{"id":128774,"date":"2021-06-08T12:00:31","date_gmt":"2021-06-08T12:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/developer.apple.com\/news\/?id=awmkb4os"},"modified":"2021-06-08T12:00:31","modified_gmt":"2021-06-08T12:00:31","slug":"music-makers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2021\/06\/08\/music-makers\/","title":{"rendered":"Music makers"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"MusicKit<\/div>\n

An immersive app doesn\u2019t just look or feel great: It has to sound amazing, too. We asked several of our Apple Design Award-nominated developers to share their philosophy around making music, audio design, and sound. (And occasionally frogs.)<\/p>\n

Poolsuite FM: Hot fun in the summertime<\/h3>\n

Let\u2019s just come right out and say it: Poolsuite FM<\/em> is the perfect summer mood. This bitmapped, genre-hopping, beach party jukebox immerses you in 90s design nostalgia while maintaining a great technical experience behind the scenes. And it was invented not by a reggae artist or an Ibiza DJ but an affable Scot named Marty Bell who, prior to developing his poolside player, had no musical training, no tech background, no money to hire help, and \u2014 this part is key \u2014 definitely no pool.<\/p>\n

What he did<\/em> have was the keen idea to synthesize that summer feeling and his well-honed ability to curate music that sounds like sunshine. \u201cI have a pool in my head,\u201d Bell says. \u201cI imagine 10 people hanging out. They\u2019re all way cooler than me. And I think, \u2018OK, would I play this song in that scenario?\u2019\u201d he laughs. \u201cThe stakes are really high.\u201d<\/p>\n

Poolsuite FM<\/em> (known until very recently as Poolside FM<\/em>) was conceived during the uncommonly dismal Scottish winter of 2014. \u201cIt was a very gray time,\u201d Bell says from his home in the Scottish highlands (though he\u2019d recently returned from a \u201cseven-month Covid escape\u201d to the Dominican Republic). \u201cIt was cold and spitting rain all the time. Listening to this music just boosted the serotonin in my brain.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Bell wanted to spread sunshine to others, but as a longtime party planner, he also knew that a simple playlist app would be a hard sell. \u201cEverybody thinks they have the best playlist,\u201d he laughs. \u201cI thought, \u2018Why don\u2019t I take this summer thing that makes me feel happy and pair with something else that makes me feel happy: cheesy \u201880s beach movies on VHS?\u201d<\/p>\n

Properly drenched in technological nostalgia and positive vibrations, Poolsuite FM<\/em> made an instant splash. Its look mirrored the Mac you had in 1994; its playlists were curated by Bell and often drawn from under-the-radar artists on Soundcloud and YouTube; and its sound was decidedly all over the map. \u201cThere\u2019s disco, indie rock, and electronic music,\u201d he says, \u201cbut I feel like it\u2019s all in the same family.\u201d<\/p>\n

Today, Poolsuite FM<\/em> has a deep well of stations like Indie Summer, Hangover Club, Tokyo Disco, and Friday Nite Heat. Its primary channel has 600 tracks; Bell adds a dozen or so every week through his own curation and submissions he gets on social media. \u201cI\u2019d far prefer Poolsuite<\/em> to be bursting with artists people had never heard of,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n

And there\u2019s one last surprise: Poolsuite FM<\/em> has never monetized. Bell relies on volunteer help; to start bringing in money, he\u2019s launched a sunscreen line. \u201cI don\u2019t ever want to monetize Poolsuite<\/em>,\u201d he says. \u201cI don\u2019t want to track metrics and KPIs and all that. It would kill the vibe.\u201d And summer is nothing if not a vibe.<\/p>\n

\n

If Found: Intergalactic planetary<\/h3>\n

If Found<\/em> isn\u2019t like any other game. Or app. (Frankly we\u2019re still working out what to call it.) It\u2019s an immersive sci-fi coming-of-age story centered around a journal kept by its protagonist, a young transgender woman named Kasio. To (greatly) simplify the experience, you progress through the story by erasing each scene with your finger, gradually unifying the (seemingly very disparate) narrative strands as you scrub. All the while, you\u2019re gently guided along by audio designers\/composers Eli Rainsberry and Matt Hopkins.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to get the feeling that you could open this journal and hear everything in your head, like you were daydreaming,\u201d says Rainsberry.<\/p>\n

A gaming industry vet whose work can also be heard on Bird Alone, A Monster\u2019s Expedition<\/em>, and Wilmot\u2019s Warehouse,<\/em> Rainsberry strongly connected with If Found\u2019<\/em>s subtler, more emotional \u201cnotebook\u201d sequences. \u201cThat\u2019s where I could work more intimately with the erasing system,\u201d they say. \u201cThe cliffside scenes start with softer winds; as Kasio moves along in the story, things gets colder and thinner.\u201d Rainsberry felt the arc of the notebook scenes called for an analog approach, one heavy on acoustic guitar, mandolin, and harmonica. \u201cI wanted to replicate memories fading away,\u201d they say. <\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Hopkins, who records under the moniker 2 Mello, composed the more dramatic scenes \u2014 including a cinematic and celestial opening sequence, which drops you into deep space and gradually compels you to erase entire planets (and then something even bigger).<\/p>\n

