iPhoning It In

Jun 1, 2009 12:00 PM, By Mike Levine

           
 

MUSIC APPS ARE PLENTIFUL FOR THE IPHONE AND IPOD TOUCH—BUT WHICH ONES ARE WORTH BUYING?

FIG. 5: The Sequencer window in iSyn offers intutitive operation and flashy graphics.

iSyn (V. 1; $4.99) is an impressive new app that arrived on the market just as I was finishing this story. It gives you two monophonic synth tracks and a drum track that can be programmed into patterns on a grid-style sequencer with a slick-looking interface (see Fig. 5). You can store up to 32 patterns per Project, and up to 32 Projects all told. There are eight drum kits (mostly electronic) and 32 synth patches available, and you can tweak, program, and save your own sounds. Each synth has three oscillators, a lowpass filter, and an amp/distortion module. Either phaser, flanger, chorus, or delay can be added to each track. Other features include an X/Y controller that provides you with additional real-time control options and Live mode, which gives you either a keyboard to play the synth sound or a swirly looking, 8-pad drum controller. The drum pads have a bit too much latency to be really useful, however.

If you're looking for a programmable app that emulates the classic Roland TR-808 and 909 drum machines, and the TB-303 bass synth, you'll love TechnoBox (V. 1.9, AudioRealism; $9.99). It does a good job of emulation and has a deep programming interface.

BtBx (V. 1.1, Pure Profit; $3.99) is a very flexible app with a step-sequencer interface that gives a sampled electronic drum kit, synth basses, trumpet, percussion, and keyboard. Each sound can be reversed on any sequence step and can have its volume, cut-off frequency, and resonance adjusted. There are also simple distortion and delay effects available for each sound. You can store up to 16 patterns.

For a nice array of good-sounding electronic drum samples, try IR-909 (V. 1, roventskij; $4.99). It has a Roland-style step-sequencer through which you can trigger sampled kits from the TR-909, 808, 707, and 606 drum machines, among others. You can edit several sound parameters and store up to four patterns.

Randgrid Synthesizer and Drum Machine (Retrolink HB; $7.99) provides another take on pattern programming for electronic drums and bass synth. It's feature-rich, but its user interface is vexing.

Control Freaks

If your computer has wireless connectivity or is hardwired onto a wireless network, there are a number of apps that allow you to control your DAW or MIDI plug-in.

FIG. 6: Far Out Labs’ ProTransport lets you turn your iPhone or iPod touch into a remote DAW-transport controller.

ProTransport (V. 1.0.3, Far Out Labs; $7.99; see Fig. 6) handles a variety of transport functions for Ableton Live, Digidesign Pro Tools, and Apple Logic and Soundtrack Pro. To make it work, you must first download and install the free ProRemote Control application for your Mac (Windows is not supported). In Pro Tools, you can you control transport features including scrub and shuttle, and you can also zoom the timeline and jump to and add markers. In the rest of the supported DAWs, the transport functions work fine, but, depending on the DAW, some of the other features don't work. Still, for $7.99, you get remote transport control, which is a heck of a deal. If you want to get even more serious, Far Out Labs also makes ProRemote (V. 1.0.3, $99.99) and ProRemote Light Edition (V. 1.0.3, $35.99), which combine transport functions with channel-strip control of 32 and eight channels, respectively, for the same supported DAWs.

Another controller solution is ITM MCU (V. 1.0.7, Silicon Studios; $5.99), which gives you eight channel strips with volume, mute, solo, and record-enable, as well as transport controls. It supports Ableton Live and Mackie Tracktion, officially, but also works with Apple Logic and MOTU Digital Performer. Additional functionality for Live users includes separate Clip and Scene launching and navigation controls. You need to run the iTouchMidi MCU software (a free download) on your Mac or Windows machine to make it work. The virtual buttons respond very nicely, but the faders can be difficult to engage. According to the developers, this problem was introduced on a recent OS update and will be addressed on the next update of ITM MCU (which should be out by the time you read this).

FIG. 7: SPL from Studio Six Digital turns your iPhone (or iPod touch with an external mic) into a fully featured decibel meter.

Silicon Studios also makes remote MIDI-control apps that run with its iTouchMidi OSX or iTouchMidi Win software (which are free downloads). There are several available, but my favorite is ITM Keys (V. 1.2.1, $5.99), which gives you a MIDI keyboard that, although not velocity sensitive in the conventional sense, does output different velocities depending on how high (vertically) your finger strikes a particular key. Interestingly, latency is not a major problem with ITM's MIDI controllers, especially compared to many iPhone instrument apps.

Feed the Meter

While many iPhone software developers try to balance utility and entertainment value, Studio Six Digital has taken a decidedly more serious approach with apps that cater to the engineering side of music production. One that's very handy is SPL (V. 1.4, $5.99; see Fig. 7), which is a full-featured decibel meter that uses the iPhone's built-in mic or an external one. Studio Six Digital also makes the lower-priced SPL Meter (V. 1, $0.99), which is designed to emulate a familiar, budget-priced, analog decibel meter from a popular electronics-store chain.