Tool Much Fun 7
The world is big. I found some of these items while still trying to prepare for the previous post. And now there’s even more in the pipeline for the next edition.
Fonts
These retro-looking fonts look pretty well-crafted to me, even if they're not genuinely vintage fonts.
Video
CRT Noise analog visual glitch pack
This creator makes visual effects by using real CRT monitors, then capturing that with modern digital cameras.
iOS
Minimalistic todo app that supports tags.
What Apple could have made easier
Yam stands for Yet Another Monitor. Use the iPad as a second monitor with your desktop machine. The logo is sadly not of a yam.
A lot of todo apps don't have much to differentiate them these days
Combo iPhone and Mac menubar app to jot things down so you can ignore them later. Free tier, but low cost to go to the Pro version. Compare with Clear.
Lists, Todos, Ideas, tasks, events capture. Free. Clean-looking interface that supports customisation for the colors. Not sure if it supports dark mode.
Lists, todos and so on. Supports tags and dependencies which seems useful, as it will hide unnecessary tasks until the parent job is done, to reduce mental clutter. Looks like developers still have some ideas for things that aren't covered by Apple stock stuff. Sorry stock-lovers. Currently in beta.
“Memorable Moments with Friends.” Create a Collection, add notes, photos, websites, maps and other items, then share it with friends. Or collaborators perhaps? Do they need to be my friends? I assume they'll need to install this app as well. Currently Free.
They presumably put AI in the subtitle to get more hits in searches, but this is not exclusively AI based — you can just write things yourself. Supports images, checklists, tables and code snippets and nesting of notes. Reminds me of my first organiser MORE.
Pro version hooks into presumably ChatGPT, but this isn’t specified in the app notes.
Capture and create a 3D model of spaces. For interior design, remodelling, architects, or other indoor research projects. Works on iPhones or iPads that support LIDAR. Not to be confused with the original and underrated Canvas which has become a CAD program of sorts, and is now called CanvasXDraw. Check out the home page for a really badly done promo pic with a low-res screenshot Photoshopped into a stock photo.
Music
OK looks like we need to make a subdivision for iOS music apps, which may or may not have a free macOS build, I’ll leave that to you to discover.
iOS music
Perhaps inspired in name only by the Moog Taurus, this effect app/AUv3 plugin is a harmonizer that allows up to 5 layers.
Signal doubler, controllable with MIDI. I posted about his other app Bleep back in TMF N°4. There is certainly a possibility that this is your first post and from this one you’ll find his other apps.
Bass amp sim from a company that specializes in heavy music. Looks like this isn’t new, but I hadn't heard of it before. It is coming soon for iOS.
Latest version of a 70s style synth
Does what it says on the label — but be warned, it does not support hosting any AUv3 plugins. Presumably it’s to keep the memory usage under control and keep loading times fast. To compensate for the lack of expandability they have included some onboard effects such as a compressor.
I like OSC audio’s other stuff but I have two real kalimbas and the demo just doesn’t quite sound the same as mine. Very good price and it does include some onboard effects for concentience. Available for iOS, Mac and Windows.
In case you missed it
Hammond simulator just got updated.
Non-portable music
The Crow Hill Co Noctural Gestures
A combination of brass and woodwinds. I hope they let you install the samples on your external drive.
Free “mangler”. They also make DistorK, SimpleSynth, QwikRef, Disburser and sample packs.
Explore your dreams
Appears to be a rompler based plugin that comes with 100 sounds. I’ll admit that some of these are difficult to achieve with other stuff like say Sampletank or synth emulations, and the interface is a lot simpler than, say, VPS Avenger. I found it amusing that the demo clips have pulsing animated waveforms because no playback engine ever does that. Extra sound packs are available.
Another website where you can morph vocals into different voices. Before you get all antsy about AI stealing singer's jobs, I believe these models are made from real singers who get paid, and can be used to make demos for real singers to sing (then never get paid).
Retro, 8-bit Synth with some basic effects like bitcrushing included. I think I'll grab this one as I don't use 8-bit sounds very often, but they might be a nice thing to add in to a song with other things going on.
Music infographics for the graphically inclined
“This tool allows you to hear different fundamentals with their first 11 overtones […]. It also offers a rough visual simulation of a vibrating string”. Part of a suite of 36 visually attractive interactive music theory learning tools and charts.
Looks to be a gate specifically designed for cymbals, which are the most bleedy thing I suppose.
There are folks on the internet that says all EQs are the same, even some say all compressors are the same. But unless there is some deep visual placebo effect happening, I don’t seem to get the same results from these tools.
Another pricy synth. Well they seem pricy to me, because I don’t buy hardware ones. I’m sure it sounds great but I’ve got tons of synths now. Check it out if you’re just leaving the world of stock plugins.
New player in the DAW space. Includes some onboard effects. Free lite version and subscription option. Waning- it’s not a downloadable- it’s in the browser. Signup is required to try the free version and the other thing I would like to complain to you about is that the first thing they do is drop you into a demo track.
I’m certainly not thinking this is new, but I don’t see it mentioned often so I have popped it in here to keep it on the list of auto tuners.
A free clone of Sonnox Inflator, which in case you haven’t heard of it is a kind of saturator/maximizer that can make anything louder in a pleasing way.
An intelligent saturator that can also be used as a clipper or maximizer.
They must have paid big bucks to get such a generic domain name. This is a DAW but in the browser and it has an impressively long list of effects and drum machines. The FAQ says you can sell songs you make in here, as long as that is OK with anyone you used samples by. It seems to be free because I can’t see anything about pricing or cost.
A DAW and modular synth combo based on interconnectable modules called Nodes. It appears to be an online and downloadable program but the download is in alpha.
There is a pro version with the usual extra features but that suffers from being a subscription based thing.
