This is another sneak preview of the upcoming AudioGL – a 3D modular music-making environment.
The video features a patching demonstration and an entire track written with one monophonic oscillator.
There’s a lot of interesting things going on in this video – so give it a few minutes and let us know what you think.
Do you want to make music in a 3D ‘Tron’-style virtual world?
We’re not sure about the value of the 3D eye-candy – but AudioGL has piqued our interest……
what really interested me in that video was his approach to the song in the last 4-5 minutes. I really like how he was using a single monophonic oscilator, that was cycling through waveforms split out to multiple effects channels. Really very cool. I tried a similar appoach last night but didn't get terribly far. 🙂
I've been saying for years that it doesn't matter how many oscillators you have in the beginning if your modulation routings are interesting enough. This kind of modular approach seems like it has a similar appeal of say, Max/MSP with a potentially lower barrier of entry — it looks far less mathy and more musical from the outset.
I wonder if the UI actually benefits the workflow though…
That's a really interesting take on how to visualize and notate electronic music.
Very interesting work, and it sounds really good as well! Whats wrong with a 3D interface? I personally dislike all the software that has a GUI made to look like hardware. I agree that it looks more musical than Max/MSP. And it sounds way better.
Despite the (to me) scarily unfamiliar 3D interface, this is the best innovation in representing a virtual music system that I have so far come across. I particularly like the trailing modulation animations flowing into the individual modules, and the whole thing seemed much more intuitive to me than some virtual synthesizers from which I have thus far failed to extract a single note (for reasons that defeat me).
do I want Tron DAW? it depends if apple produced it…
I think it looks and sounds fantastic!
i love the criticism in the title
very, very cool
Goes to the wishlist. Hope to build better projects than with Max/MSP. At least is not heavily multicoloured and doesn't features distracting graphics ala JRwizzies.
This guy has done a very good job of UI design, which is not an easy task. I especially like how everything you can work with is visible at almost all times. This is a HUGE problem in most UI design, because everything is hidden in menus and secret little right+click zones. Emulating real-world devices is not at all necessary, and in fact imposes a tremendous amount of limitations on functionality. And the sound quality is good, so I think he has a winner.
That being said, it looks like a pretty robust product as it stands. What is he looking for funding for? It seems he could easily tidy up the loose ends and sell it as it stands as a 1.0 product. It's certainly more capable than a lot of stuff I've paid good money for in the past. Then use that cash to keep developing. If he gets VC it's just going to bloat the product with features nobody really wants, and take up all his time in "business" tasks instead of development.
Seems like there's enough there to release now. Sounds great and concept is unique. Wondering though how much 3D adds to the interface. 2D qualities seem pretty impressive already.
This is like Jeskola Buzz on LSD 😛 wicked
I am not as much interested on automation…but nice to have it so easily visible.
The modular side interests me more, than anything in the world. I hope it isn't too expensive.
This seems pretty great. For those of us who want a more open-ended software solution but are a little bit intimidated by Max.
I think as a whole, its incredibly innovative. My only concern is in the virtual space that the program and its parts run in. Is it impressive to look at? Absolutely. Will it speed up the process I use to make music… that's the most important question.
The "3D" aspect of it appears to be added as somewhat of a bonus feature. But how useful is it and what is its overall purpose for being there in the first place? It simple visual enhancement or can the data be used and rendered for things like video and creative motion graphics.
Still, my curiosity has been piqued and I would love to see more.
This has me more excited and inspired than just about anything else I can think of right now. Incredible looking stuff, and it begs the question why the hell has nobody tried this approach before? It’s such an intuitive, logical and more importantly MUSICAL solution.
Then you kind of realize that all those computer DAW/sequencing paradigms that are adhered to so much today were conceived in the late eighties and have hardly changed since… and then you realize this is probably the first truly ‘modern’ DAW.
I REALLY hope this project comes to fruition!
And then my brain fell out of my skull.
Absolutely agree. I also vote for a free demo. I think it would spread pretty well.
Just saw this (a month later). While the pieces and elements might be somewhat familiar, there are aspects of the way it is assembled that are unique. The sound generation being pinned to various synth modules that are somewhat simple yet flexible is clever. The approach to synthesizing/modulation via envelopes & automation is a nice merging of previous concepts. The 3-D fly-around world where we see 3-dimensional streams of linear data controlling X, Y coordinates (the 3rd dimension is time) and we can see the controller stream piercing and manipulating the data point as it passes. COOL!!
Adding the ability to control these processes on an audio track, and the ability to work with more composed MIDI tracks (especially if we have similarly innovative features for MIDI editing) will make this a game-changer.
I also would like to see meter changes, and modules for generating custom scales & chords.
Ummm, YES! DUH!
So here we are, close to november (okay almost close). the first we heard about this product was back in April ish, and all we have to show (to my knowledge), is two youtube videos, a Bandcamp Page, and numerous blogs discussing this software. for the record, I freaking love it, and can see it becoming one of my go-to softwares. On a side note, I wonder about 3 things: the oscilloscope, virtual routing to other softwares, and tempo/midiclock linking.
Ultimately, I want to know: where’d the AudioGL guy go!?
Just looking for news and updates on his progress. that’s all this comment is.
Tron style virtual would….. Riiiggghhhhtttt…… PRETTY SURE THIS ISN’T A GAME GUYS 😐 You really fail reviewer, like oh god do you fail so hard.