Yousician
Industry | Video games |
---|---|
Founded |
Finland (December 2010) |
Founder | Chris Thür and Mikko Kaipainen |
Headquarters | Helsinki, Finland |
Key people |
Chris Thür, (CEO) Mikko Kaipainen, (COO) Anssi Klapuri, (CTO) |
Products |
WildChords GuitarBots GuitarTuna |
Website | yousician.com |
Yousician is an educational video game developer based in Helsinki, Finland. They have released three guitar learning games and a guitar tuner app.
History and products
The company was founded under the name Ovelin by two alumni of Tampere University of Technology, Chris Thür and Mikko Kaipainen in 2010,[1] and was part of the Startup Sauna accelerator programme at Aalto University.[2] The company develops interactive guitar learning games that take advantage of audio signal processing technology developed by their CTO, Anssi Klapuri.[3] The company attracted early funding from Tekes, a public fund in Finland,[4][5] and seed funding of $1.4m from the Silicon Valley-based early-stage investor True Ventures.[6]
WildChords
Yousician's first release was WildChords, a guitar learning game that drew inspiration from Guitar Hero, but takes the sound of the user playing a real guitar as the input. Unlike the similar Rocksmith, WildChords uses the iPad's microphone, allowing users to play acoustic guitars as well as electric.[7] The game features separate modes for learning to play chords and single notes, and is designed for players only beginning to learn the guitar.[8] WildChords was released in November 2011 for the iPad and was downloaded over 100,000 times in its first month on sale,[9] and became the number 1 music app in 34 countries.[10] WildChords was replaced by GuitarBots, and discontinued in July 2014.
GuitarBots
While promoting WildChords Yousician discussed their intention to launch a browser version of the app.[2] This eventually appeared in the form of GuitarBots, which adapted the basic design of WildChords to web browsers, but with a different aesthetic and higher difficulty options, along with tutorials, a tuner, and other features.[11] GuitarBots is free-to-play but offers paid premium accounts.[12] At first the game was only compatible with PCs and Macs as the Unity Web Player plugin was required to play,[13] but in February 2014 it was also released for iOS.[14] GuitarBots was replaced by Yousician Guitar, and discontinued in July 2015.[15]
GuitarTuna
GuitarTuna is a free guitar tuner app available for iOS, Android, and web browsers. GuitarTuna has been praised for its accuracy,[16] especially compared to other free tuning apps, but reviewers noted that it only supports six-string guitars with standard tuning.[17] Alternative tuning sets have since been released as paid add-ons.[18]
Yousician Guitar
Yousician Guitar is an interactive guitar-learning app with a similar gameplay to GuitarBots, but with a different aesthetic, higher difficulty options, video tutorials, and other features.[19] It was first released for PCs and Macs in October 2014,[20] then for iOS in February 2015, and Android in May 2015. It is free-to-play, with paid premium accounts for unlimited playing time and other features.[21] In March 2015 it was featured as 'Editor's Choice' in the Apple App Store.[22]
Recognition
Yousician were one of Wired's top 100 European startups in 2012,[4] and were also featured in The Sunday Times "World's Best Apps List 2012". Yousician and its apps have won several technology and start-up competitions, including SXSW Accelerator 2012 (Music)[23] and Midemlab 2012.
References
- ↑ Lappalainen, Elina. "Tamperelaiselle Ovelinille miljoonasijoitus Piilaaksosta". Talouselämä. Retrieved 19 July 2013.
- 1 2 Geere, Duncan. "WildChords enlists animals to help you learn guitar". Wired.co.uk. Retrieved 19 July 2013.
- ↑ "Anssi Klapuri - From Time-Frequency to Time-Pitch Domain: Psychoacoustic vs. Data-Driven Approach". Retrieved 19 July 2013.
- 1 2 Cheshire, Tom. "Europe's 100 hottest startups 2012: Helsinki". Wired.co.uk. Retrieved 19 July 2013.
- ↑ Anderson, Greg. "Ovelin A Success Story Of Tekes Financing". Arcticstartup.com. Retrieved 19 July 2013.
- ↑ Anderson, Greg. "Ovelin Grabs €1.1 Million From True Ventures". Arcticstartup.com. Retrieved 19 July 2013.
- ↑ Empson, Rip. "Cutting The Cord: WildChords Brings Guitar Hero To Real Guitars On The iPad". Techcrunch.com. Retrieved 19 July 2013.
- ↑ Hamilton, Kirk. "Learn The Guitar While Taming Wild Beasts On Your iPad". Kotaku.com. Retrieved 19 July 2013.
- ↑ Empson, Rip. "Finnish Startup Ovelin Snags $1.4M From True Ventures To Reinvent Early Music Ed With Games". Techcrunch.com. Retrieved 19 July 2013.
- ↑ "Ovelin paints Finnish PM’s fingernails". Retrieved 19 July 2013.
- ↑ Ridden, Paul. "GuitarBots online learning game is played with any real guitar". Gizmag.com. Retrieved 19 July 2013.
- ↑ "Apprendre à jouer de la guitare depuis votre navigateur". Gizmodo.fr. Retrieved 19 July 2013.
- ↑ Bryant, Martin. "Guitarbots: Like Guitar Hero for real guitars, in your browser". Thenextweb.com. Retrieved 19 July 2013.
- ↑ Anderson, Greg. "Ovelin's GuitarBots out on iOS". Arcticstartup.com. Retrieved 21 March 2015.
- ↑ "GuitarBots Discontinued". Retrieved 4 August 2015.
- ↑ Walden, John. "Music app review – GuitarTuna by Ovelin". Musicappblog.com. Retrieved 19 July 2013.
- ↑ "GuitarTuna 1.1". Toptenreviews.com. Retrieved 19 July 2013.
- ↑ "Guitartuna - Guitar Tuner for standard and alternative tuning (drop d, open, custom)". Apple App Store. Retrieved 22 July 2013.
- ↑ Grannell, Craig. "Review: Yousician Guitar Gamifies Learning Chords and Riffs". tapsmart.com. Retrieved 23 March 2015.
- ↑ Leier, Kendra. "Unlock the Yousician in you!". kendraleier.com. Retrieved 23 March 2015.
- ↑ "Yousician Guitar - The ultimate free guitar tab game with tuner, songs and tutorials". Apple App Store. Retrieved 23 March 2015.
- ↑ Gray, Chris. "Ep 68: Find My iPhone & Spring Ahead". hipcast.com. Retrieved 23 March 2015.
- ↑ "SXSW Music Accelerator 2012 Recap". Retrieved 19 July 2013.