Music composed on the iPad

vasanthakokilam · Post by **vasanthakokilam** » 16 Mar 2011, 04:13

Apple has released garageband for the iPad. The software costs only five dollars. The user interface is fantastic and
it has quite a varied set of instruments and features including the continuous pitch transition (like bebot), and a velocity
feature whereby, like a real piano, if you hit the key harder higher volume sound is produced.

It is essentially a 8 track music studio with an easy to use touch interface to play, record and produce, all on the iPad.

Here are three pieces I made, just for fun. ( click to play, no download needed )

http://www.esnips.com/doc/439c83a4-1ce2 ... HarMinor-2

http://www.esnips.com/doc/2939791a-e99d ... 5b/Mohanam

http://www.esnips.com/doc/3d9fcc17-a268 ... HarMinor-1

Rhythm tracks are from what came with Garageband.
I am going to play around with gamaka later. It is a lot of fun.

(EDIT.. The esnips links seem to be unreliable.. Try these if they do not work
http://soundcloud.com/dabbler125/21harminor-2
http://soundcloud.com/dabbler125/mohanam
http://soundcloud.com/dabbler125/21harminor-1
)

mahavishnu · Post by **mahavishnu** » 16 Mar 2011, 19:13

VK: nice. did the mridangam tracks come with garage band?

vasanthakokilam · Post by **vasanthakokilam** » 16 Mar 2011, 20:50

Mahavishnu: Yes. They have labeled it Indian Pakkawaj. That is the one that came close. They have included a few other indian drums like khol drums and dolak drums. And no tabla. I have sent them feedback asking for different mridangam and tabla loops.

arunk · Post by **arunk** » 16 Mar 2011, 20:54

good stuff vk

- the pakkawaj sound is more evident in the mohanam sample

Arun

cienu · Post by **cienu** » 16 Mar 2011, 23:22

Lovely VK. That was good.

vasanthakokilam · Post by **vasanthakokilam** » 17 Mar 2011, 11:05

Thanks folks.

When playing with this, I got to experience myself how the drums enhance the music! Really!! I can listen to the tracks separately or together.. it is easy to sense the huge difference in aesthetics between the melody by itself and the melody with the drums.

What GB calls as pakkawaj sounds close to mridangam. A youtube clip of pakkawaj sounded a bit different, more tabla'ish, I thought ( but not exactly ).

In Mohanam, the first one to enter is pakkavaj and soon after enters the Khol drum. Together they produce a different effect from their individual sounds. In 1 and 3, it is only the pakkavaj and the tamborine.

mohan · Post by **mohan** » 17 Mar 2011, 16:44

Sounds neat ... almost tempted to get an Ipad, however I think I will wait for the Ipad 5 which will also make coffee and clean my house

mahavishnu · Post by **mahavishnu** » 17 Mar 2011, 18:08

mohan wrote:Sounds neat ... almost tempted to get an Ipad, however I think I will wait for the Ipad 5 which will also make coffee and clean my house

Yes, me too. But the new Macbook air is so tempting. The flash/SSD hard drives are so fast!

VK, yes the Garageband pakkawaj sounds much more mridangam-like. It has a ring to the "dhin" and "tham" sounds that you don't see in its usual deployment for accompanying dhrupad or odissi music. It has a nice nice thoppi sound too and no ravai/LHS tinkering is required

rshankar · Post by **rshankar** » 17 Mar 2011, 21:05

mohan wrote:however I think I will wait for the Ipad 5 which will also make coffee and clean my house

Mohan - I am sure Sangeetha will have something to say about that!

vasanthakokilam · Post by **vasanthakokilam** » 17 Mar 2011, 21:49

>Ipad 5 which will also make coffee and clean my house

I am sure there is an app for that

>But the new Macbook air is so tempting. The flash/SSD hard drives are so fast!

I have a Macbook air. It is fast, SSD makes a big difference, instant on, so portable, so light and thin for a full fledged computer etc. However, the immersible iPad experience is something else really.

