Full 88-key piano keyboard that reacts to your touch (visually too)

Feb 19, 2008 15:32 GMT  ·  By

No wonder Apple is keen on letting programmers run loose on its iPhone! All this web, audio, video, and gaming potential in one nicely crafted device... It's overwhelming, I tell you. Today, we're here to talk about the latest and coolest iPhone app: the iAno. Spanish iPhone users, don't freak out! A patch is on its way for you from Mister Aardvark to fix the offensive meaning of the app's name in your language.

So, here's how it works. You need a jailbroken phone for starters (since it's the only way to run third party applications on it). Installing the app is as easy as adding the "ModMyiFone.com" repository to your Installer, clicking on the Installer icon and going through a few more steps from there.

Before you know it, you'll have animated piano keys reacting to your touch - "full 88 key piano keyboard with each key individually sampled in stereo from a grand piano," as Mister Aardvark himself informs.

The sound engine will be modified, in order to give a local volume setting, and potentially deaden the sound on key-up, allowing for note playback with varying lengths of sustain, according to the resourceful developer.

You'll be able to switch through other Instruments too, particularly other piano types, such as "honky tonk". However, if you want non-piano sounds, your task is a bit more difficult as they are going to be part of a separate app, according to the iAno developer. So, here's the full breakdown:

- A complete four octave keyboard; - Multi-touch. Up to 5 keys can be pressed at once allowing complex chords; - Sounds like a real piano with realistic piano multi-samples; - Animated piano keys react to your touch; - Play along to all your MP3s; - On-screen keyboard navigation allows you to easily move up and down by octaves or "part octaves" (i.e. left-most key is a C or an F).

As far as the Spanish patch for iAno is concerned.... well, I'll just let Mr. Aardvark do the talking from here: "I've had a lot of emails from Spanish people saying that "Ano" is a rude word in Spanish. The funny thing is that I didn't know this when I wrote the app and yet these people think nothing of emailing me with a word that they know is rude in my language. :) Anyhow, I'm going to produce a patch for iAno that will replace the title page and the application title text with something a little less offensive."

The developer also claims that nice performances (by you) will be linked to his website. A drum pad application called "iThm," that allows drum samples to be triggered in real time, is also on its way from Mr. Aardvark, so stay tuned.

Be advised that hacking/jailbreaking your iPhone phone is bad! Softpedia doesn't encourage it.

Via idealo.co.uk.