iLooch
[this is the looch!]
iLooch is an
iPhone/iPod-touch
application designed to generate evolving ambient sounds.
The music is not "sampled"; it is instead created by generative
and algorithmic
rule-sets coupled with various synthesis techniques.
They'll go on forever and ever! (well, at least for
a few hours...) Because the music is being
constructed on-the-fly, each time it plays it will be slightly
different. Such is life.
I used a synthesis and signal-processing code library
based on
RTcmix
to realize the audio (yes, Apple, it is compiled
entirely using XCode Tools), including many physical-model
algorithms to produce the snazzy sounds. For those interested
in such things, the iPhone/RTcmix code is
here.
It was like the proverbial Trip Down Memory Lane to code
this app using the Interface Builder and Objective-C,
as I did the first "Looching" to
learn the [then new] NeXT MusicKit many years
ago (see below for a link to the
history and various looching programs).
Although all of the iLooch musical algorithms were
built for this app, I did base a few of them on code from
previous looching programs, listed in that link below.
[note: iLooch will also run on an iPad, but I have a more
extensive version under development for the iPad.]
How Can I Get Those iLoochey Sounds?!?
visit the
iLooch/Apple iTunes/iPhone App Store Page
to get your very own iLooch app.
Why am I charging $0.99 for iLooch? --
This is the first program I've written and distributed for which I am
charging money. Mainly this is an experiment, or at least that's what
I tell myself in a misguided attempt to retain a sense of communitarian
virtue. I'm basically a public-domain kinda guy, but I read
some silly article somewhere saying that if I charge a nominal fee
people will take the app seriously! And iLooch is
one serious app. Seriously. I'm actually hoping to recoup
the annoying $100.00 I had to send to Apple to join the iPhone Developers
Program. If I wind up making BILLIONS more, I'll probably donate a bunch
to
multiple sclerosis research
(MS Research Foundation,
National Multiple Sclerosis Society),
or
multiple myeloma research
(International Myeloma Foundation,
Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation).
musical samples
Here are a few examples of output from the iLooch app:
How does it go?
- the blue squares -- select or turn on/off different
looch-musics. The blue-colors shift,
watch the virtual grass grow... isn't that fun?
- the volume slider -- relative volume (overall iPhone/iPod
volume set by the hardware controls)
- the info button -- this will get you to the 'back' screen:
- the "done" button -- touch this to get back to the 'front' screen
- the looch -- this is, in fact, a picture of Loocher howling.
- the web page info button -- touch this and it gets you here to
this very page you are reading now!
The Ancient History of iLooch
Visit
here
to read of the looching legend and the associated adventures.
There are other apps to be had, too.
Contact
Please feel free to send me comments, etc.:
Brad Garton
(garton - at - columbia - dot - edu).
Every once in a great while I randomly answer a bunch of stacked-up
e-mail. Also be sure to visit the
Computer Music Center
home page. It's a fun place!
I hope you enjoy this stuff!
-- Brad Garton, 6/2010
example 1 (2 minute mp3 file)
example 2 (2 minute mp3 file)
example 3 (2 minute mp3 file)
example 4 (2 minute mp3 file)