You can get a new iPad 1 now for $399 from Apple while supplies last or a used one for $350 on ebay or craigslist. I say, go for it. There are 60000 reasons to justify that. ( I know, I am really drunk on Steve Jobs' cool-aid

) Or the new iPad 2, though you have to wait a bit due to supply constraints!! It is pretty complete now. Future enhancements will mostly be along the lines of 'better display, faster processor, more memory, better camera etc' which is always the case with any technology, not a reason to wait.

Mohan, Ramesh, Arun: I can not wait to hear what all you can produce with GB on your iPad!!

mahavishnu · Post by **mahavishnu** » 18 Mar 2011, 00:35

VK, I spend hours at the Apple store whenever I chance by there...It is like a cult zone in there.
Will make the switch soon. Steve Jobs should pay you for your emphatic endorsement.

Your music reminds me of DJ Cheb i Sabbah. Have you heard his Krishna Leela? Here's a sample: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_Xkf3YAg0k
The whole album is very tastefully done. It has remixes of Raju vedala (todi) and Dasa's Narajanma Bandage (sung in Dharmavati).

vasanthakokilam · Post by **vasanthakokilam** » 18 Mar 2011, 02:07

>VK, I spend hours at the Apple store whenever I chance by there...It is like a cult zone in there.

Indeed. I see this at every Apple store I happen to stumble upon. Contrast this with a Verizon store. In addition to the iPads, they have the Motorolla Xoom tablet and Samsung Galaxy tab all out on display.. But we do not see the same cult scene there.
I had not heard DJ Cheb i Sabbah until you pointed out. I see what you are saying.. the mridangam loop and its entry are similar. Yes, tastefully done, I will check out the rest.

vasanthakokilam · Post by **vasanthakokilam** » 23 Mar 2011, 03:09

Someone complained that the esnips links in post #1 do not work. I have now setup camp at soundcloud. Hope this works..
http://soundcloud.com/dabbler125/21harminor-2
http://soundcloud.com/dabbler125/mohanam
http://soundcloud.com/dabbler125/21harminor-1

vasanthakokilam · Post by **vasanthakokilam** » 25 Mar 2011, 02:18

Just FYI for those in U.S. who wanted to get an iPad. The iPad 1 is on fire sale at verizon corporate owned stores for $299.00 while supplies last. They are getting rid of the first gen inventory.. ( find the nearest store using http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/stor ... /index.jsp and call first to see if they have stock . I have a feeling they will run out of this quickly at this price ). If you do not need video conferencing, iPad 1 is just as good as iPad 2 for all practical purposes.

prashanth12 · Post by **prashanth12** » 25 Mar 2011, 04:39

I'm quite surprised that they have a pakhwaj sound and no tabla. I think there are a hundred westerners who recognize a tabla for everyone one or two who know mridangam/pakhwaj/dholak/etc.

vasanthakokilam · Post by **vasanthakokilam** » 28 Mar 2011, 07:16

Made another track. I gave the built-in sampler a few seconds of my flute playing and it used it as the sound for the keyboard.

http://soundcloud.com/dabbler125/21harmonicminor

vasanthakokilam · Post by **vasanthakokilam** » 10 Jul 2011, 09:00

http://soundcloud.com/dabbler125/based- ... f-the-raga

cmlover · Post by **cmlover** » 10 Jul 2011, 20:06

Very nice and pleasing VK - and soothing too..
But I hhave to hunt for Keeravani therein

What song did you have in mind?

vasanthakokilam · Post by **vasanthakokilam** » 10 Jul 2011, 22:52

CML, Thanks. it is set in Harmonic Minor, the same scale as Keeravani, but no Keeravani raga intended.

cmlover · Post by **cmlover** » 11 Jul 2011, 05:42

Aha! I guessed that much..
See what a difference gamaka makes...

vasanthakokilam · Post by **vasanthakokilam** » 11 Jul 2011, 06:42

Gakamas and Swara sequences. In addition what I am experiencing is, the very specific ways and contours of playing them makes a lot of difference to bring out the raga bhava. In this piece, I was definitely not going for Keeravani. The initial section has some smooth transition type gamakas but after that it is all deliberately flat notes.

