This looks interesting for iPad musicians - has anyone tried it?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMknRMPd2KE&sns=em

A very recent update on the video says they are using Steinway samples now.

The really intriguing thing about this is that it is the first iPad app with sample streaming (i.e. the entire sample doesn't have to fit into the iPad's somewhat meager RAM at once). Even though iOS is derived from OS X which supports streaming, no one had come out with an iOS app that did this, so it was not clear that the hardware/software was capable. But here it is! I'm curious about how well it runs on different models. The 3rd and 4th gen iPads have more RAM than any of the others, and the 4th also has a faster processor speed... I wonder whether/how these differences will manifest themselves when running this app (i.e. whether some models have greater polyphony, or run with fewer glitches or increased reliability).

This page http://www.crudebyte.com/mobile/cmp_grand_piano/ lists the polyphony limitations with older devices. If I can get near some wifi to download it in the near future I might give this a try.

Thanks for the link to the polyphony chart. It does seem to vary with how much RAM the units have. There's no spec there for the 4th gen iPad that has a faster processor... I wonder if that might improve latency, for example.

I was curious about how they were able to do a streaming piano, where no previous sample-based apps on the iPad had ever streamed. Based on a post in another forum, it seems that what was required was for Apple to support it at the OS level, it's apparently a recent addition to the functionality provided within the Apple SDK (that is, developers couldn't do it until Apple supported it in the development environment).

This is from the post by Gospel Musicians (Neo Soul Keys), discussing their new EP for iPad:

"we are proud to say that we are one of the first developers to offer Real Sample Streaming using a brand new system in Apple's SDK. It's so new that we had to work with the developers directly.

As a result, we are able to make our sample libraries large with the same sample stream of EXS or even Kontakt. Here are the specs of the new APP:

1. Polyphony is close to 64 and even higher on the iPad 3 or 4
2. Latency right now is 20ms. Not bad, but not super, but remember you loose CPU the lower the latency
3. Velocity layers is 8, instead of 12 with Kontakt

There is a small bug in the first version if you sustain the samples for a long time, say 30 seconds, it will bend out of pitch a little. This is 100% Apple's doing and they hope to fix it in future versions. As we said, this is very, very new and we are one of the only developers working on this.
...
in about 6-months we are guessing all of the bugs will be ironed out and remember iPads are getting more powerful as well!"

Thanks for the link. A bit strange no mention is made of the iPad4 (as pointed out by anotherscott).

Better 32 key polyphony and max 5 ms latency, than 64 and 20ms - which makes the instrument unplayable. But with current speed at which tablets get faster, this will be an issue of the past sooner or later. Imagine a nice MIDI controller, simply connect iPad en play away with the software of your liking. A nice touch screen interface as a bonus - no longer need a Kronos or Physis for that - and very small footprint + ultra portability .

Tablets will be more and more common in a setup in the coming future and perhaps will replace laptops altogether in certain situations. For now - it's still in it's childhood. Like early software instruments on the - at that time - too slow computers.