Three new AstroCantus soundsets are available in iTunes today, including Dulcimer, Strings (double bass, viola, cello, and violin) playing a Lydian scale, and Mellotron Flutes (think Strawberry Fields Forever.) We’ve found the dulcimer Frets and Chords to be amazing! Mellotron Flutes are truly spacey. The strings are simply majestic. Enjoy!
Dean
The app’s been out for over a month now. We are on every continent except Antarctica. The reviews have been great. Users are in love with AstroCantus and we are hearing about new uses daily. Then along comes one review saying “It’s boring, it’s not music. It just plays notes.” O.K., I realize that nothing can be a one-size-fits-all. You can’t please everyone all the time and I expected some negative reviews, but do you really understand what this app does? It doesn’t play disco. I suppose if you listen long enough and the settings are right, you may hear a few notes reminiscent of a popular song. A trillion monkeys typing randomly will eventually produce a line from Shakespeare.
That is not what our app is about. Nature contains patterns, both structured and random. We are handing you the tool to find beautiful, intricate, never-heard-before patterns. This is art. In-fact, we believe it moves the joining of science and art to a whole new level. It will open eternally-locked (and internally-locked) doors of creative expression. It will connect those who aren’t aware of the sky above them (really all of us) and those who’ve never had the ability to see it visually, a way to experience the greater universe. It is a new way to teach astronomy. It is a method for songwriters, poets, and dreamers to find their muse.
If all you want is to hear the Rolling Stones, Fleet Foxes or Lady Gaga, download Spotify. AstroCantus is probably not for you, but if you are a poet, a dreamer, a lover of life, science and art…start the download.
Dean
As a songwriter, Beth Nielsen Chapman is one of Nashville’s treasures. As a person, she is treasure to the world. I met Beth several years back at a Dyer Observatory Bluebird on the Mountain concert. From the very first moment I was struck by her voice and presence. Her singing voice has an pure quality that penetrates the soul. Don’t take my word for it, just listen to “Sand and Water” or “How We Love.” Perhaps her music is finely (should I say spiritually?) tuned to the soul’s range, because of her incredible story. There are plenty of places you can read about her so I won’t go into detail in this post. http://www.bethnielsenchapman.com/
About the BNC soundset, Beth was one of the first persons to hear the proof-of-concept recording of the stars. We had just recorded the Pleiades star cluster, assigning piano notes on a pentatonic scale to star magnitudes. Upon hearing she remarked “I could write all sorts of melodies from that!”
From the beginning we’ve wanted human vocal soundsets. Who else could we ask to be the first? It had to be Beth.
Her soundest will be added as an in-app purchase in December for .99 (along with several other free sound sets.)
We can’t wait for you to hear Beth, an angel on Earth, singing from the stars in AstroCantus. And I hope you get to know Beth, her story and her music. Your life will be much richer. I know mine has been.
Dean
AstroCantus in Times Square! Yes it’s real!
Four new soundsets and our 2 initial soundsets have been reworked and is found in iTunes. The updated version should be ready before November 1. Here is what you can expect:
1. The “Da Os Alma” Soundset (Portuguese for Of The Soul) based on a scale used in the song of the same title. I’ll have to admit it is a bit spooky, perfect for Halloween music! The scale is C, C#, D#, E, F#, G#, A, A#, B. You can hear a sample of the song here -http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/da-os-alma-29-of-the-52-feat./id439703056
2. “White Keys Only” and just as the title implies, stellar magnitudes are arranged across 8 octaves of the white keys, highest notes are the dimmest stars
3. “Black Keys Only” same as above but black piano notes only
4. The standard piano that came with our first release has been named “Griffin Pentatonic” for our friend, remarkable singer/songwriting Nathan Griffin, who made the note selection (C, D, F, G, A)
5. The chimes magnitude correlations have been remapped to provide more diverse melody.
We’ve had the update in our hands for a couple hours now and we’ve heard some jaw-dropping beautiful pieces! This is going to be the songwriters secret weapon.
Dean
Well we’d just released 1.0.2 earlier this week and no sooner had it hit the app store than we realized it had a nasty line of code causing lip-biting crashes (at least for me.)
After barking about it in emails, code doctor, Jesse Bunch, diagnosed the errant line and submitted V1.0.3 this morning. iTunes tells us it’s in the review process. Hopefully it’ll be moved along and available by tomorrow, 10-19-11. Approvals are taking a bit longer this week. We suspect it is a result of app revisions submitted for 4s, but those lofty speculations are above my pay grade.
Dean
