Continua by Audiodamage (iOS)

wingwizard

@McD said:

@MonkeyDrummer said:
As for AD I’ll never buy another thing from them. Enso still fucked, Axon2 midi still fucked even after waiting a year for them to fix it, shitty menu and preset systems, etc.

I'm going to let you know how you come across to me.

Harsh, self-important and unfair. There isn't anything close to Enso what what is can be made to do. It's really easy to break it but the reverse sample and speed controls are insanely great. Like any AUv3 you can load a lot of copies and create your own "bugs". It's like buying a power strip and plugging in 5 hairdryers and returning the hairdryers as defective or asking how to defeat the circuit breaker in the power strip.

"Why can't we run our IAA apps in AUv3s?" That's like plugging EU hairdryer into the USA toaster to avoid buying a new one.

Axon2 seems like a great alternative drum instrument to me. I haven't found the issues but
someone names @MonkeyDrummer would, I'm sure.

Comparing IOS apps to real hardware and PC products is just not fair.

If Chris Randall sees a lot of reviews like yours I can understand why we won't see him expose any skin here.

Anyway... this is a solid Synth and deserves credit for what does work well. It also deserves time to address bug and feature requests.

I would however love to know which IOS developers delight you. You strike me as very high maintenance for any small developer and quick to get out the flamethrower. Getting bugs fixed on a forum is good for interesting reading but deadly for most developers of highly complex apps.

I may also be harsh and self-important but I do try to be fair. Fair is just trying to see someone else's point of view. Always a good idea. But when you hound them into seclusion you can't get their input. Then you throw rocks at their windows. Think about it.

I looked for Chris Randall blogs and he seems to have scaled back to twitter and instagram.
@Virsyn and other small developers have also boarded up their windows to focus on getting paid for their investment in app development. That's our loss. But we do get maintenance for their catalog of interesting apps and the occasional new app.

This was the post i referred to. If you’re demanding others as you say, argue the point not the person, you should first correct this in your own posting.

McD

@oat_phipps said:
And for the record, what are we supposed to do, wait 2 days to express discontent so the developer can sell a few more “untainted” copies?

Works for me. It's how some members "express discontent".

If a developer doe not handle a $1,499 MPE controller well is that justification for doing a character dump on them on day one? I'm just trying to cite an example here. It might require buying the device to code well for it but you can work with them to diagnose the issues and fix the issues. Or just document the problem and refund the app. But that's not what seems to happen in many cases with new apps.

Or the implementation of Microtuned scales... more tricky stuff. (Rumored to be fixed). Again... another touchy subject for one reviewer. That side of the programming team does not hang out here. Chris is the GUI guy and his GUI's get a lot of flack but he admits to slowly building the skills to support PC, Mac and IOS GUI's with his own code. So, sometimes he is careful not to
commit to big changes. Somethings are just "good as they can make it." and things won't change fast.

Now some will think I'm attacking them personally when I just want to make a point about new apps and the damage done by making it appear the app and by extension is a flaming ball of ca-ca.

The number of flaming balls of ca-ca is really low. They usually are first time attempts by new developers... SynthJacker, OB-Xd had a shake start for example. The SynthJacker guy put in the effort and made it work. Remember how it only "auto sampled" external hardware in the first rev? Lot's of refunds I'll bet. "That's not an auto-sampler." Then he add AUv3 hosting... getting better. Then a million small repairs. He was treated with more respect than the guy who gave us:

Discord 4
EOS 2
AdVerb
Dubstation
FilterStation
...
GasStation (NOTE: Not a music app)

OK. Now, I'm going to wait 2 days.

MonkeyDrummer

@wingwizard said:

@McD said:

@MonkeyDrummer said:
As for AD I’ll never buy another thing from them. Enso still fucked, Axon2 midi still fucked even after waiting a year for them to fix it, shitty menu and preset systems, etc.

I'm going to let you know how you come across to me.

