iOS Music And You

iOS Music And You Podcast 011: The Clocktoys Interview

chip — Fri, 17 May 2013 13:00:15 +0000

Right Click Here To Download The Podcast

Welcome to Episode #11 of the iOS Music And You Podcast, the place where we discuss making music on the iPad and iPhone! We’ve got some inspiring stuff ahead of us, including an iOS song with a cool twist, and absolutely essential app pick, a quick tip that will save you time in BeatMaker 2, and a great interview. We’re talking with a smart iOS musician in our interview, Pete Plural, who goes by The Clocktoys online. He’s found some interesting ways to use iOS app to come out with a very cool blend of indie rock and electronic sounds.

In the first part of this episode, we check out a very interesting track from Supersonic Tartan Death Machine. The sounds are certainly inspiring, and they combine two elements into something new and undeniably cool – Bagpipe-Driven Electro-Celtic Fusion. That’s right, this music puts together real bagpipes with apps like AmpliTube, Audiobus, BeatMaker 2, djay, Figure, FourTrack, GlitchBreaks, Impaktor, NanoStudio, Remaster, SunVox, studio.HD, ThumbJam, Turnado, and GarageBand. It’s an epic journey that goes places you’d never expect, consistently inspiring you along the way.

There’s so many of you putting out great music from your iPads and iPhones and I want to feature your music on the podcast! Do you have a song that you’d like to be played on the next podcast? Submit your music by sending me a link to your song on SoundCloud.

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In next piece of the show, I get into an app that has become an essential part of my music making experience – Turnado. This multi-effects processor can do some amazing things to your sounds, putting very high quality reverb, chorus, filters, and more onto your music. I go over the basics of what the apps holds, then I mash up some DM1 beats using Turnado. While I show you the basics of what you can do with this app, I’m really scratching the surface here; this is an incredible app. I highly recommend Turnado, and after hearing some of these sounds, I think you’ll agree – you’ll definitely want to pick up Turnado.

I also get into a quick tip that will hopefully save you some time in your BeatMaker 2 work. I’ve been taking advantage of the Audiobus compatibility in BeatMaker 2 quite a bit recently, but I’ve run into some MIDI issues. There’s really a quick fix for my problem; so if this is something that you’ve been encountering, I hope this speeds things up for you.

I know that there’s so many great ideas out there about apps and how to use them, and I want to share your ideas with the world! If you’ve got an app suggestion or a quick tip, send them my way – Submit your ideas by sending me a message .
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The last part of the show features an interview with iOS musician Pete Plural, who goes under the band name The Clocktoys online. The iOS platform really lends itself towards electronic music, but Pete has taken a bit of a different direction, blending electronic sounds with an indie rock aesthetic. He comes at this music from a different background as well, having starting with an interest in sound production and working his way back towards more traditional approaches. He’s also a musician that dived headfirst into music production on an iPhone and then took a look back at desktop studios. After some experimentation, Pete found his way back to iOS, seeing the need for a blend of both of both platforms. Overall, Pete offers a unique perspective at making music on iOS, giving us some good thoughts throughout the interview.

The strength of Pete’s musicianship comes through fully in his Clocktoys track, so we start things off with a track called “Christina Falls Apart.” This is a great example of the edgy modern rock sound that Pete creates, along with a moody atmosphere that’s very effective. He used quite a few apps to put this song together, including NanoStudio, Alchemy Synth Mobile, guitarism, ThumbJam, and iKaossilator. It’s a perfect example of what you can create when you blend iOS creativity, indie rock attitude, and some solid musicality.

Once you Pete’s insights into music, you’re definitely going to want to check out:
The Clocktoys SoundCloud Page
The Clocktoys FaceBook Page
The Clocktoys Twitter Page

Here’s some of the apps that Pete Plural mentions in the interview:

Audiobus

NanoStudio

DM1 – The Drum Machine

ThumbJam

Alchemy Synth Mobile Studio

Filtatron

GarageBand

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I hope that you enjoy this episode of the podcast . . . we’ll be back in a couple of weeks with more features to inspire your music making in episode #12! As always, the most important thing to me is that I create something useful that’s going to help the iOS music community. So, if you’ve got ideas, suggestions, or even compliments, send them my way! Thanks so much for listening, enjoy the show!
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iOS Music Weekly (5/13/13 – 5/19/13)

chip — Mon, 13 May 2013 13:00:24 +0000

Did you miss the latest happenings in the iOS world throughout the last week? Don’t sweat it, we’ve got you covered here at iOS Music And You. Every Monday we’ll be filling you in on the most recent news, new app releases, and the on-site happenings. You can get a taste of everything that’s fueling iOS music making and catch yourself up to date. If you want to get your iOS music news fix on a daily basis, LIKE the iOS Music And You Facebook Page!

iOS Music News Around The Internet:
It’s always great to find a helpful tutorial to go along with a complex app, and it’s even better when you find a tutorial from someone who know what they’re talking about . . . like the guy that built the app. That’s exactly what we got this week, when Wolfgang Palm delivered a video tutorial on editing patches in PPG WaveGenerator. This is a very useful walkthrough that will get you thinking about sound design in PPG WaveGenerator in a new and exciting way. It’s certainly worth a look!

Speaking of tutorials, here’s a tutorial that focuses on one app that I could really use some help with – Lemur. This app has been used quite a bit in the electronic music world and if you’re looking to trigger Ableton Live, you would really benefit from using it. Fortunately, the folks over at Mac Pro Video have put together a solid tutorial post that walks you through the process of creating a template for Ableton Live on Lemur. If you are interested in using Lemur with Ableton Live, this is a must-read – there’s lots of usual information and great pictures. You can find it HERE.

While we’re discussing complex apps that we could use some help with, we’re certainly going to being up Traktor DJ. This app comes straight from the desktop version of the Native Instruments software, and there’s a lot to it. Fortunately, the folks at Dubspot know what they’re doing and they’re kind enough to share their knowledge with us. If you’re not familiar with Dubspot, they’re an electronic music school with a cast of heavy duty instructors – these guys are the real deal. This tutorial from Dubspot instructor Mike Henderson gets you into the EQ, effects, and some other advanced features. If you’re digging into Traktor DJ or Traktor DJ for iPhone, this is certainly worth a look!

It’s always fun to find a new tune uploaded onto SoundCloud from an iOS musician that you enjoy and admire, but it’s even better when you discover a whole collection of songs. That’s what I found this week, when I ran across this set of ten tracks from Oxford Ambient Collective. Titled “Osmosis,” this collection of music was put together using Animoog, PPG WaveMapper, PPG WaveGenerator, and Samplr. The Oxford Ambient Collective has been turning out some really inspiring ambient music on an iPad since 2011, and this is a great example of that high quality. Besides, who wouldn’t love a tune dedicated to a holiday on the Wookie home world? This is right up my alley – you can check out the music below!

If you’re interested in Korg apps, you can always rely on Mee Zanook to provide some good information. He’s always turning out a regular stream of instructional videos that dig deep into the Korg apps in a fun and informative way. This week, he’s provided another great video on the iPolysix that shows you how to deactivate the pop-up window when programming automation. This is some practical advice that will make your iPolysix work much more efficient. You can check out the video below!

