Plan
- What's the SIMPLEST online production tool?
- What needs are people using it for?
- Do Reddit or Quora search on what people are struggling with in each of these
- Make Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
Observations
- Collab seems to be a big draw for online. Makes sense
- Audiotool, Ohm studio,
- Emphasis on community
- Vertically-integrated music production process, all the way to community
- Creators and consumers are the same people
- Audiotool user geographies: https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1Vpp-owbxA-od-sNsu5uVT9f6FSL9ZG1I&ll=45.920063190336315%2C-44.39951330762878&z=3
- Sizing: Soundcloud popular tracks have 5-20mil plays, on Audiotool 30k
Audiotool
Summary
TLDR: Vertically-integrated music production & consumption platform https://www.audiotool.com/track/e899i8h5nf/
- Community is on the margin, maybe 1% of Soundcloud
- Sample stuff form others in the community, compare tracks
- Built off modular tools, big skeuomorph off analog tools
- This is actually pretty tough to understand
- Eg. TR808 drum machine — it's a real thing
- Tries to be as beginner-friendly as possible
- Premade sample loops, way more advanced that what FL Studio has. Maybe Ableton?
- Machiniste (drum loop) doesn't even go past 4 beats — have to toggle windows for that
- Training wheels for analog.
- Is this actually effective? People say you only need a DAW and headphones + midi keyboard — why all this other stuff?
- Understanding how synths, drums —> mixers —> whatever
- Resources are hard to find. These guys aren't large enough to google basic functionality.
- My track: https://www.audiotool.com/app/#/bbos029v
- A direct link
- Playlist, piano roll, note volumes, are the same. Velocity controls, etc. it's all there
- Doesn't appear to have changed much in 3 years. Outdated tutorials appear relevant still
Notes
- Testimonials
- The best tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvIu_R8bmdA&t=155s
- The high notes, as seen on homepage:
- "Audiotool is a collaborative online music production studio right in your browser."
- Live collab — invite friends & make music in real time
- Simple, beautiful visual representation
- Upload samples (your own)
- Connect w/ fans & other artists to get feedback on ur music
- Extensive sample library
- Just a suite of 10-12 tools: https://www.audiotool.com/product
- It's done AS A PHYSICAL PRODUCTION STUDIO
- Far as I can tell, these are tools that exist in
- Why are they listed as hardware objects?
- A "stepping stone" to more advanced software: https://www.reddit.com/r/edmproduction/comments/1v7xju/are_there_any_producers_here_that_use_almost/
- Forums, board, etc.
- Looks like decent traction. Is it all real users?
- Crappy onboarding — first page has a 25min tutorial?
- 4:00 video on first entry into studio
- This actually feels even tougher than FL studio... different strokes, maybe.
Soundtrap
Summary
- Collab & co-editing, but no social. Kinda reminds me of Dropbox web UI
- How does it relate to Spotify though?
- Used for school assignments — what?
- Appears to be a big segment, "Personal use" vs. "Educational use". See comments section of Youtube tutorials
- Audiotool has a segment of folks that do this, but prolly not many
- https://www.soundtrap.com/edu/
- Subreddit is 2x that of Audiotool
- Bought by Spotify in Nov 2017. They're Swedish. Looks like an acquihire
- https://techcrunch.com/2017/11/17/spotify-acquires-online-music-studio-soundtrap/
- 2017: "Soundtrap's portable music studio had a turnover of about $120k last year, according to Di Digital, with schools as the primary customer group."
- How did they sell for $30mil with $120k topline?
- Paid pricing model. Not freemium (free trial w/ cc)
- UI the BEST I've seen
- Selection is limited, but generally solid. Grand piano sounds pretty great.
- Super easy to record with an actual computer keyboard
- Lots of option, but clean UI, not overwhelming, all seems pretty good
- It's a little overdesigned, though
- There's some crazy stuff "AI Generator" can generate a fill for you
- No tutorial necessary! This is probably why they use it for class...
- Two types of creation: Music vs. podcast
