touchscaper vs BeatBlocks Studio

Touchscaper is an instrument designed for anyone who wants to make music on their iPad simply by touching the screen. You don’t have to be a serious musician to enjoy touchscaper, but if you are, touchscaper is highly configureable under the hood. Main features: • Multi-touch based interface with “radar”, “ribbon” and keyboard surfaces • Touch the screen to play a note, move your fingers to change the sound • Semi-generative engine selects the “good notes” for you • Touch movement can control volume and pan for each individual note • Total control over chords, keys and scales (fully chromatic) • Multiple chords can be generated from keys and scales to create “scenes” • Chord "navigator" helps you create inspiring chord progressions • 40 built-in sounds can be combined in 2 layers to create “instruments” • Built-in sounds include samples from moodscaper, pianoscaper, numerous analog synths and guitars • Comes with preset example scenes and instruments • Random instrument generator function with one tap of a button • Hold and orbit modes for hands-free evolving soundscapes • Ribbon style keyboard with touch vibrato • Chord looper with Ableton Link support • Arrangement view for longer / more complex chord progressions • 16 step probability-based sequencer for touch, drums, percussion and synth automation • "jam grid" sequencer view for live performances • Supports file sharing for scenes and instruments • Built-in effects including ping-pong delays, reverb, limiter and EQ • Supports IAA (Inter-App Audio) as a generator • Control other music apps using MIDI out and CCs with optional MPE support There are several demo videos in circulation which should give you a better idea of what touchscaper can do - just search for “touchscaper”. *** Please note that this app is now in maintenance mode / updates for bug fixes only. This is due to the heavy dependency on deprecated technology such as IAA ***

BeatBlocks Studio is a fun music-making app that lets you build your own beats using Lego bricks and other real-life construction blocks. Instantly rewarding, with just a handful of bricks you can create drum loops, melodies and bass-lines straight away: no prior music making experience necessary! BeatBlocks Studio lets you make music in real-time, responding to your placement of real-world Lego bricks. It brings digital creativity out of the screen and onto your desktop, letting you get hands-on with music making. And we mean that literally. 

 How does it work? BeatBlocks Studio uses the camera on your iPhone or iPad to detect blocks of different type and colour. To make music, simply lay out different patterns of blocks in front of the camera. The app detects where your bricks are, then in left to right order plays a repeating loop, with a different type of sound for each colour of brick it sees. When the app sees a brick, it plays a sound: so as you build, you make music. 
 To change your loop, just move or scatter the blocks around, try out different colours, and wait for the loop to come around again. The left-to-right position sets the timing of each musical note, the top to bottom position selects which note/pitch to play, and the colour sets the instrument. You can also adjust the tempo, swing, key and scale for your loops.

 BeatBlocks Studio is a fully-loaded upgrade of our standard BeatBlocks app, with all sound packs and pro features unlocked and ready to go. To extend the creative possibilities even further, BeatBlocks Studio features multi-channel MIDI output to let you send your drum, bass and lead parts to different instruments in Logic or GarageBand (or any other MIDI enabled music apps out there...) for live performance or for recording. Ableton Link support means you can synchronise your beats, tempo and playback transport with other Link enabled apps. Don't forget to share your beats! When you are ready to show-off your compositions to the world, hit the record button to screen grab a video of your performance. When you are finished, simply choose to share or save.

 BeatBlocks was launched at SXSW 2023 representing the UK Immersive Futures Lab, and is winner of the silver medal for use of AI at the 2023 BIMA Awards. Playable Technology’s AI-powered music-sequencing technology has already been star of the show at the “Turn it up” interactive music exhibitions at the London Science Museum and with “BeatBlocks Live” at the National Museum of Scotland during the 2024 Science Festival in Edinburgh.   Download BeatBlocks Studio today and let the loops begin!