Fugue Machine : MIDI Sequencer

Name: Fugue Machine : MIDI Sequencer
Rating: 4.875 (560 reviews)

Music

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Fugue Machine : MIDI Sequencer

Music

4.9

560 ratings

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Alexander Randon

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User Reviews for Fugue Machine : MIDI Sequencer

Amazing, but outdated

Alckemy here. This little device has become a major staple in mobile sound design and idea crafting inside of Drambo. A multi playhead sequencer is almost like having a “bach” button that creates super inspiring progressions and sequences and is highly usable. I’m its current state it’s already awesome, but I do think some updates are in need as I don’t think the app has been patched… ever? I don’t need much, just the ability to set the playback mode to a hz rate, nudge the notes off grid, and some tweaks to copy/paste as it does not work for me outside standalone. On that note, it’s weird you can’t save or pull up presets while using it in plug-in mode, although it will remember the state if you save the entire rack in either drambo or Aum. I wish this app existed in bitwig or as a plug-in for the computer. It’s mad handy天

.Alucard, Apr 12, 2023

Easily a 6 stars out of 5

This is a brilliant instrument. Yes it’s a sequencer, but I see it more as a instrument and a composing tool.The only wish I have is the ability to see the notes names somewhere. It’s easy to get lost playing it and hit a less than pleasant combo. That would go away in part if we could see the notes names or the chords/scales someplace in the interface.Another wish would be the ability to play patterns manually, as opposed to having to clutter the screen with not just a menu, but a submenu.Having 4 to 8 buttons to assign patterns to would rock. Literally. Even if it means squeezing the interface a bit. Maybe an overlay? I am already doing this using the submenu, but it occluded the screen for any other work.By the way, I have the most fun with it driving my computer midi over WiFi. There is something magical in holding an iPad in your hands and hear sound out of your speakers. Recording the patterns is pretty easy too and the results rival or better dedicated midi arpeggiators. This is simpler and more versatile.Great job.

Conticreative, Oct 21, 2017

Such a good idea

What I love: making things I might not have thought of, guiding it in a way that isn’t arbitrary and doesn’t have to have the blandness that other “inspiration tools” might have. What I want: exporting MIDI files. I like to make things on the phone and then open them in my DAW (which is not Ableton) and it seems like a no-brainer to include this option. Also, more sounds. Not a whole synth necessarily, but some more options. And most importantly: when a playhead is going in reverse it acts like a tape playhead would and triggers the note at its note-off. I would find it more useful musically if I at least had the option of it triggering the note at its note-on position on the timeline when playing in reverse. (When I superimposed a 16th note figure in reverse over a quarter note figure, since the original notes were all 16th in length, the reverse sequence sounded early. Could I get it to do something different by changing note lengths? Yes, but I liked the original notes as they were.

drag2, Apr 17, 2019

Fantastic Composition Tool

Fugue Machine is a fantastic composition tool. It’s also apparently a great live performance tool, according to some videos I’ve seen, but that’s not how I use it. I mostly play with the built-in synth for a while and then use the four MIDI outputs to control other synths, either on my iPad Pro or externally.There are some things I don’t find ideal about the GUI, but it seems that it’s going to stay as it is. My five star rating is in spite of those shortcomings, because what this tool allows me to do is completely unique among all my tools, AND I can operate it with ease (and I have not encountered bugs).Highly recommended for musicians!

dysamoria, Feb 27, 2019

1.5.11 Update greatly improved! 🤓👍

Update: The piano roll works like a dream now. Still nothing on the App Store like Fugue Machine. It’s a lot of fun to play with!——l saw the latest big app update and loaded it. Still checking it out but things seem a lot better now! Thanks to the developer and also for their response! Many developers won’t do that. Plus 2 stars! 🤓👍——Kills creativity with the worst Piano roll editor I’ve ever touched! Terrible! It’s a nightmare! Auuuughhhh!! 🤬 Working with the notes, being physically way too small, and you can’t zoom the piano roll at all, I spend 9/10 of the time ‘fighting’ with the note editor and cleaning up mistakes. Auugh Auugh! It’s an instrument wanna-be. You can’t even position the play head/s! All you can do is start/pause them and start over?! It’s a really cool idea done poorly. Obviously all these 5-Star reviews haven’t really tried using the app because it’s user interface is so restrictive. It’s an exercise in tedium... (Oh, on 1G iPad Pro)

Eriptron, Apr 30, 2019

As amazing as they say...