To do so, he drew on 90s electronica, leaning in equally to the frenetic roar of The Prodigy and the more analog approach of Aphex Twin. \u201cIt\u2019s pretty rare that you get asked to do anything that sounds like pop music for a video game,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s usually more about emotions and mood. But that was my inspiration this time. I even managed to sneak a little breakbeat in there.\u201d <\/p>\n

If this all sounds a little mysterious, that\u2019s the idea: If Found\u2019s<\/em> storylines weave around each other like ribbons, coalescing in an ending that also unifies the pair\u2019s work. \u201cI sampled some of Eli\u2019s stuff there, where the notebook is constantly switching places with real life,\u201d says Hopkins. Rainsberry has their own notes about it: \u201cI provide quiet moments to give people space to process what\u2019s going on, and then Matt comes in with incredible climax music. It\u2019s a really nice balance.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Pok Pok Playroom: The kids are alright<\/h3>\n

While crafting the inventive children\u2019s sandbox Pok Pok Playroom<\/em>, Esther Huybreghts and Mathijs Demaeght made a solemn vow: \u201cWe wanted something parents wouldn\u2019t have to mute in a restaurant,\u201d Huybreghts laughs. \u201cWe didn\u2019t want media and jingles and jangles that get stuck in your head. We wanted a quieter experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

To the delight of grown-up diners everywhere, they got it: Pok Pok Playroom<\/em> is a tasteful feast for little senses. There are hand-drawn switches to flip, gears to grind, blobs to plop together, and bells to ring. But they\u2019re all done with a judicious aural balance that activates young minds while also leaving space for kids to fill in details with their own imaginations. That\u2019s all thanks of sound designer Matt Miller, who took initial audio ideas from Demaeght and jumped into the project with his entire \u2026 well, mouth.<\/p>\n

\u201cI started by making little sounds: \u2018choo choo, quack quack,\u2019\u201d says the Toronto-based Miller. \u201cIt was all very embarrassing.\u201d <\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

It also worked. Miller went on to record every sound in the Playroom<\/em>: all the sloshing mops, sizzling grills, and wordless dialogue were entirely provided by he and his wife, Cathy. \u201cThe idea was to create calming sounds,\u201d says Miller, \u201csomething that could be heard a number of times without becoming fatiguing.\u201d (Here we\u2019ll give parents and caregivers a moment to nod appreciatively.)<\/p>\n

Initially, Miller and Demaeght wanted to use a small number of real-world objects, but they quickly realized that the app\u2019s 500 animations required a broader arsenal of sounds \u2014 so Miller went on a hunt. \u201cI got wooden blocks, pots from the kitchen, stuff I bought at a local thrift store,\u201d Miller says, pointing to a boxes of \u201cFoley objects\u201d in the background of his home studio. \u201cI\u2019d just walk into a music store and start pinging on things.\u201d <\/p>\n

His biggest challenge came in the app\u2019s \u201cmusical blobs\u201d section \u2014 an abstract playspace of movable shapes. \u201cA musical blob is a completely new idea,\u201d Miller says. \u201cA lot has to come together for that to work.\u201d For instance: The color blue is always a C, while circles (the simplest of shapes) are represented by a single sine wave (the simplest of sounds). \u201cThere needs to be a consistency,\u201d says Miller. <\/p>\n

But like his target audience, Miller also found room for a little play: One of his favorite effects involves a dung beetle that raises its back legs and rolls the dung away. \u201cThat rolling sound is just me rolling over the edges of a soup can,\u201d he laughs. \u201cWhen we can be literal, we\u2019re literal. But it\u2019s fun to throw curveballs, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Loona: Night time is the right time<\/h3>\n

One workday morning last year, Loona<\/em> founder Andrew Yanchurevich texted team sound director Ivan Senkevich to ask why he wasn\u2019t in the office yet. Luckily, Senkevich had very good answer: He was out looking for frogs. <\/p>\n

More specifically, Senkevich was looking for the sounds<\/em> of frogs \u2014 recordings he could integrate into his team\u2019s sleep app. \u201cMy region has a great natural sound,\u201d says Senkevich of the area around his hometown of Minsk, Belarus. \u201cI came into my village often to record.\u201d<\/p>\n

He had plenty of reason to do so. Part bedtime story, part interactive activity, and all gorgeous, Loona<\/em> is an app that winds you down with \u201csleepscapes\u201d \u2014 blends of sound, story, and narration designed to soothe your mind at bedtime. (Think of them as meditative interactive storybooks.) <\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

To create the appropriately somnolent aural environment, Senkevich often hit the road, traveling around town in search of not just amphibian friends but breezy forests, babbling rivers, and the buzz of insect life. \u201cSome of the sleepscapes are more cartoonish and some more realistic. But we always try to show the natural-ness of the sound.\u201d (Some sounds, he notes, did come from libraries. \u201cYou can\u2019t record the sea in Minsk,\u201d Senkevich says with a laugh.)<\/p>\n