Harsh, self-important and unfair. There isn't anything close to Enso what what is can be made to do. It's really easy to break it but the reverse sample and speed controls are insanely great. Like any AUv3 you can load a lot of copies and create your own "bugs". It's like buying a power strip and plugging in 5 hairdryers and returning the hairdryers as defective or asking how to defeat the circuit breaker in the power strip.

"Why can't we run our IAA apps in AUv3s?" That's like plugging EU hairdryer into the USA toaster to avoid buying a new one.

Axon2 seems like a great alternative drum instrument to me. I haven't found the issues but
someone names @MonkeyDrummer would, I'm sure.

Comparing IOS apps to real hardware and PC products is just not fair.

If Chris Randall sees a lot of reviews like yours I can understand why we won't see him expose any skin here.

Anyway... this is a solid Synth and deserves credit for what does work well. It also deserves time to address bug and feature requests.

I would however love to know which IOS developers delight you. You strike me as very high maintenance for any small developer and quick to get out the flamethrower. Getting bugs fixed on a forum is good for interesting reading but deadly for most developers of highly complex apps.

I may also be harsh and self-important but I do try to be fair. Fair is just trying to see someone else's point of view. Always a good idea. But when you hound them into seclusion you can't get their input. Then you throw rocks at their windows. Think about it.

I looked for Chris Randall blogs and he seems to have scaled back to twitter and instagram.
@Virsyn and other small developers have also boarded up their windows to focus on getting paid for their investment in app development. That's our loss. But we do get maintenance for their catalog of interesting apps and the occasional new app.

This was the post i referred to. If you’re demanding others as you say, argue the point not the person, you should first correct this in your own posting.

Just ignore McD. Life is easier that way.

ExAsperis99

@MonkeyDrummer said:

@wingwizard said:

@McD said:

@MonkeyDrummer said:
As for AD I’ll never buy another thing from them. Enso still fucked, Axon2 midi still fucked even after waiting a year for them to fix it, shitty menu and preset systems, etc.

I'm going to let you know how you come across to me.

Harsh, self-important and unfair. There isn't anything close to Enso what what is can be made to do. It's really easy to break it but the reverse sample and speed controls are insanely great. Like any AUv3 you can load a lot of copies and create your own "bugs". It's like buying a power strip and plugging in 5 hairdryers and returning the hairdryers as defective or asking how to defeat the circuit breaker in the power strip.

"Why can't we run our IAA apps in AUv3s?" That's like plugging EU hairdryer into the USA toaster to avoid buying a new one.

Axon2 seems like a great alternative drum instrument to me. I haven't found the issues but
someone names @MonkeyDrummer would, I'm sure.

Comparing IOS apps to real hardware and PC products is just not fair.

If Chris Randall sees a lot of reviews like yours I can understand why we won't see him expose any skin here.

Anyway... this is a solid Synth and deserves credit for what does work well. It also deserves time to address bug and feature requests.

I would however love to know which IOS developers delight you. You strike me as very high maintenance for any small developer and quick to get out the flamethrower. Getting bugs fixed on a forum is good for interesting reading but deadly for most developers of highly complex apps.

I may also be harsh and self-important but I do try to be fair. Fair is just trying to see someone else's point of view. Always a good idea. But when you hound them into seclusion you can't get their input. Then you throw rocks at their windows. Think about it.

I looked for Chris Randall blogs and he seems to have scaled back to twitter and instagram.
@Virsyn and other small developers have also boarded up their windows to focus on getting paid for their investment in app development. That's our loss. But we do get maintenance for their catalog of interesting apps and the occasional new app.

This was the post i referred to. If you’re demanding others as you say, argue the point not the person, you should first correct this in your own posting.

Just ignore McD. Life is easier that way.

Weird flex, dude.

cuscolima

@McD Just to let you know that I absolutely agree with your opinions about the devs (and I am probably not the only one). Seems that we need a bus to go to the hospital !

brambos

It's not often that a deep, desktop-grade AU plugin with professional presets, professional design and full set of documentation makes it to iOS-land. Yet, for some reason this product seems to be held to different standards than weird, half-working oddball apps with badly-designed user interfaces and incoherent appstore descriptions around here. That seems weird from where I'm standing.