Do you ever wonder what happens with your iPad when you forget it at home? Yes, we all have those days where we run out the door in a rush without throwing our iPad into our bag. While it may cause some frowning faces for us, there might be someone at home with a smile on their face. We’re not the only ones that like to make music, right? Maybe the cat might not to bust out some tunes? You know that the minute you walk out the door, the cat is on Arpeggionome Pro . . . and this picture proves it!

A pretty exciting app came out this week, giving you the opportunity to refine your recordings on an even more professional level. While we’ve had lots of synths, drum machines, samplers, and even DAWs come through the App Store, we really haven’t gotten much in the way of professional mastering. Auria has certainly delivered some amazing audio manipulation tools built into the context of a DAW and Remaster has provided some solid tools, but an app like Audio Mastering was long overdue. Created by the makers of MIDI Pattern Sequencer, Audio Mastering focuses purely on the art of refining your audio products, and it holds a lot of potential. It debuted on the App Store this past weekend, and there’s a lot of excitement around it. If you want to see what exactly Audio Mastering can do, check out the video below!

As we know, it’s always great to start the week with a heavy dose of inspiration, coming straight from an iPad or iPhone, and we’ve got plenty of it for you today. Our first song this week comes from Citizen-X, who has been turning out some great iOS music across a variety of styles for a while. This time around, he’s mixing some cool vocal samples with electronic sounds on “Beginning,” which he put together using NanoStudio. This next clip is actually an older track, but it’s nice to see it come back alive through the use of some cool visuals and video. “A View Of Secrets” is actually a track from iOS musician Smite Matter’s debut album Technopolis Lost, and he’s created a must-see music video for this awesome track using an app called Pinnacle Studio. If you’re liking what you hear and want to get to know a bit more about Smite Matter, make sure that you check out our interview with him in episode 1 of the iOS Music And You Podcast. Our third track comes from someone we’ve gotten to know quite well around here, Refracted Memories, the collaboration between guitarist Jack Morefield and iOS musician Michael Wadlow. This time around, this extremely musical duo has created the piece “Longing,” which has some beautiful synth textures and vocals from Holly Matters. Michael used a number of apps on this piece – Alchemy Synth Mobile Studio, Korg iMS-20, GlitchBreaks, and studio.HD; don’t forget, you can check out our two part interview with Michael Wadlow in episode 3 & episode 4 of the podcast. Our fourth track is actually another wonderful music video, with music from zymondee and video work from badtitude. The visuals include some amazing landscape shots while the music was created completely on the iPolysix. Our last track is a great example of putting new apps to the test while turning out some fantastic music. Pants Of Death created a killer track earlier this week called “Horaldo,” which used a number of apps, including Alchemy Synth Mobile Studio, TC-11, MoDrum Rhythm Composer, NanoStudio, Loopy HD, bismark bs-16i , as well as Yamaha Synth Arp & Drum Pad. Over the weekend, he got his hands on Audio Mastering and turned out a crisp, clean version called “Horaldo Remastered” – showing us that in the right hands, this is a powerful app! Well, I guess that we’ve got a healthy dose of inspiration here, so take some time to check out these tracks, pull out our iPhone or iPad, and make some music!

Recent iOS Music And You Posts:

Modifying Instruments In ThumbJam

iOS Music And You Podcast 010: Genome MIDI Sequencer Interview

iOS Music Tunes: You Should Be Afriad by Stacy Puckett

Recently Released Music Apps:

Audio Mastering

Major Music App Updates This Week:

Mobile Music Sequencer

iGrand Piano

Lemur

iLectric Piano for iPad – IK Multimedia

Neo-Soul Keys

Notion

Synergy Studio

TwistedWave Audio Editor

n-Track Studio Multitrack Recorder

Bucephalus

DJ Player

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iPad & iPhone Music App Tutorial: Modifying Instruments In ThumbJam

chip — Fri, 10 May 2013 13:00:15 +0000

ThumbJam is one of those magical apps that walks the line between amateur and professional users with grace and style, simultaneously filling every musical need without breaking a sweat. It’s easy to sit down with ThumbJam and quickly master the basics, knocking out some fantastic tracks in a speedy way, based upon the inviting interface and simply astounding samples. If you’ve got some previous experience with music and technology, you’re apt to dig into the rock solid MIDI implementation built into ThumbJam, as well as the ability to create and edit your own instruments. There’s not a lack of things to keep you creating music in ThumbJam; in fact, there’s probably more than most users will every put to the test. So many features are seamlessly jam packed into ThumbJam that it’s fairly easy to miss something that may very well scratch your creative itch. We’re going to be digging deep into ThumbJam in this tutorial series, looking for the full picture on the features that you know and love, as well as some that you might be encountering for the first time. Now that we’ve checked out the interface and instruments, we’re going to personalize things by modifying instruments.

In the second part of our ThumbJam tutorial, we focused upon the vast potential, selection, quality, and performance options of the instruments from Sonosaurus; while these instruments are a major plus for this app, they’re just the beginning of the sonic adventures that you can find within ThumbJam. The app provides a number of ways that you can modify the given instruments that come with ThumbJam and then save those modifications for future use. You can manipulate everything from the way that the samples playback to the effects shaping the sound, and the way that those samples interact with your fingers. It’s completely possible to start with a preset and end with something completely new and unique. At the same time, you can start fresh by recording your own sounds, working with these same elements, and produce your own instruments. ThumbJam is more than a way to playback samples, its also a platform for capturing and manipulating samples and a very defined and creative level. Once you step into this world, you’ll find a completely new world of possibilities in ThumbJam.

Starting With A Preset Sample
When you’re first working with original sound creation in thumbJam, its a good idea to master the basics by modifying some of the presets to your liking. Start things out by selecting an instrument within the “Select Preset” windows – for this example, I’m going to choose “Synth Strings Lead.” Don’t worry about loosing a preset sound that you love – if you follow the instructions below, we’ll be saving our modifications as a new instrument. Once you’ve chosen your new instrument, tap on the blue “Done” button to return to the main screen. Now find the “Edit” tab in the lower left hand corner of the screen, which will present your options for modifying the preset sample that you’ve selected. You’ll see five different buttons, labeled “Sample,” “Controls,” ” Effects,” ” Save Preset,” and “Hide Menus.” Press the “Save Preset” button and you’ll see another button appear in the middle of the screen entitled “Save as New Preset” – once you press this, you’ll be prompted to choose a new name. Type in new name like “1st Modified Instrument” and press “Save.” At this point, you’ve created a new instrument that will be a modified version of a preset; best of all, you won’t loose the original preset.

Altering Sample Playback
The core of the instrument lies in the sample and the way that the sample will playback when triggered, so let’s start with that element. Within the “Edit” tab, select the “Sample” button, which will take you to a new window where you will work with that sample. Let’s start things out by making sure that we don’t overwrite the sample; press the button in the upper left hand corner of the window, which looks like this:

The “Attack Time” is the amount of time before you hear the sample after you press a particular strip on the screen. You can adjust the “Attack Time” anywhere from 0 ms to 300 ms, creating quite a range. The lower the number that you select, the more immediate the sound will follow your touch; for example, if you set the “Attack Time” to 0 ms, you’ll hear the sound right away. The higher the number that you choose, the longer the delay between touching the screen and hearing the sample. If you choose 300 ms, there will be a slight pause and fade in from the sound. This is an important consideration that applies directly to how you will be using the sound. If you’re going to be creating a lead with lots of fast notes, you probably want a low “Attack Time” so that you can knock out a rapid fire stream of notes. Sustained chordal pads might benefit from a higher “Attack Time,” providing the feeling of a lush, open quality as each chord comes onto the scene.

