Electronic music has proved that it’s here to stay. These days, everyone and their grandma is a DJ, and people aren’t satisfied with just mixing anymore: they want to create.
Just as the days of the camera/phone ushered in a new era of popularized photography and videography, so too are music programs allowing enthusiasts to bypass the years of training normally required to produce something that is both interesting and professional. With lush graphic displays and automatic harmonizing capabilities, music production apps allow anyone with a smartphone or tablet to take the reins and start stitching sounds together.
Sure, the purists will bemoan the inevitable wave of junk that is sure to come from such a proliferation of production technology, but many people point to the fact that someone whose interest is sparked by a 2-dollar app may decide that music is their passion, and become the next big, influential artist of tomorrow. In any case, many of the best apps are difficult to find so we compiled them into one convenient list. Here are some of the best-made music production apps on the App Store today.
Beatwave
This simple app is a great tool for those who want to play around with sound. It’s so simple, in fact, that it makes a great children’s app as well. The interface is a grid of glowing squares. Tap a square, and it makes a noise, or ‘beat.’ The ‘wave’ is a bar that scrolls from left to right, and as it reaches the squares you touch, they release their sounds. Link sounds together and you’ll have a catchy melody in no time. The basic version is free, and 8 bucks will get you expanded possibilities, allowing for increasingly complex levels of song production.
Korg iKaossilator
The Kaossilator synth has been around for years, an easy touch-based tool that brought a surprising range of synth capabilities to the fingertips of even the most amateur of users. Now that the iPad popularized the touchscreen, the iKaossilator is available as an app. It’s a surprisingly effective visual setup, one that allows users to select a preset and manipulate its tone along a vertical and horizontal access, as well as loop it over and over again to create a song.
Musyc
This app is a playful twist on music making. Instead of directly choosing the music by manipulating specific preset options, users play a game with a variety of shapes that bounce around and ricochet off of walls and each other. By manipulating the environment in which the shapes bounce, users create sonic landscapes, full of cascading notes and constantly changing rhythms.
Propellerhead Figure
The Propellerhead app allows users to play with a simple bass, lead, and drum machine anywhere they are, at any time. Users have only a few elements at their disposal, but by constant manipulation, they can jam out wherever they are. The elegance of the design makes this app especially powerful, as fans can get a taste for some of the most basic looping functions that are utilized by professional DJs.
Any mobile-based music production app will at most serve as an auxiliary to a more established system. However, the importance of such technologies go far beyond their immediate use. These apps can introduce young people to the world of music production, acting as a catalyst for more serious study and creativity. In that sense, the possibilities are endless.
