2015 NAMM Show Preview: IK Multimedia To Demo Low-Latency Android Music Solutions

zero-latency-android-music-softwareIK Multimedia has announced that it plans to showcase low-latency Android music solutions at the 2015 NAMM Show.

IK Multimedia says that they will ‘present a universal solution that provides near zero latency and real-time audio processing’ on a wide assortment of Android devices (running Android 4.0 or higher and compatible with USB host mode/OTG mode) at NAMM 2015.

Near-Zero Latency Promised

Despite representing over 80% market share of mobile devices in circulation, Android has not established itself as a reliable music creation platform.

IK attributes this to three things:

  • Android’s performance, which they say is ‘not suitable for real-time processing’;
  • fragmentation of the platform across dozens of manufacturers and carriers; and
  • the problem that, even with Android 5.0, ‘the platform still lacks the ability to perform rock-solid real time ultra low latency audio processing’.

They plan on addressing these issues by creating a low-latency audio system and sharing it with manufacturers:

IK Multimedia has solved this problem with a paradigm shift of a universal solution that delivers astonishing near zero latency performance (down to 2 ms round-trip total latency) on every Android device running Android 4.0 or higher and that supports USB host mode/OTG mode independently from the device manufacturer.

This solution will be made available to the hundreds of millions of devices in circulation from manufacturers like Samsung, Google, Motorola, LG, HTC, Xiaomi and more. Finally, the capability for using the Android platform for serious music making and performance has arrived.

There are a couple of other issues that have challenged developers for the Android platform: higher touchscreen latency and lower profits on the platform.

IK’s biggest challenge will probably be driving enough adoption, on a fragmented platform, to make their software a de facto standard. Interestingly, Android’s fragmentation is an issue that they say that their solution will address.

We expect to have more information from IK at the NAMM Show, later this month.

via aymat, IK Multimedia

22 thoughts on “2015 NAMM Show Preview: IK Multimedia To Demo Low-Latency Android Music Solutions

    1. Yeah, currently I use an iCrap Air 2 for music stuff, and a Galaxy Tab S for everything else. I’m hoping this will be the last iDevice I ever have to purchase.

    1. No matter how good their solution is, it will be a challenge to get phone vendors to care and jump on board. That’s a ‘herding cats’ proposition, unfortunately.

  1. If it delivers on what it says, I wager Google will buy the tech from IK Multimedia. This represents possibly grabbing marketshare and musicians who use touch devices are locked into the Apple ecosystem at this point due to this and a few other things. The significance of this for music apps on Android cannot be minimized.

    1. The challenge is that Google already has this tech – they’ve already demonstrated low-latency devices.

      But Android is open and vendors can build anything they want with it – and the market wants cheap. What’s the incentive for mass-market phone makers to get on board with IK?

  2. evil/ Anyone want to wager on whether it has a good midi implementation? /evil

    Sorry, couldn’t resist, this is good news and definitely a step in the right direction 🙂

      1. Yes – no matter how good this technology is, how do they get it on devices, when Google can’t even get phone companies to update systems when there are critical vulnerabilities?

  3. Although I’m Mac and iOS user – have 2 dedicated iPads (Air & Air 2) assigned for nothing else but music production duties, I do appreciate development on other platforms.
    Competition is the best remedy for development stagnation and I believe iOS devices have reached this point already…
    Bring it on 🙂

  4. I’d love to see some kind of competition to runaway success of iOS devices, but Android and Music Production in one sentence sounds like contradiction in terms.
    Well, only time will tell I guess…

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