The “Release Time” is the amount of time before the sample disappears after you lift your finger from a particular strip on the screen. This also contains a wide time spectrum, giving you the option of setting the “Release Time” between 10 ms and 10,000 ms. The lower the number that you select, the more immediately the sound will disappear once you lift your finger. When you’ve got the “Release Time” set to 10 ms, it evaporates almost immediately after you lift your finger. Higher numbers will create a sustain within the sound that continues long after you lift your finger from the screen. When you get into thousands of ms, especially when you reach 10,000 ms, that sustain is going to continue long after you lift your finger. Once again, you should consider how you’ll be using these sounds before you adjust this setting. If you’d like to perform a part with short, rhythmic figures, you’re going to want a low “Release Time” to avoid any muddiness in the sound. On the other hand, you can also create open sonic washes with a lazy feeling, a high “Release Time” number would give you exactly what you desire.

Directly below the “Release Time” slider, you’ll find a button labeled “Polyphonic” with options for “On” and “Off.” Polyphony refers to the simultaneous playback of multiple pitches, and you’re choosing whether you want this option. When the button is in the “On” position, ThumbJam will playback multiple pitches, based on the number of fingers that you have touching the screen. Moving the button to the “Off” position means that ThumbJam will simply move between individual pitches as you press the screen multiple times. This is a good thing to consider, which will depend on how you want to use this particular ThumbJam instrument – if you’d like to play chords, you probably want “Polyphonic” on, but if you’re going to do individual lead lines, it would make more sense to have this option off.

Making Changes To Finger Drags
The “Drag Changes Pitch” buttons determine exactly how the pitches will change when you tap a pitch, hold it, and then drag your finger across the screen. When you have the “Off” button selected, you won’t hear any difference as you drag your finger, the same pitch that you tapped initially will simply sustain. Choosing the “Continuum” option will take away the different pitches completely, giving you more of a “fretless” effect, allowing your finger to slide between pitches. When you had the “Scale Snap” button in the “Off” position, you won’t stay within the chosen scale and you’ll actually even hit the microtones between the notes. Selecting “On” will keep your movement within the scale. The “Glide” selection lets you use a pitch bend between notes, creating a bit of a slur between pitches. The “Step” option simply re-articulates each note as you move between the different bars on the screen. When you switch the “Legato” button to the off position, it will create a different attack each time you move your finger between each note; having it in the on position changes pitches without a new attack. Each of these options give a completely different sound and feel to moving your finger across the screen.

There’s a couple of more options for altering the movement between notes as you drag your finger across the screen that are controlled with the two lowest sliders on the screen. The first one of labeled “Time Interval” and this controls the amount of time that it takes for one note to glide into the next one. You’ve got a range of 0 ms to 300 ms; when you’re set on a lower number, your pitches will change more automatically, and when you’ve got higher numbers, the pitches take a short time to change. You can also “Humanize” this movement, determining whether you’ll get a more direct change. The higher the percentage, the less direct your movement will be. These are important embellishments that can make big changes to the overall sound of dragging your fingers across the screen.

Controlling Sound With Finger Movements And The Accelerometer
At the bottom of the window, you can switch to the “Control” view, which will allow you to dictate the way in which your finger interacts with the screen and the way in which the accelerometer interacts with your music. You can assign three different parameters to change as you move your iPad or iPhone in the air, reacting to the accelerometer readings. You can also program your patch to react to a quick movement of your finger on the screen or shaking your iOS device. As you alter these parameters, your current setting will read near the bottom of the screen in white writing. This adds yet another layer of interesting subtlety that you can add to your ThumbJam performances.

There are three different parameters that will react to the movement of your iPad in the air, based upon the accelerometer readings. Each parameter has a selection of buttons as well as a slider that determines the movement from your finger or the iPad that will alter parameters in your music. ”Volume,” can be assigned to a Vertical Tilt, a Vertical Inverted Tilt, or a move on the X-axis; you can also have a Fixed volume. The associated slider will let you set the minimum volume anywhere from -40 dB to 0 dB. ”Pan” reacts to a movement along the X-axis, the Y-axis, or a horizontal tilt; you can also keep the panning stationary with the None option. The slider lets you set the maximum depth or how far to the left or the right the panning will move, ranging anywhere from 0% to 100%. ”Pitch Bend” will alter the note up or down based upon a Vertical Tilt, a Vertical Inverted Tilt, or a Horizontal Tilt; of course, you can also set the “Pitch Bend” to one parameter with none. You’ve got a wide range of note bends available, going from 0 semitones to a full octave of 12 semitones. When you program these parameters, you can add a great deal of detail and expression to your music, as well as a strong physical quality to your performance.

You can also program ThumbJam patches to respond to finger movements or shaking your iOS device with additional buttons and sliders connected with two parameters. ”Vibrato” will connect to either a finger movement or shaking your device, and of course, you can disable this function through the “None” button. The slider beneath the collection of buttons will establish the maximum depth for your “Vibrato”; you can think of this as the width of the vibrato that you’ll get from your movements. You’ve got a wide range of depth settings, allowing you to set the depth anywhere from 0% to 100%. The “Tremelo” parameter works much in the same way, with the same buttons and slider. If you take the time to consider how you’ll be using this patch, you really design a physical experience that will react with nuance for your performance.

Adding Effects To Your Instrument
The last selection at the bottom of the “Edit” window will take you to “Effects” view, giving you access to three different effects that you can place upon your patch. You’ve got the option of adding “Reverb,” “Delay,” or a “Lowpass Filter” to your patch, and the quality of the effects is substantial. The primary parameters for each sound are available to be customized, giving you some options for personalizing the way that the effects interact with your patch. While this isn’t a substitution for a proper effects program or final mastering, it certainly allows you to add another level of depth and character to your patch.

There are some commonalities that exist between the “Reverb” and “Delay” effects, in addition to the parameters that make each one unique. Both effects have an “On/Off” button that will either enable or disable the effect. They also both have a “Level” slider that acts as a Dry/Wet selector – the lower that you set the “Level,” the more unaffected sound you’ll be hearing, and the higher you set the “Level,” the more effect you’ll hear. The “Reverb” also includes a slider for “Room Size,” which will alter the sustain that you hear in the sound. A higher percentage will give you a longer sustain, while a lower percentage will keep the sustain short. The “Delay” also includes a “Delay Time” slider; this determines how much time will pass between each repetition of the effect. There are two buttons – one that allows you to sync your delay to the tempo that you’ve established and one that assigns a “Ping Pong” element to the sound, bouncing between ears with each repetition. There’s also a “Feedback” slider that sets the length of time that the delay will continue; a higher number means a longer delay while a lower number shortens the delay. These are good, solid effects that can add some depth to your overall sound.

