London, United Kingdom – Air Craft Media Ltd announces a series of mind-blowing videos showcasing the unique power of their AC Sabre MIDI Instrument & Motion Controller for iOS when combined with Moog’s latest iPad synth, the Model 15. The videos demonstrate how AC Sabre enables a sound engine to go well beyond the boundaries of typical keyboards and even more expensive MPE controllers such as ROLI Seaboard. Air Craft further announces that the AC Sabre will go on sale, 60% off to $4.99, until the end of January.
AC Sabre is a revolutionary new music composition app for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch devices that allow electronic music artists and composers to push the boundaries of their craft. The app uses the device’s built-in gyroscope and accelerometer, and translates movements into musical actions allowing performers to control their music intuitively with their movements. Composers can make use of the app to create distinctive hooks that go beyond the normal MIDI keyboard, conduct automation in realtime, and add sophisticated musical elements without the need for long years of theory and training. DJs and performers can play electronic instruments without the need to stay shackled to their gear, adding spontaneity to their live performances. The app makes it easy for artists to infuse their performances with their own signature attitude and style.
Hari Karam Singh, inventor and founder of Air Craft believes the Moog Model 15 is the perfect sound engine to take advantage of AC Sabre’s multi-dimensional expressiveness: “Moog has been pushing the boundaries for decades, creating dedicated per-note, multi-axis, touch controllers for their hardware synths while the rest of the world was still using a single mod wheel. The Model 15, the iPad emulation of their classic module hardware synth, carries on in this tradition. It’s a crime to play the Model 15 with just a typical keyboard! And unfortunately the iPad screen leaves little room for note play. That’s where the AC Sabre comes in.”
This video series demonstrates the power of this magic combination. All the demos show built-in Model 15 presets which are enhanced simply by assigning AC Sabre’s motion controls to the synth’s parameters. There is also a tutorial video on how users can get up and running in just a few minutes.
AC Sabre excels over other Multi-dimensional, Polyphonic, Expression (MPE) controllers such as the ROLI Seaboard and MiMu gloves by providing instant setup and a sophisticated musical palette that doesn’t require traditional instrument skills. Musicians of all levels can be up and performing immediately without the typically long learning curve of traditional instruments. With AC Sabre, notes are triggered via invisible strings that can literally be “plucked” in mid-air, while gestural motions control up to 7 additional parameters via MIDI CC messages. This combination results in a level of nuance and expression not achievable by the current tools of studio and stage.
AC Sabre’s rich musical features include:
* Scale-synced, velocity sensitive note play
* Harmonies, trills, arpeggios
* Gesture-based vibrato
* Polyphonic Aftertouch
* Over 150 musical scales
* Note shift (for playing out-of-scale notes)
* Circle of Fourths/Fifths key changes
* Note range and octave shift
* Legato and Portamento modes
* Note-clamping pitchbend
* A Drone for sustain and guitar tapping-style effects
The app offers powerful expressive control, with six assignable motion controls. Pitch, roll & yaw angels, play intensity, configurable touch ribbons, a configurable user button, as well as vibrato on shake are all available. It’s 150 musical scales include major, minor and pentatonics, jazz modes, exotic scales such as Bebop Dominant, Octonic, Nine-tone scale, arpeggio scales, bassline scales, and a large selection of Indian raag scales.
AC Sabre is honed for professional use:
* Low latency (<10ms), 50m range via Wi-Fi
* QuickPanels allow realtime access to most common parameters
* Save/load/export configuration Patches
* Wi-Fi/Bluetooth support & Bonjour auto-detect
* Supports multiple devices running AC Sabre as separate MIDI inputs into your DAW
* MIDI Learn wizard for quick CC assignment
* MIDI channel selector for playing multiple instruments
“Modern synths have dozens of dimensions of tweakability. It has always frustrated me that there weren’t better methods for taking advantage of this sonic versatility,” continues Hari. “The key here is that the way you play a note, rather than just the note itself, affects the output and this expressiveness becomes part of your signature sound.”
Reviewers Love AC Sabre:
“I had to check AC Sabre out and it immediately lived up to the hype… surreal and instinctive, like Augmented Reality.” – Discchord
“Every now and then an app comes along that you really think is going to change how things work. It doesn’t happen often. But, I think that this is it.” – PalmSounds
“AC Sabre is the only App that allowed me to make music that sounded like I was playing a real instrument within minutes! The expression and feel is sensational and do not underestimate the depth of variations available to the user to get unique and wonderful sounds Makes synthesisers sounds rich, full and at times mind blowing with very little effort!” – App Store reviewer (Australia)
Note: AC Sabre is high performance application that requires at least an iPhone 4s, (iPhone 5 or higher recommended), iPod touch 5th generation or newer, running iOS 8.1 or higher. While playing on the app is especially tailored more for smaller handheld devices like the iPhone, the app works splendidly on the iPad. Windows users will also need a copy of rtpMIDI for connecting AC Sabre to their computer. rtpMIDI is freely available on the Internet.
Device Requirements:
* iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch
* Requires iOS 9.0 or later
* 24.6 MB
Pricing and Availability:
AC Sabre MIDI Instrument & Motion Controller is on sale for only $4.99 (USD) (60% off) until the end of January 2017. It is available worldwide exclusively through the App Store in the Music category. Review copies are available upon request.
AC Sabre MIDI Instrument & Motion Controller
Purchase and Download
YouTube Video (Moog Model 15 & AC Sabre Video Series)
YouTube Video (More Demos)
Instagram Gallery
Air Craft is a London based technology studio which specialises in designing next generation musical instruments that use the motions sensors in mobile devices. These instruments bring the dynamic feel and performance energy associated with traditional, physical instruments into the realm of electronic music. The result is a level of expressiveness that is not possible with the current tools of studio and stage. All Material and Software Copyright (C) 2017 Air Craft Media Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Apple, the Apple logo, iPhone, iPad and iPod are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries.