and have been thoroughly tested in this environment.

If you’re new to our site and are looking for Windows 8 compatible audio software and VST plugins, please check out our products:

I’ve been running Windows 8 on my main desktop machine for a few months now, and although the user interface is weird at first, I’ve ended up getting used to it and really like Windows 8 now. Performance has been good with the DAWs and other music apps that I’ve been testing our VSTs with too (mostly Ableton Live and Renoise).

If anyone has any questions about Windows 8 support or discovers any issues that we might have missed, please send us an email and let us know!

SongStarter 1.0.2 Released!

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We’re pleased to announce a new update to SongStarter, the organic music production app for instant jamming.

This update brings general improvements to two key areas, and is a recommended update for all users:

1. A realtime mastering bus now automatically applies some dynamic range compression and excitation to enhance the overall sound quality of your jams. In other words, everything just sounds better.

2. There should be improved compatibility with soundcards using the default Windows Vista/7/8 WASAPI audio API. We’ve made adjustments to provide a better out-of-the-box experience on Windows so you hopefully won’t have to mess around in the preferences before your soundcard works. We tested this on a range of hardware, but if you run into any audio issues on Windows with SongStarter, we’d appreciate it if you got in touch so we can fix them for good.

Also included in this update are a handful of other bugfixes, including:

  • Fixed pops when switching drum beats
  • Updated help screen now points to our SongStarter help page.
  • External audio input latency has been slightly reduced.
  • Improved compatibility with certain Windows recording devices.
  • Turned it to 11 – the overall volume is louder, should be closer to other applications.
  • Fixed a bug in which loops of certain lengths would get rounded incorrectly in the Freestyle Recorder’s tap tempo screen.
  • Switching drum beats now sets the project tempo to the original tempo of the drum beats. No more chipmunk DNB drums when you’re trying them out.

As usual, SongStarter owners can update their full version using the links in their original registration email or by visiting our downloads page.

For those just passing by, an updated SongStarter trial is available for download for Windows and Mac OS X. Check it out!

Oct 8th SongStarter for Chrome Update

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SongStarter for Chrome Updated

An updated version of SongStarter for Chrome is now live on the Chrome Web Store! This update includes a handful of bugfixes from the desktop 1.0 release and other small changes:

  • Fade the drum loops in when previewing to eliminate a click (will be fixed in the next desktop version too)
  • In the Jam Setup screen, the BPM now changes when you select each drum loop.
  • Adjusted the volume of a few of the instruments
  • Integrated the new instrument engine from the desktop version, though no new instruments for Chrome yet. We want to keep the download size small to make everything load quickly but still add more instruments, so there’s a bit of work to do there before we add instruments powered by the new engine to the Chrome version. (In the meantime, the desktop version has all the instruments!)
  • Other changes included from the desktop 1.0 version include stability improvements, new graphics, and lots of bugfixes.

And if you dig what we’re up to, don’t forget to rate SongStarter in the Chrome Web Store!

SongStarter 1.0 Released!

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After many months of development, I’m pleased to announce the release of SongStarter 1.0!

The new SongStarter 1.0 Release

SongStarter is an organic music production app for jamming. It’s a sandbox for musicians that lets you write music naturally by recording and layering loops.

We created SongStarter to give musicians a new way to write music. We love jamming away from our computers because it’s easier to get into a groove, but it takes more work to transcribe or record our ideas. But when we’re at computers, sometimes the complexity of a digital audio workstation is distracting, and we miss the flow of a real live jam.

SongStarter is a bridge between these experiences – It feels like a live jam yet captures all your ideas so they can be loaded into a DAW and produced later. All that’s left is for you to jam and experiment. So download the trial today and find out what you can make with SongStarter.

SongStarter is now available for purchase directly from the Oscillicious online shop, or you can download a free feature-limited trial.

End of Public Beta

Many thanks to everyone who downloaded the SongStarter beta and send us feedback. Several new features were added recently as a direct result of your comments and suggestions, including the external recording feature and improved instruments.