Just an observation.

wim

I think it's because there's a bit of a tipping point created by stability disappointments with some of the other apps from this developer. For instance, for me the built-up impression I have from experience is I am taking a bit of a risk whenever I use an AudioDamage app in a project. Fair or not, it has built up over time based on real experiences and based on the number of posts I've seen from others having problems with rendering, DAW projects not saving properly, etc. when AD plugins are involved.

It's completely unfair to assume every app from any developer is going to be unstable and/or never be fixed. It's rude and unproductive to pile on developers personally. But I can understand the skepticism about this app. In my case it was enough to make me decide to give it a pass for now.

I'm hoping that it proves to be a great, stable, and successful app though!

ExAsperis99

@brambos said:
It's not often that a deep, desktop-grade AU plugin with professional presets, professional design and full set of documentation makes it to iOS-land. Yet, for some reason this product seems to be held to different standards than weird, half-working oddball apps with badly-designed user interfaces and incoherent appstore descriptions around here. That seems weird from where I'm standing.

Just an observation.

This

espiegel123

dreamrobe

the early sugarbytes ports to iOS took as much as flag, because of bugs and tiny gui handles.

oat_phipps

@wingwizard said:

@McD said:

@sclurbs said:
@McD all I ever did was ask how a key feature of this synth works. Programming midi cc 11 and 74 to the synth parameters. You still refuse to take a couple sentences to explain that, yet you somehow have the time to write out these long rambling coke fueled (what must be) prewritten monologues that have a grand total of 0 useful things to say. Are you having a psychotic breakdown or something? Does one of us need to take you to the hospital? Can I get you a warm glass of milk?

Ad hominem: (of an argument or reaction) directed against a person rather than the position they are maintaining.

I'm not attacking you. I'm making a point. Debate the assertion:

Criticizing a new app that directs others to see it as inherently flawed damages the developers business and in some cases gives buyers a false sense of the products value.

Try to refute this contention. Free speech is valuable but it also generates opposition if it's used to damage someone that also uses it to make statements about an issue.

I have the right to get a cab to the hospital and be reimbursed. But I appreciate your concerns and offers of assistance. Be best.

Seriously... what business is it of yours to try to censor very temperate and specific criticisms of any app? As you say, I’m not attacking you, I’m attack8ng your opinion that others opinions should be censored if they don’t meet a standard of your partisan choosing. If a new app, among all the praise, is also criticised... so what? If it damages that persons business, just like positive comments promote it, again, so what? It’s a meritocracy. Make an app with upsides, as we,k as problems, get some positive and negative comments, sell more, sell less. Good.

We all want the iOS music dev world to flourish, nd part of that happening is by apps being of a good quality, and there being freedom to criticise and review honestly. This isn’t a shelter for battered women. It’s where people who pay for apps go, as well as the devs who make the apps, both of which presumably enjoy doing those things.. but noones holding a gun to anyone’s head. Just as we aren’t entitled to apps devs aren’t entitled to sales, we all coexist through each other.

And why would anyone want to debate that assertion. You need to read back your posts as they come across very supercilious and peremptory with a misplaced sense of authority. Thre’s No asking, just trying to tell people what to do. I think framing it as a debate or thesis is a completely disingenuous way to try to inveigle that point of view into things, knowing it w9nt be well received. I doubt anyone has the t8me or interest in refuting contentions of yours but the inherent error in making that statement is the idea that generating opposition is a problem. Who cares? Good, opposition and difference are good. If you don’t like it rhats an issue for you to deal with not for others to enable. The world is varied and people are always trying to shut down free speech with a convenient assumption that those in favour of it are so for the purposes of abusing it, which disguises their real motives and issues with differing views.

And Sorry but it’s a bit rich claiming you’re on a campaign to make people post more civilly and talking about avoiding making th7ngs personal when the last time you responded to someone doing just that by call8ng them self important, when all they’d done was spoken about bugs not be8ng fixed in the respective app. I think that was you, sorry if not, as it was a thread in which I saw you commenting in the same way. You just seem to ave a personal issue with anything but positive comments and I think you’d do well to have a look at that and yourself before pushing it on others, as your perception of posts as negative is really amplified. The post that triggered your spoiler thing here is a perfect example, it’s a very temperate polite and actually an extremely helpful post that should in no way provoke that in a response even if not specifically to that person.

