New App Lets You Play Piano on the MacBook Pro's Touch Bar

[djcerla]

Poor Macrumors community.

Once a insightful group, now a bunch of blind haters.

Of course a piano mini keyboard is *super* useful if you happen to be a musician on the road. Many times I wished I had something similar, instead of the cramped Logic keyboard. Is that so difficult to understand? God.

 

[triton100]

Seems like one of those useless geewhiz type of things you can do. Its kind of cool to see on a youtube video, but its actual practical usage is absent.

If anything this kind of reinforces the gimicky feeling of the touch bar for me.

Everyone criticising the usefulness of the touch bar and toy like gimmickary of this application are failing to realise that the app developer was just toying around and experimenting. It doesn't lessen the value of the touch bar.

There are thousands of apps in the App Store that are 'useless' yet noone says that therefore means the iPhone must be a subpar product.

And actually this touchbar application is EXTREMELY useful for any dance production mobile musician. If you're out and about and don't have your midi keyboard with you and need to input some basic melodic notes or beats, if this syncs up with Logic Pro, Cubase or pro tools etc this could be an awesome input tool.

People should not be so quick to judge everything based on their own limited views and needs. Everybody's work flows are different. There is not one universal gold standard.

 

[ChrisMoBro]

Well now it totally deserves the 'pro' moniker...

 

[theluggage]

Seems like one of those useless geewhiz type of things you can do.

Well, nobody is going to "perform" on it, but if you're working in a music app and need to enter musical notes it could be better than using a querty keyboard or clicking on an on-screen keyboard with a mouse. Of course, a "pro" musician will probably already have a proper full-sized music keyboard...

I don't have any hate for the touch bar - its a nice idea (as long as the default 'function key' mode works) - the problem is that Apple have spun it as a differentiating feature for the high-end MacBook Pros, and its just not that valuable.

Wake me up when the touch bar has Minecraft support (and is available on a full-sized external keyboard with number pad).

Here's a better idea, Apple: keep working on tight iOS/Mac OS integration and maybe some new frameworks that encourage developers to use iOS devices as custom controllers for Mac OS apps. I'm not going to buy a $3000 MBP just to get the touch bar, so you won't be losing anything if you offer me a touchbar+ app for my iPad.

Or: replace the whole MBP trackpad with a force-touch iOS device, which would have tons more space for custom controls.

 

[galrito]

So your defense is to end your statement with stupid statements? This example shows how stupid the bar is. It was not created to be useful but more as a joke. Not sure if Apple is paying you or just too much coolaid.

So if you give a fart app as an example, it only shows that an iPhone isn't useful. Is that what you're saying?

 

[Sharewaredemon]

Honestly to have this open while arranging in finale to quickly check intervals or pitches rather than having GarageBand open on my phone would be pretty handy.

Yup. This is 100% something that can be useful in more than one application for people interested in music production of all levels.

 

[nt5672]

Jesus, you people take everything way too seriously. Nobody is expecting a musician to write the next great piano sonata on the touch bar. It's just a goofy thing you can do. Can we not make every minor, silly app an excuse to claim the touch bar is a stupid gimmick and actually judge it on the improvements it's meant to offer now and/or with future app updates?

I think you hit the nail directly on the head. The MacBook Pro with TouchBar is in fact a toy to be used for goofy things that teenagers and twenty somethings use to amuse themselves and that is how it should be evaluated. The iPhone works great for all those fart apps. Both of which describe Apple's user base and Apple certainly wants to make that user base happy. Us professionals that rely on more, not so much.

 

[DEMinSoCAL]

Poor Macrumors community.

Once a insightful group, now a bunch of blind haters.

Of course a piano mini keyboard is *super* useful if you happen to be a musician on the road. Many times I wished I had something similar, instead of the cramped Logic keyboard. Is that so difficult to understand? God.

Sympathy not needed for the community. They are still insightful. They clearly see that they have been abandoned by the once innovative Apple Computer who now spends its time creating less useful products in the name of thinness and eeking out every extra minute of battery life, and pushing to the curb eager consumers wanting updated products they once counted on Apple for. They are hardly blind.

 

[Ghost31]

Doesn't matter. This is PC master race people.

They hate the TouchBar because they know no matter what, they are not going to get it in their PCs running Windows 7

I like the new MacBook, but I wouldn't fool myself into believing windows users who have full on touch screens are jealous of the touch bar

 

[blackcrayon]

Jesus, you people take everything way too seriously. Nobody is expecting a musician to write the next great piano sonata on the touch bar. It's just a goofy thing you can do. Can we not make every minor, silly app an excuse to claim the touch bar is a stupid gimmick and actually judge it on the improvements it's meant to offer now and/or with future app updates?

Yep. You just knew the comments would be filled with posts from what must be some of the most joyless people in the universe.

 

[ralphdaily]

Steinway, watch out!

