The story of Mazetools began in 2011 with the animated experimental short movie “Geometric Poetry” by Stephan Kloss. The following year he did prototype an audiovisual synthesizer called Maze with the intention to incorporate aspects about geometry, cymatics and the phenomenon synesthesia as well as contemporary digital music creation processes. Together with his company they found Ectoplastic Laboratory and the practical application energized the development. Although the team focused on bringing Maze -tools- from a prototype status to an app, accessible for anybody. The release of Mazetools Soniface 1.0 was in May 2017. In this way Mazetools became a brand for experimental cross-platform audiovisual music creation software distributed by Ectoplastic UG.

Getting influenced by visuals while making sound or music may have a positive impact on your process of creation. The basic principle of Soniface is an animated grid. Each line is linked to a sound. As soon as the grid begins to vibrate and deform, sounds are created.

Soniface is the first tool of Mazetools. It is a multi-sensual sound and music creator. Soniface combines the intuitive kind of interaction in games, with the virtuous handling of professional sound tools. Everyone can get on an own path to compose and perform soundscapes, beats, songs and sets. The use is very connected with the moment of creation. The name is related to a metaphysical interpretation of a sonification interface.

Soniface is a versatile multi-media instrument to create soundscapes in a moving geometric sphere, make beat sketches, incorporate sounds to an audio scenery, utilize audiovisual effects by multi-touch. It offers new ways to song concepts, compositions or audiovisual performances. All creations, sets and sessions, can be saved as individual project files. It‘s possible to record the entire sound as an audio file (* .wav).

In Soniface everything is immediately changeable: image, color, rhythm and sound. Beside the audiovisual grid based synthesizer, another drum synthesizer offers the possibility to generate beats with different rhythms and to modulate the sound.
Colors are associated with notes and chords based on a system combining the color wheel and circle of fifths. The soundscape sampler allows microphone recording, the integration of custom audio files and includes nature and everyday sounds.

You can find some basic instructions and hints in our tutorials. Also, you may have a look into the in-app help mode of Soniface.

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, Mac OSX 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: C:\Users\”YOUR ACCOUNT”\AppData\LocalLow\Ectoplastic UG\Mazetools Soniface Lab
• Mac OSX: Show the app content in the finder, when you click on the app by holding command.

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 on another device. All files you did on your mobile can also be played on your desktop.

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 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.