Mazetools is a brand for experimental cross-platform visual music software distributed by Ectoplastic UG. You can explore Mazetools from several points of view and different skill levels. The software focuses the joy of making electronic music and visuals, the benefit of a creative process.

Don’t matter if you’re a musician or not, there is a relation between what you see and what you hear. It depends also on your mood, how you see and how you hear. Getting influenced by visuals while making music may have positive affect on your creative process.

Soniface is the 1st “Mazetool”. The development was inspired by thoughts about geometry, cymatics, color theory and music therapy. The development startet in 2011 along the work on the short movie „Geometric Peotry“. A first prototype (2013) called „Maze“ has been used by the art collective Ectoplastic Laboratory for visual, installation and audio production experiments. 2016 a first Mazetools Beta came out. In May ’17 Soniface1.0 has been released as mobile app (iOS, Android & Windows Phone), followed by the desktop versions (PC/ Mac) in December ’17. Since March ’18 it is also on Steam. The work on Soniface is still in progress.

There were a few methods to make different sounds or play the visuals. You can find some hints in our tutorials. Also, you may have a look into the in-app help mode.

Before you start Soniface Lab, you need to change the speaker configuration in the sound settings of your computer to 4.0, 5.1 or 7.1. After this, you can start the app and it will run in surround.

When you work in surround, the soundscape sampler will work different, as in stereo (if the Maze is on the left side of the display, it’s fading to the left speaker…). If you’re using surround sound, you can place a sample into the room. That means, if you place the Maze point on your display to the top left, the sample will be played mainly from left front speaker.

If you place a Maze point on the bottom right, the sample will be played mainly from your right rear speaker. In this way you can build arrangements and atmospheres easily in surround sound and combine it with animations, like the circle animation, to let a sample move through the room. If you got a multi channel recording setup, you can record in this way soundscapes in real-time for example for a movie.

The desktop version Soniface Lab provides a native 2nd screen output. After you did plugin your video cable, you have to extend the screen in your display settings. After this, you can start the app and it will use the 2nd video output.

We’re currently working on the implementation of Airplay (iOS), Chromecast (Android) for mobile devices as well as the use of multiple display output for desktop computers.

We decided to make a cross platform release. That’s why we focused on an unified list of functions, that work for all systems. Soniface will contains Midi input for iOS and Steam. Other connectivity features will follow asap.

There is an in-app stereo main mix recording as well as a mic recording function in the Soniface and Soniface Lab. Currently it saves the files to the local app folder.

• Android: disk/Android/data/com.MazeTools.Soniface/files
• iOS: connect your device to iTunes and go to the Mazetools Soniface app folder, since Soniface 1.92 a sharing beta is implemented in iOS
• Windows: (work in progress)
• Mac OSX: (work in progress)

Like the microphone and main mix recordings, all Mazes and Set files will be saved to your local app folder. So, you can just copy the *.mazes and the *.sets files and paste them into another local Mazetools Soniface app folder. That’s how you can copy for example files from your mobile to your desktop computer.

Open the editor interface in Soniface or Soniface Lab and go to the Setup section. Below you will find the >Session< button. Tap on it. Tap on the + button to start a new session. Give your session a name. Further a *.mazes and a *.sets file with that name will be generated and every new composition will be saved to this session.

To get a mazes/set file from one session to another, open your set, go to session (Setup section). Tap on the session of your choice (it will load), go to Sets, save your set into the list. Notice, the work on the file archive is still in progress.

https://www.youtube.com/mazetoolslab

Beside all connectivity issues (IAA, AB, Link, Airplay,…) and improvements, we’re working on new features for Soniface. Currently you can follow us on instagram to get the latest information about the development.