 

[rhoydotp]

Must start from somewhere. Its a future but first u have to try it. Thats what tb is

This a bit of a reach for a lot of people here to understand. It has that old familiar smell of film vs digital camera conversation. Oh, that digital camera is a gimmick, resolution is too low ... it's a toy! Well ...

 

[flat five]

So if you give a fart app as an example, it only shows that an iPhone isn't useful. Is that what you're saying?

the one for the iPhone that i remember was pouring milk/beer from the phone..

i saw that and realized how useless the iPhone was.. been using my rotary phone ever since.
[doublepost=1481383420][/doublepost]

Sorry could not resist...the irony

yep, they're both doing the same exact thing.
or are they?

(hint-no)

 

[JosephAW]

Don't you think they should have recorded a video of someone who could actually play? Would help the marketing of this app.

 

[ColdShadow]

Touch bar was a bad idea,unnecessary.
If I were to buy a new MBP and both touchbar and non touch bar models were same price Id probably still choose the non touch bar.I don't like gimmicks.

 

[lunarworks]

I really don't get all the hatred and misery that's crept into MacRumors the past few years.

But, that seems to be the trend for the web in general these days. The loudest, most miserable people dominate the conversation.

Anyway, if Steve Jobs had put the Touch Bar on the MacBook Pro 10 years ago, people here would have been all starry-eyed, imagining all the possibilities. Now it's just a bunch of uninformed "stupid emoji bar" comments over and over and over and over.

 

[cableguy84]

Pathetic "feature".

 

[newyorkone]

This is not worthy of being mentioned during small talk at a company Holiday party, much less as a "news" story here. SMH...

 

[DEMinSoCAL]

I really don't get all the hatred and misery that's crept into MacRumors the past few years.

If you've been following MacRumors for the past few years and you can't understand why people here are unhappy, I guess there is just no explanation that would help you understand.

 

[leroypants]

Doesn't matter. This is PC master race people.

They hate the TouchBar because they know no matter what, they are not going to get it in their PCs running Windows 7

As an Apple fanboy cultist whose love and devotion to Apple is stronger than my love for family and friends, well I don't actually have any friends, I couldn't agree with your more.

 

[RowellE]

No app will convince me that the touch bar was a good idea.

 

[DEMinSoCAL]

As an Apple fanboy cultist whose love and devotion to Apple is stronger than my love for family and friends, well I don't actually have any friends, I couldn't agree with your more.

You're delusional if you think Windows users want the ridiculous TouchBar. While I don't consider myself part of the "PC Master race" as I own and use both Windows and Mac computers, I can say that I am happy my portable Windows machines come complete with all the ports I need, plenty of battery life, and thin and light enough to be portable. I've never thought once that my XPS 13 is heavy or wish it had only USB-C connections and some sort of touchbar on the keyboard.

 

[coolfactor]

I can't understand why Apple made the touch bar so narrow.

Because it's only meant for buttons and sliders?
[doublepost=1481391675][/doublepost]

No app will convince me that the touch bar was a good idea.

You're delusional if you think Windows users want the ridiculous TouchBar. ...

One year from now, the Touch Bar will become mainstream across Mac and PC machines. Mark my words.
[doublepost=1481391908][/doublepost]

This a bit of a reach for a lot of people here to understand. It has that old familiar smell of film vs digital camera conversation. Oh, that digital camera is a gimmick, resolution is too low ... it's a toy! Well ...

Exactly. This is Touch Bar 1.0, and Apple has done a fantastic job with its design and integration. Just like the Trackpad evolved over time, so will the Touch Bar. Your example of digital cameras is perfect. Until the tech matches people's needs and expectations, they will always spew short-sighted complaints.

 

[jamesnajera]

When will Apple release an iPad app for the desktop computer?

 

[ocnitsa]

Because it's only meant for buttons and sliders?
[doublepost=1481391675][/doublepost]



One year from now, the Touch Bar will become mainstream across Mac and PC machines. Mark my words.
[doublepost=1481391908][/doublepost]

Exactly. This is Touch Bar 1.0, and Apple has done a fantastic job with its design and integration. Just like the Trackpad evolved over time, so will the Touch Bar. Your example of digital cameras is perfect. Until the tech matches people's needs and expectations, they will always spew short-sighted complaints.

If anything, PC manufacturers update hardware more often and more beefier than Apple. If Apple keeps a touchbar for a year and the PC companies think to emulate it, they'd go with a whole keyboard solution...like the ones with OLED keys or e-ink keys. Apple takes it extremely slow in order to maintain a standard rate of obsolescence and the ability to constantly crank out "upgrades" for their lines which really lag behind PC models where hardware performance reigns. Don't get me wrong, I use a mid 2012 MBP, an iPad Air 2, an iPhone 6S, and the airport extreme router...I don't hate everything Apple...I just understand how they go about things.