best iOS/android music productions apps

[DrastikMeazures]

Anyone tried DXi? If you can't tell from the name it's an FM synth similar to Yamaha's DX range. What I'm really looking for are the kind of growling digital basses I can get with NI's FM8, not sure if this little guy will be capable of such sounds,or if I'll be stuck in Brian Eno land. It's only two bucks, so if I don't get any feedback on this one I'll be the guinea pig.

Oh by the way if you want a good laugh read the App Store reviews of an app called SkrillX, full of broken english rave reviews and broken dreams.

[alphacat]

Re: DXi - well, right off the bat you're talking about an iPhone app emulation of an 80's FM synth; FM8 has way more features, esp. filter/dsp stuff built in.

However the DXi app is actually remarkably good, especially for the price - you can get some growl and some cool sounds out of it for sure, but would probably have to use postsignal FX to really get something remotely comparable.

[DrastikMeazures]

Thanks alphacat, Yeah it's amazing how quickly I've gone from not even knowing most of these apps exist to expecting these things to replicate my whole studio.

Think I'll give DXi a try though, I'm trying to avoid having a half dozen VA's, looking to have a diverse selection of synthesis. So far my list goes,..Animoog, Sunrizer xs, FunkBox, and Addictive Micro, which I just got yesterday.

Mostly got this one A. because it supports the SynthStaion 25, B. It's additive synthesis, so not another VA, C. Made by VirSyn and I liked the Tera demo I tried a few years ago. Haven't had any time to play with it though.

[alphacat]

This seems to be a pretty comprehensive list of every everything available as far as iOS music making apps...

http://www.idesignsound.com/apps/ios-audio/

The sidebar showing price drops/specials is pretty cool too.

[alphacat]

Addictive synth is alright - sound is pretty fat, and when you slow down the arp and crank the swing you can get cool instant reggae basslines...



So some updates that are interesting:

1) There's an app called Audiobus in the works that'll perform realtime audio routing between apps - so you can actually play your part into another app instead of using audio copy/paste or general pasteboard. (http://audiob.us/) Could be a gamechanger...

2) NodeBeat, a cool generative node-based app for beats and melodies, is going to support MIDI soon - meaning you'll be able to control other apps that support MIDI with it. Should be interesting.

[Elkie]

Not much about for the Android platform, anyone got any suggestions?

My contract is about up, looking at the Galaxy Nexus for the big screen but that's not much use without some nice music making apps to twiddle!
Had a quick mess with Supreme MPA but all these synths you iphone guys are going on about is making me think twice...

[AJGR]

Not much about for the Android platform, anyone got any suggestions?

My contract is about up, looking at the Galaxy Nexus for the big screen but that's not much use without some nice music making apps to twiddle!
Had a quick mess with Supreme MPA but all these synths you iphone guys are going on about is making me think twice...

my advice is get an iPhone!

Android has nanoloop which is one of my favorites on iPhone too.

what I like on iPhone;

nano studio
nanoloop
ikaossilator
touchOSC
Animoog

[DrastikMeazures]

Not much about for the Android platform, anyone got any suggestions?

I was just talking about this with a friend of mine, why aren't the app developers porting for the android platform? I don't know anything about coding for these devices, so maybe it's not as simple as porting. I was thinking it has something to do with apples coremidi protocol, maybe the droid devices don't have anything similar, but then there are a couple of music apps for droid so what gives?

Anyway if you don't want to switch providers and have a couple hundred bucks to blow on an MP3 player you could go for the ipod touch. Although the ipad is actually the device with the most synth apps available.

[alphacat]

re: Why there aren't more musicmaking apps for Android -

Based on what I've been reading, it comes down to a single factor: latency. The iPhone from version 3 onwards has < 60 ms latency, which is not bad, even in the world of dedicated audio hardware. Android, by comparison, has something around 300 ms of latency just out of the box, and that tanks further when the device has memory or processor bottlenecks. This makes it unacceptable for most anybody thinking about using it as a live musical interface and compromises the experience of anybody using it just for shits and giggles, with stuff like synthesis being noticeably laggy.

The Google people know about this and while it's serious enough to get mentioned it still hasn't been fixed years on now.

