Sunvox on a phone.

Multi-platform modular music creation studio
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phassan
Posts: 9
Joined: Thu Dec 01, 2016 4:56 pm

Sunvox on a phone.

Post by phassan »

Hi guys.

Like all of you here, I love sunvox. I bought it on all platforms but I only find it useful on my PC. I really tried to use it on my phone which is quite big, 5.5inch. no chance. So question is - how do you guys manage to use a tracker on mobile devices ? Are there any special techniques ? I find it impossible to use, but I would really want to. Right now I just use it as a player.

I dont want to offend anyone, but comparing it to 2 other main apps on android platform - fl studio mobile and caustic - its very hard to write melodies. Piano roll is just better suited for touch.

Im actually asking for help here - I would love to use sunvox on my phone, but i need some help with the interface.

So, do we have any power users who mainly use it on the phone ? Can you share any tips and techniques ?

Thanks.
9912
Posts: 17
Joined: Sat Oct 15, 2016 8:09 pm

Re: Sunvox on a phone.

Post by 9912 »

The only thing i would say, if you used SunVox at least one time in a PC (Windows or any Linux distro) the interface (both look and usage) is the same.
the only thing is different is the way to handle files (if you use linux, then no difference) because Android is a Linux-like system.
Koekepan
Posts: 263
Joined: Thu Dec 05, 2013 4:56 am

Re: Sunvox on a phone.

Post by Koekepan »

Quick tip: obtain one of those fine tip capacitative style styluses. They give you a precise touch, so it's easier to use a small screen.

I know, not cool, but it can make a big difference.
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samrai katt kovboy
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Re: Sunvox on a phone.

Post by samrai katt kovboy »

Yes even a thicker little pen is working pretty good.
Otherwise I have always been surprised that SunVox is working very good on small screens with fingers.
Not as good as Caustic though that is maybe the best laid out workstation for Android when it comes to small screens.
(Am not talking about sounds and capabilities just regarding the interface.)
SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MANY CIRCLES
El Nino
Posts: 299
Joined: Thu Mar 07, 2013 11:54 am

Re: Sunvox on a phone.

Post by El Nino »

i would say that 'move to next / previous track' set of buttons would make life easier for sunvox on small screens.

I totally agree about the stylus...reminds me of the milkytracker on PDA days...because the stylus had such a small pointer area you could have much smaller text...the stylus + dpad combination (HP IPAQ PDA) worked real nice for portable device tracking. (of course milkytracker was a sampler, a fasttracker 2 clone, nowhere near as advanced as sunvox, but it was still sweet with single cycle waveforms, which could be generated inside milkytracker without importing samples...didnt have any filter or other fancy effects though).
phassan
Posts: 9
Joined: Thu Dec 01, 2016 4:56 pm

Re: Sunvox on a phone.

Post by phassan »

Thanks guys, I will definitelly get the stylus and give Sunvox another try with it.
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teamoth
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Re: Sunvox on a phone.

Post by teamoth »

Here are some things you could try to make the interface work better for you:

- Control Type in preferences - you can say whether you are using fingers, or mouse etc. This also changes how it feels to use and in fingers mode it will give you a set of navigation buttons for up/down/left/right etc.

- Play with the scale options in the preferences - it usually defaults to autoscale, which is always too clunky for me.

- Try landscape and portrait so see which works for you better. I tend to mostly stick with portrait mode on my phone. On iOS this works just by revolving the phone, but last time I used Android you had to change the rotation in the settings (not sue if this is still the case?).

- Choose in the preferences whether you want the timeline displayed on the screen at all times, or as a toggle on/off with the module window.

Apologies if these are things you have already tried. The only other thing I can suggest is just play about. Sunvox is my favourite bit of software of all time and I can't recommend it highly enough on any platform. I also prefer to use Sunvox with a physical qwerty keyboard on which I can jam/figure out a melody, but I also use it a lot just on my phone.

You might find that you use it differently on your phone than you do on your computer and that could lead to some new creative angles that you might not have considered before. I think that the touch theremin is a good example of this.

Hope you find what works for you!
phassan
Posts: 9
Joined: Thu Dec 01, 2016 4:56 pm

Re: Sunvox on a phone.

Post by phassan »

Thank you teamoth for your effort. Great suggestions. Portrait mode is interesting, the only problem is that the virtual keyboard is quite small but I will give it a try.
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queries
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Re: Sunvox on a phone.

Post by queries »

Try dragging the left edge of the virtual keyboard up and down to resize it.
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The Handle
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Joined: Wed Sep 07, 2011 5:11 am

Re: Sunvox on a phone.

Post by The Handle »

Yeah the interface takes some getting used to on mobile, but SunVox is still very potent on those platforms. I now use the mobile version to get ideas started, then flesh them out on pc. If you're not aware, there's an export option ("Wi-Fi export/import") that allows you to download the project files to your pc.
El Nino
Posts: 299
Joined: Thu Mar 07, 2013 11:54 am

Re: Sunvox on a phone.

Post by El Nino »

Maybe gamepad or small gamepad-like keyboard editing would work out nice for those tiny screens (like iphone 5).

I always thought the physical d-pad / arrow keys can speed things up a bit for small devices
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