Meteaure Studios has announced the release of an update to its music-making app for Android. Version 1.1 of Polaris comes with a new real-time audio recorder and global swing control. Tracks can now be triggered manually by clicking on the selected track number, and the update comes with multiple bug fixes and usability improvements.
Real-time audio recorder
Export your patterns as audio files thanks to the new built-in audio recorder. From small loops to complete tracks, resulting files can then be used in any audio software, such as another app from your phone, your favorite DAW on your computer or even be imported back into Polaris. Audio is recorded in real-time, which means you can turn knobs, modify steps or even load a completely new project while it’s on, and all of that will be part of the recording. It’s always capturing perfectly cut loops so they are ready to be used without any editing needed.
The audio recorder can be accessed from the project menu, by clicking on “audio rec” and then starting the recording by clicking on the red circle on the top right of the screen. Recordings can last up to 5 minutes and are exported as wav files.
Swing
Bring life into your sequences with the highly requested swing slider. Deviating from the 50% default value will shift notes along the grid, and hence infuse groove and character into your pattern. Inspired by jazz music, this feature is commonly used in house music or hip-hop to humanize otherwise linear and robotic rhythms produced by sequencers.
The swing slider is located in the tempo menu, accessed by clicking on the bpm value at the top of the screen. It goes from 50% (no swing) to 75% (full swing).
Manual Trig
While tweaking sounds, it’s sometimes useful to be able to have a preview of how it sounds, without adding steps on the sequencer to do so. Thanks to the new manual trig feature, you can now hear the sound of the active track in any view within the “sequence” or “design” pages. It can also be used to play notes in real-time to bring subtle, on-the-spot variations to your patterns.
Clicking on the active track from the track selector (at the bottom of the screen) will trigger the current track instantly.
Bug fixes and improvements
Like any update should, this one ships with multiple bug fixes and usability improvements. These changes are subtle so you might not even notice most of them, but they contribute to the overall experience of making music easily using Polaris.
Polaris for Android is available to purchase for 3.99 EUR at the Google Play store.
More information: Meteaure Studios
