19 Feb 2009 - Bassist in Top 100 Paid Apps list
Bassist has broken into the Top 100 Paid Apps lists in the UK, Japan, and Germany. MooCowMusic currently has five applications in the UK Top 100 Music App charts. There are now an estimated 20,000 applications in the App Store.
18 Feb 2009 - Pianist gets a facelift
Pianist received an extreme makeover in a free update submitted to Apple today. The user-interface has been redesigned to allow quick access to both the Recorder (to remove unwanted notes) and Setup screens, the metronome tempo can now be set by tapping in time to an external rhythm, and the application logo has been updated.
13 Feb 2009 - Happy Birthday Pianist
Today, Pianist is one year old. In celebration, we have put together a page showing just a few of the changes that this critically acclaimed app has undergone over the last twelve months here.
6 Feb 2009 - Bassist leaps into the charts
After being on sale for only three days, Bassist is at Number 6 in the UK Music App charts and Number 11 in the US charts. MooCowMusic currently has three applications in the Top 20 Music Apps.
6 Feb 2009 - MacFormat list Band in Top 20 fun things to do with an iPhone
The March issue of MacFormat has a large article entitled '20 things you never knew you could use your iPhone for', featuring Band:-
Turn your iPhone into a... Band with Band
This was one of the apps that was demoed on-stage to show the power of the iPhone Software Development Kit, and it remains a great show-off app for the iPhone ... useful for singer-songwriters on the move, by giving them a pad that they can jam with to try out some ideas or get some new inspiration for new melodies ... it's great fun and is, as we say, a great app to have to show off your iPhone.
This was one of the apps that was demoed on-stage to show the power of the iPhone Software Development Kit, and it remains a great show-off app for the iPhone ... useful for singer-songwriters on the move, by giving them a pad that they can jam with to try out some ideas or get some new inspiration for new melodies ... it's great fun and is, as we say, a great app to have to show off your iPhone.
2 Feb 2009 - Bassist released in the App Store
MooCowMusic today announced the availabilty of their new application 'Bassist' - a bass guitar simulator for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Bassist allows you to play in both slap and pluck styles on a four or five string bass, and can even be virtually 'restrung' for left-handed playing. The application design echoes both the versatility of Guitarist with two unique interfaces for playing the guitar, and the simplicity of Organist with all the settings grouped together on one intuative and yet visually appealing screen. Bassist can be used as a musical notepad while away from your guitar, or played as a live instrument. Bring some 'bottom end' to your iPhone band.
26 Jan 2009 - Pianist listed in Mail On Sunday top iPhone apps
The Mail On Sunday today held a full page image of an iPhone showing their choice of the 16 best available applications, with accompanying text:-
The full article can be found online here.
Appy hour: what makes Apple's iPhones and iPod Touches so desirable
It’s not just the design that makes Apple’s iPhones and iPod Touches so desirable - it’s the addictive applications (or Apps) that turn them into games consoles, synthesisers, guitars and, er, a fishing rod. With 15,000 directly on sale from iTunes, our man reviews his favourites.
...
Pianist
Virtual 88-key piano (£2.39) for practising your chords or tinkling along with any of the songs in your iPhone’s music library.
...
It’s not just the design that makes Apple’s iPhones and iPod Touches so desirable - it’s the addictive applications (or Apps) that turn them into games consoles, synthesisers, guitars and, er, a fishing rod. With 15,000 directly on sale from iTunes, our man reviews his favourites.
...
Pianist
Virtual 88-key piano (£2.39) for practising your chords or tinkling along with any of the songs in your iPhone’s music library.
...
The full article can be found online here.
16 Jan 2009 - Pianist icon displayed on www.apple.com frontpage
Apple announced today that there are now more than 15,000 applications in the App Store (with over 500 million downloads in the first six months).
In order to celebrate, the main page at www.apple.com shows an iPhone with 45 app icons exploding out from it, and one of those apps is our very own Pianist!
A previous Apple newspaper advert last December celebrating 10,000 iPhone apps had shown both Band and Pianist icons prominently displayed.
In order to celebrate, the main page at www.apple.com shows an iPhone with 45 app icons exploding out from it, and one of those apps is our very own Pianist!
A previous Apple newspaper advert last December celebrating 10,000 iPhone apps had shown both Band and Pianist icons prominently displayed.
12 Jan 2009 - Organist 'Featured' in iTunes
Organist is one of six apps being 'Featured' in the App Store this week, with its organ pipe splash tile prominently displayed at the top of the App Store page in iTunes.