More on this...

http://www.synthtopia.com/content/2012/ ... -platform/

http://www.rossbencina.com/code/dave-sp ... le-io-2011

http://www.synthtopia.com/content/2011/ ... oid-phone/

That said, I've played with the Caustic app for Android (http://causticapp.blogspot.com/) and it's alright. Reminds me a bit of Propellerheads stuff. NodeBeat is also available for Android.

There's definitely more/better on iPhone (and I'm not a fan of Apple in general, but will acknowledge the reality of the situation.) Ironically a lot of what's available for iPhone is either buggy or useless though... much like Windows freeware & cheapware.

When you start counting only the apps that support either AudioCopy/Paste or general Pasteboard - so you can get the sounds from the app making the sounds into a recording or sampling app - the selection thins drastically. There's a lot of stupid little noisemaker apps that might entertain you for a couple minutes and then make you say "why the hell did I just pay $1.99 for that?!"

An iPhone with Nanostudio, Alchemy and Sunrizer XS, NLog, and/or Addictive = a solid mobile music production platform with all the basics - beats, sampling, synthesis.

[DrastikMeazures]

There's definitely more/better on iPhone (and I'm not a fan of Apple in general, but will acknowledge the reality of the situation.)

I've been meaning to express the same sentiment about Apple in this thread, as up to now I'm sure I've come across as a bit of a fan boy.
But I'm a PC through and through, and this is only the second ipod I've owned, and both have been gifts that I didn't ask for. That being said they are nice mp3 players, and I'm obviously a fan of the added functionality the apps add.

But I do defiantly place my apple sticker upside down on my tool box at work.

[alphacat]

Yeah, there's MANY things I can cite about why I hate Apple, but... when I allowed my dislike for them to overshadow good judgement and picked a Blackberry 9000 instead of an iPhone a couple years ago, I paid for it. The Blackberry makes Android look like a fuckin' Protools machine when it comes to music production.
_______________________________


FREE APP ALERT:

Hexaphone is free today.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/hexaphon ... 77215?mt=8

[alphacat]

Question:

Anybody tried Grain Science by Wooji Juice?

[DrastikMeazures]

Haven't seen that one yet.

Just checked it out, definately at the top of my wish list now.

[vertex]

Question:

Anybody tried Grain Science by Wooji Juice?

Do a YouTube search on it.

There are a few good reviews on there, in fact I'm tempted to pick it up myself

[alphacat]

Cassini (from the makers of Argon & Xenon) is out... and while it's a little clunky in spots, it's also really warm sounding and the controls are pretty deep.



Well worth $2.99 imo.

http://itunes.apple.com/app/cassini-syn ... 79081?mt=8#

[alphacat]

Could be useful - and it's free now:

Backline Calc (iPhone)

Backline Calc is a full-featured musical calculator built exclusively for iPhone and iPod touch, brought to you by the minds at Audiofile Engineering. Combining powerful, elegant and uncluttered audio utilities with unparalleled technical support, Audiofile Engineering is one of the most innovative and experienced audio software developers for Mac OS X and the revolutionary iPhone.

Backline Calc is an indispensable utility for engineers, musicians, music students and teachers, producers, DJs, video and broadcast engineers and live sound engineers. Backline Calc is iAd-supported and contains 23 easy-to-use calculators:

Length

Note Length

Timecode

Frames to Timecode

Files

File Size

Length

Bar Length
Song Length
Beats to Tempo
Time to Samples
Compare Tempos
Change Tempo
Sum Times
Subtract Times

Pitch

Note Name to…
MIDI Note to…
Frequency to…
Wavelength to…

Timecode

Convert Timecode
Change Timecode

Electric

Compare Power
Compare Voltage

Acoustics

Distance to Time
Time to Distance
Sound Pressure Level (SPL)
Panning

Usage Note: You can tap a value (eg. BPM) to manually enter it.

from: http://www.idesignsound.com/backline-calc-iphone/

[Static D0gma]

I use:


> Nanostudio
> iMS-20
> Garageband
> Touch DJ Evo

Now, I just use Nanostudio.
I actually only produce on my iPad2 . At least until I'm able to afford a laptop, and either Reaper, Albeton, or Reason.

[alphacat]

New one:

Glitchbreaks.

Anybody got it yet?

[nowaysj]

Looks pretty cool.

[Lectric]

Africa Hitech used iSyn in a lot of their tracks on the 93 million miles album. Like, a LOT of them.