App: JAX MIDI ModulePlayer
Developer: Jens Guell
Genres: Musik, Unterhaltung

Important: Currently a 7 days intro price (of ca. 50%) is active, for early adopters. After this we will focus on stable prices.

There is a manual at: https://midi.digitster.com/JAX%20MIDI/JAX%20MIDI%20ModulePlayer.pdf
And a demonstration video at: https://youtu.be/DKwRxcfgy8s

JAX MIDI Module & Player can be used as a GM/GS (General MIDI) compatible multitimbre synthesizer for playing live or as a file player. It is usabale as a sound module for external MIDI signals and as audio unit for usage in any host application, which supports Apples AUv3 format.

With JAX MIDI Module & Player you can load available standard MIDI files and just play them back. It has inbuilt a fullly featured GM/GS synthesizer with over 370 different instruments and drum sets, which is also playable in realtime on 16 MIDI channels simultaneously.

The module works like the classic external hardware modules of the late 90s. If used as an audio unit, the MIDI stream is passed thru, so that other apps (like synthesizers and drum machines) can profit from the file playback. Internal sound generation can muted with the main volume slider.

Important GM MIDI controllers are supported and also displayed for overview. The plaing state of all channels is displayed in realtime.

For JAX MIDI Module & Player, you may create your own MIDI files with notes with any external MIDI editor that can create standard MIDI files format 0 or 1, with controllers and tempo changes and all and then play back thru it with the internal or any external instrumentation.

AudioUnits (AUv3) require a supporting host application to perform. But our app is able to perform as a standallone host for the embedded unit and provide basic Core MIDI functionality for communicating outside the sandbox.

This build is truly 'universal', meaning, the unit is available for:
- MacOS (Catalyst Intel)
- MacOS (Silicon M1)
- iOS (iPhone)
- iPadOS (iPads)

Making AUv3 technology available across all devices (for usage with GarageBand, Logic Pro X, Mainstage 3 on the Mac), is quite a chellenge.
And we have chosen to deliver the releases across all devices instead of asking mutliple times for money.

Our builds come with latest technology support for all Apple devices. We therefore always develop with latest Apple frameworks and compilers. But we try to keep the compatibility at minimum requirements as far as even possible. Especially the latest M1 and cross platform optimizations forced us to drop all the legacy device support (below iOS 14). This is also true for all our older apps, which will be updated step by step to reflect the latest technologies.

Release notes:
urgent update 2.5 (build 1196)

fixed:
- background transparency issue solved (the unit was particularly invisible if the system background color was switched to light appearance), this applied to all platforms
- CPU hit problems on some iOS devices reduced (obviously the high graphics update rate produced unwanted CPU hit)
- no longer loading a random file at startup (auto jukebox function removed)
- the loaded file now will reload and loop after finishing until stopped
- removed some not required extra effect processors from the main app
- added the GM/GS program list to the manual

unresolved:
- there was a strange crashing issue on the macOS 12.5 reported, which occured after the audio unit was loaded with another host. this could not be reconstructed nor solved yet.

roadmap:

 - we want to extend the factory set of MIDI Collection files
 - we want to bring back the unique contrast feature, which most of our apps have
 - we want to implemet alternative sound banks for the synthesizer
 - we want to implement MCC (media control center) remote control on all platforms
 - we want to bring back the jukebox function with as an option