AppCraver » Music

MyPlaylists: Control How You Listen to Your Music

Barbara Holbrook — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 18:19:23 +0000

In spite of Apple’s rumblings about duplicating functionality, every so often an app squeezes by that seems remarkably similar to the built-in apps that come installed on every iPhone.

MyPlaylists is one of those apps. The app plays music and lets you browse your music library to create new playlists. The big difference between MyPlaylists and the iPod app already installed is that users can create unlimited new playlists — rather than one very limited “on-the-go” playlist.

It’s a straightforward process — how hard can it be to build a list of favorite songs. Use MyPlaylists to create a brand new playlist or import and modify a previously-made playlist from your library. You’ll have access to all the songs in your library and can add or delete them from the current list by tapping the +/- button. Making a new set in MyPlaylists works much the same way as creating an On-the-Go playlist.

You can play your new playlist by tapping any song to start the music, just like in Apple’s iPod app. Once the music starts, the difference between MyPlaylists and the built-in iPod is nearly undetectable. You can set your songs to shuffle or repeat and use all of the tools you’re used to because the music is playing through the built-in iPod. Your new playlist will even continue playing after you quit the app.

MyPlaylists doesn’t offer much in the way of innovation. Anyone familiar with iTunes, iPods and iPhones likely knows how to create a playlist. There’s nothing cutting edge about creating them with MyPlaylists.

The big deal with MyPlaylists is that it offers the ability to edit your current playlists while away from your computer. Also, while users are limited to a single “On-the-Go” playlist, MyPlaylists lets music fans create as many new playlists as they want. For folks that keep a lot of music on their phone, there’s a certain amount of freedom in being able to mix up a quick set whenever the mood strikes.

The big downside is that music sets created in MyPlaylists are only available from within the app. They won’t sync with iTunes and can’t be chosen from within the iPod app. This isn’t a big deal most of the time. But if you do happen to create the perfect playlist, you’ll have to do it again in iTunes if you want to listen to it on your computer.

Graphically, MyPlaylists is “pretty ok.” Again, it’s nearly identical to using the built-in iPod Library — except for a spelling error on one of the buttons. Using this app will feel familiar and there’s virtually no learning curve.

Whether or not you need MyPlaylists is a personal choice. I like the musical freedom of creating multiple playlists on-the-go and the ability to quickly delete that one NSFW song from my otherwise awesome playlist. If these are features that you find yourself needing then it’s easily worth a few bucks.

(*Editor’s note: MyPlaylists is currently on sale for $0.99. So, if you’re on the fence buy it now.)

app_name: MyPlaylists
rating: 7/10

Xewton Music Studio is a Beast — and We Mean it in the Best Possible Way

James Johnson — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 19:00:45 +0000

Lets start with the bad news, Xewton Music Studio is a $20 iphone application. That is a lot of money on a platform that offers an almost infinite amount of free and under $2 apps. That being said this thing is a beast and in a world that seems to be in a drunken race to the bottom, I will gladly stand on the top and give Xewton my hard earned 20 bucks.

One of the best aspects of this music studio app is the sounds quality — this baby purrs. The dare I say brilliant sound quality really shines when mixing a track with one of the 21 instruments included in the app. Another very cool feature is the ability to transfer and save your work through wi-fi, this simple but rather important feature gives Zewton a very real usefulness — especially for those composing on the run (you know who I am talking about out there).

All of this plus the fact that you can play or record two different instruments at the same time makes Xewton Music Studio a relatively expensive app for the common folk but a borderline must-have for anyone with a musical ear. There we’ve said it., this app is not for the “casual musician.” Xewton Music Studio is advanced, robust, complex and full of moving parts.

If you are a professional — or hard-core amateur — musician that needs a portable music studio for on-the-spot audio production, then you know that $20 is a gift. These stats may not mean much to the rest of us, but pros will appreciate the lengthy features list direct from the developer:

Photo-realistic, dynamically configurable 85-key keyboard
Professionally sampled instruments — studio recorded, 16bit, 44kHz from real instruments
Release and attack time configurable per instru
Sustain samples
4 real-time effects with lots of parameters
Reverb, delay, 3-band equalizer, amplifier
128-track sequencer
Per-track mute, solo, effect bus, pan and volume adjustment
Select, move, copy, delete, repeat, transpose whole measures
Draw and edit notes (move, transpose, velocity, etc)
Save, load and export your songs to wave

If you’re on the road to stardom, remember this: Nothing says Rock Star like a music studio in your pocket. Check out the video demo to see Xewton Music Studio in action.

app_name: Xewton Music Studio
rating: 9/10

Create Your Own Groove With Jamble Music Mashups

Barbara Holbrook — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 17:00:41 +0000

Some of us march to the beat of a different drummer. Others dance down the street to a mashed up mix of sound loops and international hit song samples. If you belong to the second camp then Jamble Music Mashups is a simple app that will satisfy your need to blend music styles on the go.

Even before you’ve finished reading the 3-line instructions, Jamble Music Mashups will have you sounding like a professional audio mixologist. Tap a clip to start the beat, continue tapping album covers to add or remove clips as the music plays.