This is a forum for people to read about apps, TE good things the bad, good and bad experiences and opinions, bugs etc, it’s not a marketing platform.

“This isn’t a shelter for battered women.”

That very eloquently sums up my position on the matter, as well.

sclurbs

Dont think I ever bad mouthed the developer. I just merely pointed out that if you're going to specifically mention a $1,499 keyboard in your product description then maybe it should work. That's all.

But yeah my 'ad hominem attack' was mostly in jest. Much the light you must have used when you called people you don't know self important.

Im also open to more of a beta testing environment like with early access indy game. Minecraft was a great example of that. But if that was in the decriptrion, just imagine. "I'd like to eventually get roli and linnstrument support and would appreciate group feedback for those who own them to fix fringe cases ".

I own all AD stuff and will keep getting their stuff. It's just like, something I noticed man

Liquidmantis

.

auxmux

Are we ready to sink this thread yet?

sclurbs

Before we sink it, does anyone know how to program cc11 for after touch? It hasn't been working for me and that's honest to god why I came here, to find out

Xsyst

@Liquidmantis please consider removing that, even though it is funny.

@McD you are part of the problem and not part of the solution. I think you cause more harm than good.

I am fan of Audio Damage and have been for some time, have read Chris's old blog regularly and currently support his Patreon. (flat tires really blow

I want Continua to succeed. Because I like the sound and I like the icon (yes I'm that shallow)

Have purchased it on both platforms I did

There are some glaring omissions that I would like to see addressed:

1. native CC learn support. We have our reasons! (especially on iOS) don't leave this up to the DAW, what if there is no DAW?

2. the presets, dude... they are a mess. I've read about them been designed by "professionals" but c'mon almost none utilize the XY or the macro's. Except Red sky, but then didn't categorize them. Your customers deserve better than this.

3. the preset browser, we need next previous buttons. See John's suggestion on this Video link starting at 1:17:00

4. I would like a IAP for the extra voices, with this being touted as a "Blade Runner Pad machine" and long releases those extra voices missing are critical especially with unison.

5. graphical lag on iOS and that dot thingy mentioned above

That's my hopes for a product and a company that I believe in. Please except it as such.

Xsyst

Here is a Midi designer 2 patch mapped in AUM for Continua.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/zcr7px09ftnyudj/AACZPanUygImpI0AEJDpQV_ga?dl=0

ExAsperis99

@Xsyst said:

>

@McD you are part of the problem and not part of the solution. I think you cause more harm than good.

First of all, that’s way out of line. no one here deserves to be openly attacked like that.

Second, you sure you got the right guy?

ahallam

@brambos said:
It's not often that a deep, desktop-grade AU plugin with professional presets, professional design and full set of documentation makes it to iOS-land. Yet, for some reason this product seems to be held to different standards than weird, half-working oddball apps with badly-designed user interfaces and incoherent appstore descriptions around here. That seems weird from where I'm standing.

Just an observation.

+1

As a n00b hobbyist, I’m happy to see the iOS devs that we have working on the platform. I also know what desktop audio plugins cost, and given the iOS market I’m grateful that people are willing to port to the platform. iOS Is still immature and the App Store can be a sh*tty place to make money. No sense harshing on devs that at least make the effort.

When it comes to bugs, my opinion is fix them. Your customers deserve that no matter what they paid.

This thread was probably too volatile to comment on.

sclurbs

@Xsyst said:
Here is a Midi designer 2 patch mapped in AUM for Continua.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/zcr7px09ftnyudj/AACZPanUygImpI0AEJDpQV_ga?dl=0

You're a legend!

ohwell

@brambos said:
It's not often that a deep, desktop-grade AU plugin with professional presets, professional design and full set of documentation makes it to iOS-land. Yet, for some reason this product seems to be held to different standards than weird, half-working oddball apps with badly-designed user interfaces and incoherent appstore descriptions around here. That seems weird from where I'm standing.

