What happened
Dirtywave released M8 Music Tracker for iPhone and iPad on September 9, priced at $29.99 and requiring iOS 15 or later. It carries the eight-track tracker, sequencer and synthesizer of the company's handheld M8, with the same five instrument types—Wavsynth, Macrosynth, FMSynth, Hypersynth and Sampler—and up to 128 instruments per song.
Songs and bundles are fully compatible with the hardware and can be moved between devices. Three quick fixes followed within days, then version 1.1.0 added an AUv3 plugin with multi-channel and multi-instance support, plus Ableton Link for tempo sync. The M8 Tracker Model:02 hardware costs $699.
The interesting bit
Boutique hardware makers usually protect the box. Dirtywave has done the opposite, putting the same engine in front of anyone with a phone at a small fraction of the price—and made the app a way into the hardware rather than a substitute for it, since a song started on the bus opens on the handheld.
Trackers are one of the oldest ways to write music on a computer: rows of notes and commands scrolling downward, typed rather than played. As an AUv3 plugin, that workflow can now sit inside other iOS music apps as well as on its own.