The Lowpass Filter is a bit of a different beast, but easy to manage once you’ve got a handle on it. The maximum and minimum cutoff levels cue into the specific frequency range that will be effected by the Filter. Both sliders can be set between 100 Hz and 11025 Hz, letting you tap into a very specific frequency area or establish a wide range. You’ve got the option to control the maximum cutoff through the accelerometer as well, linking it to the X-axis, Y-axis, or Vertical Tilt; this provides some very interesting sonic changes as you move your device. The Resonance and Q Limit plays with the tonal quality of your sound. These levels can be set to between 0% and 100%, but higher levels will results in some very squeaky sounds. Once again, you can control the Resonance levels with the accelerometer, using the X-axis, Y-axis, or Vertical Tilt, leading to some interesting sonic variations. The Lowpass filter certainly takes a little more development to apply well, but it’s worth the time and effort.

Shaping Patches Into Something Suited To Your Musical Tastes
ThumbJam delivers a highly customizable experience, letting your shape patches into something that honestly reflects your musical preferences. Once you start modifying your patches, you’ve got a lot of options at your fingertips. When you’re first starting to alter your patches, it’s almost an overwhelming amount of elements that you can change. Just take some time to play with each one and hear the results; repeated attempts to modify patches will eventually yield the results you desire. Take it slow and experiment with each element individually until you can connect the sound with the different variables. It’s a bit of a process, but in the long run, it’s worth it; you’ll find a world of sonic possibilities arise within ThumbJam once you’ve been modifying sounds.

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The ability to modify instruments within ThumbJam really extends the power of this app. You’ve already got an amazing interface and a set of high quality samples; the fact that you can shape this experience around your own tastes is amazing. Your ThumbJam creations can get really interesting once you start modifying instruments, lending a very individual sound to your music. Have you tried modifying instruments in ThumbJam? What techniques and approaches have made your instruments really come alive? Do you find that you modify instruments in ThumbJam all the time or would you rather just not bother? LEAVE A COMMENT and let us know how you modify instruments in ThumbJam.

The true strength of ThumbJam lies in the amazing instrument samples which come with the app and can be added into the mix through the Sonosaurus servers. The fact that you can use ThumbJam to trigger multiple instruments is an amazing resource that benefits both live performance and recording. What do you thin about the ThumbJam instrument samples? What are your favorites and what are some more sounds that you’d love to see integrated into ThumbJam? Or maybe you’re just not a big fan of these samples? LEAVE A COMMENT and let us know what you think of the ThumbJam instruments.

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CHECK OUT THESE RELATED ARTICLES:
iPad & iPhone Music Tutorial: Options On The ThumbJam Layout
iPad & iPhone Music Tutorial: Exploring Instruments In ThumbJam
iPad Music App Tutorial: NanoStudio TRG-16 Quick Tips (Part 2)
iPad Music App Tutorial: Adding Echo, Mixing, And Exporting With WerkBench

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iOS Music Weekly (5/6/13 – 5/12/13)

chip — Mon, 06 May 2013 13:00:26 +0000

iOS Music News Around The Internet:
I was really happy to report this week that episode #3 of the Touch Music Podcast has come online, ready for you to hear. If you’re not aware of this show yet, it’s the place where Sean Walker from iOS Musician, Tim Webb from Disschord, and I get together to talk about the latest and greatest in iOS music. It’s a lot of fun to talk its these guys about music making on an iPad and iPhone, and there’s some great ideas that you can take away from it. Just in case you’ve missed it, I’ve embedded it below so that you can give it a listen. Don’t forget, you can always subscribe to the show HERE.

In case you were wondering, the iOS Music And You Podcast is still alive and kicking; I’m just part of two podcasts these days. I’m hard at work on episode number 11, which you should be hearing sometime in the next couple of weeks. If you’re looking to catch up on any of the past ten episodes, you can do that HERE.

One of the things that we talked about on the recent episode of Touch Music is the explosion of apps that have adopted Audiobus support lately, a trend that has been very exciting. Some major apps got Audiobus support this past week, like Alchemy Synth Mobile Studio and Vio, opening up whole new worlds of possibilities. At the same time, IK Multimedia continued the path towards Audiobus support for all of their apps this week by adding this much valued feature to iLectric Piano. They’ve put together another strong video presentation that demonstrates Audiobus in iLectric Piano by running it into Cubasis. It’s nice to see this in action, not to mention acting as a tutorial for anyone that doesn’t know how to use Audiobus.

The folks over at Native Instruments took another dip into the world of iOS music this week, with the release of their Traktor DJ app for the iPhone. This is probably a dream come true for a number of mobile DJs – the desktop version of Traktor is a standard for electronic DJs and the initial release of Traktor DJ for iPad was a big hit. The idea of carrying around Traktor in your pocket is a pretty amazing concept, one that certainly caught the attention of several people this past week. We’ve got a number of videos below that highlight the release of Traktor DJ for iPhone, and I’ve collected some of them below. The first video is the official promo video from Native Instruments, that gives a good look at the app. The second video comes from The Verge, where Trent Wolbe interviews Jim Mazur from Native Instruments to get a little deeper into Traktor DJ for iPhone. The last video features Phil Morse from Digital DJ Tips, who provides a ten minute detailed walk through the app. There’s some good insight into Traktor DJ for iPhone in these videos, letting take a closer look at a new powerful tool.

One of the things that I absolutely love about the evolution of iOS apps as tools for music production is the fact that they open up new ways of thinking about music creation. From the new types of MIDI controllers that are rising out of the touch screen interface to the portability of multitudes of massively powerful synths, people are consistently looking at the act of making music from different perspectives. One of the guys that has been a big proponent of integrating iPads, iPhones, & iPod Touches alongside desktop production software is Rheyne, and he’s back this week with another interesting video. In his third ambient jam, Rheyne has taken an interesting approach to using iOS devices – he recorded a video of himself playing on a grand piano and he’s running the audio into his set-up. Mixing this sound with Sunrizer Synth and using Lemur to trigger Ableton Live, there’s some cool music here, definitely worth a look.

Speaking of Rheyne, the one thing that I love just about as much as his music is the cool sense of style of visual personality that he brings into his music. If you’re looking for a little bit more of his cool visual sensibility, check out his newly created Instagram page. It’s got some cool synth pictures as well as that characteristic sense of color and appeal that we’ve come to associate with Rheyne – you can find it HERE. While you’re on Instagram, you could also add the iOS Music And You Instagram account HERE. It’s been a bit quiet lately, but I’ve got some cool ideas about how to use it, so add us now!

The iOS music world is certainly expanding – we’ve got apps, we’ve got musicians, we’ve got SoundCloud groups, we’ve got websites, and now we’ve got our own record label. That’s right, Lazer Kat Records is a new music label, dedicated exclusively to music made using iPads and iPhones. It’s a pretty cool idea, that has started things out right with a number of musicians that we known and respect, including folks like Pants Of Death and Joey Joel. They’ve even released an EP that’s a free download on their site that is full of the good things to come. It’s a pretty cool concept that’s bound to be a good boost for the iOS music making community – a label that crosses genre and musical ideals, but instead focusing on the tools made to create the music. This is definitely worth checking out – you can get more information about Lazer Kat Records and download their first EP HERE.

