Making Musical Apps: Real-time audio synthesis on Android and iOS

First, this is a small book. Book text clocks in at 110 pages. I didn't think to look at the page count on Amazon because O'Reilly books tend to be pretty hefty and information packed. It covers the bare essence of integrating libpd into your iOS or Android app and looks like it does a good job of that. One chapter is focused on RjDj which is a 3rd party app that isn't programmable or integratable and uses libpd however not in a way you can see. So after that there is less material.Overall I'm disappointed with my purchase and was looking for a deeper level of reference and information about libpd and PureData in general.

I used this book for music synthesis in Android where libpd is indispensable due to the total lack of built midi support. This was a fantastic inroad to libpd.This book assumes you know some programming, it's true. If you don't know how to instantiate an object, this is probably not the place to start in programming, nor does it pretend to be.If you know some Java, or, better, you've spent some time around the Android API, you are plenty prepared. I came to this book with reasonable knowledge of (non-Android) Java and little more than an Android hello world under my belt. Within a few days I was able to put together an amusing musical app.With a minimal programming background, you can use this book become better at Android and discover the world of digital audio synthesis programming.

The book was pitched at the right level for my knowledge and skills. I have written a couple of native Android apps, and have toyed with Pd in the past. The book clearly explains the context, history and potential of the library, then runs through some very clear examples to get a working app together. The tutorial format for putting together the example app is really clear and painless. Would have given 5 stars if there was another chapter going into further examples in more depth.Highly recommended

This book is an amazing work of technical mastery. If you understand either java or obj-c and pure data, you will be programming an app within hours. Otherwise you'll be spending many hours learning at least two of the aforementioned languages, but once you do this book is all you need to rock musical apps on you're android or iphone.

Making musical apps by Peter Brinkmann provides audio developers with the knowledge to use Pure Data (Pd) to develop an interactive audio engine. The books uses libpd to embedded the widely popular audio engine, Pd, into iOS and Andriod apps. Using Pd in your apps allow you to create more interactive audio and employ the use of synthesis instead of using samples.The book covers all fronts including getting you started with Pd. The tutorial gets you through basic concepts of visual programming in Pd and getting sound but that only scratches the surface of Pd. Users that are new to Pd would need to supplement their learning with another resource. The book later explains the integration of your Pd patch with the app through the use of libpd. However, it is expected that the reader is already capable of programming for iOS or Andriod. I would consider this book a bridge for readers who are already developing for iOS or Andriod and who are able to work with Pd. Nevertheless, for anyone who is interested in using Pd in their apps, this is the book to have.

This book couldn't be more timely: I have started to play with Pd (Pure Data) recently and was wondering whether I could transfer my knowledge of Pd to other environments, such as my Android-powered smartphone. Written by the creator of the fantastic libpd library, this is the definitive introduction. For me it served not only as a guide to Pd on Android but also as a basic tutorial for development in Android (the book also includes a very short primer for Pd for beginners). Before this book I had not created any Android app at all and with the help of the book I found myself compiling and running sample music and sound apps on my Android phone in a few hours. What else can one ask for? More Pd and libpd knowledge would definitely not hurt but it would probably book to at least 300 - 400 pages. Besides, there are excellent and freely available resources for designing sound systems using Pd, and the book provides pointers to them.In other words, if you want to build Pd powered applications using libpd for iPhone, iPad or Android phones and tablets, and are in need of a very quick guide to get you up to speed, then look no further. But also keep in mind that Pd system is a very sophisticated sound processing environment which requires dedication to master all of its aspects and details. Nevertheless, once you interactively design your sound application on the desktop, this book includes the necessary material to port your application to other devices. And for the impatient hackers out there, it also includes detailed explanations of RjDj (iOS) and ScenePlayer (Android) systems which help you run your Pd patches on respective devices without writing a single line of Objective C or Java code.

This book is ok, but it fails a little bit at the main subject. I think the author dedicates too much percentage of the book pages (wich are not much, i see this book more like an article than a book) teaching you very basic things about PD programming. So it fails, because this book is no good to undrstand PD, nor to understand iOS or Android development. Its just like to make you undesrstand the possibilitys. You are better of reading a dedicated PD tutorial and dedicated mobile platform development tools. Only then i see some usefullness to this text.I just dont think you can take this book and start making musical apps from scratch.I believe thechnical books deserve a more dedication from the authors.

Excellent little book. Does what it says on the cover. Intro to PD then shows how to incorporate PD into Android and iPhone.Title may be a little misleading as it concentrates on one method of creating musical apps, but this approach is less demanding than learning Core Audio for IOS and on the Android side opens up possibilities that are not really feasible with older versions of the OS.

This book is a great run though the basics of creating scenes with RjDj through to the basics of running PD patches using libpd with mobile SDKs which was great for me as I'm a novice in both! Very well written and very good examples with practical advice about technology & installation.

This book did exactly what I needed it to do, it got me up and running with libpd and XCode.I think the description is a bit overblown, I don't really remember 'Learning how to create and deploy algorithmic compositions that react to a user's activity and environment"What the book does do is show you how to set up libpd in a project, make the necessary XCode settings, and connect an Pd patch to an iOS interface. The XCode information is pre-5.0, but XCode veterans shouldn't have too much trouble here. There is a basic introduction to Pd, enough for the purposes of the book, and it then points you to some further resources, which is nice.You should have a basic understanding of digital audio and synthesis, the book is not there to teach you that. You should have a sound foundation in Objective-C, although you need suprisingly little code to get some basic sounds happening.After reading this book, I needed to spend another couple of hours reading the Floss manual to get enough foundation to really use Pd.But as I said, this book takes you through the most frustrating part, getting everything set up, compiling and running.For the price of the Kindle version, this book saved me probably a day of searching the net to get this all set up, and left me time for the important stuff of getting my project off the ground.

Pure Data ist ja auch nicht mehr ganz jung und wird ja auch nicht mehr groß weiterentwickelt. Das Buch baut viel auf Pd auf und gibt eine kleine Einführung in Konzepte für Pd mit Android und Pd mit iOS. Aber wir sprechen hier von iOS als Xcode in der Version 4.2 war.. Also schon bisschen alt alles..