4 ms·

Show HN: iOS MIDI Routing App

29 points by johannesd 13y ago

xxpor 13y ago
One little thing: In English, the price should be written €49.99, so the euro sign in front, and the decimal point instead of the comma.
- johannesd 13y ago
  Thanks, I changed that!
  - TazeTSchnitzel 13y ago
    On that note, consider showing the prices in USD or GBP as appropriate. App store price tier prices, not exchange rate prices.
wintorez 13y ago
This is so beautiful!
earwolf 13y ago
expensive
- gnaffle 13y ago
  At least there's a lite-version available.
gnaffle 13y ago
Looks really nice!
forgottenpaswrd 13y ago
It looks good but... Where is the video showing the app capabilities? Could you imagine a president of the USA not going to TV? only doing writing to newspapers or doing radio like in the 1930s? There is not excuse for not showing how the real thing works live, you had worked hard and you deserve it too.
- johannesd 13y ago
  You are right, I have plans for a teaser video and video tutorials. I didn't have the time to finish them, yet. However, there is already a video about it on youtube (one of my testers did it, it's in german, unfortunately) and I expect at least one other review with video today or tomorrow. But I know that official videos on the website would be best. I'll do that!
- anigbrowl 13y ago
  As someone who could be using this (if/when I get an iPad), I am just fine without a video. Everything I need to know is there and I prefer reading text on the specification and operation. It doesn't make any sound on its own so video is superfluous to me. On an unrelated point, 50 Euros? Are you smoking crack, OP? The two best-selling soft synths in the world, AniMoog and iMS-20 are only $30 each, and compared to them MIDI is glue. Orphion is only $5, and that is truly a breakthrough in performance and compositional control. I could list more examples, but my point is that you are charging way too much for a piece of utility software. People with large master keyboards generally already have split and zone functionality built in - it's not as nice and well-designed as in you prrogram, but they'll probably use what they already have, or employ a free editor/librarian package from the manufacturer to set it up on their computer. Many other musicians will use a computer to do this routing, because it's not so weird to have a laptop on stage; still others will use something like a MIDIbox, Cirklon, MPC+JJOS or Nord Modular to do this routing and scaling, or build a hardware configuration that obviates that need. In short, I love what you're doing, but I think you need to cut the price to between $15 and $20 - $10 might be even better. Piracy is not a big problem on iOS so you should be able to sell a multiple larger than your price division, if you see what I mean. I see you have a Lite version that allows 2 patch zones and has a 30 minute timeout. This doesn't make sense to me either; if it only lasts 30 minutes at a time it's not going to get used on stage and people won't have the patience to set it up repeatedly in their studio, so you might as well let people try the full functionality for those 30 minutes. My first instinct was to post this immediately on Synthtopia, Matrixsynth, and various gear forums, but when I saw the 50 Euro price I put the brakes on, because I believe the vast majority of musicians will reject your app at that price without even trying it. And there are so many music apps on iOS that after you make that impression you will find it hard to change later. Sorry to be so blunt with this criticism, but I really think you are placing a limit on your app's success with this price. It looks like a great product, and I want to go and recommend it to hundreds of people right now, but at this price I believe you would get 5 sales instead of 500.

29 points by johannesd 13y ago

xxpor 13y ago

One little thing: In English, the price should be written €49.99, so the euro sign in front, and the decimal point instead of the comma.

johannesd 13y ago
Thanks, I changed that!
- TazeTSchnitzel 13y ago
  On that note, consider showing the prices in USD or GBP as appropriate. App store price tier prices, not exchange rate prices.

wintorez 13y ago

This is so beautiful!

earwolf 13y ago

expensive

gnaffle 13y ago
At least there's a lite-version available.

gnaffle 13y ago

Looks really nice!

forgottenpaswrd 13y ago

It looks good but... Where is the video showing the app capabilities? Could you imagine a president of the USA not going to TV? only doing writing to newspapers or doing radio like in the 1930s? There is not excuse for not showing how the real thing works live, you had worked hard and you deserve it too.

johannesd 13y ago
You are right, I have plans for a teaser video and video tutorials. I didn't have the time to finish them, yet. However, there is already a video about it on youtube (one of my testers did it, it's in german, unfortunately) and I expect at least one other review with video today or tomorrow. But I know that official videos on the website would be best. I'll do that!
anigbrowl 13y ago
As someone who could be using this (if/when I get an iPad), I am just fine without a video. Everything I need to know is there and I prefer reading text on the specification and operation. It doesn't make any sound on its own so video is superfluous to me. On an unrelated point, 50 Euros? Are you smoking crack, OP? The two best-selling soft synths in the world, AniMoog and iMS-20 are only $30 each, and compared to them MIDI is glue. Orphion is only $5, and that is truly a breakthrough in performance and compositional control. I could list more examples, but my point is that you are charging way too much for a piece of utility software. People with large master keyboards generally already have split and zone functionality built in - it's not as nice and well-designed as in you prrogram, but they'll probably use what they already have, or employ a free editor/librarian package from the manufacturer to set it up on their computer. Many other musicians will use a computer to do this routing, because it's not so weird to have a laptop on stage; still others will use something like a MIDIbox, Cirklon, MPC+JJOS or Nord Modular to do this routing and scaling, or build a hardware configuration that obviates that need. In short, I love what you're doing, but I think you need to cut the price to between $15 and $20 - $10 might be even better. Piracy is not a big problem on iOS so you should be able to sell a multiple larger than your price division, if you see what I mean. I see you have a Lite version that allows 2 patch zones and has a 30 minute timeout. This doesn't make sense to me either; if it only lasts 30 minutes at a time it's not going to get used on stage and people won't have the patience to set it up repeatedly in their studio, so you might as well let people try the full functionality for those 30 minutes. My first instinct was to post this immediately on Synthtopia, Matrixsynth, and various gear forums, but when I saw the 50 Euro price I put the brakes on, because I believe the vast majority of musicians will reject your app at that price without even trying it. And there are so many music apps on iOS that after you make that impression you will find it hard to change later. Sorry to be so blunt with this criticism, but I really think you are placing a limit on your app's success with this price. It looks like a great product, and I want to go and recommend it to hundreds of people right now, but at this price I believe you would get 5 sales instead of 500.