Music Apps on iPhone...

Comments

• djdiscord

  July 2008 edited 3:22AM

  Those apps don't really impress me. Beatmaker's interface looks a lot nicer than those imho. Softsynths don't sound very good unless they are rockin some serious DSP, and even then, samples can smash all over them if you get some good samples.
  
  The only things I see in those apps that I'd like to see on Beatmaker is filters, reverb, automation, attack and decay and the ability to pitch samples as they play. I can't imagine that those features won't eventually make it into Beatmaker, I have a program for gameboy that can do all those things (LSDJ of course, the interface sucks, but it shows that all of these things can be done with relatively minimal processing power, with the possible exception of reverb).
• ToLTeK

  July 2008 edited 3:22AM

  Honestly, You can't be serious... Just because it is pretty (nice interface), doesn't mean it's good, does it..?!
  ... and what about this..? (scroll all the way down 3-rd video clip) <!-- s;) --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_wink.gif" alt=";)" title="Wink" /><!-- s;) -->
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  This is just a silly little Nintendo DS, BTW;
  Now that we've got that out of the way, what I'd like to see in the next revision of BeatMaker is:
  1. Some kind of bass instrument...
  2. Melody based instrument...
  3. Strings, Choirs, Pads of sorts would be nice as well...
  4. Filters with resonance...
  The question is - Is iPhone hardware capable of all of this..? I'm pretty sure that iNtua programmers are...
• Tarekith@Gmail.com

  July 2008 edited 3:22AM

  Check out Bhajis Loops as well for the Palm platform, full audio and midi export, synths, samples, very powerful.
  
  <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.chocopoolp.com/bj_index.php">http://www.chocopoolp.com/bj_index.php</a><!-- m -->
• djdiscord

  July 2008 edited 3:22AM

  You are misinterpreting my semantics. When I said "Beatmaker's interface looks a lot nicer than those," I meant function wise (it does look better aesthetically as well though which isn't a bad thing). I chose the word "looks" because I haven't actually used the programs, I am just going off of the way the pictures "look." I've been using computers to make music since the eighties and I have a pretty decent idea of the features and functionality of a program based on screen shots.
  
  Looking at that video, other than the interface and the filters, there's not much that is different about that program from any decent sequencer and some MS-10 samples. It's cool that you can change patches and reroute the signal path, but being that the sound engine is on a DS, it's probably going to sound about as good or worse than the hundreds of other MS-10 clones out there (i.e., not that good). I'd rather use some good MS-10 samples with an internal filter personally. I also like the wireless MIDI sync, but I'm sure that could be (and likely will be) implemented relatively easily on the iphone.
  
  With the exception of filters and resonance, all of the features you'd like to see are there if you put in some work. It's a sampler! You want a bass? Get some bass sounds and sample them in at different pitches. You want pads? Get some pad samples. That way you are not sonically limited by some program that either generates an unrealistic acoustic instrument sound (or even an unrealistic emulation of a real synth) as synths generally do, or uses samples in exactly the same way you would with a sampler, but doesn't allow for much variation in sound (like most "romplers"). The only thing that would be different with a dedicated instrument is a fancier looking interface, a lack of flexibility if it was a rompler (for example, if you couldn't load your own sounds into the instrument), a crappy tone if it was a virtual modeled synth, and probably a bit less stability on the whole system.
  
  The only limitation I can see is that Beatmaker only allows for 16 samples to be loaded, which makes it a bit hard to do, say, several multi-pitched instruments and drums all at the same time, but the amount of samples that can be used will probably increase with future updates.
• jason7

  July 2008 edited 3:22AM

  i used griff on my PDF and it was great. Virtual synths and all that. This can be done for sure on the iphone/ipod because it is much more powerful.