In a world where high quality music production apps fall in the twenty dollars and below range, it’s easy to test through a number of different choices, but there’s one type of app that we all find and keep – our chosen DAW. When a new DAW app hits the market, it can certainly peak our attention, but it’s got to have something pretty good to drag us away from our favorite. Amidio, the makers of Futulele, OMGuitar, MINT.io Groovebox Synth, and more, are promising just that when they introduce their new DAW app in late summer, Cycloop. W don’t know a whole lot at this point – it’s going to run only on the iPad, it’s not going to clone existing apps, and it will have a number of impressive features. You can check out the logo for the app below and get the full scoop on Cycloop HERE.

It’s been interesting to see the porting of well known desktop production tools onto the iPad; sometimes the results we get are a let-down, other times we get something that we didn’t expect but grow to love, and at other times, we get exactly what we wanted. This past week, Sugar Bytes delivered a version of their popular effects plug-in Turnado to the iPad, giving us all the massive power that we really wanted. It’s a pretty incredible multi-effects tool that will turn your songs on their ear when you plug Turnado into the Audiobus effects slot. We’ve got a couple of videos below that give us a better idea what the app can do. The first one is the official video from Sugar Bytes while the second video is a demo from App4iDevices. After you watch both of them, you’re certainly going to want to check this app out – you might want to grab it while you can at its introductory price of $14.99 (50% off!).

Part of the beauty of Korg iKaossilator is the random quality that you get from dragging your hand around the screen to create music, but unfortunately, one of the frustrating things about the Korg iKaossilator is the lack of precision that you get when you’re dragging your hand around the screen. It’s both a curse and a blessing, but according to Mee Zanook, it’s something that you can fix. He’s got a great new video that involves him taping pieces of masking tape to the screen of his iPad to nail down the specific notes on the screen. It’s a pretty ingenious idea; not sure if I really want to put tape on my iPad screen, but it certainly does solve the problem. He’s put together a great video that shows you just how useful this process can be!

We always like to start the week off with some great iOS music tracks – it’s a good way to get us inspired and thinking about the massive potential behind these great production apps. The first track comes from a guy that many iOS music lovers know and respect – Jinx Padlock. He’s hard at work on his second EP, which looks to be a pretty cool techno recording, but he had a little extra time to make “Progress At Any Price” using DM1, NanoStudio, and DrumJam. Don’t forget – if you want to hear a little bit more about Jinx Padlock, you can hear our interview with him on episode #6 of the podcast. I know that I already talked about Rheyne up above, but he’s been on a role lately, turning out two or three videos a week – something that I’ve really been enjoying. We took a look at his latest ambient video above, and here we’ve got Live Jam #78 – a great looping piece made using Lemur, Animoog, Sunrizer Synth, and a wealth of hardware. This third piece of music is something totally different from what we usually feature, and pretty awesome, so I had to include it – it’s a piece based on a Brazilian rhythm, Frevo, from Gemini Knight. It’s put together with a variety of samples and synths, using BeatMaker 2, Auria, Genome MIDI Sequencer, and Magellan. There’s some great stuff here – take a listen, enjoy, and get inspired!

Recent iOS Music And You Posts:

iOS Music And You Podcast 010: Genome MIDI Sequencer Interview

Exploring Instruments In ThumbJam

Touch Music Episode #3: Novation Launchkey, Jack, Waldorf Nave, & more!

iOS Music Tunes: You Should Be Afriad by Stacy Puckett

Recently Released Music Apps:

Turnado

Traktor DJ for iPhone

iLectric Piano

The Oscillator

Major Music App Updates This Week:

Alchemy Synth Mobile Studio

iMPC

StepPolyArp – Midi Step Polyphonic Arpeggiator

MINT.io Groovebox Synth

JACK Audio Connection Kit

OMGuitar™ Guitar Synth

CMP Grand Piano

Spectral Eye

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Touch Music Episode #3: Novation Launchkey, Jack, Waldorf Nave, & More!

chip — Fri, 03 May 2013 13:00:01 +0000

I’m happy to let everyone know that it’s been a little less than a month and we’re back with episode number 3 of the Touch Music Podcast! As you might know by now, this show comes together with Sean Walker from iOS Musician, Tim Webb from Discchord, and myself – it’s the perfect vehicle to dig deeply into the art of making music with iOS devices. I’m really enjoying the current format that we’ve got for the show, which involves a spirited conversation about a variety of current topics in the iOS world; it always leaves me with some good food for thought!

It’s always a blast to spend some time talking with Sean and Tim, and we covered a lot of ground this time around. We take some time to discuss the Audiobus integration on both the Novation Launchkey and the Arturia iMini, we get into using iOS music apps in a live setting, as well as the new possibilities that have arisen with the JACK Audio Connection Kit. We take a look at the upcoming Waldorf Nave and even discuss the possibilities that come along with the new Røde iXY . . . along with the possibility of being tied to the Røde Rec app. There’s even discussion about the possibilities of Audiobus and Virtual MIDI being integrated into NanoStudio – something that I personally can’t wait to see! There’s all this and more; as always, there’s lots of great info about iOS and some lively discussion around it.

We’re working towards putting an episode of the Touch Music Podcast together on a monthly basis, delivering more great thoughts about the continually evolving world of iOS music. We should be back next month with another show; in the meantime, you can find the Touch Music Podcast archives HERE. If you’re looking for even more info on iOS music, don’t that forget there’s ten episodes of the iOS Music And You Podcast that you can find HERE.

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We’re committed to keeping the Touch Music Podcast going strong, and we need your support to make that happen. There are plenty of ways that you can get behind the Touch Music Podcast:
Subscribe to the Touch Music Podcast in iTunes
It’s free and easy to do – simply go to the Touch Music Podcast page and press “Subscribe Free”; from here, the each new episode will be automatically downloaded to iTunes. If you use the Apple Podcasts app or another pod catching app like Instacast or Downcast, you can subscribe from within the app and the new episode will automatically be sent to your iPhone or iPad. It’s that easy!
LIKE the Touch Music Facebook Page
Follow the Touch Music Twitter Account
With both the Touch Music Facebook & Twitter accounts, you’ll get the latest news about the show, but we’ll also pepper that with some iOS music goodness. You might find news, special offers, and more . . . you never know.

So head over iTunes and check out Touch Music, I think that you’ll be glad that you did. Give it a listen and let us know what you think – there will be more shows in the near future – enjoy!

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iOS Music Tunes: You Should Be Afraid by Stacy Puckett

chip — Wed, 01 May 2013 13:00:07 +0000

Every week, iOS Music Tunes will feature a piece of music made with an iPad, iPhone, or iPod – directly from one of our readers. There’s a lot of artistic potential in iOS devices, and iOS Music And You readers are putting all the fantastic tools to use in creative and exciting ways. This regular feature will be an opportunity to appreciate the interesting things that our readers are doing with iOS music, get some new ideas, and kickstart the creative process. If you’ve made some music with an iPad, iPhone, or iPod that you want to share, submit it now – you can get the info HERE. Now sit back and enjoy today’s featured reader on iOS Music Tunes . . .

We’re going to change our format a little bit this week to have a bit of fun with a great video that makes use of the iPad as a device for both music creation and video production . . . .