MooCowMusic now has a nice grouping in the US Music App Charts (with most of the higher placed competing applications being priced in the bargain-basement 99c range) :-
16 - Guitarist
17 - Organist
19 - Pianist
21 - Band
There are now an estimated 15,000 applications in the App Store.
MooCowMusic now has a nice grouping in the US Music App Charts (with most of the higher placed competing applications being priced in the bargain-basement 99c range) :-
16 - Guitarist
17 - Organist
19 - Pianist
21 - Band
There are now an estimated 15,000 applications in the App Store.
31 Dec 2008 - Pianist and Organist updates for the New Year
Both Pianist and Organist received updates today, available for free to our customers. Pianist received the innovative 'zooming dual keyboard' interface recently seen in Organist, allowing up to four octaves to be reached in one screen. Organist received a number of interface tweaks such as the ability to hold down chords while scrolling the keyboard, and the option to change the graphical style of the keyboard from a church organ to an electric organ.
12 Dec 2008 - Organist released in the App Store
MooCowMusic today announced the availabilty of their new application 'Organist'. Organist brings the power of the organ to the iPhone and iPodTouch, allowing users to play one of four types of church and Hammond organ sounds. Building on the extremely intuitive interface of their first application 'Pianist' (which originally appeared on the iPhone over ten months ago and has been updated and improved ever since), Organist showcases the next generation of iPhone musical keyboard interfaces. The organ keys can easily be zoomed in or out to display between one and two octaves horizontally on screen at once, and a second keyboard can be added above the first (a technique pioneered in MooCowMusic:Band) to allow up to four whole octaves to be reached from the one screen. The keys themselves are incredibly realistic: portrayed in 3D and casting shadows as you would expect, and press down at the touch.
02 Dec 2008 - All MooCowMusic apps present in Top Apps 2008 list
Apple has released lists by category of the top applications in the App Store for 2008. In the 'Paid Music' category, MooCowMusic holds three of the Top 10 positions, and also holds three of the Top 100 Paid Applications positions-
Top Paid Music Applications for 2008
PocketGuitar
Drum Kit
Ocarina
Pianist
Band
Tuner Internet Radio
Beat Maker
Guitar Toolkit
Harmonica
Guitarist
PocketGuitar
Drum Kit
Ocarina
Pianist
Band
Tuner Internet Radio
Beat Maker
Guitar Toolkit
Harmonica
Guitarist
30 Nov 2008 - iPhone Book lists Band as top application
'The Independent Guide To The iPhone 3G' by Dennis Publishing Ltd lists Band as one of only two pay apps in its 'pick of the best software available from the App Store'.
Today it was announced that there are over 10,000 applications in the App Store.
Outside of the games offerings, UK developer MooCowMusic has brought perhaps the most tactile and attractive of all iPhone applications to date.
...(review continues)...
...(review continues)...
Today it was announced that there are over 10,000 applications in the App Store.
25 Oct 2008 - Huge update for Guitarist
A free update for Guitarist brings a multitude of new features to the application. Individual strings can be dragged in real-time to pitch-bend. A Wah-Wah effect and a Whammy-Bar can be played using the iPhone accelerometer. Both of these can be recorded into a song and saved for posterity. And finally the number of displayed frets can be modified to show anywhere between 3 and 10 frets onscreen at once.
16 Oct 2008 - Guitarist climbs the charts
Guitarist has done extremely well in the charts, reaching as high as number 14 in the US Top 100 charts, and the resulting publicity also pulled Pianist and Band back into the US Top 100 at positions 44 and 34 respectively (out of about 4500 applications).
16 Sept 2008 - MooCowMusic apps feature high in UK Sales Chart
The Top Paid Apps list for the UK today shows the following entries:-
66 - Band
70 - Guitarist
73 - Pianist
Not bad with over 3000 competitor applications, and considering that Band and Pianist have now been on sale for over two months!
66 - Band
70 - Guitarist
73 - Pianist
Not bad with over 3000 competitor applications, and considering that Band and Pianist have now been on sale for over two months!
13 Sept 2008 - Guitarist released in the App Store
With the original version of Guitarist released back in March, there have been a huge number of requests for an official App Store version. Guitarist is by far the most ambitious application yet developed by MooCowMusic, and is amongst the top iPhone apps for functionality, style, and ease of use. The Guitarist page has more details on this amazing application.
10 Sept 2008 - MooCowMusic shows consistent presence in Top Downloads
Although there is no definitive way of rating App Store apps (since sales figures are confidential), a common measuring stick is to study the USA Top Paid Apps list. During the two months that the App Store has been open, either Band or Pianist has been consistently in the Top 100 Paid Apps list. Pianist in particular was a slow starter, not having had the exposure of Band, but quickly entered the chart and two months later is still at number 88. Bearing in mind that there are currently over 3000 applications in the App Store, then this is a startling achievement. Also, only 17 applications are more popular than Pianist that cost the same or more, with the remaining apps being mostly 99c 'stocking fillers' that are always popular.
