Android's Audio Woes

[alphacat]

So the known limitations of Android devices have made them less preferable for making music, but it looks like there's a ray of hope thanks to Jelly Bean...

http://createdigitalmusic.com/2012/07/a ... ess-today/

http://evolver.fm/2012/07/02/did-androi ... -platform/

http://createdigitalmusic.com/2012/07/a ... axy-nexus/

[nowaysj]

Hope so, but am starting to get cozy in this slave based iOS.

[alphacat]

Hope so, but am starting to get cozy in this slave based iOS.

For REAL. Which feels strange to me considering how anti-Apple I've been for so long, but... yeah. IOS has it wrapped up right now, anyway.

[Attila]

Just waiting for the windows surface pro...mobile production needs fulfilled.

[alphacat]

Just waiting for the windows surface pro...mobile production needs fulfilled.

According to one of those articles you may be waiting for a long, long time. Apparently they're not targeting ambitious audio specs any time soon.

[Attila]

i5 and a few gigs of ram is enough for me to get any project started.

[nowaysj]

Just waiting for the windows surface pro...mobile production needs fulfilled.

According to one of those articles you may be waiting for a long, long time. Apparently they're not targeting ambitious audio specs any time soon.

Think it was a samsung commercial I saw, was totally based around audio and music production. I think maybe the dipshits are starting to realize they fucked up with redic latency, and that many in their potential markets enjoy fooling around making music. They're at least attempting to address this demand with marketing, unfortunately not functionality. hehe.

[alphacat]

Well, at least they're not being as lame about it as Blackberry - who I ditched due to ZERO music app availability for the Bold 9000 - advertising their wares 6 mos. ago using some supposed DJ who's saying "Blackberry does everything I need it to!"



Sucks that the Nexus has been blocked for sale in the U.S. by Apple tho.

EDIT: One of the DJ's in this campaign was Diplo.

[nowaysj]

Apple are stnuc. Bottom line.

[OfficialDAPT]

I'm getting an S3 for my birthday!

[Attila]

Did know NI released a 3 deck controller...

[alphacat]

Saying your device isn’t as responsive to sound as you’d want is a bit like saying you’re feeling sick to your stomach. The symptom is easy to describe, and everyone would agree it’s not a desirable state. But the fix can be rather complex.

And when it comes to engineers who care about music and sound, experiencing latency – or its equally evil mirror cousin, crackles-and-pops – will make you sick to your stomach.

Google I believe is deserving of some criticism over this issue. Years of subsequent updates saw the company largely silent or unresponsive about critical audio issues. It took some time before even basic APIs were reliable and on par with other platforms. At the same time, I don’t believe even all developers – let alone users – appreciate the challenges of making music-quality low latency performance work. There’s no silver bullet: any number of issues with drivers and firmware and battery management can cause things to go wrong, and only a delicate combination of ingredients will make it go right. Indeed, that’s part of why Apple deserves some credit. Being the company making both hardware and software is a big boon, no question, but even that is no guarantee you’ll get results.

One year ago now, we first saw signs that Android would see higher performance audio. This included some general improvements for all newer devices, which my friend Peter Brinkmann quickly baked into the open source libpd library. Low latency audio was promised initially for the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, as I reported, as well, in June.

At this year’s Google I/O, we finally get a presentation from people who really understand the issues involved and explain in atypically-candid detail how you go about solving them.

If you care about this, too, you owe it to yourself to sit through the whole video, as there’s a whole lot of technical detail here. It’s also worth noting that some of the things you think might fix audio actually don’t. Sure, it’s easy for developers to gripe that a platform doesn’t magically give them low latency audio, particularly if they’re familiar with desktop Linux. But on mobile platforms, a number of variables come into play. Some of the obvious fixes can then conflict with battery life, or simply don’t work.

The full video, featuring Glenn Kasten, Ian Ni-Lewis, and Raph Levien:



It’s a pleasure to see engineers who really get this stuff talk about this rather than higher-level managers; this is the sort of conversation I have over beers with people who know what they’re doing far more than I do.

