Dream Theater’s Jordan Rudess Launches iPad/iPhone App Development Company, Wizdom Music

Dream Theater keyboardist Jordan Rudess has launched Wizdom Music, a virtual musical instrument iPad/iPhone app development company.  Wizdom Music’s first release for the iPad, MorphWiz, a collaboration between Rudess and software developer Kevin Chartier, shot to the #1 spot on iTunes in the USA and other nations within a few days of its June 18th release.  Wizdom Music proudly announces the release of MorphWiz for Apple’s iPhone and iTouch, which is now available on iTunes. 

MorphWiz, the second app to bare Jordan Rudess’ name, was inspired by his experience with the Haken Conitnuum Fingerboard, a radically innovative and revolutionary MIDI instrument that Jordan helped to pioneer on stage and in the studio with Dream Theater.  Like the Continuum, MorphWiz is a vertical grid based musical instrument that allows a whole new level of expressive control with real-time, highly organic, animated visual feedback.  If you’re a beginner, you’ll love experimenting with the intuitive presets, but if you’re a pro musician, you will be immediately blown away by the coolest iPad and iPhone musical instrument that perfectly melds the world of intuitive musical creativity with real-time visual control and response.

Garnering glowing accolades from leading music industry professionals and performers alike, David Earl, Creative Director and sflogicninjawith Pyramind Studios, states, “Jordan’s expertise with synthesis in the context of performance really shines through with this creation… Jordan Rudess, is there any technology that you can’t make sing or scream?”  Jim Dalrymple, founder of LoopInsight.com, states, “Not only is Jordan a creative force in the music industry, he is also one of the leading influencers in adopting technology and meshing the two worlds together,” and legendary keyboardist, Keith Emerson, of Emerson, Lake and Palmer said, “It’s important to note that no Moog synthesizers were harmed in its production.”

MorphWiz has even received congratulatory reviews from leading music and technology educators, such as David Mash, Vice President for Technology and Education Outreach, Berklee College of Music, who called MorphWiz “a 5 Star app,” that is “deep, powerful, sounds great, stable and well thought-out,” and “a very satisfying musical experience!”  In addition, Uri Nieto, Graduate Student, Stanford University’s Center for Computer Research, Music and Acoustics (CCRMA), states, “Jordan, you get an A++ on this one.”

Rudess states, “Our goal was to create an instrument that would allow the seamless morphing of the audio and visual domain while delivering a seamless musical experience.  I believe the iPhone/iPad multitouch platform opens up a whole new world of creation of electronic musical instruments and we’re proud MorphWiz is the first major offering from Wizdom Music.  My experience and involvement with the Haken Continuum and extraordinary Bebot app brought to life an advanced pitch control system that is still uncharted territory for many in today’s musical instrument world.  This is the heart of MorphWiz.”

MorphWiz features over 80 custom Jordan Rudess-created patches and a wealth of other features, including:

• Assign audio waveforms as visual shapes to the grid and morph between them with your fingers on the grid or the accelerometer.
• Advanced pitch control allows the player to round the pitch of the initial attack of any note.  It also recognizes when your finger stops after a slide, and rounds your notes to the nearest diatonic pitch.
• Rounding pitch on initial attack
• Rounding pitch after a slide.
• Independent pitch and synthesis control for up to 10 simultaneous notes.
• Finger Vibrato Effect (FVE) where you can achieve vibrato even when LOCK PITCH is selected and the pitch is snapping to the grid!
• Velocity Controlled Animation (VCA) in sync with your musical performance.
• Complete control over what parameters you see on the screen.
• Adjustable location for performance controls.
• Editing never interrupts the audio and visual output. 
• “Trippy” full-color, animated particles, fire, and ring effects visually radiate under your fingertips and contain real time pitch information. 
• Choose from a wide variety of scales and chords to assign to the playing surface with easy customization.
• Choose to display names of notes or intervals to help guide you.
• Consistent color display for pitch lines which indicate each step of the scale.
• Playing surface is adjustable between 1 and 6 octaves.
• Performance controls include octave shift, pitch lock on/off, record to delay buffer on/off, infinity delay setting on/off, and multi-function “Magic Slider.”
• Unison detuning effect with separate pan control for that classic analog thickness.
• Refined and intuitive Frequency Modulation (FM) synthesis can be assigned to the vertical grid or accelerometer.
• Wave Sync Synthesis (WSS) can also be assigned to the vertical grid or accelerometer.
• Volume separately assignable to vertical grid.
• Adjustable note attack and release time.
• Infinite Track Loop (ITL) recorder features user-selectable measures and beats.
• Record Undo and Redo.
• Reverse play of recorded loops.
• Effects include digital delay, stereo chorus, and tremolo.

For more information, please visit: http://www.morphwiz.com and for MorphWiz Video Tutorials, please visit: http://www.morphwiz.com/tutorial.html

Source: PRThatRocks