LoAdKer is a
rhythm generator that uses fractal sequences as a means to
produce complex but musical results. The software was developed
by Ax.ArtCreative Software, a
multifaceted organization founded by Achilleas Sourlas, a
musician and music software developer and is a product of his research
into the use of fractals for music composition. It currently
runs on iPads with iOS 9.2 or above. LoAdKer uses Csound as
its sound engine, a powerful audio programming language which
was developed in the mid-1980s at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology (MIT) by Barry Vercoe.
This software
uses libcsound and libsnd (unmodified), both of
which come under the LGPL v2.1 licence. If you would like to link
the program against a modified version of the above libraries,
contact the developer.
The use of
LoAdKer is pretty straightforward. The program was designed as a
real-time performance tool, therefore most of its functions can be
accomplished within the main view with the exception of functions
that have to do mainly with saving / loading performances as well
as handling audio and synchronization. These can be accessed
through a separate menu.
LoAdKeR uses a total of four instruments: kick, snare, fx1 and fx2.
Every instrument has three views: performance, synth
and sampler.
Instrument view
Performance mode - It contains general performance controls
such as volume, filter cutoff, reverb and delay.
Synth mode - It contains controls that are related to the
synth audio engine. The controls vary for every instrument.
Sampler mode - It contains controls related to the sampler
audio engine.
Every instrument has also an audio engine control, that activates
one of the two of the instrument's audio engines, synth or
sampler.
Instrument audio engine
All four instruments have a slider called order / chaos that controls
the degree of "chaos" regarding the behavior of the instrument.
Values near the left edge produce more repetitive, minimalistic
patterns, whereas near the right edge the results become
increasingly unpredictable.
Kick and HHat have an additional set of playing mode
controls.
Instrument playing mode
The playing mode controlworks as
follows:when free is selected, the instrument behaves as
described above (related to order/chaos slider). Pttn (pattern) however acts
as a sort of "beat with fills" mode, in which the kick for example
plays a four-on-the-floor beat for three bars and on the fourth it
behaves according to the value of the order / chaos slider.Hhat behaves in a
similar way too.
Almost every
visible instrument control can be automated by user-drawn curves,
by tapping first on A and then on the control that the
user wants to automate. This will bring up the drawing pad:
Automation drawing pad
The process is simple: draw, choose between time/beat-based
duration, choose loop on/off and press play. The automation will
start on the next beat.
There is a volume meter that displays peak levels, which can be
reset by tapping it.
LoAdKeR also supports Ableton Link synchronisation, as well as
IAA/Audiobus routing so it can work with any compatible apps.
The user has the option to record the entire performance as an
audio file, which can be later exported through a number of ways.
The format that LoAdKeR currently uses is 44.1 KHz, 16 bit stereo
WAV.
In addition
to the above, LoAdKeR offers to the user the ability to adjust the
audio buffers ( larger buffers
mean a better possibility of glitch - free performance
especially on older devices, but the trade-off is also bigger
latency), as well as the ability to import and
export performance recordings and samples through a number of
different options, including iTunes, Audio Copy/Paste,
Audio Share and Dropbox.
