I find it hard to get excited about fullscreen Flash apps anymore.
It's basically just windows software boxed up and dropped into a browser, except without the ability to right click anything. There's no boundary pushing, since you can do pretty much anything you've always been able to do with desktop software.
They could have done this in the browser though.
HTML5 is far enough along to do this with no problem. But you could have done it in IE6 if you wanted. The key is to use Flash where you need to, but only where you need to. For something like this, that means a little 1x1 pixel dot in the corner that lets you record audio.
In 2010, the fact that they built the whole thing in Flash just seems like laziness.
Trying to hold my tongue because the whole Flash vs HTML 5 thing is so tired on HN, but this comment is just so wrong and borders on outright insulting the developers.
HTML5 is far enough along to do this with no problem
Simply not true. Not close to true. Unless you have a very loose definition of "problem". There are all sorts of problems trying to do this with HTML 5 right now, from the audio generation parts (and no, requiring a patched version of Firefox does not count as "no problem"), to the visualization with canvas (consistent framerates across browsers, no tooling for editing the code, etc), to the drag and drop of audio tracks (you did claim you could do it just as easily in IE6 right?)
In 2010, the fact that they built the whole thing in Flash just seems like laziness.
I simply find this comment baffling and asinine. Seriously? An amazingly polished app that pushes the boundaries of in-browser music editing (regardless of your assertion that no Flash app can ever push boundaries, which in itself is a ridiculous claim). And you call them lazy because they didn't do it in a way that is simply infeasible today? Too much HTML 5 kool-aid my friend.
This isn't a proof of concept demo built in a weekend. This is an app with serious time and effort invested in it. I'm just tired of all these "this is trivial in HTML 5" comments that are so dismissive. It's not being done in HTML 5 by anyone. Not even close (and yes, I've seen the Firefox audio demos). If it was trivial to do in HTML then someone would be doing it, but they're not. They will be eventually, I'll give you that, once the technology can handle it. But calling developers lazy for not wanting to inflict pain on themselves while wrangling with immature technology is just silly.
The only thing I see here that can't be done in dhtml is recording. Everything else has prior art in a browser without resorting to flash.
So, as I said above, use a hidden Flash component to handle the recording (and the timing if you can't make it work with intervals), but do the display and manipulation in the browser itself.
It's not particularly hard. I've personally done most of it on past projects. With a bright team, it's really not any more effort than doing it in Flash.
Try not to read what I said above as a knock against the product. It's pretty cool. But because it's written in Flash, it's no more technically spectacular than the dozens of Windows and Mac versions of the same thing, so it probably doesn't need to be posted here.
In other words, Flash has advanced to the point where it's no longer newsworthy that you can build things with it.
Agree. My girlfriend, who sings, just bought herself an iPad and is quickly finding her old HP laptop unbearable in comparison. Obviously Flash won't work there.
Is there an app like this (with access to a sizeable online clips library) for the iPad?
Also check out - http://www.sonoport.com/ - using AS3.
All of this begs for good audio support in HTML5. Really wish something like the SuperCollider runtime with a Javascript front end can be included in the HTML5 standard. Dreaming on ...
It's basically just windows software boxed up and dropped into a browser, except without the ability to right click anything. There's no boundary pushing, since you can do pretty much anything you've always been able to do with desktop software.
They could have done this in the browser though.
HTML5 is far enough along to do this with no problem. But you could have done it in IE6 if you wanted. The key is to use Flash where you need to, but only where you need to. For something like this, that means a little 1x1 pixel dot in the corner that lets you record audio.
In 2010, the fact that they built the whole thing in Flash just seems like laziness.