A key slide:



The left-hand column, what the Android team needs to do, is summed up in two areas. One is improvements to the platform, and the other has to do with working with hardware partners, whose drivers and hardware and well-meaning battery conversation features and the like are often the source of problems. Most tellingly, while it’s long overdue, it’s good to know that Google is at last adding proper APIs for configuring audio (augh), and being trying more adventurous paths to lower latency as have been found more commonly on desktop systems.

But developers can make headway, too. As evidenced by the availability of software like FL Studio showing up on Android, programming techniques and the use of OpenSL can mean better performance on the platform, as well.

I’ve endorsed it before, but even if you don’t intend to use the free libpd library, you can check out the repository for the latest best-practices code for you to copy and paste in your own Android audio apps:

github.com/libpd

Check out the OpenSL branch.

So, which Android should you get (if any)?

This time last year, we heard about low latency support for specific devices on Android. How are they doing?

Well, frankly, not great. There are three devices that support the low latency profile, up from one device at Google I/O last year:

1. Galaxy Nexus (Samsung)
2. Nexus 4 (LG)
3. Nexus 10 (Samsung)

Certainly, I would only recommend these three Android devices to anyone interested in music or development. Other Android gadgets will perform more poorly with audio latency, including popular devices like the Galaxy S series. You’ll also want a Nexus device in order to have unfettered access to OS updates from Google – useful to developers, but also to anyone wanting to keep pace with improvements.

And of these three, the Galaxy Nexus remains the best choice. Sources tell CDM that the Nexus 4 and Nexus 10 don’t perform as well as the original Galaxy Nexus because of battery conservation concerns.

I still strongly recommend iOS for developers and end users, however. For now, Android can’t match app selection, API quality, availability of MIDI support and wired connections to instruments, or audio performance and flexibility available on iOS.

That said, a Galaxy Nexus could be a great buy for people willing to tinker a bit. Oh, yeah, and there’s the fact that you can get it unlocked for a fraction of the price of a new iPhone.

CDM will have more on these issues over the summer, so stay tuned.

Developers, details from this presentation:
[url=https:/code.google.com/p/high-performance-audio/]https:/code.google.com/p/high-performance-audio/[/url]

[Crimsonghost]

They finally got animoog, so things are looking up.

[alphacat]

They finally got animoog, so things are looking up.

Nah, that's Blackberry (shockingly enough.)

Can BlackBerry Succeed Where Android Has Failed?



At BlackBerry Live – an annual event focusing on the Blackberry platform - CEO Thorsten Heins introduced the latest version of BlackBerry OS, BB10.1.

Heins also told attendees that Moog will be bringing its synthesizer app Animoog, previously exclusive to iOS, to the BB10 platform. Moog shared an image, right, that shows Animoog working on Blackberry.

The huge growth in mobile music apps has left some Android-using musicians and developers frustrated, because of years of inaction on Google’s part to address latency issues on Android. Latency is enough of a problem on the platform that music app developers have focused on iOS, despite a larger possible audience on the Android platform.

Animoog is one of the most advanced mobile synthesizers available on iOS, so the fact that it has been ported to Blackberry is notable.

What do you make of the announcement? Do you think Blackberry could be a viable alternative for musicians interested in mobile music-making?

[wormcode]

Blackberry's security was too hardcore for normal every day people to develop these kinds of apps. It required direct collaboration with RIM and that costs money. Normal audio apps couldn't get enough access to vital system features because of the tight security. So I'm not that surprised something big like Animoog is running on there because of those same reasons.

Here's a promising new Android app called Syntheogen: https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... ogen&hl=en

[alphacat]

Anyone else notice that there's a Macbook on stage with them?

Also, 15 people out of the whole Google I/O conference attended the talk in the video above, which honestly does not bode well.

Meanwhile, IOS 7 is around the corner and they're actually building fuckin' DAW architecture into Core Audio. Glad I got over my Apple hate.