Here’s some of the changes in SongStarter 1.0 that were made after the last beta:

  • Added System Default soundcard on Mac OS X (especially useful on Mac OS X Mountain Lion)
  • Fixed the Freestyle Recorder going bonkers sometimes with the built-in instruments
  • New jam graphics
  • Added a slightly better loading indicator for instruments
  • Added a close button to the instrument picker (if you couldn’t figure out how to close it the first time, you weren’t alone!)
  • Reworked the loop recorder widget again so it paints short notes now
  • Added scanning for DAWs on Windows

The final beta release will continue functioning until October 2nd, but if you’d like to check out out these latest changes earlier, you can grab the SongStarter trial version.

We’re also currently working on SongStarter for Chrome, which is still in beta. We hope to offer an updated version with better instruments within the next few weeks, so stay tuned for more information about that as we get closer to a release.

New Graphics for SongStarter – Thoughts?

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I’ve been playing around with tweaking the layout and graphics for loop groups (“ideas” in SongStarter lingo), and here’s what I’ve come up with:

New Idea/Loop Graphics for SongStarter, coming in the next beta (or the 1.0 final!)

The new layout makes it harder to accidentally delete loops, and the mute buttons now have a proper icon. Additionally, I toned down the colours by making the background a dark grey, and made each group identified by just a strip at the top (instead of a solid background color).

One major constraint in the graphic design for loops and ideas has been the waveform/note canvases. We have nice multi-colour waveforms, but they only look good against a black background. Unfortunately, a black background clashes with SongStarter’s otherwise vibrant appearance, so we have to compromise.

In the old layout (below), we had a solid, colour background for each idea. However, I think it emphasized the blank space in each idea, and provided perhaps too much contrast with the note/waveform canvases still. On the other hand, they matched SongStarter’s bright appearance fairly well, and I liked that they were unique. (I’d like to think that interesting colours stimulate your brain a bit more than boring greys.)

VU Meter and Waveform View in SongStarter Beta 090912

The old idea graphics – Solid background colour, canvases outlined in white.

So, the new graphic design in the first screenshot isn’t perfect, and it’s still a compromise, but it’s a different compromise. I think it looks a bit more professional, helps make the note/waveform canvases look better, and still looks enticing.

Is it better? Leave a comment and let me know what you think!

Bugfix Songstarter Beta Update

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Download the new SongStarter Beta for Windows and Mac OSX here!

Whoops, time for an emergency SongStarter beta update. The old desktop beta releases expired yesterday and redirected everyone to download the latest beta update from September 17th – except that I botched the beta activation code (again), and it turns out that updating wouldn’t actually reactivate your expired copy of SongStarter.

Today’s beta update should actually work and reactivate your copy of SongStarter until October 1st, and includes a number of other bugfixes from the last few days:

  • Fixed freestyle recorder tempo detection graphics (beat chooser)
  • Fixed buzzing bug if you tried to add a beat before previewing a freestyle loop
  • Fixed one rare assert (*cough* crash) on saving
  • Freestyle recorder properly restores the loop length when you bail on creating a freestyle loop
  • Freestyle recorder now wraps MIDI notes properly
  • One obscure Jam Setup bugfix
  • Fixed bugs in the project modified logic
  • But last but not least, this beta shouldn’t expire until it’s meant to expire. (Oct 1st, 2012)

New Instruments, New SongStarter Beta

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We’re pleased to announce another new beta update for SongStarter for Windows and Mac OS X! This update brings more bugfixes and new, great instruments:

New Instruments Coming for SongStarter by Oscillicious

Download the new SongStarter Beta Here

New Instruments in the September 17th, 2012 SongStarter Beta

The new instruments, which are part of the Jam Essentials collection, include:

  • Classic Piano
  • A revamped Studio Piano
  • Cello
  • Claves
  • Mute Guitar
  • Electric Piano
  • Organ
  • Tremolo Strings
  • Tubular Bells
  • Glockenspiel

So hit the front page and download the new beta update now!

This new beta release takes us very close to a final 1.0 release, and we’ll be focusing solely on bug fixing for this final development sprint. There’s a couple more known issues that we need to iron out over the next two weeks, but this latest beta is a huge improvement over our first beta release back in August.

The new instruments are not quite ready for the Chrome version of SongStarter yet, but we’ll be updating it over the next few weeks as we start to wrap up the desktop version of SongStarter.

Stay tuned for the final release, and in the meantime, happy jamming!