Perhaps even more so. This is one of the most brilliant pieces of software I have used on any platform. With the recent updates, this app has further blown my mind and become even more fun to use. Improvements to the MIDI - routing of each of the four playheads have also made the app even more user friendly. If you even dabble in ios music making, you need Fugue Machine in your life. If you are a serious iOS music maker you already have this on you iPad and already know the genius of it.Alex - thank you for all the amazing work you've been putting into this app.

Gunther Becker, Apr 07, 2017

Such a unique composing tool

As an amateur pianist coming into composing recently this app is a godsend! Only wishes are: 1) if there’s a way to omit certain parts or notes for different voices while also not cluttering the UI. Now I can do this for two groups of voices by manipulating the velocity values. 2) I think for the knobs it could be easier to use if the typical convention of only relative (up down) movements are used to change the values. It gets tricky sometimes try to turn it to a specific angle. 3) it would be even more awesome if user can put in their custom scales!

levincoolxyz, Jan 27, 2021

Much More Than Meets The Eye!

Hi Alexander. I wanted to personally thank you for your wonderful invention. I have avoided this type of tool until now because I did not realize that something like FM could be used as an improvising instrument. But I got curious when it was recently on sale... and, wow, what an awesome surprise! As I explored the various parameters (some seemingly benign ones like “Start”) I realized I could do much more than just generate some patterns. The control of pitch, tempo, octave, direction, in and out of playheads all engaged me in a progressive, real-time creative experience that I had never had before.The capability of recording the four individual playheads was a tremendous asset in creating finished mixes, allowing me to orchestrate the real time improvisations as true modern classical or ambient finished tracks. As a jazz improvisor breaking the bounds of my own concepts has always been paramount. FM allowed me to do that in a brand new way. So, thank you so much for making FM! BRAVO!!TOTALLY RECOMMEND THIS AMAZING TOOL!

LinearLineman, Aug 31, 2019

Amazing tool - have some requests

This is providing me a lot of wonderful music making during the quarantine lock-down and I am having so much fun sending the note data of the sounds to my synths. My requests for future updates would be for a way to go from pattern A to pattern B in a way that let’s the first pattern complete. So that you you can go from pattern to pattern on your phone without cuts to the flow. It would also be cool if there was a Swing feature available for the rhythm. Lastly it would be cool if you could unlock a single tape-head from the octave changes. Love this app tremendously. I’m trying to use it in a way that I can perform live with a drummer. The human I am quarantined with haha

MarLunk, Mar 03, 2021

Stunning Results with Hardware (updated)

Fugue Machine may very well be the finest, most inspiring music tool on my iPad when it comes to using the iPad to drive external hardware. I haven't used it much to sequence other apps on the iPad, but if you're looking to do something amazing with your outbound hardware synths, this is The One. The latest MIDI implementation is as flexible as you'd want it to be and rock solid (whether it's receiving clock or transmitting it). I'm sending out each track to a variety of MIDI channels, over USB out to a sync box, which passes on MIDI and/or CV/Gate to a 70s analog synth, a modular Eurorack setup, and to a popular keyboard controller. It would take a load of hardware to both handle the sequences and the interfacing, and I'm not really sure anything like this app could be assembled anyway. This is one of the few apps that make me want to buy another iPad, install nothing but Fugue Machine on it, and put it away in a bank vault, "just in case". It's made my collection of 40 years of hardware even more capable of incredible music. 5 stars! (April 3, 2017 Update - Keeps getting better! New system for Pattern Backup and Export works flawlessly... 6 stars!)

mechascorpio, Apr 03, 2017

Description

A music sequencer reimagined with multiple playheads. "How Bach would have made a sequencer." (Create Digital Music) "A musical feat." (Creator's Project) "A new approach to sequencing." (XLR8R) "A next generation music sequencer." (Ask Audio) Fugue Machine is a tool inspired by composition techniques used in Baroque music and Serialism — e.g. Bach’s canons and fugues, and Schoenberg’s twelve-tone technique. The idea was to design a tool to manipulate a melody’s speed, direction, and pitch, as well as play multiple variations of the melody simultaneously.

As it turned out, the best implementation for this was to reimagine one of the most fundamental building blocks of all music sequencers: the piano roll. Fugue Machine is the world’s first multi-playhead piano roll. Create a music sequence and play it back with up to four playheads at once — each at various speeds, directions, pitches, and more. Watch the playheads dance, and hear the complex patterns that emerge. It’s mesmerizing. Fugue Machine supports iPhone, iPad, MIDI, AUv3 MIDI, Ableton Link, Audiobus, Audiobus 3 MIDI, and Inter-App Audio. Thanks to the AUv3 standard, you can run multiple instances of Fugue Machine on the same device when hosted in an AUv3 MIDI host app — like Logic Pro, AUM, and Audiobus.