Icebreaker Audio

BitRate Design Sketches

Icebreaker Audio — Thu, 23 May 2013 11:14:54 +0000

Last week we released the PSD file of the final BitRate interface. This week we are releasing some of the initial design sketches, as well as a Pinterest board filled with reference material that was used for inspiration.

This will give you a little glimpse of the early stages of the instrument design, which should be interesting to compare against the final product.

1st step: Reference material

At this stage of a project it is important to communicate visual ideas, and references are an easy way of doing this. Fortunately the designer for this project, Max Mondon, already had an interest in the retro style that was needed for a product like BitRate.

Some interesting references include:

» Check out all of the references on Pinterest.

Max also brought to the project his own references from modern projects, including:

» The Last Rocket

» Juggle

» Pix’n Love Rush

Since completing the product, I’ve learnt of an excellent blog I wish had existed when the project began:

» NES Title Screens

Check it out if you’re feeling nostalgic.

2nd step: Sketches

The first design step was to sketch out ideas, both for the general layout and for the design concept.

Below are the sketches of an unused LCD Screen design:

» Check out all of the sketches on Tumblr.

3rd step: Design

After the sketch phase, the design concept was set. Iterations after this point had only minor differences from what became the final product.

Below is an early stage of the lower screen. As you can see, the overall style and the mixer controls barely changed from this design to the final product.

Unfortunately, the little dude didn’t make the cut.

BitRate Interface PSD Download

Icebreaker Audio — Fri, 17 May 2013 11:28:42 +0000

Max Mondon, the designer behind BitRate, has provided a PSD file to illustrate how the interface was created.

Download from Dribbble

The file is provided under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License.

This is a great opportunity to have insight into the method of an experienced and talented GUI designer.

BitRate Review

Icebreaker Audio — Mon, 13 May 2013 13:21:46 +0000

Peter Dines has re-published a review of BitRate by Sendy on reaktortips.com

“If you have an interest in chip music and have Reaktor, just get this now.”

» Read the full review here.

BitRate was given a score of 9/10 with some very positive comments.

The review also included 2 tracks made with BitRate:

New website, new prices, new beginnings…

Icebreaker Audio — Wed, 01 May 2013 12:53:35 +0000

Icebreaker Audio is undergoing a few changes.

Welcome to the new website.

A re-design has been on my mind for some time, and with the current downsizing of Icebreaker Audio, now was as good a time as any to update.

Product Bundles.

New bundles and price offers are being introduced for all of our commercial products. The new bundles are:

Everything Bundle = all products.
Reaktor Bundle = all Reaktor based products.

These new bundles offer savings of up to 25%.
The Toybreaker Bundle is still available at the same price as before.

» Bundles are available on the Products page.

Price Updates.

The prices of the Reaktor based products, BitRate and GRID, have dropped.

GRID is now available for £15
BitRate is available for £20