Just an observation.

Another way to look at it: it's precisely because of how much AD's apps do offer that they draw louder criticism than half baked oddballs. If the criticisms are fair and constructive, it's not only fair game. It's arguably, and sadly, what the apps need.

Judging by the app store rankings, AD's apps sell well (as they should). With more people using them, issues get noticed quickly; and figuring out whether seeming problems are due to user error is easier. There are more potential buyers, so there's also that much more value to hearing about the pros and cons of a product.

To my mind, what's truly unusual about the situation is not the amount of criticism the apps draw. It's rather the conjunction of, on the one hand, how much effort the dev clearly puts into designing the apps—and how fantastic they are in countless ways—, with, on the other hand, how little the dev listens to reports of genuine problems.

One example: Continua's initial release reproduced problems from Quanta. Take, for instance, the MPE voice allocation issue. It was an easy enough fix for it to be patched over the weekend. Here's the thing: Quanta has the exact same problem, still not fixed almost two years after its release. I'm willing to give the dev the benefit of the doubt, and take it that they weren't aware of the issue—otherwise, AD would have fixed it for Continua (and hopefully quanta?). But if that's true, here's the upshot: it took all the clamouring Continua faced upon release for the dev to listen. And, so far, it looks like that still wasn't enough to get the dev to address the same issue in Quanta's MPE voice allocation!

I suspect that AD's fantastic apps will predictably keep facing this same problem until they change the way they take into account legitimate user feedback. It feels to me like AD are raining on their own well deserved release party by making loud criticism so necessary for them to take user feedback into account.

(As an aside: I'd be curious to know how many of the more negative sounding posts in this thread came from users who previously reported problems with AD apps in a quieter, less harsh tone.)

(Aside #2: AD, if you folks are reading, please fix the MPE voice allocation issue in Quanta too!!! It's such an amazing synth as well!)

gusgranite

As far as I know, we are not talking to the developer here on ABF. It’s all hot air. You need to email or tweet your bugs to the developer.

Philandering_Bastard

Just sink the thread. There are about 10% posts actually talking about the app. If nothing else, it’s not a good resource for people trying to learn or figure something out about Continua. @Michael

Phil999

@Xsyst said:
1. native CC learn support. We have our reasons! (especially on iOS) don't leave this up to the DAW, what if there is no DAW?

indeed it appears that there is no option for MIDI CC in Continua. Is there a way in iOS to control synth parameters, inside a DAW like Auria or AUM?

About Continua: I bought it because it supports MPE and microtuning. I didn't have the time to test it before, but this morning I finally found a moment to try Continua. From this first experience I would say that it is a great instrument. The response and playing with the Sensel Morph is perfect. Loading .tun files is great, as it goes directly to the Files app. No need for difficult file transfers like in Sunrizer or other apps. It's easy to do in Continua, and (there was a comment about microtuning not working) it does work fine. The preset system is good I think. Maybe it could be better but as long as I can create a custom folder and put my preset in it, I'm happy. About the factory presets, I don't care. They are, for me, only a starting point, and I have to adapt them to CC74 and aftertouch anyway for the Morph keyboard. Or for the XKey37's polyAT.

Frequency modulation is not bad. It is not like in analogue synths, but quite interesting. I mostly use FM or AM in my patches, so in this category Continua is also a good instrument. I really don't find anything to complain about, and I have some difficulty to follow this thread.

Besides, I also have no complains at all with Quanta, the other AD app I own. I understand while reading this thread that there must be some issues, but from my point of view I haven't experienced anything bad. I can sample sounds directly from the internal microphone and build a synth patch with it. I think this is just great.

---

But back to the MIDI CC topic: is there a way to control synth parameters with a DAW from an external or internal MIDI controller if there is no option for this in the synth app?

Edit: I found it. Question answered. In AUM, one can access all synth parameters in the Menu/MIDI CTRL/CHANNELS/MIDI 1/Parameters.