9 Sept 2008 - Band featured in Apple guided tour video
Band is one of the apps showcased in a new guided tour of the new iPod Touch video that was released on the Apple site today here. Both Band and Pianist have also featured in minor ways in many current Apple TV adverts that show the use of the App Store.
19 July 2008 - Ars Technica review Band
Ars Technica published a very impressively technical review of Band today.
Read the rest of the article here.
...All in all, Band is a pretty impressive application for the technology it runs on. The application is a lot of fun to use and can be handy for jotting down some musical ideas on the road. While it does have flaws, there are few applications available for the iPhone so far that don't. It is easy to forget that you are using a mobile device when using Band, but when you come back to reality, it's hard not to be amazed at what has been accomplished.
Read the rest of the article here.
10 July 2008 - Band and Pianist released on the App Store
With the opening of the iPhone App Store, both Band and Pianist are now available for purchase. The press coverage and WWDC exposure have given Band an impressive start, reaching number 2 in the UK Top Paid Apps list, and number 6 in the US list. Band was also given the important accolade of becoming a featured app with it's very own 'iTunes tile'.
10 July 2008 - USA TODAY article on MooCowMusic
USA TODAY is running an article all about MooCowMusic to coincide with the launch of the App Store.
Read the rest of the article here.
Everyone wants to get in on the new Apple App Store. Facebook, AOL, MySpace, Pandora, Sega and Mark Terry are just some of the concerns which have created applications for the iPhone and iPod Touch.
Wait a minute -- Mark who?
Terry is a 36-year-old British programmer whose Band application was the hit of a recent Apple developer’s conference.
...(article continues)...
Wait a minute -- Mark who?
Terry is a 36-year-old British programmer whose Band application was the hit of a recent Apple developer’s conference.
...(article continues)...
Read the rest of the article here.
1 July 2008 - New versions of Band and Pianist ready to ship
New versions of Band and Pianist have been completed and uploaded to the iPhone App Store.
Band has been completely rewritten to improve latency and polyphony (instead of being able to play 7 notes at once you can now play 40!), and also now has the ability to save and load songs to the device.
Pianist includes all the great recording functionality of Band, and expands the keyboard from four octaves to the full 88 keys - all individually sampled from a real piano. In addition there are soft and sustain pedals, and for the first time the ability to add expression to your playing by pressing different parts of the keys.
For more information on both applications, please see the Product pages in this site. Band and Pianist will be available when the App Store is opened to the public later this month.
Band has been completely rewritten to improve latency and polyphony (instead of being able to play 7 notes at once you can now play 40!), and also now has the ability to save and load songs to the device.
Pianist includes all the great recording functionality of Band, and expands the keyboard from four octaves to the full 88 keys - all individually sampled from a real piano. In addition there are soft and sustain pedals, and for the first time the ability to add expression to your playing by pressing different parts of the keys.
For more information on both applications, please see the Product pages in this site. Band and Pianist will be available when the App Store is opened to the public later this month.
9 June 2008 - Band included in Steve Jobs' WWDC Keynote Speech
A live demonstration of Band was included within Steve Jobs' WWDC Keynote speech today. MooCowMusic was featured together with nine other companies showcasing the most exciting applications being developed with the iPhone SDK. During the demonstration, Band was used to play a couple of easily recognisable tunes (John Lennon's Imagine, and Pink Floyd's Money), as well as a rousing blues number. The performance received huge applause, and Band instantly became one of the most reported third-party apps of the conference.
20 May 2008 - MooCowMusic accepted onto the iPhone Developer Program
MooCowMusic has finally been accepted by Apple onto the Developer Program, after applying back in March. Work has immediately started on porting Band and Pianist to the iPhone SDK, with the other apps to follow at a later date. One side-effect of this change is that we can no longer support our previous Jailbreak applications, and so the MooCowMusic community forums have been taken down until the new apps are released on the App Store.
8 May 2008 - Band is released
MooCowMusic today announced their latest music application for the iPhone. Band is a collection of virtual instruments that can be recorded, overdubbed, and mixed together. The instruments include a piano, bass guitar, drums, and an instrument designed to allow you to easily play 12 Bar Blues. The primary goal of Band is to make it possible for anyone, regardless of musical ability, to go beyond just listening to music on their iPhones, to actually creating music themselves from scratch. Following on from Drummer, Band includes the ability to make your own instruments by FTPing the samples and graphics onto your phone. The MooCowMusic community forums have been expanded to include new boards to discuss and promote these 'user instruments'.
