Here is a brief rundown on music apps that are on my iPod Touch:

Karajan

This one is pretty boring visually, but it is a pretty useful ear-trainer. Not worth the $14.99, though. (iTunes Link)

MiniPiano

It has a pretty good sound, for being on the iPhone and free. And you can’t beat free. This is useful for tapping out melodies that spring into your head. (iTunes Link)

iNoteTrainer

A very simple yet effective way to learn how to sight read music. Very few note quizzers relate staff music to actual keyboard keys, instead just the note letter. Useful for $3.99 for the novice. (iTunes Link)

Pocket Guitar

Chord the strings and strum, just like a real guitar. Very cool concept, except I find it next to impossible to chord the strings properly. This is more for showing off the iPhone’s multi-touch. Only $0.99. (iTunes Link)

Pianist

The samples aren’t that great and I usually find myself using the miniPiano more. I leave it on here just as an possibly option for me. Not enough for $3.99 in my humble opinion. (iTunes Link)

FreeDrumPad

Like MiniPiano, this is great for just tapping out beats as ideas. Comes with an acoustic set and an electronic set. Very simple. Very free. (iTunes Link)

FourTrack

When this was announced, I thought, “Oh boy, this takes care of me getting a portable digital recorder”. Well, the sad news is – not really. It has four tracks for recording, but I haven’t found a good mic/interface to record the sounds. I bought a Griffin iphone mic, but it sounds not as great. Plus, when I bought it, they were having problems with it getting it to work with the iPhone OS 2.x. I had to wait MONTHS for them to fix it – which they couldn’t do until iPhone OS 3.0 was released. Bleh for $9.99 (iTunes Link)

iTalk

Like FourTrack, this is kinda useless to me until I find a good mic interface. Apple’s new Voice Memo, however, makes this obsolete for voice memo taking. Free with the optional upgrade to “Premium”. (iTunes Link)

BeatMaker

This is the largest and most expensive app I have on my iPhone. This is the center of my portable iPhone music production. It’s essentially a drum pad machine with a really awesome sequencer hidden in the background. Beatmaker can load up samples you send it, whether it’s from a mic, computer or other select apps. All the Amidio (Amidio.com) apps below (Star Melody, Star Guitar, JR Hexatone, and Noise.io Pro can all export their sounds to it. All samples can be visually trimmed. While the pads have no velocity range, you can go into the sequencer and edit the velocity individual hits. It has several nice effects (2 channels) that you can select what sounds goes to what channel. Totally worth $19.99 (iTunes Link)

The Pad window

The Sequencer window

The Effects window showing a Pass Cutoff Filter and Beat Delay (Channels 1 and 2).

Melodica

This is just a very simple 16 step sequencer with only one type of sound. But it’s so much fun to knock out a simple melody. I use the lower notes as a bass line and then randomly tap in higher notes. Very fun and addicting. While it doesn’t offer exporting, I can hook up my iPod to Ableton Live and sample the loops. Awesome. $0.99 (iTunes Link)

DopplerPad

I really wish I spent more time with DopplerPad. I’ve been using the other apps more. This is dual channel sequencing app. Each channel has drums, bass, leads, pads, and effects that can be gated or arpeggiated in a step loop. The two channels can then be cross faded between each other. I bought this to do similar things that the Korg Kaossilator can do (scale based sequencing/looping). It’s very pretty, but I haven’t managed to pull anything worthy of recording off it. I might need more time with it. One of those things you wish you could demo before buying it for $9.99 (iTunes Link)

The Pattern Manager and cross fader.

The Sequencer window.

Star Melody

This is a more complex version of what Melodica does. It has several sounds and scales and can be recorded (then exported to Beatmaker or Ableton Live). While I dig the very Zen sounds that it produces, I wish it had more control over the way it records the loops and better way to quantize to the beat. Still, not a bad instrument for $2.99 (iTunes Link)

Noise.io Pro

This is a full on FM synthesizer with lots of wonderful soundscaping options. This is probably the closest thing I’ve come across that is similar to the Kaossilator, but this is oh so much more. This is one of the newest additions to my iPod, so I’ve not delved into the vast programming options it has, but I know between this and the JR Hexatone (below) I will have no lack of ammo for creating all the sounds I need on the iPod. At $14.99, it’s a steal. (iTunes Link)

JR Hexatone

JR Hexatone is for beatmaking and sample triggering as Noise.io was for synths. At first I found the randomness of it maddening. The first thing I tried to do was a simple kick/snare/hi-hat pattern. Then I figured out that it’s power lies in it’s randomness. This is more of a lavish percussion soundscape sequencer than a simple beat machine (although I did figure out how to do simple beats). Like all of Amidio’s apps, you can export the loops to Beatmaker or as a wav file for Ableton Live (or any DAW). I do wish the hex grid could zoom up, my fingers are much too large for the precise tapping involved. For $9.99, you’d be crazy not to pass this one up. (iTunes Link)

Star Guitar Pro

A fun guitar strummer, this (like my insanely useful “Jam Sessions” for my Nintendo DS) allows me to knock out guitar chord progressions. While the recording is similar to Star Melody, it makes up in definable strumming patterns and an easy to define chord matrix. I do wish that the mute strings sounded like a muted strum, but for less than a good lunch this is the best, cheapest and probably the most comfortable option for putting a guitar in your pocket for $4.99 (iTunes Link)

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 11th, 2009 at 6:44 pm and is filed under Rock God. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.