A little bit about the piece . . .
This was just a fun project I did using GarageBand, Audiobus, JamUp Pro XT, and Magellan. The video was done in free version of “Video Star on the iPad as well.

A little bit about Stacy Puckett . . .
I’m primarily a folk/blues artist and I’m doing a “real” project right now in Cubasis on my iPad. This was simply a Sunday morning diversion into bad rock and roll.

Want to hear more?
You can find more work from Stacy on his SoundCloud Page, his YouTube Page or his ReverbNation Page. You can learn more about Stacy Puckett and the One Man Poverty Band at their Facebook Page.

iOS Music Weekly (4/29/13 – 5/5/13)

chip — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 13:00:46 +0000

iOS Music News Around The Internet:
I hope that you got a chance to check out episode #10 of the iOS Music And You Podcast, which featured our interview with David Wallin from White Noise Audio. This was a fun show to put together – both bleep!BOX and Genome MIDI Sequencer are amazing apps that I’ve used quite a bit, so it was pretty cool to talk with the brains behind them. David did mention a blog post during the interview that I neglected to link in the show notes – this is a great look at the evolution of Genome as it moved from an idea into a majorly powerful music creation app. For anyone who’s ever spent time with Genome, this is a must-see – you can find the post HERE.

Just a reminder – your ratings and reviews iTunes for the podcast really help out. If you’ve got a minute to jump onto iTunes and leave a rating and/or review for the podcast, I would appreciate it tremendously. They help folks find us much more easily in the iTunes search engine, helping spread the word iOS music even further. You can do that HERE . . . while you’re there, don’t forget to subscribe!

While music theory is certainly a useful tool to have at your disposal when you’re in the business of making music, a discussion about theory is pretty pointless without some practical applications. Fortunately, the folks over at the Audanika Harmony Theory Blog see the larger picture and they’re giving you the foundation material as well as the applicable stuff. In a number of posts that they’ve been delivering consistently, the Audanika staff has been talking in detail about intervals and how they’re used in the construction of music. Their latest post shows you where different intervals lie on SoundPrism and how you can use them to construct music on your app. It’s a great post with some vital information that will go a long way – you can find it HERE.

As many of us out there in the iOS music world know, there’s a thriving community of musicians out there turning out a steady stream of great music using iOS devices, covering any number of musical styles. One name that folks have come to know and respect on SoundCloud and beyond is BitBurner, a fantastic musician who puts together some very cool ChipTune stuff, often based on sounds from classic ’80s video games. As a child of the ’80s, I have to admit, that’s certainly right up my alley. So I was excited to hear that this week BitBurner released an album full of original music that you can pick up now on iTunes. It’s fifteen tracks of ChipTune goodness, full of references to classic arcade games, all the way to the Defender style album cover. It’s a great album, and it was made in large part on iOS using apps like NanoStudio; I’d highly recommend picking up Arcade Defender – very cool music. To get you excited about the album, I’ve even included a couple of videos that showcase tracks from the album.

Are you looking for some inspiration when you’re using the iPolysix? It looks like Mee Zanook was running into the same problem and he after some experimentation, he found a solution. It looks like the arpeggiator is your one stop station for getting things going; it certainly worked for Mee. As a result, he’s got a new video that will help you get your creative juices flowing! There’s more than just some fun ideas in this video though, it’s a serious tutorial that will teach you the ins and outs of this fantastic piece of the iPolysix. At this point, we’ve come to expect great stuff on a regular basis from Mee, and he certainly doesn’t disappoint in this video. If you’re looking to become a little more familiar with the arpeggiator on the iPolysix, you’ve got to check out this video!

Speaking of the iPolysix, one of the coolest features of this powerful synth app is the ability to connect your tracks with other users through PolyShare. It’s good to know that people are listening . . . especially the folks at Korg. They’ve been checking out the tracks that come through PolyShare, and picking the cream of the crop. We’ve been hearing select “Featured Tracks” playlists from Korg, and this week, we got volume 7. There’s six awesome tracks that put iPolysix to the test – if you’re using this app, it’s a good listen to hear what it can do!

There’s a new app on the horizon from the makers of MIDI Pattern Sequencer, and it sounds pretty cool. Audio Mastering Studio sounds like a great solution to take your audio from your iOS DAW apps and shape them into a professional level piece of work. It’s created in conjunction with audio engineer Andrew Startsev, who has years of experience behind him. There’s plenty of tools for refining your audio in this app -it’s got a 10-band EQ, a stereo imager, a harmonic saturator, and a loudness maximizer. I’m excited about the potential here and can’t wait to give this one a shot. You can check out some images of the app below and get even more details HERE.

Are you looking for some more sounds to extend your work with Animoog? You’re in luck, Alba Ecstasy has a huge pack of 64 original, royalty free patches available for download on his site . . . with no charge! Alba Ecstasy has been on a role lately, delivering patches for the PPG MiniMapper, along with a stream of great sonic collection for Sunrizer Synth, Magellan, and PPG WaveGenerator. Don’t delay – this is a great deal and one that will inspire some cool stuff to come out of your Animoog work. You can download the free AE Animoog pack from Alba Esctasy HERE.

It’s a tradition around here to start the week off with some quality iOS music to inspire us to get our own music making going; while the week in news may have been a bit slow, there was certainly a stream of great music. The first track is a laid back tune with a tropical, funky vibe that I really dig from Dilab and it was created purely using the Korg iPolysix. “Mango (pure iPolysix version)” is the flip side to a single that he released called “Passion Fruit & Mango,” very cool stuff. The second piece has a bit of a darker vibe, and this one comes from GalaxyExplorer. He describes “Shadows” as a “dark cinematic soundscape soundtrack”, an apt way to frame this song; it was put together with BeatMaker 2. The last track is a moody track with some great atmospheric musicality called “Orbiter1″ from Caustic Sunshine. He uses a variety of apps to fuel the sounds in this piece, including MultiTrack DAW, Animoog, Alchemy Synth Mobile, and iElectribe. There’s lots of great stuff here, so enjoy the music and then make some of your own!

Recent iOS Music And You Posts:

iOS Music And You Podcast 010: Genome MIDI Sequencer Interview

Exploring Instruments In ThumbJam

Exploring Options On The ThumbJam Layout

iOS Music Tunes: Buon Chill by Francisco Ngyuen

Major Music App Updates This Week:

Changeling Sequencer

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iOS Music And You Podcast 010: Genome MIDI Sequencer Interview

chip — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 13:00:17 +0000

Right Click Here To Download The Podcast

Welcome to Episode #10 of the iOS Music And You Podcast, the place where we discuss making music on the iPad and iPhone! We’ve got a fantastic episode to celebrate our move into double digits that includes some inspiring music, an amazing app, a useful quick tip, and a thought provoking interview. This time around, we got an interview with developer David Wallin, who run White Noise Audio. Many of you know David’s top notch apps Genome MIDI Sequencer and bleep!BOX; he’s been in the iOS music world for a while and he’s got some great things to say.

