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I don't what's the motivation for making it iOS only. It makes more sense to choose web platform like another of their products learnsynth (https://learningsynt

I don't what's the motivation for making it iOS only. It makes more sense to choose web platform like another of their products learnsynth (https://learningsynths.ableton.com/ https://learningsynths.ableton.com/).

alexdbird 4y ago
Super low latency makes native iOS apps popular for music.
- smoldesu 4y ago
  Kinda mitigated when your best option for headphones is Bluetooth, though.
least 4y ago
iOS has a significantly better audio stack than Android that works consistently between iPhones/iPads and Apple actually supports music production as a use case. Android has had issues with its audio stack forever. One significant issue that's plagued it has been its audio latency, which is pretty important when it comes to building music apps. It's become less of an issue now but it's a massive crapshoot. Maybe they could target the web, but it's pretty clear that iOS is a superior platform to the web for music production apps as well.
- tomduncalf 4y ago
  Was going to say the same, a couple of years back I led a team shipping an audio app on iOS and Android (pretty simple in terms of audio demands) and Android was a nightmare. Different devices vary so much in terms of audio performance due to drivers, bugs and performance optimisations (e.g. Samsungs would ramp down the CPU to minimum frequency if you weren’t actively touching the screen) so testing is a huge undertaking if you want to cover a wide range of devices. Latency was a big problem, and the Android audio stack itself had plenty of issues. The situation did seem to be improving last time I looked though. Then on top that you’d have the complexity of shipping a cross-platform app and either building large parts of it twice or using something like Flutter or React Native. It must be annoying for Android users but the reality is that shipping an audio app for Android is (or was a couple of years ago at least) a huge challenge and probably much harder to make a compelling business case for. WebAudio has similar issues in terms of wildly varying performance across devices (it used to be pretty poor on iOS for example, though I think this has improved) and relative to native, you’re pretty limited in terms of processing power. Again this is improving all the time, but I’d guess Note has a cut down version of Ableton’s synth engines and effects running rather than remaking them for the app, and running something of this complexity with WebAudio is likely to be very challenging if not impossible, especially on mobile.
  - white_dragon88 4y ago
    That comment about Samsung ramping down CPU activity makes me want to puke. This is why we can’t have nice things.
    - tomduncalf 4y ago
      Ha! Yeah it was one of the more frustrating issues. At the time there was no way to opt out of it either, but I believe they subsequently issued a firmware update addressing it somehow.
    - chaosprint 4y ago
      It's also reported that Apple uses software to make old iPhone slower.
      - jurmous 4y ago
        It only happens when the battery is aging and the iPhone would otherwise shutdown since it can not handle the voltage peaks. Since the reports Apple has now a battery health section in settings which warns actively when you need to replace the battery. For example my father just replaced the battery in my old 2015 6S plus and it works on full speed again.
        smoldesu 4y ago
        It's a shame they didn't tell anyone about it, maybe they could have avoided that class-action lawsuit if they were a bit more transparent.
      - tomduncalf 4y ago
        I should point out that the Samsung CPU speed thing was designed to save battery power, I guess the assumption being you only need full power when playing a game and when playing a game you’re touching the screen. Well intentioned but not much good for our app which integrated with a Bluetooth MIDI keyboard so users didn’t touch the screen at all!
  - 4y ago
caslon 4y ago
You don't need to fight for "good enough" RT performance on iOS.
guggle 4y ago
you may like this presentation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vOf_fDtur4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vOf_fDtur4
jamil7 4y ago
This is actually one instance where a native iOS app makes a lot more sense.

alexdbird 4y ago

Super low latency makes native iOS apps popular for music.

smoldesu 4y ago
Kinda mitigated when your best option for headphones is Bluetooth, though.

least 4y ago

iOS has a significantly better audio stack than Android that works consistently between iPhones/iPads and Apple actually supports music production as a use case. Android has had issues with its audio stack forever. One significant issue that's plagued it has been its audio latency, which is pretty important when it comes to building music apps. It's become less of an issue now but it's a massive crapshoot. Maybe they could target the web, but it's pretty clear that iOS is a superior platform to the web for music production apps as well.

tomduncalf 4y ago
Was going to say the same, a couple of years back I led a team shipping an audio app on iOS and Android (pretty simple in terms of audio demands) and Android was a nightmare. Different devices vary so much in terms of audio performance due to drivers, bugs and performance optimisations (e.g. Samsungs would ramp down the CPU to minimum frequency if you weren’t actively touching the screen) so testing is a huge undertaking if you want to cover a wide range of devices. Latency was a big problem, and the Android audio stack itself had plenty of issues. The situation did seem to be improving last time I looked though. Then on top that you’d have the complexity of shipping a cross-platform app and either building large parts of it twice or using something like Flutter or React Native. It must be annoying for Android users but the reality is that shipping an audio app for Android is (or was a couple of years ago at least) a huge challenge and probably much harder to make a compelling business case for. WebAudio has similar issues in terms of wildly varying performance across devices (it used to be pretty poor on iOS for example, though I think this has improved) and relative to native, you’re pretty limited in terms of processing power. Again this is improving all the time, but I’d guess Note has a cut down version of Ableton’s synth engines and effects running rather than remaking them for the app, and running something of this complexity with WebAudio is likely to be very challenging if not impossible, especially on mobile.
- white_dragon88 4y ago
  That comment about Samsung ramping down CPU activity makes me want to puke. This is why we can’t have nice things.
  - tomduncalf 4y ago
    Ha! Yeah it was one of the more frustrating issues. At the time there was no way to opt out of it either, but I believe they subsequently issued a firmware update addressing it somehow.
  - chaosprint 4y ago
    It's also reported that Apple uses software to make old iPhone slower.
    - jurmous 4y ago
      It only happens when the battery is aging and the iPhone would otherwise shutdown since it can not handle the voltage peaks. Since the reports Apple has now a battery health section in settings which warns actively when you need to replace the battery. For example my father just replaced the battery in my old 2015 6S plus and it works on full speed again.
      - smoldesu 4y ago
        It's a shame they didn't tell anyone about it, maybe they could have avoided that class-action lawsuit if they were a bit more transparent.
    - tomduncalf 4y ago
      I should point out that the Samsung CPU speed thing was designed to save battery power, I guess the assumption being you only need full power when playing a game and when playing a game you’re touching the screen. Well intentioned but not much good for our app which integrated with a Bluetooth MIDI keyboard so users didn’t touch the screen at all!
- 4y ago

caslon 4y ago

You don't need to fight for "good enough" RT performance on iOS.

guggle 4y ago

you may like this presentation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vOf_fDtur4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vOf_fDtur4

jamil7 4y ago

This is actually one instance where a native iOS app makes a lot more sense.