music apps?

[mickomoo]

How do you guys feel about using music apps to help in the music creating, composing, or even producing process? Anyone use music apps on any iOS or other portable devices and have any recommendations?

Personally, I downloaded like several, some DAWs, but recently I've been using chordbot seriously.

[LegendaryPossum]

If you have an iOS device, I'd recommend an app called Music Studio:

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/music-studio/id328608539?mt=8

It's a portable DAW with extensive sequencing capabilities and really nice samples (for the price). It costs $15, plus $15 more to unlock all the hidden instruments. It's actually the exact same build as FL Studio Mobile (that program is just a reskin of this one), but Music Studio is updated more frequently, with more relevant features.

If you want to take portable production further, You can add an iRig to attach your iPod Touch, iPhone, or iPad to an external microphone and record audio directly into Music Studio:

http://www.amazon.com/IK-Multimedia-IP-IRIG-PLG-IN-AmpliTube-iRig/dp/B003T1WCBW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1340126636&sr=8-1&keywords=irig

I also recommend the Akai Synthstation 25. It's a MIDI keyboard controller that has a charging dock for your iPod, and velocity sensitive mini-keys so you can record precise MIDI data right into the program:

http://www.amazon.com/Akai-SYNTHSTATION25-25-Key-Keyboard-Controller/dp/B0038YX3C2/ref=sr_1_cc_1?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1340126721&sr=1-1-catcorr&keywords=synthstation

Hope that helps!

[bizcaus]

If you're looking for a sweet midi controller with unlimited customization, then you can't go wrong with lemur. It can be difficult for beginners to program for though so do some research before buying it.

[theshaggyfreak]

Here's my two iOS favs:

Animoog - one of the coolest synths out there.

Figure - This is more like a little doodling app that you can create some really quick little beats with. It's rather fun to use.

Here's a great little honorable mention that goes to the same guy who did the DS-10 and such.

I am Synth - This is a fun little app to explore subtractive synthesis with. It's interface is pretty quick to get used to. It's a simple app but I think those are some of the best.

[Frederic Petitpas]

Figure is awesome.

NanoStudio works fine.

But yeah, making music on an iPod isn't the greatest experience,

[Arcana]

In many cases the iPad/iPhone is just another softsynth. I have some synths for it but it doesn't integrate too well into my workflow and I don't have any of the audio docks that would make it integrate better.

Korg iMS-20. Really cool and faithful reproduction of the Korg MS-20 monophonic, semi-modular synthesizer.

Korg iElectribe. A re-creation of the Korg Electribe. If I got a MIDI-Out for iPad this would be the first thing I'd use with it.

Camel Alchemy. One of the best performance-oriented synths for iPad IMO, with keys, knobs, and two touchpads.

Rebirth is, well, Rebirth. You get a rack with two TB-303s, an 808 and a 909. It's extremely cool and if you're talented you can make entire songs with it, but trying to program patterns using a TB-303 made my head hurt.

iMaschine is okay but doesn't work so well for my style. Great if you're into sampling though since you can grab sounds from the mic and play it back into the loop.

MiniSynth Pro: It's basically a subtractive synthesizer but the UI makes it too hard to switch between pages to tweak things.

If you're more into using the iPad as a controller, I've used TouchOSC (it's okay) and there's a whole app suite by some guys named iControl for various hardware synthesizers.