In the first part of this episode, we check out a great track with a funky feel from Evagelos Koudonas. He’s a guitarist based in Greece and he’s dug deeply into iOS musical tools recently, consistently turning out some solid songs. On “Your Eyes (I’d Never Let You Go Away),” Evagelos uses a variety of iOS apps that include Drum Loops HD, JamUp Pro XT, GarageBand, ThumbJam, VocaLive, Audiobus, Level.24, and MultiTrack DAW. The results are fun, funky, and very progressional sounding. Evagelos has been turning out quite a few tracks so make sure that you follow him on his SoundCloud site; if you’re looking for more, you could even take a listen to his collaborative project with iOS musician Guy Beeri Mauseth called Rude-Duke!

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In next part of the show, I dig into an app that I initially shied away from, despite it’s massive reputation – the Arturia iMini. When the iMini first appeared on the App Store, the only way to really record with it was within Tabletop, a DAW that I wasn’t using at the time. A recent update added Audiobus support to the iMini as well as Virtual MIDI and now, I can’t get enough of the deep, rich, and beautiful sounds that come out of this app. In this segment, I demonstrate some of those wonderful patches, so that you can get an idea of how gorgeous the iMini actually sounds. I also go through the different screens on the interface and talk through your various options for sound design and performance using the iMini. This is an awesome synth app that certainly stands out in the crowded synth market in the App Store – I would highly recommend that you check out the iMini!

I also get into a quick tip that encourages you to take a little bit of a different perspective on one of my favorite apps, WerkBench. This creative little sampler and sequencer has long been fueling some interesting sounds captured around my house, mostly giving a percussive edge to my songs. WerkBench recently got Audiobus support through an update, and I’ve been experimenting with ways to combine it with different apps. I hope that this tip gets you thinking about things a little differently, now that we’ve got some more tools on the WerkBench . . .

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The last part of the show features an interview with developer David Wallin, the guy behind White Noise Audio. In so many ways, David offers an interesting perspective on the iOS music world, for a large part since he’s been around from the early days on iPhone music making. His first app, bleep!BOX arrived on the App Store in 2009, a little less than two years after the debut of the first iPhone. It was a very different market at that point, which David explains in the interview. As things have progressed, David has also seen MIDI progress on iOS, a fact that he employed in the creation of Genome MIDI Sequencer. Along the way, David has been a part of the Open Music App Collaboration group, that helped MIDI progress into the more organized state of Virtual MIDI that we know today. He also offers a perspective from both sides of the musical equation, having produced plug-ins for desktop music production software as well as iOS music apps. It’s a really interesting discussion that tells us a little bit of iOS music history, gets into the idea of making a great iOS music app, and digs deeply into David’s outstanding apps.

As an introduction to the White Noise Audio apps, a put together a quick song that employs David’s fantastic apps, along with some of my favorites. This song, appropriately called “Noisy Audio,” uses bleep!BOX for the drum track, while all the synths were triggered through Genome MIDI Sequencer. I utilized some of my favorite synths including Magellan, Animoog, Sunrizer Synth, and the iMini, while all of the audio was captured in BeatMaker 2.

Once you hear all the great stuff that David has to offer, you’re definitely going to want to check out:
The White Noise Audio Site
The White Noise Audio FaceBook Page
The White Noise Audio Twitter Page
The White Noise Audio SoundCloud Page

Here’s some of the apps that David Wallin mentions in the interview:

Audiobus

NanoStudio

Cubasis

JACK Audio Connection Kit

BeatMaker 2

NLogSynth PRO

DM1 – The Drum Machine

Sunrizer Synth

BassLine

MoDrum Rhythm Composer

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I hope that you enjoy this episode of the podcast . . . we’ll be back in a couple of weeks with more features to inspire your music making in episode #11! As always, the most important thing to me is that I create something useful that’s going to help the iOS music community. So, if you’ve got ideas, suggestions, or even compliments, send them my way! Thanks so much for listening, enjoy the show!

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iOS Music Tunes: Buon Chill by Francisco Ngyuen

chip — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 13:00:22 +0000

Buon Chill
Francisco Ngyuen

Tell us a little bit about the piece, including what iOS devices/app you used to bring it to life.
I used Audiobus to route all the audio. I ran Bebot, Animoog, and iPolysix through the Input slot. The Output slot ran directly to Loopy HD. The MIDI Clock from Loopy was triggering DM1, but not routing into the Audiobus app. I used Animoog for the delay sync.

This was all done on an iPad2. There are some vocals too (first time!).

Give us a little background on yourself as a musician.
I began playing the bass guitar, then I switched to the synths, sampler etc. I really like to sample songs or sounds and then modify them live in the sampler.

I’ve got a project with Tommaso Casasola called The SuperEgos. Here’s an experiment with Lorenzo Commisso using djay for iPad – check it out HERE.

Why do you use iOS devices to make music?
They are fun, mobile, and there are some really good third party apps. In my opinion, the best and most innovative one is Audiobus.

Give us a quick tip – an idea that has helped you make your iOS music making more productive, fun, inspiring, or creative.
MIDI, MIDI, MIDI! When everything is synced, playing with the iOS devices is super fun and it lets you to focus on what you are actually doing, so that you can enjoy it.

Give us a link to a place where we can hear more of your music and learn more about you.
You can find more music from Francisco Nguyen on his SoundCloud site and you can also check out the BandCamp site for his band The SuperEgos.

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Check Out More iOS Music Tunes:
iOS Music Tunes: Cut The Apron Strings by Daniel MacGregor
iOS Music Tunes: I See Laura Palmer by Fantasy Violence
iOS Music Tunes: Bunny by Shawn Dumas
iOS Music Tunes: Cold Space/Sparkling Nebula by Ozmoroz

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Are you making music on an iPad, iPhone, or iPod? Do you want to share your music with the iOS Music And You community? Beginner, intermediate, or advanced – it doesn’t matter. Just fill out a few quick questions and send me a link to your music. We’ll feature you in one of these Monday spots! Don’t hesitate – let’s hear the great work that you’ve been doing with iOS Music. Get the details HERE.

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iOS Music Weekly (4/22/13 – 4/28/13)

chip — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 13:00:44 +0000

iOS Music News Around The Internet:
It’s always exciting to see musicians venture into different directions, expanding their musicianship with new experimentations; it’s especially thrilling when its a musician that you respect greatly. This past week, Rheyne stepped into ambient music with not one, but two new videos that showcased his approach to this more open and airy style of music. It’s not a tremendously huge stretch – it’s still electronic music produced in a spontaneous jam setting; still, the very different approach to rhythm and structure showcase a different side to Rheyne. It’s nice to see that he’s still using a similar equipment set-up, running three iPads with Lemur, Animoog, and Sunrizer Synth, sitting alongside Ableton Live and a healthy dose of physical hardware. The bottom line though is that Rheyne continues to make inspiring music with integrity and class that’s well worth a listen – you can check both of them out below.

When apps just started adopting Audiobus at a blazing fast rate, there was one app that I just couldn’t wait to announce that update – my favorite iOS DAW NanoStudio. Unfortunately, that day never came; while a number of other fantastic apps were gaining Audiobus support, NanoStudio did not. In fact, I switched to MultiTrack DAW and later BeatMaker 2 in order to utilize Audiobus in a DAW setting. While I certainly missed NanoStudio, the advantages of having Audiobus on-board took preference and my favorite DAW took a backseat. This past week, I got some great news though – NanoStudio will be getting Audiobus some time in the next month or so. This is certainly a reason to rejoice – something that will make many folks happy. You can get the full scoop in this thread in the NanoStudio forums.

