Guitarist app - not on my iPad. Also, custom tunings

[AndyH]

Hi,

On your page for Guitarist, on the itunes app store website (itunes.apple.com/gb/app/guitarist/id288105363?mt=8) it says it's compatible with "iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.". I bought it from an iPod Touch, and that works, but it doesn't appear on my iPad 3.

Also, if I search the app store from my iPad, it doesn't show up in the results.

I take it this is a cock up, and it in fact doesn't work on the iPad? If so, will you be making a version that does?

I can understand you may have lost interest in developing your older apps further, but personally, those are the sort I'm interested in. I'm not at all inclined to buy something like Looptical. I'm much more interested in apps that are just instruments I can play, as close as possible to the real thing. In particular, I'm interested in apps that help me develop skills I can use in playing real instruments.

I'd be very surprised if I was the only person that felt like that, so I don't really understand your statement that the concept of some of your older apps is now out of date.


I'd like to see the option of custom tunings in Guitarist, like in Fret Tester, where each string can be retuned to almost any note (like an actual guitar). Am I missing something, or does it not support anything other than the standard guitar tuning?

I'm currently interested in learning an all fourths based tuning where the lower tuned four strings are flattened by a semitone (half step) to EbAbDbGbBe.

I understand other people use one where the two highest strings are sharpened instead (i.e. EADGCF). Also "open D" and "drop D" seem to be quite popular. No doubt there are more.

[MooCowMusic]

The "Compatible with .... iPad" text is created by Apple and refers to the fact that an iPhone app can run on an iPad in 2X (expanded) mode. If an app is specifically designed to run on both iPhone and iPad at full resolution then Apple labels it as "Universal", and you will be able to see both iPhone and iPad screenshots. In this case Guitarist is an iPhone app. So you will be able to install it on an iPad and run it in 2X mode. This also means it will not appear in the iPad store, and so if you browse for it on the iPad you won't see it. However the simplest thing to do is to look at your Purchased items in the App Store app and find it there. I don't have any plans to make an iPad (universal) version.

As always, it is not a case of "losing interest" in anything. In an ideal world I'd love to revisit the older apps and add all sorts of features to them. But the (large) amount of time it would require to do that has to be paid for, and those apps simply don't sell enough to do that. You could argue a chicken-egg situation that an older app would receive a new and fantastic lease of life if _only_ x, y, and z were added, but from my experience this sadly is not the case. In fact if I were to rewrite Guitarist at all then I'd want to add in additional effects, multi-track recording, other backing instruments, and then I'm basically back to Looptical. So I'd rather add some additional guitar functionality to Looptical to go with the user-chord strumming instrument that is there currently.

[AndyH]

So, the "Sometimes the entire concept for an app becomes outdated." line on your "other apps" section is just meaningless spin? Why not just be straight with us there, and tell us you're not going to support those any more because you reached market saturation a while ago?

Certainly, if you built some of the functionality of Guitarist into Looptical, and expanded on it that would be good. Personally, I find the idea of a loop editing app a bit of a turn off, but I guess it's a market you haven't yet saturated, so that's what you have to go with.

I had hopes that I'd find useful apps that helped me practise or learn, as a half assed amateur musician of sorts, but I keep coming across the same thing - I find apps that showed promise that was never really realised and now never will be. The "buy before you try" aspect of iOS gets a bit wearing too.

Thanks for the tip on installing Guitarist on my iPad. Yes, that does work. I had to press on "iPad apps" in the corner of the Purchased section, and change it to iPhone apps.

The scale guitar works well full screen on the iPad. Enlarging the fretboard in both directions for the hammer on or manual fretting isn't so good though, and of course, it's still limited to the same number of frets. More would be good, if you add those features to Looptical. The option to put it near the edge of the screen on an iPad might be popular too, so it could be played with more of the feel of a guitar neck.

[MooCowMusic]

I agree from a consumer perspective that it would be great if an app I bought six years ago (Guitarist was written in 2008) continued to be modified and updated so that every month I'd receive a free update for my original 5 bucks (back then, but 99c now) investment. However the commercial reality of the situation is that if the natural lifetime of an app has reached the point that it is selling only a handful a day (providing the author with 70% of 99c for each sale) then that is unfortunately not going to cover the costs of maintaining that app. Having written one of the original two iPhone guitar apps (the other being Pocket Guitar) that pre-existed the AppStore and iOS development in general, I have some understanding of the ebb and flow of touchscreen guitar fretboard apps, and I can see that the whole genre has been on a decline for some years.

All of which means that I'd love to spend a year making a huge and free update to Guitarist with multiple effects, an iPad mode, tunings, backing tracks and so on. But my experience in the market tells me that in doing so I will very likely not cover my costs in additional sales.

And that brings a further problem with what to do with the app. If I actually just removed it from the AppStore then no one would ever be able to get updates so a future iOS change might break it forever. Keeping it there at minimal cost gives me the opportunity to update it in the future. And even though the app is 6 years old, I think it is still valid as a 99c app, even if just to keep linking to this music video that a customer sent me. .

So there is not really a way for old apps to gracefully be put to rest in the App Store. As a consumer I always take note of the creation date of an app and when and how often it has been updated, if I am buying it specifically to "invest" in the prospect of future free updates, and not because it already performs the functions that I require.

[AndyH]

FWIW, Mark, I didn't buy your app six years ago. I didn't even own an iPad until a couple of months ago.

All I have to go on when buying an app is what the description says, and the few reviews that Apple allow to be visible on the app page. I then have to pay for it to find out whether I actually have a use for it, with no hope of ever getting a refund, under any circumstances. That's Apple's business model. It soon gets a bit wearing.