Dave Weckl demonstreert GrooveClix: metronoom-app met feel

video en interview bij OPmaat-artikel in Slagwerkkrant 239

Slagwerkkrant Plus 21-12-2023 21:12

Dit is een extra web-item naar aanleiding van een artikel in Slagwerkkrant 239 (jan-feb 2024). Vanaf vrijdag 22 december in de winkel. Of je kunt deze editie bestellen in onze webshop Muziekmagazines.nl. We sturen Slagwerkkrant op zonder verzendkosten.

Mark schreef in het artikel over GrooveClix onder meer:
"In een wereld waarin veel muziek wordt opgenomen en rechtgetrokken op een computer is het voor drummers steeds belangrijker om te werken aan hun tempogevoel en timing. Een metronoom wordt daarbij sinds jaar en dag aangeraden door de pro’s. Spelen met een metronoom is echter voor velen niet zo boeiend. Met de app GrooveClix wordt dat een heel stuk leuker."

In onderstaande video's demonstreert Dave Weckl, bijgestaan door toetsenist Jay Oliver, de metronoom-app:

Interview Rob Bailey
En dit is het (Engelstalige) interview dat Mark deed met een van de twee makers van de app.

Who came up with the idea for grooveclix?
‘Jay Oliver came up with the idea for GrooveClix. He’s been nurturing the concept for over 8 years. We met quite randomly 3 years ago when he came to visit my bed and breakfast on the little island I live on just outside of Vancouver, BC. We discovered that we had a lot in common with our musical background as studio musicians, and when he found out that I was an iOS-developer, his jaw hit the floor!  So Jay came up with the concept and is responsible for the content, and I did all the coding for the app and the development infrastructure.’

What was the idea behind it? (I could guess this one easily but I like to hear your story)
‘The idea behind it was to simply make the best metronome for musicians, and the key to that was finding a way to impart “feel” within the confines of a click. Jay thought it was a revolutionary idea for a metronome, and our challenge was creating a technology framework that allowed us to bring the idea to life.’

How did you guys manage to get some really nice ‘feel’ in a lot of patterns?
‘The grooves are 100% Jay. He’s an absolute perfectionist, and once we took a year to figure out how to implement grooves on iOS and prove the concept, it took Jay two full years to refine the groove banks that ship with the app.  It’s a decidedly non-trivial process to create each bank.  We had to build a separate Mac app that allows him to assemble all the individual components that go into a GrooveClix bank. There are literally hundreds of little files for each bank. It was quite a hairball to figure out! Dave Weckl and a couple of other drummers were instrumental in the development of the MegaDiddles and Accents Pro banks. Those two banks took a long time to create, but the feedback from drummers around the world has been amazing.’

What are your future plans with the app?
'First, we’re going to take a nap! We had a bit of a struggle out of the starting blocks, as our release coincided withe the release of iOS 17, which came out the same week. We discovered a couple of crash bugs that were illuminated by iOS 17. We got that fixed real fast, and since the release, we’ve become quite stable. The unfortunate reality is that as a two person operation, we can’t test every combination of hardware and operating system version, and early adopters are crucial to showing us if there are any outstanding issues. We’ve been really responsive to all requests for support and deeply appreciate all of the users who have made GrooveClix part of their musical journey.  Next steps for us are creating a Mac version for Silicon Macs, and we’re 90% of the way there already. Also, we’re looking at the possibility of creating an plugin for Pro Tools, Logic, Digital Performer, and so on.'  

Already many users including some of my students ask: when will it be available on other platforms than Apple’s?
‘We’re looking at the possibility of creating a version for Android, but to be frank, the challenge may be insurmountable. The Android operating system for audio is nowhere near as robust as iOS. That, combined with the number of permutations of hardware, raises a truly daunting picture for technical support. Apple’s low-level audio system is truly amazing, and it has the added benefit of working virtually identically for both iOS and Mac OS. The ability to create and manipulate audio streams at a “molecular level” with nanosecond accurate timing is essential in delivering the GrooveClix experience, and based on my experience, Android is simply not up to the task. GrooveClix is not the kind of app that you can write using one of those cross platform frameworks like React. GrooveClix colours outside the lines… :-). Windows could no doubt handle the task, but that would require creating an entirely different code base and parallel development ecosystem, and we simply don’t have the financial resources to be able to do that at this time.’

Lees het volledige OPmaatartikel in Slagwerkkrant 239 (jan-feb 2024). Vanaf vrijdag 22 december in de winkel.  Of bestel ’m bij ons via Muziekmagazines.nl