With so many DAW apps available and the ease of routing from one app to another through Audiobus, it seems like in-app recording tools are a bit dated. I wouldn’t say that they’re unnecessary though – it’s pretty inspiring to take a fully featured app and compose a great piece of music without switching to another screen. A recent JamUp Pro XT update provided an 8-Track Recorder, available through in-app purchase; this is one of those situations where a recording app would make a big difference. The ability to layer a number of guitars into a song is a very practical thing – while you might end up mastering or adding additional layers elsewhere, having this outlet within JamUp Pro XT is awesome. It’s actually pretty easy to use as well – a fact pointed out in this video from guitarist Derek Buddemeyer. This tutorial video walks you through the basics and gets you recording pretty quick; it’ll certainly get you inspired to check out the recorder within the app!

One of the biggest “Ah Ha” moments in music making comes when you’re able to capture a sound, a riff, or a chord from a musician that you have spent ample time hearing in your headphones. It’s kind of empowering to know that you’re doing something that your role models have done in the past, and its exciting to simply know that you can do it at all. A couple of videos came out this week that captured those types of moments in iOS music making, with folks emulating inspirational artists using iOS apps. The first video demonstrates how to produce a sound similar to that used by Muse; in order to construct this sound, YouTuber ToneNoir linked together iMini and AmpKit through Audiobus. The next video puts iFretless Bass to the test, recreating a song by a true virtuoso of the electric bass, Les Claypool. Ryan Hemeon plays the Primus bass line to the song “DMV” and actually sings . . . just like Les himself! They’re both pretty cool videos and they really make that connection between iOS apps and the artists we know and love.

We all know that music making is serious business that requires hard work, persistence, and applied creativity . . . but what’s life worth if you don’t laugh a little? There’s always a little time for silly cat videos. No, scratch that – there’s just way too many silly cat videos on the internet. Let’s rephrase that and say that there’s always time for silly videos of cats playing with Korg music apps. That’s more like it. Music making on iPads are not just for people anymore; in these two videos, we’ve got cats playing on an iKaossilator and then later on an iElectribe. Wow, never thought that I’d be saying that, but what the heck, these videos are pretty funny.

We’ve featured iOS musician Jinx Padlock quite a bit around here, with good reason – he’s doing some outstanding work with iOS apps like NanoStudio that can certainly serve as a role model for many of us. Recently, he released the first follow-up to his debut EP Colonisation, a remix of Nomean By Newborn on the Tactal Hots label. Over at iOS Musician, Sean Walker got a chance to talk with Jinx Padlock about this remix and how he went about making it. Remixing is a bit of a different art than producing a piece of music from scratch, so its interesting to hear about his perspective on the process. Jinx Padlock is an interesting artist with a lot of musical depth, so it’s a good idea to check out what he’s got to say – you can find the interview HERE.

Speaking of Jinx Padlock, he’s been quite a busy guy . . . which is good for us, because it means that we get to hear a lot of awesome electronic music made on iOS! Once again, if haven’t heard his debut EP, Colonisation, I would highly recommend it – really musical stuff that shows the potential of what you can do on an iPad or iPhone using NanoStuido. You also might want to get around to checking it out because his second EP, “Second Wave Assault” is on the way! Jinx Padlock has been kind enough to share some demos of his upcoming album with us, which you can check out below. This is another all-iOS album and the demos sound fantastic – you can check them out below.

Are you looking to expand your sonic palette on Animoog? It’s a pretty good prospect – this is such a deep and powerful synth that it’s always good to dig a little deeper and see what it can do. Jeremy Lewis, better known as Airplane Shadow online, has put together another fantastic collection of Animoog sounds, which he has made available for free download on his site. It’s a pretty diverse collection of sounds that you’ll certainly find useful, well worth checking out and integrating into your music. He’s even put together a video with samples from each patch, so that you can check them out in advance. You can find the video below, give it a listen and see what you think of the sounds; when you’re ready to download them, you can find the patches HERE.

The idea of using iPad and iPhone apps on stage is something that has been a big discussion for a while; people are certainly doing it, but along the way, we’re finding things that need slight tweaks to make iOS devices really practical for gigging. One thing that certainly is an issue in an environment where every moment counts is the ability to accurately change settings on a small screen. The folks at Positive Grid have tackled this idea with an app ideally suited for the stage – JamUp Pro XT. They’ve got a new feature on the way – JamUp Live View, which features big buttons and a customizable screen, just perfect for a gigging situation. You can check out the JamUp Live View in the picture below and hopefully you’ll be seeing it in an upcoming update very soon!

A variety of useful tutorial videos appeared online this week, some from companies hoping to help you with their apps, and others from individuals sharing their specialities with you. The folks at IK Multimedia recently updated SampleTank to support Audiobus, which I think we would all agree is a good thing. In order to help out new users to both apps, they put together a nice tutorial video that walks through the process of running SampleTank audio into other apps. While we’re discussing IK Multimedia, it’s good to note that they also delivered a second video in their series on using AmpliTube along with Audiobus. Mee Zanook has been on a role for weeks now, turning out a wide range of very useful videos that put a number of Korg apps in different situations. He’s got a fantastic series that walks you through the use of the iMS-20 for creating sound effects – this week, we got a great video that shows you how to make a motorcycle effect. In one last tutorial video, there’s a pretty good look at a new but increasingly popular DJ app, Traktor DJ from Native Instruments. It walks you through tempo, loops, master effects, EQs, and filters. There’s a wealth of good information in these videos, well worth taking some time to watch!

We’ve got a tradition of starting the week off with a healthy dose of iOS music, and we have no shortage of inspiring videos and clips to get us making music this time around. Earlier in this round-up, we were showing some respect for Rheyne’s healthy step outside his comfort zone into the world of ambient music; well, it turns out that he was doing a lot more than that this week. In addition to turning out two ambient music videos, he released not one, but two additional live jams, number 76 and 77. It’s the same great stuff that we’ve come to expect from Rheyne, using some iOS apps of course; in this case, he’s using Sunrizer Synth and Lemur. We also got a new track from Refracted Memories, the collaborative group that consists of guitarist Jack Morefield and iOS musician Michael Wadlow. Their latest release, “The Story Ends . . .” utilizes a number of apps, including Alchemy Synth Mobile, Sunrizer Synth, studio.HD, and NanoStudio. Don’t forget, if you want to get the inside scoop on Michael’s music making, check out episode 3 and episode 4 of the podcast. The next song comes from Mee Zanook, and its another great example of putting Korg apps to the test. In “White Chip,” Mee uses the KORG iPolysix to put together the full song, and it really comes together into something nice. The last track is a bit of fun, but its also something that’s on all of our minds. There’s got to be one app that we all just love, and that is . . . Audiobus! So we need an anthem, a theme song, a dedication to our love for this app, and that’s what we’ve got in “Audiobus Jingle Type Thing” from The SoundTestRoom, put together with Cubasis, WaveMapper, SampleTank, and of course, Audiobus. There’s a serious helping of good iOS music here, so check it out and get some inspiration for your next creation – enjoy!