1 May 2008 - All three apps each downloaded by a quarter of a million people
Statistics from the repositories hosting MooCowMusic applications (ModMyIfone.com and TouchRepo.com) show that each app has been downloaded over 250k times!
27 Mar 2008 - Pianist updated to include recording
Pianist was updated today to include a couple of new and exciting features. Firstly the keyboard can now be scrolled by individual keys as well as entire octaves. The previous version of Pianist would only allow you to jump between C and G positions on the keyboard, and this change opens up more song possibilities with the app. The second big change is the ability to record and play back tunes. It is now possible to record one piano part, and then to play over the top and duet with yourself!
12 Mar 2008 - Guitarist is released
Today MooCowMusic announced the release of yet another iPhone music application:
Guitarist. This brings a full guitar fretboard to the iPhone, and allows the user to play complex solos via an emulation of the guitar 'hammer-on' technique. Instead of forcing you to fret each note and then strum it, you merely tap the string at a fret to play that note. The fretboard can be scrolled up and down, and a number of other features are available such as left-handed stringing, and various tunings such as Dropped-D or open chords. The official demonstration video plays the opening few bars of the guitar classic: Stairway to Heaven, showing how simple the interface is to use.
3 Mar 2008 - MooCowMusic featured in New York Times article
The New York Times ran an article today about the internet phenomenom that is iBand.
The article can be found here and relevant text follows.
...[iBand] named the software programs it loaded onto its hacked iPhones to make the music (they include PocketGuitar, Moo-Cow-Music Pianist and Moo-Cow-Music Drummer). And the Nintendo DS played an interactive music video game called Electroplankton.
'We have been thinking about forming a band that would only use iPhones as musical instruments for a long time now', Seb wrote. 'Time seemed just right to take the first step when a new piano application came out.'
The Moo-Cow-Music applications were developed by Mark Terry, 35, a Java developer in Southampton, England, who wrote the code simply 'to be creative,' he said.
On Thursday, Apple will reveal its plans for an iPhone software developers’ kit, a road map outlining how third-party developers can create officially sanctioned applications. Mr. Terry is considering rewriting his programs to fit within those guidelines.
'We have been thinking about forming a band that would only use iPhones as musical instruments for a long time now', Seb wrote. 'Time seemed just right to take the first step when a new piano application came out.'
The Moo-Cow-Music applications were developed by Mark Terry, 35, a Java developer in Southampton, England, who wrote the code simply 'to be creative,' he said.
On Thursday, Apple will reveal its plans for an iPhone software developers’ kit, a road map outlining how third-party developers can create officially sanctioned applications. Mr. Terry is considering rewriting his programs to fit within those guidelines.
1 Mar 2008 - Drummer is released
Today MooCowMusic released Drummer - a drum pad for the iPhone. Drummer contains a number of drum kits (rock, jazz, electro, dance) each with 15 drum samples that can be triggered by drum pads. Making full use of the iPhone multi-touch, up to five drums can be triggered at once, and the lightning fast latency made it an instant hit. A key aspect to Drummer is its extendibility via 'User Kits'. The interface between the application and the drum samples has been left deliberately open, allowing anyone to upload their own samples via FTP and incorporate them into the app. This also makes it possible for people to share drum kits with the community, and MooCowMusic has set up a special forum to facilitate this.
20 Feb 2008 - Pianist downloaded 200,000 times!
Reports from the Installer.app repository hosting Pianist (ModMyIFone.com) indicated today that the application had been downloaded and installed 200,000 times.
17 Feb 2008 - iBand makes viral video with Pianist
A group of Austrian film-makers who dub themselves 'iBand' made a YouTube video using Pianist and a couple of other apps. See them in action here.
[Edit: As of July 2008, this video has been watched an amazing 3.2 million times!]
[Edit: As of July 2008, this video has been watched an amazing 3.2 million times!]
13 Feb 2008 - MooCowMusic's first iPhone application is released
MooCowMusic today announced their first application for the iPhone. Pianist is a virtual piano for the iPhone that allows you to play complex chords, and navigate around a four octave piano. Within hours of release, a number of YouTube videos had appeared from people using Pianist to play their favourite contemporary piano tunes.
[Edit: The official YouTube demonstration video for Pianist was watched over 700,000 times until it was retired to make way for the App Store update]
[Edit: The official YouTube demonstration video for Pianist was watched over 700,000 times until it was retired to make way for the App Store update]