So then, what is there actually to complain about? I see nothing. Everything you want to do can be done. Everything is there.

ajmiller

I’ve been holding off buying Continua but despite the negatives above I bought it this morning. I like an app that I take to straight away and this does it for me. I have no great technical prowess but I can make my music with this app. I’ll be digging in now! Just to add a positive for what it’s worth.

sclurbs

@Phil999

"Edit: I found it. Question answered. In AUM, one can access all synth parameters in the Menu/MIDI CTRL/CHANNELS/MIDI 1/Parameters.

So then, what is there actually to complain about? I see nothing. "

Thanks for figuring that out and explaining it. After testing it out, I see a few things to complain about. The big thing being that the way you program these cc changes in AUM isn't MPE compatible. For instance, if I want to map CC74 to Filter1 Frequency, I can do that within AUM, but only for ONE midi channel. Please correct me if I'm wrong but what I'm looking at is I can have the paramater locked as 'off' or set to any ONE midi chanel from 1-16. So if I'm using two instances of continua, one of them split into midi channels 1-8 and the other instance split to 9-16 (so I can play two synths at once in MPE on my linnstrument) I can only map ONE of those channels to have after touch or cc74. So the only MPE thing about the synth is the pitch bends.

Even if it did work. Which it doesn't. If I wanted to go fiddling around endlessly with setting up my MPE synths, I would have just stayed in ableton and never gotten an ipad. Going into those folded in menus in AUM and then programming it in outside of the synth really takes away from my tactile experiance of the synth itself. It's fidgety. It's not set up for a live setting of sound design experimentation. Because if I make one wrong move I exit out of the menus and have to go back into them.

None of this would be necessary if when I double clicked on the parameters in the synth, pressed the + button and added aftertouch and or cc74, it actually responded. It could be programmed so that it goes to midi channel 1-16 and then in AUM you can choose which ones to actually use. That's my biggest frustration. It's all there already. It should work. It just doesn't do it.

It would be the perfect synth. I can not understand why you are ok with fiddling around in the sub menus of AUM instead of this. It's like Ableton users saying MPE in Ableton isn't that bad. Uh, yeah, it's terrible. It's fucking horrible. I don't want to have to open 16 instances of the same exact synth, and then painstakingly program each and every one of them to the correct unique midi channel, just so I can get MPE. And likewise, I don't wanna fiddle around in AUM sub menus when I can double click the synth paramaters and do the same thing. As a someone who will always be using MPE from here on out, it is intolerable to me that there could be a future that it's industry standard to keep midi mapping out of synths and letting the DAW do the job instead.

But yeah it's a dope ass synth I just wish when synths advertise as MPE, they were the non fidgety MPE that takes hours and hours to set up. But I think it's just that these guys don't actually use MPE controllers. Why else would Kai take away the global pitch bend setting in Volt? I can't even use that synth anymore. And it was my favorite synth. Glory be to the MPE controller owner that is an Ios developer. The holy MPE trinity: global pitch bend, cc74, and after touch in every preset and instantly programmable. Amen.

sclurbs

tried to edit but accidentally quoted

Xsyst

@sclurbs that is an issue, if you find a resolution please let us know.
I’m glad you liked the midi designer mappings, it’s 90% there (needs AUM toggle switches activated and named ticks in MD to name a couple of things)

I noticed the VCA parameter is not exposed, unless I’m missing it.

If someone wants to finish it and share back, that’d be good nature.
I intended it to be run on a second iPad for a sound design aid.

Next I’ll map hardware.

skiphunt

I bought it at launch. Love the sound and it’s got spectacular presets. It’s intuitive to create your own sound. There have already been 2 updates since launch. At first the interface was a little sluggish for me, but It’s pretty solid now.

Assigned/learned midi cc whiled loaded in apeMatrix and AUM with ease.

Glad I picked this one up. Sounds very nice with Quanta too.

animal

...maybe I don‘t follow @sclurbs right, but I can doubletap any parameter in Continua (while plugged into AUM) and choose CC74/Aftertouch, the intensity and direction, and off I go. Works beautifully here-. I am using Seaboard Block and sensel, though. Using it for livesessions all the time...