A couple of days ago Xyster.net released Tripper for the iPhone.
Tripper is a fairly simple 16-step looping sequencer spanning ten distinct notes. All highlighted notes are played, together with colourful animation.
At present there’s just one sound, which could be likened to some kind of toy/electric piano. There’s not a lot of fancy stuff – you can’t swipe your finger to create runs of notes, alter sounds, change velocities, or do the sorts of things a Yamaha Tenori-On would offer you, but then you wouldn’t expect that from a 59p (99c) app.
One interesting feature is the ability to create “Game of Life” cell formations onto the board and have the melodic patterns evolve over time.
Used as a virtual instrument along with a sequencer and some of the iPhone’s other synth apps, this could be used to general an interesting, evolving base for mmore ambient/experimental compositions and performances.
A pause/edit button would be a useful addition to make it possible to build up a pattern without the instrument playing. It makes setting up accurate formations, particularly for use in “Game of Life” mode, very difficult.
It’s possible to save compositions for later playback, but although the app states that it’s possible to email these to other users, I’ve not found out how.
Another cool feature for power users on my wish list would be the ability to transmit notes via OSC, for hooking up to an external sequencer/sound generator, or the ability to save a composition’s MIDI file for later editing.
More sounds, of course, and maybe some other gestures, would be great, but this is the first version and it is a very inexpensive app. Good job from Xyster for fun and maybe a bit of inspiration too.