Sound is a crucial ingredient in Loona<\/em>\u2019s restful recipe of art, storytelling, graphics, music, and sleep science. To hear Yanchurevich tell it, that magical mix is driven by Senkevich\u2019s history in both graphics and audio design. \u201cIvan came to us with experience in both,\u201d says Yanchurevich. \u201cHe feels that connection between two worlds. That\u2019s his superpower.\u201d <\/p>\n

The resulting app is designed, as Yanchurevich says, to \u201crecreate this safe bubble from your childhood.\u201d In the introductory sleepscape \u201cThe Dragon\u2019s Shrine,\u201d you\u2019ll explore a beautifully-rendered marble pagoda while an appropriately-mellifluous voice guides you through calming, repetitive tasks like lighting lanterns and coloring in architectural details. As you progress through sleepscapes, you\u2019ll lose yourself in a fairytale kingdom, explore a dark forest (which sounds a lot like Minsk), or simply cozy up to a crackling fire. Music comes from a team of sound freelance musicians that stretches from Brazil to Asia to the United States and incorporates the culture of each. But the final product is a single design. \u201cWe try to present the graphics and audio as one thought,\u201d Senkevich says.<\/p>\n

\n

NaadSadhana: Extraordinary machine<\/h3>\n

NaadSadhana<\/em> is the sort of astonishing, future-world app that could only be created by someone with an extremely specialized, almost-impossible skill set.<\/p>\n

Sandeep Ranade was that someone.<\/p>\n

With the help of AI, the app listens as you improvise a vocal line, then generates a backing track to match \u2014 all in real time. NaadSadhana<\/em> (a mix of the Sanskrit words for \u201cessence of sound\u201d and \u201csystemic practice\u201d) has neither stock riffs nor repeating loops; its 10 instruments, including virtual tanpura, tabla, and harmonium, are as spontaneous as your vocals. And with features like visual biofeedback, it\u2019s a powerful tool for blind or hard-of-hearing people.<\/p>\n

Ranade was perfectly positioned to create such a project. The Pune-based developer began singing at 4; by the 11th grade, he was an excellent singer who also exhibited skill in software engineering. \u201cI needed to decide whether to go into either software or music,\u201d Ranade says, \u201cand I decided I wanted to do both professionally.\u201d<\/p>\n

He pursued that dual track for years (as well as a few others: Ranade has a masters from Johns Hopkins, two decades of tech-world experience, and a thriving career as a Hindustani classical vocalist). All the while, he kept teaching, but inefficiencies in the process nagged at him. Training for Indian classical singing is an intense and demanding process; in the \u201cancient system,\u201d Ranade says, students would live with their teachers and practice for 10 hours a day, every day. Today, that timing isn\u2019t possible, but the work remains the same.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

\u201cIf you don\u2019t have frequent course correction, your neural pathways won\u2019t converge to where they need to be,\u201d he says. \u201cI needed something that would tell students, \u2018You\u2019re just a little bit flat here, a little sharp there.\u2019\u201d Unable to find a solution \u2014 and despite having no background in Swift, Xcode, AI, graphic design, or designing mobile apps \u2014 he set out to build it himself. <\/p>\n

From there, Ranade began tweaking. He added an AI to detect what was singing and what was not, but felt room for more. \u201cI wanted accompaniment,\u201d he says. \u201cInstruments like a swarmandal, which has 40 strings, are hard to tune and travel with. I thought, \u2018What if something could play close to as well as I can, stay in tune, and fit on my phone?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

He gave the app a test run by recording \u201cNa Corona Karo,\u201d a song about taking precautions against COVID-19 that became a viral hit shared by A.R. Rahman and others. But Ranade was most moved by the reaction he got from the leaders in his field. \u201cMusical geniuses like my late guru thought it was real human accompaniment,\u201d he says. \u201cThey were astonished it was software.\u201d<\/p>\n

Today, NadSaadhana<\/em> features automatic harmonies on violin, piano, and harmonium as well as percussion instruments like shakers and ankle bells. Its AI is trained not to adjust to the complexities of each instrument, but to the mix of the orchestra and the mood of the singer. \u201cIt\u2019s not as simple as \u2018This is the note he\u2019s singing, so here are the chords,\u2019\u201d Ranade says. \u201cThere has to be context: Is he singing slower or faster? Does he sound sadder or more upbeat? That changes the chords you hear, from all the thousands possible.\u201d Some bands rage against machines; Ranade\u2019s future is working more closely with them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An immersive app doesn\u2019t just look or feel great: It has to sound amazing, too. We asked several of our Apple Design Award-nominated developers to share their philosophy around making music, audio design, and sound. (And occasionally frogs.) Poolsuite FM: Hot fun in the summertime Let\u2019s just come right out and say it: Poolsuite FM […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":128775,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-128774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-apple-developer-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=128774"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128774\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/128775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=128774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=128774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=128774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}