We all know that the iPad is great for consuming media, but what about creating it? Both the iPad and iPad 2 are fantastic tools for music creation, offering diverse and powerful tools to musicians. Ever since the App Store first launched, there’s been a remarkable subculture surrounding the development of music creation apps for iOS. Writing and performing music with iDevices is no longer simply a novelty. Jordan Rudess of the progressive metal band Dream Theater has not only incorporated iDevices into his live rig, but he’s also helped design a few different apps himself, including MorphWiz and SampleWiz. He also often promotes apps he had no part in creating and, though I’m no prog rock superstar, I’m going to let you know about some music apps that I think are really interesting. I’ve also recorded a short (or long, in the case of ThumbJam) demonstration of each app.
Symphony Pro - $14.99
There are more than a few ways to make a piece of music with your iPad, but apps like Apple’s Garage Band are more geared towards production than composition, even if there’s only a fine line between the two. Symphony Pro, on the other hand, is the premier composition app on the App Store. If you find yourself on the string-quartet end of the music-maker spectrum, Symphony Pro is a great sketchpad for working out ideas in that context.
It’s got more import and export options than you can shake a conductor’s baton at, and all of the most important tools for composing are included. More importantly, they’re easily accessed by Symphony Pro’s excellent interface. The app is not perfect, however. The export options, though varied, currently aren’t satisfactory. Exporting to a sound file doesn’t result in the same sound you get when playing back your song in the app. This app also assumes a certain skill set, and I don’t see someone making electronic music with this app.
SunVox - $4.99
I do, however, see people making electronic music with SunVox, as that’s exactly what it is exceptional at. SunVox has been on virtually every other platform imaginable, but its presence on iOS is no less welcome in light of that. SunVox may look more like a spreadsheet than anything else, but it’s actually a tremendously powerful audio synthesis program.
If you’re used to counting in hexadecimals and you love NES-style blips, beeps, and bloops, there’s just nothing comparable to SunVox on the App Store. The interface will seem impenetrable for the uninitiated, but trackers like SunVox are honestly much more accessible than they appear. Even though I won’t pretend to be an expert at using it, I can still tell that SunVox is easily one of the most versatile apps for making music with your iPad.
TNR-i - $19.99
While SunVox has a very intimidating interface, TNR-i is nearly the opposite. There may be no easier way to make reasonably good-sounding music, regardless of platform. TNR-i is the iOS adaptation of the Yamaha Tenori-On, a piece of hardware designed by Toshio Iwai, who some of you may know from his work in the game industry (Sound Fantasy, Electroplankton). The Tenori-On and its iOS counterpart are made up of a 16x16 grid of buttons (virtual ones, in this case), as well as some more buttons in the periphery for changing instruments, tracks, and other parameters.
At $19.99, TNR-i seems pretty expensive, but if you’re interested in making electronic music, it’s a really rewarding piece of software. Its price also compares very favorably to a physical Tenori-On, which will cost you at least $699 new. It may look like it’s simply a step sequencer, but it has functions that are much more interesting than that. You can easily create really dynamic polyrhythmic patterns, and the 256 patches included in the app are diverse and useful. The only thing I don’t like about TNR-i is that the different multi-layered loops you create, called Blocks, can only be switched manually. It’d be nice to be able to arrange a song within TNR-i, but it does seem to be designed with performance in mind.
SoundPrism - Free (with premium options)
SoundPrism is an app I downloaded for my iPod Touch a long time ago. It’s free, which is one of the many good reasons to give it a look, but it also means that I wasn’t originally invested in understanding it. It has a very odd interface, at least at first glance. I didn’t really get it, so I deleted it from my iDevice at the time and only gave it another chance recently while looking at apps for this feature.
Boy, am I glad I did. It’s easily one of the most compelling performance-oriented apps available. Its interface takes some getting used to, but it’s a totally inspired and fresh way of creating music. It’s great for solo performance, and its functionality (which is already impressive in the free version) is easily expanded by purchasing new synth patches or buying SoundPrism Pro, which-- among other features-- includes the ability to use the app as a MIDI controller.
ThumbJam - $6.99
ThumbJam was one of the first truly impressive iOS music apps that I ever downloaded. Its functionality is somewhat similar to SoundPrism, but the interface is much easier to wrap your head around quickly. It was great on the pocket-sized iDevices and it’s even better on the iPad.
Recording loops to jam against is easy and fun, while the larger screen and increased number of touches make the usability shoot through the roof. Improvising with ThumbJam is a total breeze, as you can simply pick any of the dozens of scales included (ranging from pentatonic scales to Indian ragas) and never play out of key. It’s got a nice selection of sounds to use, and you can create your own, too. Like SoundPrism, you can use ThumbJam to control external devices via MIDI (or OSC). There are no mysteries with this app, though, just a lot of fun to be had.
Hopefully at least one of these apps seems like something you could use to get more out of your iPad. It’s worth mentioning that I was originally going to include Seline HD on this list, but it’s extremely glitchy in iOS 5. My editor and I tried getting in touch with the publisher (Amidio), but we didn't receive a response regarding an update. Hopefully it will get fixed soon and can be included in my next music-app feature.
If there are any iPad music apps you love and use, be sure to let me know in the comments section!
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So the unanswered question:
If you are a game developer looking to create cheap (but quality) tunes on the go with your device so that you can use it in a title later on, and you have never synthesized music before and have no clue how to start, what should you go with? Recommendations?
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