The garageband on the iPad is quite flexible to execute a lot of different kinds of gamakas, much beyond CM requirements. There is still a lot of scope for improvement on the user interface to execute the gamakas properly to CM specifications. But what is there now is quite plenty.

vasanthakokilam · Post by **vasanthakokilam** » 11 Jul 2011, 12:16

Here is one on Harmonic Minor but played with gamakas. I do not know to play the keeravani gamakas, so these are just whatever came to me while playing. It has some traces of Keeravani but it sounds different.

http://soundcloud.com/dabbler125/based- ... minor-with

mohan · Post by **mohan** » 11 Jul 2011, 12:40

vk - you have used a lot of glides (jAru) from one note to another. Can you do kampitam (shakes) as occurs on the ga of kIravAni or say prominently on the ga of kAnada?

cmlover · Post by **cmlover** » 11 Jul 2011, 18:47

Nice VK as a stand alone piece. You have to make a conscious effort to bring in Keeravani. The nishadam is a strong note there. Perhaps think of kaligiyunde or devi neeye thuNai and play to get authentic keeravani. It is a bright raga and hence more taara sancharam will make it shine...

vasanthakokilam · Post by **vasanthakokilam** » 11 Jul 2011, 20:54

CML, kaligiyunde is my reference for KV and it is quite a deep krithi melodically. I took a couple of inspirations from it for the above but it is definitely no KV. My own limitations and GarageBand UI limitations all come into play.

Mohan, yes, shakes can be done, but doing it right is beyond my capabilities now

I realize that those shakes are absolutely essential to bring out KV. A naive and straightforward attempt at shakes does not sound good. Getting that exact contour is the interesting challenge. I think you will have a ball with it.

Until then these attempts will just be Harmonic Minor. Harmonic Minor is quite fascinating to me even at the scale level, it has that inherent charm which is dreamy and whimsical.

As far other ragas, I manage Sahana somewhat decently and Kanada also to some extent, but it is not yet satisfying. I have put that aside as a secondary objective for now. If it shows up, let it show up. There is a lot fun to be had even outside of that, especially exploring laya that gives the piece the feel of that characteristic CM song.

vasanthakokilam · Post by **vasanthakokilam** » 17 Jul 2011, 11:38

A piece in the pentatonic scale with glide and slide gamakas as used in Mohanam ( close approximation )

http://soundcloud.com/dabbler125/mohana ... ide-gamaka

mohan · Post by **mohan** » 17 Jul 2011, 12:27

vk - sounds good ... can you try and play a popular piece such as the varnam - Ninnukori?

rajsanthanam · Post by **rajsanthanam** » 17 Jul 2011, 18:33

I got an eyepad for $1 at a dollar store. Makes me sleep good!

cmlover · Post by **cmlover** » 17 Jul 2011, 19:04

Excellent VK. Loved it. Dripping with the raga bhavam!
The glides are smooth and elegant. Try other pentatonics. abhogi? shivaranjani?? bhupalam?

vasanthakokilam · Post by **vasanthakokilam** » 17 Jul 2011, 21:44

Thanks very much, CML and Mohan!

I will give those ragas a try later. I will probably wait for Garageband to support setting up arbitrary scales. There is one pentatonic scale close to Boopalam with small Ga with sounds like Subhapantuvarali. I will probably try that.

Mohan, I learned Mohana varnam long time back and it is not in my muscle memory and so not fluent. I will try but I know it is going to be a big struggle. It is much easier and more fun to compose my own tunes

vasanthakokilam · Post by **vasanthakokilam** » 18 Jul 2011, 04:14

I decided to try all the pentatonic scales available with garageband on the iPad. Here is the second one after Major Pentatonic ( Mohanam ) presented above.

