Skrivarna Software

So, at last, my first paid app is published both on the Android Market and on the Amazon Appstore . No big deal really, and no big price tag, but I hope this version of the Andronome Metronome will be useful. As with the standard Andronome, the plus version delivers: Sample-accurate metronome ticks. Loud enough sounds, also for real practice environments. Clearly visible screen indication and... ...really large BPM numbers (visible from a distance, e.g when lying on the stage floor). Tempo adjustable between 20 and 240 BPM. Start and stop via touch screen, hardware buttons, headset. Tap tempo directly on screen. But also: Subdivisions (eights, triplets, sixteenths...) Selectable time signatures (with first beat accent) from 1 to 15/4. As many user presets as your phone memory allows. Optional beat vibration. Keypad for quick and exact tempo entering. This metronome is the professional choice, giving the working musician exactly what is needed. As elegant and simp...

A few updates have been published on the Android Market since my last post here. No major changes, but a few nice optional ways to use the app and some important improvements "under the hood". The version is now 0.9.5: Menu buttons for enabling/disabling sound and blink. Made sure tempo setting is stored between invocations. Form-and-fit for larger screens improved. Usage screen only shown once (at first start-up) and on request. Reduced memory allocations (less footprint and better performance). Some internal restructuring to allow for future enhancements (looking forward to version 1.0.0...).

Andronome . Totally. Professional. Metronome. For free. 'Nuff said. The musicians metronome - simple, professional, accurate. Andronome is designed to keep time, and to do it well. Simple in appearence and use, it contains the most precise metronome engine available. But no cluttered user interface and no unnecessary bells or whistles. With Andronome you'll get: Sample-accurate ticks. Clearly visible screen indication. Tempo adjustable between 20 and 240 BPM. Start and stop via touch screen, hardware buttons, headset. Tap tempo directly on screen. Large BPM numbers (visible from a distance, e.g when lying on the stage floor). ...and that's about it! This metronome is made to be the professional choice, giving the working musician exactly what is needed. No more, no less. And completely for free! (No, there's no catch: no hidden fees, no advertising, no time limits.) If you for some reason think you need more features, please check out the other me...

There are often several ways to get at the most important functions of the Andronome metronome. Most users will prefer to use the touch screen, like this: Tap the screen once to start the metronome. Long press (touch and hold) the screen to stop. Adjust the tempo by swiping the finger over the screen. Fling or swipe up to increase the BPM, down to decrease it. The tempo change is proportional to the velocity of the swipe. Tap the tempo on the screen, Andronome will adjust to the tapped tempo. You may also use the menu to start, stop and set tempo. Or the hardware buttons. And why not try the remote control on your headset? You may also use the menu to button and press play/stop. Tempo is adjusted via a slider control and the short usage welcome screen can be shown. If you have a headset with media control the play/pause button will work as expected. If the headset has a volume control, this will work too. Phones with real hardwa...

Android is a great platform. For the end user there is a huge variety of phone models (yes, you can actually select between more than black and white...), pads, TVs and other cool stuff. For the app developer the Java language and nice API makes for a fun and easy development environment. The business model lets you publish anything you want, good and bad. For free. For better and for worse. And hardware manufacturers as well as kernel hackers have a lot of open code to play with. However, for us musicians Apples iOS still have a huge advantage: Android does not support realtime applications, especially audio with low latency requirements. And unfortunately this is only partly due to garbage collecting Java, so writing native code is only part of the solution. But the Android OS developers seem aware of the problem, and the Linux kernel can do better than this, so I'm sure the problem will eventually be solved. But we're not there yet. In the meantime, let's...

Yet another release, thanks to valuable user comments: Phone stays awake while the metronome is running. Increased amplitude of the audio samples. (In plain English: the clicks are LOUDER!) Improved response of metronome engine. Reduced size of app somewhat. Play, practice, have fun.

Finally, the update to Rude 0.7.1 is ready. In short this version is about: A few rudiments corrected, to be in accordance with the  standard rudiments as published by PAS. Completely rewritten metronome engine, with sample accurate sound. Rudiment selection also via menu, as requested by users (thanks for the feedback!). The big thing here is the new metronome engine. While still a work in progress this is something that will evolve and become very useful, I think.  As always, Rude is downloaded from the Android market. Enjoy!

