Monday, October 13, 2003
A Virtual Music Studio in Your Pocket: Griff v1.0 Reviewed
Posted by Tim Allen in "SOFTWARE" @ 09:00 AM
There are currently two hot topics in the world of electronic music. One is the rise of software over hardware, and the other is the drive towards portable studios. The convergence of these trends means it is now possible to setup a complete virtual studio on a laptop, fully stocked with all the software you need to create music virtually anywhere you happen to be. Griff takes this to the next level, attempting to pack a complete studio into a Pocket PC, for those times when even a laptop is just too much to carry around. Read on to find out if it succeeds.
Griff, from UK-based Cobwebb Communications, is a full-blown virtual music studio for the Pocket PC, complete with sequencer, sampler, mixer, instruments and effects. I looked at version 1.5.4.8.
The 30 Second Test
Press 'Play' immediately after starting Griff and, er, nothing happens: no pre-loaded demo, no default tones, nothing. No indication of how to get sound out of it. And a quick scoot round the screens randomly pressing buttons and tweaking controls fails to result in anything other than silence. Deep breath. Count to ten. Realise that this is the mark of a serious music tool and some time might be needed to get to know it.
Fortunately, there's an excellent manual and tutorial available on the Web site which takes you step-by-step through the basics of creating your first tune - and believe me this is a must-read if you're going to get anywhere.
Figure 1: The built-in help also has a quick-start guide.
So whilst the learning curve is on the steep side of things, it's no worse than the average desktop sequencer, and to be fair it doesn't take long to get the hang of it. In fact you usually find that the most powerful user interfaces are initially hard to get to grips with, and those designed more for beginners tend to get in the way once you know what you're doing.
Song Structure
Griff employs a hierarchical song structure. At the highest level there is the 'song' itself, which is composed of one or more 'sections'. Each section is in turn composed of one or more 'patterns', and each pattern contains the actual notes that the instrument assigned to the pattern will play.
Figure 2: The Song editor, showing the sections at the top and various song parameters underneath.
Figure 3: The Section editor, showing the patterns and the tracks (instruments) they're assigned to.
Figure 4: The Pattern editor, showing the actual notes to be played. Darker notes are louder.
This may sound confusing, as if there is one too many levels, but it does make the most of the limited screen space by breaking up the complete song into manageable chunks, and makes it simple to drill-down into the specific area of the song you're interested in. It's also very easy to navigate between the various screens in Griff: either via the Views menu, by tapping the square soft-buttons which appear on most screens, or by double-tapping the particular section or pattern to be edited.
Griff, from UK-based Cobwebb Communications, is a full-blown virtual music studio for the Pocket PC, complete with sequencer, sampler, mixer, instruments and effects. I looked at version 1.5.4.8.
The 30 Second Test
Press 'Play' immediately after starting Griff and, er, nothing happens: no pre-loaded demo, no default tones, nothing. No indication of how to get sound out of it. And a quick scoot round the screens randomly pressing buttons and tweaking controls fails to result in anything other than silence. Deep breath. Count to ten. Realise that this is the mark of a serious music tool and some time might be needed to get to know it.
Fortunately, there's an excellent manual and tutorial available on the Web site which takes you step-by-step through the basics of creating your first tune - and believe me this is a must-read if you're going to get anywhere.
Figure 1: The built-in help also has a quick-start guide.
So whilst the learning curve is on the steep side of things, it's no worse than the average desktop sequencer, and to be fair it doesn't take long to get the hang of it. In fact you usually find that the most powerful user interfaces are initially hard to get to grips with, and those designed more for beginners tend to get in the way once you know what you're doing.
Song Structure
Griff employs a hierarchical song structure. At the highest level there is the 'song' itself, which is composed of one or more 'sections'. Each section is in turn composed of one or more 'patterns', and each pattern contains the actual notes that the instrument assigned to the pattern will play.
Figure 2: The Song editor, showing the sections at the top and various song parameters underneath.
Figure 3: The Section editor, showing the patterns and the tracks (instruments) they're assigned to.
Figure 4: The Pattern editor, showing the actual notes to be played. Darker notes are louder.
This may sound confusing, as if there is one too many levels, but it does make the most of the limited screen space by breaking up the complete song into manageable chunks, and makes it simple to drill-down into the specific area of the song you're interested in. It's also very easy to navigate between the various screens in Griff: either via the Views menu, by tapping the square soft-buttons which appear on most screens, or by double-tapping the particular section or pattern to be edited.