GB calls this Southeast Asian Scale: http://soundcloud.com/dabbler125/southe ... tonicscale

The notes map to Bhoopalam ( with small Ga ) but the morning feel is not heard in this piece. It is more poignant like Shubhapantuvarali. To set the stage, I first present the Scale with flat notes before moving on add the CM feel to it.

cmlover · Post by **cmlover** » 19 Jul 2011, 03:14

More like Shubhapantuvarali than bhoopalam...
Looks like the pratimadhyamam is the culprit though you may have avoided it by definition...
It has crept in instead of pancamam...

vasanthakokilam · Post by **vasanthakokilam** » 19 Jul 2011, 04:01

CML, I agree it very much has the pathos of Shubapantuvarali. I like the sound of it. Dikshithar's SadaChaleshwaram in Bhoopalam also has that vibe (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2q7_BbpLRk). Anyway, I checked the notes carefully, there is no M2. It is just that slow slide from P to G2 to R1 that triggers that rasa.

Next Pentatonic one is Sivaranjani: http://soundcloud.com/dabbler125/majorb ... ivaranjani

I used a built-in scale Major Blues with 6 notes which has G2 and G3 ( which I avoided while playing ).

cmlover · Post by **cmlover** » 19 Jul 2011, 19:11

Lovely! This has a very good feel of shivaranjani. The tri sthaayi sancaaram gives a nice feel as also the gati change towards the close. The pancamam comes out clean and nice. The absence of G3 is quite evident. Good work...

vasanthakokilam · Post by **vasanthakokilam** » 19 Jul 2011, 20:51

Thanks CML. I also liked the way the Sivaranjani one turned out.

Next one: Minor Pentatonic - S G2 M1 P N2 S which maps to SuddhaDanyasi/UdayaRaviChandrika. Also has the expected Abheri/KarnatakaDevandari feel. It sounds a bit filmy, a Kunnakudi'ish bANi!!

http://soundcloud.com/dabbler125/minorp ... scalebased

cmlover · Post by **cmlover** » 19 Jul 2011, 21:14

Good attempt but not as good as shivaranjani. I agree it is filmy.
The problem is I am corrupted too much by listening to classical SD/Abheri and the expectation is for those phrases.
The notes alone will not make these raga. But the melody is sweet showing that there is more scope in these notes than was exploited in the classical handlings... For example ARR's kaNNODu kANpathellAm... in Jeans is pleasant and novel but not classical...

vasanthakokilam · Post by **vasanthakokilam** » 19 Jul 2011, 22:49

CML, if you heard some resemblances to kaNNODu, that was intentional

I have one last pentatonic piece which I will post later today.

vasanthakokilam · Post by **vasanthakokilam** » 20 Jul 2011, 10:04

This is the last one of the pentatonic ones I tried.

GB calls this Japanese Scale.. The notes map to S R1 M1 P D1 S - S D1 P M1 R1 S . karnatik.com says it is Karnataka Suddha Saveri ( also tatillatika , suddha mukhari etc. ). Though not consciously intended, I seem to have invoked MD!!

http://soundcloud.com/dabbler125/japane ... _karnataka

cmlover · Post by **cmlover** » 20 Jul 2011, 18:27

Intoxicatingly exotic! Never heard this raga before. Has a good potential for elaboration. Very different from Suddha Saveri which is the janya of Mela 29. What song you had in mind?

arunk · Post by **arunk** » 20 Jul 2011, 19:24

Interesting work vk! The last one also has the malahari feel perhaps because the gitams are sung in a similar "gait" - and they are more familiar. The shivaranjani one has the same meditative vibe too.

I have also begun some experimenting with iPad - but in a different manner i.e. laying a "westernized" tune based of a carnatic scale with a western harmony backdrop. I find some of Garageband (iPad) capabilities to be so close but yet so tantalizing short of "the ideal"

. I am hoping in the next version - they allow us to specify any scale (like Bebot), which I think is why trying gamakas on the Bebot is much easier and also IMO comes out better. Currently, I am not happy with what I can do with Garageband in this regard. Thus, now, I am now GarageBand on iPad for just the harmony backdrop - they do have some wonderful realistic guitar sounds. But even there I hope they will eventually not restrict the auto-modes in guitar to 2 mutually exclusive scales (and thus only a handful of usable chords in auto-mode per song).

I am sure Apple will improve these two shortcomings eventually - at which time the potential for me will explode exponentially.