Come on, just admit it! You are a little nostalgic and fondly remember the good old days when a man was a man, a mouse a mouse and a synth ... well, when a synth was a pocket calculator or the other way around. Casios strange VL-1 instrument sold 1,000,000 units between 1979 and 1984. Trio, the German band, used it to record their huge hit "DaDaDa", and bands like Human League, Devo, The Cars followed suit. And 30 years later it is still backing tracks by Moby and Fergie. But you don't have to search Ebay to enjoy playing the "Fantasy" sound over a nice "Rock-2" blip. Now you can have the "Unterlanders Heimweh" demo tune right there when you need it, feeling a little lowlandish homesick. The VL-Tone app contain the factory presets and rhythm patterns in all their distorted and noisy glory, carefully sampled from an original Casio VL-1. Never have so few bits been sampled by so many for so little, to paraphrase Churchill. So, download a...

Here's some more info for those interested in the history of VL-Tone:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casio_VL-1 http://www.hollowsun.com/vintage/casio_vl1/ http://weltenschule.de/TableHooters/Casio_VL-1_PT-1.html http://www.polyvalens.com/vl1/download/casio_vl-tone_manual_uk.pdf http://steveffisher.wordpress.com/2010/05/31/casio-vl-tone-vlt-1-mini-keyboard-calculator-sequencer/ And of course ... the song :

In the eternal quest for world domination and software monopoly, following the instant success of GoodVibrations , Skrivarna Software proudly presents the Rude drum rudiments trainer . Well, to be honest, this app is rude in more than the obvious, the-name-sounds-like-rudiment way. This is beta software, and I need your help with testing it. I will state it again and again, this is a beta version. However, what it does is this: Show notation of all 40 official rudiments, with name and number according to PAS . Visually indicate where you are in the pattern, synchronized with the built-in metronome. Allow tempo adjustments between 20 and 240 BPM. Navigate quickly and intuitively between rudiments and tempos, with support for most input methods (including media buttons and screen swipes). Link to textual descriptions and instructional videos showing all the patterns individually, on pad and examples applied to drum set. The videos and examples...

To suit the many different users and androids out there, Rude can be controlled in a few different ways. See which ones you like the best. The obvious one Use the menu button and press play (to play/pause), reverse (to change rudiment to the previous) or forward (to change to the next). Tempo is adjusted via a slider control and examples are opened at the touch of a button. Some settings are also available only using this menu. The iWay Use the touch screen and swipe up to increase tempo, down to decrease it. The change is proportional to the velocity of the swipe. Swipe left to go to the next rudiment (like if you are paging through a book). Right will page you back to the previous one. A quick tap on the screen starts the metronome, tap again to stop it. Long press opens the browser with the examples of this rudiment. The convenient control If you have a headset with media control the play, reverse and forward butto...

Almost a thousand downloads and 4.5 stars after one day. Not to bad for a first app, and such a simple one too. Reading the comments it seems to work well, but a few reported problems indicate that I need to further emphasize that that this small piece of software is a button widget only , there is no regular user interface that opens on installation or on click. There is just a widget added to the home screen menu. Put the widget button somewhere, touch it to start the vibration, touch it again to stop. So, that being said, such an app obviously makes for quite uninteresting screenshots. But here they are, directly from the app market.

The smallest and most efficient vibrator control on the Market. Family friendly and workplace safe, it is guaranteed to give you Good Vibrations. No application needed, just a widget that enables and controls the vibrator of the phone. Why you would like to do that is none of my business. Use it for whatever you fancy. For example: * Quickly drain the batteries if you don't like to carry the extra electrons around and want to reduce weight. * Excite the catalyst when inventing cold fusion or stirr the aqua regia for your alchemy. * Use the phone as a pneumatic drill to get rid of annoing concrete things in your neighbourhood. Given enough time this app will bring down barriers between east and west, north and south, rich and poor, unite religions and cultures and give world peace. But please read the product disclaimer and don't hold your breath. * Buy a lot of phones and duct-tape them to your office stool and you've made your own Shiatsu massage chair. Please down...