SongStarter Beta Updated – Now with External Recording

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The new SongStarter icon.

We’re pleased to announce that a new updated beta of SongStarter is now available.

Download the updated SongStarter now from our SongStarter page.

This update adds two new features and a slew of bugfixes that take us closer to a final 1.0 release:

External Audio Input Recording in SongStarter

Input devices (soundcards, microphones, etc) now appear as instruments in today’s SongStarter Beta update.

External Audio Recording

Each recording device on your computer now appears as an instrument in SongStarter, and allows you to capture audio right into the loop recorder. This is handy for recording from instruments like a guitar, layering quick vocal ideas, or even for beat boxing. As an added bonus, if you have Soundflower (Mac) or Virtual Audio Cable (Win) installed, you can now record audio from other programs into SongStarter.

VU Meter and Waveform View in SongStarter Beta 090912

The new VU Meter for recording and Waveform View in SongStarter Beta 090912.

Clicking an input device “instrument” displays a VU meter in place of the piano keyboard and when you record, you see a waveform visualization drawn instead of notes. We think this design keeps the SongStarter just as fast and fluid as before, but creates another useful way to help you brainstorm for music production.

External recording also works with the Freestyle Recorder, for automatic hands-free recording. It works by listening for background noise and then triggers recording when there’s a large deviation from that. It’s not perfect, but you can create some cool rhythms and jams if you create a loop out of your recording. We hope that we can work on the triggering mechanism more and make it more reliable, but for now, play with it and let us know how it works for you.

New Loop Recorder Note Visualization

While we were reworking the loop recorder visuals to support waveform drawing, we rewrote the way note rendering works too. Instead of the “scrolling notes” visuals that the previous betas had, we’ve changed it so that a white marker (the vertical line in the screenshot) tracks the playback/recording position and paints notes on the fly. This new technique always remains in sync with the audio and now matches the appearance of loops when they’re copied to ideas. One remaining issue is that sometimes very short notes don’t get visualized, although everything you play will always get recorded.

New Loop Recorder Note Visualization

The new Loop Recorder note visuals in today’s SongStarter Beta update.

 

Other Bug Fixes and Changes

  • Latency improvements on Windows. We now prefer WASAPI audio devices on Windows Vista and above, and this gives us better latency out-of-the-box for all Windows users. We also show the audio API in the preferences beside the name of the device.
  • Fixed problem with only getting silence from certain input devices. (If you downloaded SongStarter before today, you’ll want to update.)
  • Added a tiny bit more info to the Help screen. More to come…
  • Moved preferences to the options menu (Windows).
  • Default save path is now Documents/SongStarter
  • Remember the last save path.
  • New and improved icon! (at top of the post)
  • Confirmation before hitting “back” and resetting a project. Better integration of projects with each platform (Win/Mac/Chrome).
  • Fixed a rare crash on startup.
  • Freestyle Recorder now tells you what state it’s in (Idle/Recording/Waiting). There’s a short wait time of about 1 second after any audio recording, just to stop it from triggering again too quickly.

Known Issues

  • Recording is not yet supported in Chrome. Right now the APIs we need don’t exist in Native Client yet.
  • Very short notes don’t paint in the loop recorder widget. However, they’ll always be recorded.
  • Confirmation is missing before closing the application.
  • Still a handful of cases where the loop recorder length buttons are in the wrong state.

That’s it for now, but there’s more bugfixes to come as we keep polishing. Lastly, if you’re playing with SongStarter, leave us a comment and let us know how it’s working for you!

SodaSynth and Analog Extracts Updated (Windows)

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Hot off the heels of the SongStarter beta release, we’ve got new bugfix releases available for both our SodaSynth and Analog Extracts VST plugins on Windows.

SodaSynth 1.1.1 fixes a crash with the plugin GUI in certain VST hosts. This bug was introduced in the 1.1 update, when we did some work to upgrade it to a native 64-bit plugin. This is a recommended update for all Windows users.

Analog Extracts 1.0.1 fixes a bug causing the VST plugin in 32-bit hosts on 64-bit Windows to not make any sound (the samples weren’t being detected correctly).

These updates are available immediately for all registered users, and can be obtained via the link in your registration email or from our downloads page.