Arun

vasanthakokilam · Post by **vasanthakokilam** » 20 Jul 2011, 19:49

Arun, understood what you are saying about those limitations..

CML, you asked what song I had in mind for the last one. Good question. Answer is none. It came about automatically, but it probably has some sub-conscious connections. I myself was surprised how the beginning came about in that karnataka suddha saveri piece and also later, how the swaras naturally fit into that beginning phrase. ( portuttham, that is the MD aspect I felt ). All these songs came about like that and garageband on the iPad encourages such things: Single shot composing, playing and recording all happening simultaneously. I do play around with the scale a bit ahead of time to get familiar it and then just go for it. Inspirations and imperfections are all par for the course in this method

arunk · Post by **arunk** » 20 Jul 2011, 22:59

vk - Indeed. There is a lot of fun even at this level (i.e. non-professional) of composing. You have may a very rough idea of the path you want to take, but part of the fun is to simply ride your mind's coat-tail and see where it takes you - somewhat oxymoronic/schizophrenic I know - since the fun is also experienced by the mind - but it is also philosophical. A part of you is the driver and a part of you is the passenger I guess.

Arun

vasanthakokilam · Post by **vasanthakokilam** » 21 Jul 2011, 02:09

A part of you is the driver and a part of you is the passenger I guess

Very well stated, Arun. Agreed.

This may be a bit counter-intuitive but I think my main "creative" contribution for these songs is making an aesthetic judgement on the output, on the passenger side.

I used to do the same on the flute but that is a very heavy duty method.

arunk · Post by **arunk** » 21 Jul 2011, 02:14

So you are saying that the passenger in you is also a back-seat driver

?\

Arun

arunk · Post by **arunk** » 21 Jul 2011, 04:36

Here is mine: http://sunson.wordpress.com/2011/07/20/ ... xth-sense/

It is not the same category as vk's since the melody is not played on the iPad - but it is a carnatic inspired nevertheless. I am not even sure if you can make out the raga - it was hard to bring into the mix. Also I probably took liberties with the scale (i know i did with the gamakas

)

Arun

cmlover · Post by **cmlover** » 21 Jul 2011, 20:18

Weird, eerie.. what else can I say! Perhaps it is the chord. Just pushed me into the depression cycle already sweltering under the oppressing heat

Getting a trace of purvikalyaNi but not sure. No melody at all (being not a fan of WM

I prefer Vk's flights of fancy being a a driver or a passenger which cheer me up and lull me to sleep!

vasanthakokilam · Post by **vasanthakokilam** » 21 Jul 2011, 23:09

Arun, it sounded great. To me the chords sounded more Indian than western, for some reason, may be the characteristics of the overlaid melody created that. It was nice. I also felt that it is Purvikalyani based. I liked the resulting sound with the pathos reduced a notch but it is still there in the background. The sounds in the very beginning had a sense of suspense and then it resolved itself. I guess that is the magic of the chord change. CML's perception on melody may be because the melody is spread out. CML, you should also give a listen to Arun's other creation at the same blog.

arunk · Post by **arunk** » 22 Jul 2011, 00:04

thanks vk. Atleast there is no confusion about the raga

- and yes the extra layering is what sets the mood of the underlying scale. You can experiment with just C, Am, Em on your iPad (try smart guitar, acoustic and set to chords, option 1) - while it will still have the "darker" mood of minor chords, it may not sound as Indian (although don't try as soon as this or with this song in mind - otherwise you will be cross-associating sub-consciously).

All opinions are equally valid: the good, the bad and the rest. IMO, music speaks mainly to the heart particularly new tunes, and the heart's response can be deemed as perhaps most natural (?)

Arun

mohan · Post by **mohan** » 23 Jul 2011, 05:18

arun - the gamakas you have used actually sound very good - there is definitely scope to play Carnatic music properly on the iPad!

arunk · Post by **arunk** » 23 Jul 2011, 07:13

Thanks mohan but I guess I wasnt clear enough earlier. The melody was not played on the iPad - only the background. The melody was played by me on the electric guitar.

Arun