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    <channel>
        <title>Palm Sounds Blogs</title>
        <description>Palm Sounds syndicated data</description>
        <link>http://grou.ps/palmsounds</link>
        <lastBuildDate>Sun, 21 Mar 2010 23:06:08 +0100</lastBuildDate>
        <generator>GROU.PS FeedCreator</generator>
        <item>
            <title>Electron: for iPhone. A review by Kurt Lorenz (Fri, June 12, 2009)</title>
            <link>http://grou.ps/palmsounds/blogs/63726</link>
            <description><![CDATA[<p style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 0em; text-align: justify;">&nbsp;</p>
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<p style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 0em; text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style=
"color: rgb(21, 21, 21); font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">
<span class="full-image-float-left ssNonEditable" style=
"float: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 8px; margin-left: 0px;">
<span><a href=
"http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=318630253&amp;mt=8"
target="_blank" style=
"text-decoration: none; color: rgb(135, 135, 135);"><img src=
"http://kurtlorenz.squarespace.com/storage/post-images/electron.jpg?__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSION=1245092143529"
alt="" style=
"border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-color: initial; text-decoration: none;" />
</a></span></span><a href=
"http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=318630253&amp;mt=8"
style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(99, 152, 152);">[App store
link]</a>&nbsp;My first impression is that this may be a little more advanced
than many of the other "Matrix" style music apps. Electron allows multiple
layers and patterns as well as the ability to change pitch and instrument
sounds.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 0em; text-align: justify;">Upon
opening this app you are greeted with a 16x9 LED matrix. After about 5 seconds
the Song List view scrolls up from the bottom giving you the opportunity to
either load a current song or create a new one. You get to name your song, tap
the Create button and you're back to the matrix. At the bottom of the screen
are several navigation buttons. Rewind, Play, Layer and Pattern selection,
Options, and Mode.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 0em; text-align: justify;">
Programming beats is fairly straight forward. If you've used a matrix style app
or step sequencer/drum machine before it should be second nature. Press the
play button and tap an LED once to activate it, a second time to deactivate.
You can also tap/hold and any LED that falls under your touch will be
activated, (if the first tap landed on a inactive LED) or deactivated depending
on the state the initially tapped LED was in. This is great for making
trills/drum rolls or for erasing big chunks in one go.&nbsp;</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 0em; text-align: justify;">
<span class="thumbnail-image-float-right ssNonEditable" style=
"float: right; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 8px; margin-left: 10px;">
<span><a href=
"javascript:showFullImage('/display/ShowImage?imageUrl=%2Fstorage%2Fpost-images%2Felectron_2.jpg%3F__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSION%3D1245218743835',320,480);"
style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(99, 152, 152);"><img src=
"http://www.kurtlorenz.com/storage/thumbnails/4030105-3367163-thumbnail.jpg?__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSION=1245218747538"
alt="" style=
"border-top-width: 1px; border-right-width: 1px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-width: 1px; border-top-style: solid; border-right-style: solid; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: solid; border-color: initial; border-top-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-right-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-left-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); text-decoration: none;" />
</a></span></span>There are 4 layers (1, 2, 3, 4) and 8 patterns (A - H). Each
layer can hold any one of the 15 available sounds, so you can actually have 4
"voices" active at once.&nbsp;Pitched instruments rise in pitch from the bottom
row to the top row. Drum kits work a little bit differently though, each row is
a different drum sound, arranged in a fairly conventional way from the bottom
row up: Kick, snares, percussion, claps, cymbals...</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 0em; text-align: justify;">Sounds can
be accessed with the Options button (Gears). This brings up the Options panel.
There's actually a whole bunch of pretty useful stuff in here. You've got Exit
Options, Move Up/Down/Left/Right, Cut/Copy/Paste, Delete, Undo, Menu Placement
(top/bottom), Preferences, Instruments, Play Along and Tempo. Tap the keyboard
icon to enter the Instrument screen. (Remember some of these screens are Layer
specific so the instrument will be changed for whichever layer you had selected
when you entered the Options panel.) Here you have the options Select
Instrument and Instrument Tuning. Choose an instrument and tuning configuration
and click Done. Select a different layer and repeat the process. You can also
change instruments from the Preferences screen under Layer Information. You may
find this a little quicker. Whichever way you choose there is&nbsp;<strong>one
major drawback</strong>. Entering the Instrument screen stops playback. So you
can't actually audition instruments without a lot of menu hopping.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 0em; text-align: justify;">Play Along
Mode is interesting but may not be very useful. Tapping the Play Along Mode
button allows you to "play" the LED's instead of activating/deactivating them.
Try it and let me know.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 0em; text-align: justify;">
<span class="thumbnail-image-float-right ssNonEditable" style=
"float: right; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 8px; margin-left: 10px;">
<span><a href=
"javascript:showFullImage('/display/ShowImage?imageUrl=%2Fstorage%2Fpost-images%2Felectron_3.jpg%3F__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSION%3D1245222200816',320,480);"
style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(99, 152, 152);"><img src=
"http://www.kurtlorenz.com/storage/thumbnails/4030105-3367413-thumbnail.jpg?__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSION=1245222204574"
alt="" style=
"border-top-width: 1px; border-right-width: 1px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-width: 1px; border-top-style: solid; border-right-style: solid; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: solid; border-color: initial; border-top-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-right-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-left-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); text-decoration: none;" />
</a></span></span>The only other trick in this bag is Song Mode. You can access
Song Mode with the grid button in the bottom right corner of the screen. The
interface does a nice flip transition. To go back, tap the grid again. Once in
Song Mode you'll see your four Layers listed down the left side and a 32 column
grid stretching out to the right. (Only the first 10 columns are visible until
you flick/scroll.)</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 0em; text-align: justify;">Each
square represents 1 measure.&nbsp;To create a song you simply fill the measures
with patterns. You can do this by double tapping in the square and selecting
the appropriate pattern from the pop-up window. The copy and paste functions at
the bottom of the window are great time savers.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 0em; text-align: justify;">There are
two hidden functions in song mode, muting and looping.&nbsp;You can mute any of
the layers by tapping the colored orbs to the left of each layer number. Tap
again to unmute. Looping could use some improvement but at least the function
exists. Currently you can only define the end of the loop. Set the loop point
by double tapping a measure number at the bottom of the screen. The song will
play through this measure and&nbsp;loop back to the&nbsp;first measure.</p>
<br /></div>
</div>
]]></description>
            <pubDate>Fri, 28 Aug 2009 23:19:48 +0100</pubDate>
        </item>
        <item>
            <title>Welcome to the PalmSounds Grou.p site</title>
            <link>http://grou.ps/palmsounds/blogs/52223</link>
            <description><![CDATA[I'm hoping that this site will overcome lots of the issues with having a blog
and site and Google group and forum all over the place.
<div><br /></div>
<div>This site seems to be able to have everything all in one place. Let me
know what you think.</div>
]]></description>
            <pubDate>Wed, 08 Jul 2009 13:45:17 +0100</pubDate>
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