Tapku

Back in May, I was pondering an iPhone app that was outside the box. Something no one else had done. A mixer application for the iPhone. Soon after, I created a mockup of the application which is the main reason why I’m writing this article. So I can share this mockup. I wanted the interface to be simple with just a pitch and volume control for each track.  I was skeptical all along that an application with such abilities as mixing music could exist on the iPhone and output the audio that way I would have hoped. Here are some reasons why the application couldn’t be:

Why it wouldn’t work

If you know anything about DJing, you’d want to create two channels of audio. One channel to go to the DJ’s headphones and another to go to the speakers. Well, the iPhone in theory is perfect for this because the 30-pin dock connector could relay one signal, and the headphone jack could relay another. In reality, only one signal can come out of the device.

The second red flag was the iPhone’s ability to play certain file formats. MP3, AAC and Apple Loseless can’t be played simultanouesly.  The audio formats that can be played back togther are formats like Linear PCM or AMR. Don’t worry, I’ve never heard of these file formats either. The documentation fails doesn’t mention anything about WAV or AIFF in this section. I figured if you couldn’t play your iTunes library, there would be little point to application.

Since I’ve research this topic, Apple has unveiled the iPhone 3GS which is a big speed increase compared to the 3G. The documentation from what I can tell doesn’t state any changes now that the faster iPhone is out. Oh well, there is always the Tablet Mac…. (don’t steal my UI). Those sliders took forever to make!