Curtis for iPad
The first granular synthesizer for the iPhone comes to the iPad!
Now with a manual!
Turns any recording into a totally unique synthesizer!
Curtis uses an unusual hybrid of wavetable and granular synthesis to create tones and timbres quite apart from the standard FM or subtractive synthesis fare. Add this app to your arsenal to create sounds you simply cannot squeeze out of any other synth, no matter how much you’ve twiddled its knobs.
Granular synthesis works by combining many tiny grains of sound from an existing recording, creating new sounds with the texture of the original, now with endless temporal possibilities. Play the sound forward, backward, or even at a single point!
Unlike scratching a record, pitch doesn’t depend on how quickly you move through the recording. Try with spoken word, singing, synths. Mangle your recordings or create soft, gentle textures! If scratching is your thing, Curtis now also includes a scratch mode, letting you shred your recordings turntablist style.
Curtis now comes preloaded with an exclusive sound set created by sound design pioneer Richard Devine!
This release allows you to record audio directly with your iPad or add your own WAV or MP3 files via iTunes. No more in-app server setup; just drag-and-drop!
New in version 2.0, a chromatic quantize mode, which rounds grain sizes to match the frequencies of standard equal-tempered tuning. In this mode, Curtis will sound in tune with your other MIDI instruments or soft-synths. Of course, the old geometric mode is still available for your dissonant pleasure.
Version 2.1 brings a traditional keyboard along with new XY pads for pitch and position LFO control. Still, this is no ordinary synthesizer, and the keyboard will not always work as you might expect. The keyboard note pressed determines the size of the grains used, so the sound will indeed have the cycle length of the given note, however depending on the pitch and the content of the source recording at the current point, the resulting tonality may vary greatly.
[...] Curtis for iPad Curtis Heavy for iPhone [...]
[...] Curtis for iPad Curtis Heavy for iPhone [...]
Hi there, nice app but it crashes every time I play with it more than 10 min…is there any updates coming soon to fix?
Any particular operation giving you trouble? We’re looking into a possible issue with the Attack control and the LFO XY pad.
Is there a manual? Id like to import a sound file.
Awesome lot of sound toys for the iPad.
The manual is almost done. You can use the Apps tab in iTunes to drag files in when your device is connected.
Just wondering why the Record button seems useless? Do I have to plug in a physical mic to record audio in directly? Doesn’t the built-in mic work? I love the general idea of the app, but for $10 I oughtta be able to import directly from my iTunes on the device without tethering, and record direct mic audio!
Record indeed uses the built-in mic. Sorry, no library access at this point. Audio paste is coming soon.
Uses the built-in mic how? I’m running this on an iPad 2, and the record button is grayed out and unresponsive. Tapping it does nothing, holding it down does nothing.
OK, I get it. I didn’t see that you have the manual at the top of the page. Didn’t understand the wacky sliding cover on the record button. I always get around to RTFM eventually.
I have an NSP BreakOut Pedal, http://www.newsignalprocess.com/site/nspbreakout/, would Curtis on the Ipad allow me to record my guitar and grainulate it live using the NSP?
Our money is on YES, but you’re the guy with the pedal
We’ve mailed you a promo to test with. Hope it works!
Thank you very much! Recording in Curtis worked perfectly using the NSP pedal. Let me know if you would like to me try anything else!
However I ran into the same problem as NAMEJeremy. Mine was more about 20 minutes in, and it wasn’t until I hit one of the X/Y pads. The app just quit instantly. The weird thing is, I used the pads multiple times before. I did switch from CHROMA and SCRATCH a few times before hitting the X/Y when it failed.
Would love some more performance oriented features.
Using the built-in mic to trigger the play head/window/size/etc…
So you setup a bank of sounds/sample and then sit it next to your setup and be able to trigger the stuff, concatenative synthesis style.
Or being able to have more than one sample open at a time (instead of one long window, several smaller windows that the same touch/multitouch stuff works in).
Control over grainshape/glitchiness would be nice. Curtis (I’m sure on purpose) sounds very ‘smooth’. It’s hard to get a real gritty/glitchy sound with it.
Some thoughts….
I must be the only person
That is having trouble
Getting this to play anything
Where is the play switch?
Start by touching the large main area, which should be filled with big hexagons. Poking around in there should immediately get you some sound if a file is loaded. If you’re still stuck, try deleting the app and reloading it (for free) from the app store.
Is this app named after Professor Curtis Roads??
Indeed, we named it thus as an homage of sorts.
Thanks for adding AudioCopy/AudioPaste to your app. If you’ve added the compatibility list, please contact mapi at sonomawireworks.com so we can add your app.
[...] toy piano, Specto, Party Bus, Sidrassi, modified CD-player (ala Nic Collins), iPad (using Grid, Curtis and TOPLAPapp), Namasitar, and some misc [...]
Hi there, I’m an artist using only my iPad to make music. I blog about my experiences, and wrote a review of Curtis for iPad here:http://smitematter.blogspot.com/2011/09/there-is-something-strange-about-curtis.html
I hope you like it. I’d love to try more SA iPad apps.
Nice! Thanks! Yup, adding the Comlink functions introduced some memory issues which led to crashes, but I submitted a new build to Apple today. Look for a more stable Curtis soon!
id love to see copying my recordings to pasteboard, so i can reuse them in beatmaker2.
The new Comlink button lets you Copy/Paste as well as store your recordings or load sounds from other devices via Dropbox.
How long of a sample can you record? I found the iphone one too short…
Is it compatible w/ say an irig? (or any recording equivalent)
You can record for much longer in the iPad version. Recording time is limited only by device memory. I haven’t personally tried the iRig Mic yet, but users have had no problems with other devices that use the standard mic plug, so I expect iRig to work just fine.
Hi
When I ‘performance record’ the file that is produced, either via iTunes or by uploading to my Dropbox, is a document file, not a WAV.
Is there a way to change this that I’m missing.
Cers
Al.
Hi, Just rename the file adding “.wav” to the end.