Productivity
This one is a little tricky to wrap your head around. “Treechat is a real-time, threaded chat app that lets you branch a new thread from any message. Use branch threads to write replies, elaborate with examples, or annotate with research, then branch them again”
You can also invite a ChatGPT 4 instance to answer questions.
I just watched the demo and it’s interesting, but I think what has let them down is it is only a side-scrolling version of Tweetdeck where new chats just create Threads to the side.
To date I have only seen one implementation of a Twitter client that understood or depicted its multidimensional nature as a 3D tree structure. I can’t recall its name though.
The “ultimate hub for organizing, searching, and utilizing saved information with powerful tools like a search engine, writing assistant, and canvas”. Unfortunately for both them and myself, they seem to only support Google logins at this stage, and I can’t condone that.
Shareable notes or journaling. Subscription based.
A “digital daily planner that helps you feel calm and stay focused.” Aren’t all apps digital? Autocorrects to “Sunday”.
Save things you find for later app. Might be handy for you to use to pluck out the things of interest in this very blog!
A “perfect replacement for your browser's bookmark manager.” That is a pretty low bar considering the lack of features in most browsers. Subscription based, but then again so is Raindrop. They also make Seamless for sending stuff to your Mac.
Mac Apps
“Send links from your iOS & visionOS devices to your Mac”. Yes you can do this with Airdrop, but it removes a couple of steps, plus it queues all your links until you’re ready to open them on the destination device, so that does differentiate it from AirDrop, which has to be done live between the two devices. He also makes
Pick a browser… almost any browser
Which is a free open-link-in-whatever-browser utility that appears to be more powerful than my current pick Choosy. He lists all the features missing from Choosy. A lot of other utilities on his site.
Samples
Samples from retro/vintage albums.
Spectre Digital Metal Essentials vol 2
Drum grooves for MetalCore, Djent, Thrash & NuMetal. Although I used to listen to heavy music years ago, I haven’t written any for years so it’s no surprise I haven’t heard of volume one.
They also make Element Bass, a bass amp sim that includes a compressor and limiter.
A community style page that includes a shop for plugins and sample packs and beats. Extensive catalog of free items, many of which have been around for a while but there are a few that are new to me and I might include in this very post! https://soundsspace.com/products-by-type/free-products
Includes cassette, vintage drums & melodies plus vocal chain presets for Abelton Live or Logic, and presets for the oddly named and pricey TAL-U-NO-LX.
At least 30 genres depending on how granularly you divide them. Including retrowave drums.
Mixture of Ambient, boombap, percussion, jazz, Rhodes and more.
Kontakt
This would be a welcome addition to my library, but I’d only just bought the one by Loops de la Creme, so this will be on hold until I use that one in at least one song!
Percussion and Ukelele. The two staples of Hawaiian music.
Other
“Share files to nearby devices. Free, open-source, cross-platform”. Non-locally send this to Android users who still expect the iPhone to support over-the-wire file transfer when Apple has been dissuading that method for years now.
A continuous file synchronization program. It synchronizes files between multiple devices securely.
Productivity focused webmail client for checking multiple provider’s accounts in one place.
“Design, generate, animate, and more —without switching between apps.” This is a modern looking graphics site built on a tech I didn’t know about called WebGPU. There is some AI available too but it’s not clear which one and therefore where the training data comes from. Contact them if that’s important to you.
VIdeo DJ software. This isn’t new but you might be getting into video stuff.
Promo & Social Media
Except the window doesn't lean back like that.
Landing pages and tracked links to your other internet properties. Free tier offered.
Landing page for link-in-bio. Includes analytics. No free tier.
Fully featured social media manager. No free tier. Makes sbee.link URLs. Just acquired by WebPros, who I've never heard of.
Shows who’s in your circle of Threads followers. I remember when there were apps in Facebook and then Twitter for this.
Development (and Graphics)
UI Kit for a todo list app. Really the UI8 should have its own entery as it has a lot of resources such as illustrations and more fonts.
Make things like this but with moving parts
Developer-designer animation tool, particularly suitable for interfaces often seen in games or sci-fi movies.
Free sci-fi themed user interface pack
Inspiration
I’m officially half Australian and here they might say “inspo”. They don’t really though.
eCommerce & Community
I wasn’t going to make this a separate ection, but the following are more than social media sites. Will I see more of these between now and the next post? Who knows.
Customer focused messaging system that plugs in to Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, SMS and email.
Go beyond the usual web shopping cart. Accept payments, Manage course content, Run affiliate programs, Subscriptions, coupon Codes, Analytics and more.
Sell courses, coaching and webinars.
Compare with Teachable which includes a free tier.
For creating an “ecommerce storefront”. Which to me means a website that can securely take your money. Supports Apple Pay, PayPal, Klarna and Afterpay.
Create a community that includes threaded chats, private & public spaces, courses, live events plus integration with a stack of other common web tools. This thing looks like it has loads of features, and would be powerful enough to pull some groups out of Facebook if it had a free tier. I think that’s what the problem is — no one wants ads, but they don’t want to pay for anything either.
Unix
These were suggested to me as a replacement for the reverse-I-search in bash or zsh, when I complained it didn’t always work properly for me.
Fuzzy Finder (fzf)
Named after a character that reversed the direction of time for himself momentarily! Directory aware therefore contextually aware.
atuin
“Magical” shell history. Atuin “replaces your existing shell history with a SQLite database, and records additional context for your commands.”
This distro was recommended for aging Macbooks. That is, MacBooks that have aged, not to age them earlier than they already do at 1 sec/sec
Language
I’m not really on the hunt for language learning stuff, but I did find this one and people seem to enjoy it, so I’ll just post ‘em when I find ‘em.
9 popular languages for the price of one.