iPad music - amazingness continues

 Wow, making music on iPad is wild.  So good!!

Transit 2 just came out on sale for $10!  Got it.

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/transit-2-baby-audio/id6753751150

Transit 2 is not just multi-effects, its a multi-effect that is specifically focusing on transitions.  It reminds me of Turnado (iOS) but the UI is magic -- and Dark Mode!

Other recent acquisitions 

- GRFX - an audio mangler.  I was initially intrigued, but now I regret it bc its cool looking but Im not impressed by the audio output.

- Elpiano - got electronic piano synth by Klevgrand on sale.  Not sure I needed a piano synth, but it sounds cool & looks amazing.

- Hammerhead Drums - Wow, its simple and gets the job done.  Sequencer & instruments.  Classic plugin.

- Patterning 2 - $20 was $10 off sale.  Too expensive still IMP, but it is a sick drum instrument.

Got Synthmaster2 free on sale today.

Re-downloaded - Moog 15, Moog Model D, Figure, & Samplr.  Out of all, Figure is hands down my fav -- I use it, kids use it, its just so fun ... (Could've probably become much more, but its still pretty awesome as it is.)

- almost got Moomu (wild iOS modular synthesis app) after going to this amazing spot in Portland called ControlVoltage.net & messing with Eurorack craziness, but making music that way hurts my brain so I saved $hundreds there and scored Transit 2 for $10.  Woot!

...

Now that I've said all this, the tool Im using most on iPad (or Android phone) to make music is Suno Pro (paid).  OMG what a gamechanger.

- yes, I don't like that Suno & other AI co's sample all music & dont pay the artists.  This is clearly criminal breach of IP laws.

- Yes, talentless hacks are making tons of shit tracks with SUNO or other AI tools.

But ... the tracks I get make me feel good.

Will link a few recents:

Business of Freedom. - https://suno.com/s/AFwdObjRP4WfMsDY

Flashback on Slavery - https://suno.com/s/JeHacUx7B98hRBGC

Backflipped - https://suno.com/s/oUxEP0CSXvpQogfz

And for a few really different tracks:

Kaiju and Mecha - https://suno.com/s/KzuBK2s7iCVcuwTh

Evolutionary - https://suno.com/s/tMLk9U4NjVFDp8Rg

Mo Mo Sound Defex - https://suno.com/s/ESdrlYu4tcchndnC

... And so many more!

iPhone Games & Apps - end of 2011 recommendations

2011 iPhone Games recommendations
Games should be replayable, IMO. So many of these $1 and $2 games are "play 3-4x and get bored". Particularly annoying for me are so-called "RPG's" which have no roleplay, no character development besides a skill-tree and stat assignment, and the equipment is alway about improving your item progression, ie a sword II to a sword III.

I did think Tiny Heroes was impressive, the War on Terror is humorous, Elder Sign is a worthy contender, BattleHeart is highly replayable (and while it is one of those 'RPG-like' games I described, the gameplay mechanism is quite fun), GodVille is truly unique (and funny & free w/o IAP), PuzzleQuest is awesome, Protector was interesting/challenging, Anomaly was fun but lacked replayability, Neuroshima Hex is a fav, Ascendancy has potential as a 4x (but UI was challenging), Battle for Wesnoth should be a 'genre breaker' (amazing strategic combat), and I also liked The Lord of the Rings: Middle-earth Defense (had some good value for unique LOTR character based TD game),

Disappointments were King of Dragon Pass (which had a great review but was less than thrilling), King Cashing (supposedly unique/amazing game, but I found it lacking), Legend of Yore (an 8-bit Rogue-like w/o anything beyond hack & slash), & Mage Gauntlet (great review, less than exciting 8-bit retro game). Also bought Chaos Rings awhile back & found that very disappointing.

I've also tried a bunch of CCG games for iPhone, incl the 'big' Shadow Era (ok game, hate the clumsy UI), Dungeon Solitaire (good fun, some strange new cards), Kard Combat (was fun for a few plays, then boring), as well as Cabals (strategic game with potential, UI was awkward & heckling IAP is annoying), Orions 1 &2 (both fun, dev's not so great), Stack & Deploy (interesting CCG-like game w/action elements, UI takes practice).

Big fan of Speedball 2 (fun!), Words w/Friends (my g/f is hooked & have a few regular ongoing games, new IAP is annoying), Dungeon Defenders & Defender Chronicles (fun twists on TD),

Non-game props for apps on my iPhone go to --> TuneIn Radio, DropBox, TapForms (a DB), Pandora, Garage Band, NetFlix (I can watch whole movies or anime episodes on my phone? WOW!), Adobe Ideas (my fav sketch app), ComicBook, Yelp (but bogus & weak reviews are annoying), SoundHound, SoundCloud, USB Disk Pro, CraigsPro+, Mint, Blogger or Blogger+, Google Voice, Genius Scan +, Evernote.

Dungeon Raid may be my all-time favorite game -- the developer started with an excellent game and improved it, dev is very responsive and committed to their community of players, and the mechanic is a lot of fun AND the sounds are great (and I can play my own music behind it).

Lynda.com -- nice. Drupal -- nice!

Lynda.com is cool. For Berkeley City College, it's only $10/mo, but only the topics in our class.
I'm hella impressed, & I think there should be something like this free for all.
Educational videos, passively absorbed (but you can do them NEXT TO the app).

Here's a few Lynda.com hacks (from a Forums.Macrumors.com article):

For Safari users
I don't use Lynda.com but have saved youtube videos by choosing the Window menu in Safari and choosing activity.
(Window --> Activity --> download file)
This will show links to all items that are part of the page. You should be able to find the link to the video by looking for the item that is megabytes in size instead of kilobytes. When you click that link in the activity window it should download the file.

For Firefox users,
1. Open the movie in a Firefox window
2. Select Tools>Page Info
3. Select the Media tab
4. Press the Save As button
One thing though. While the movies play fine locally, they are well protected from being easily transcoded to another format. None of the usual suspects work such as QT Pro, ffmpegX, or MPEG Streamclip.

Frankly, I don't blame Lynda for having security. Those help files are their gold. BUT, it's not that hard to 'work around' so you can re-watch videos after ending your account. And you can download these with a 'plain vanilla browser', not any website rippers or similar.

So this has me thinking, why not have HELP FILES that are all video?

I was just troubleshooting a phone system, and any kind of help besides their old & confusing paper manual would've ROCKED.

Future super help systems = videos, a chat option to talk to an expert, maybe point your video phone to the problem & have a human troubleshooter, and easy-to-search forum.

Hmmmm, maybe I should make the damned thing!
& I'm really liking Drupal. And BADCamp is this month! Wow, a free weekend-long DRUPAL learning fest in the Bay Area (hence the name). GO OPEN SOURCE!