I enjoy a good beat, but I have zero instrumental training. Using the point-and-mix interface with the 24 included sample tracks, Jamble still managed to pump out a rockin’ groove in spite of my limited amount of soul.

For mash-up authenticity, loops include a pretty broad range of musical styles. If you do happen to find a song you don’t recognize, you can switch to the loop info page for the details and a link to buy the song (if available) on iTunes. Here is a short list of included track in Jamble Music Mashups:

The Pussycat Dolls – When I Grow Up
Kardinal Offishall – Dangerous (feat Akon)
Gorillaz – Feel Good Inc.
Dirty Vegas – Days go By
David Bowie – Fashion
Boys Don’t Cry – I Wanna Be A Cowboy
Georgio Moroder – The Chase
A Skillz and Krafty Cuts – Come Alive Now

24 loops sounds substantial, but I was quickly ready to add to my repertoire. Jamble says that additional loop packs will be available soon. Jamble Loop Packs will cost $4.99 for 16 additional tracks.

Jamble Music Mashups is lots of fun and a very promising start for an app with built-in growth. The only obvious omission is a way to save and share your Jambles. Enjoy the music while it’s playing because once it’s over it’s gone. The folks at No Robots Interactive say that this features is “high on our wish list.” I agree.

With save and share and additional loops, Jamble Music Mashup will be a rock star app. Until then, it’s still worthy of a download, but it’s more of an opening act.

rating: 7/10
app_name: Jamble Music Mashups

Innovative Dub Siren Mixes Reggae and Sound Effects

Michael Alexander — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 22:00:39 +0000

Dub Siren is one of the most innovative music apps I’ve seen to make it into the App Store in a long time. And that’s coming from someone who isn’t even capable of using the app to its fullest!

With some 55,750 apps in stock, sifting through the inventory to find the gems is getting harder all the time. Then, along comes Dub Siren, which streams music from some of the top Reggae, Dub and DubStep Internet radio stations and allows you to interactively mix music with a wide variety of Reggae effects like horns, beeps, boops and many other sound samples.

Until now, these effects have been exclusive to the professional disc jocks, according to Sawa Digital, the developer. I’m not sure about that, but what I do know is this app is a neat sound effects maker.

Dub Siren has two modes: Dub Mode, modeled after ’70s classic analog synth and Dancehall Mode, which includes popular sound effects used by Reggae DJs today. Switching from one mode to the other is as simple as tilting your iPhone or iPod touch between landscape and portrait modes.

The app has several other features — too numerous to mention — such as faders for volume, pitch, speed and depth. In addition you have the option to select one of three wave effects: sine, square and saw. None of this will make much sense to you if you are not familiar with mixing (I’m not) but it’s big fun to experiment.

You’re not limited to listening to Reggae either. You can play music from your iPod’s music collection in the background by first launching your iPod app and then launching Dub Siren. That’s not a feature unique to Dub Siren. Unlike other apps, though, Dub Siren lets you throw in a spacey simulation of a machine gun over your music if you’re so inclined.

The graphics are exceptionally well rendered and the controls are responsive. I did a lot of experimentation with this app and did not encounter any glitches or bugs.

Sawa Digital says pro DJs can use the Dub Siren and a iPhone or iPod touch as a standalone Reggae sound effects machine because it features a sophisticated audio algorithm and uncompressed audio files. I’m not entirely sure what all Dub Siren is capable of doing —I don’t have a musical ear — but it sure sounds good to me.

Watch the Dub Siren Video for a demo:

app_name: Dub Siren
rating: 9/10

Music iQ Tests Your Music Recognition

Amelia Sauter — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 23:00:59 +0000

I smartly downloaded Music iQ before embarking on a four-hour car ride. Perfect timing! I entertained myself, the car trip went more quickly, and I discovered I am terrible at remembering the names of songs, even when I recognize a tune.

Music iQ from Phase2 Media is like an iPhone version of “Name That Tune.” Music iQ plays random songs one-at-a-time from your iPhone’s or iPod touch’s library, and the quicker you guess the songs, the more points you get. The good news is that Music iQ is a multiple choice quiz game, so you are given five options to choose from to help jog your memory.

The music library on my iPhone is small; I keep most of my music solely on my iPod so I don’t use up all my iPhone’s memory. If you do the same, you might find that Music iQ might be better used with your iPod touch than your iPhone. The larger your music library is, the more challenging it will be to play Music iQ.

A nice side effect of Music iQ is that it keeps you in touch with all of your music, not just with the artists or albums that you listen to the most. Along that same line, you can also ban individual songs, albums or artists from showing up when you play Music iQ, for example, an artist whose music you are not in the mood for or a friend’s homemade album whose song names you have listed in your iPhone as “Track 1,” “Track 2,” and so on.

Music iQ functions as described with no problems or quirks. It is easy to play, and you can pick it up whether you have a few minutes or an hour at your disposal. Whether you play to pass the time or to test your knowledge, Music iQ is a great app for music lovers.

rating: 8/10
app_name: Music iQ

Discover and Share Song Titles with Nabbit

Derek Walter — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 22:00:21 +0000

We’ve all been there. A great song comes on the radio, but the DJ won’t tell you anything about it. Nabbit tries to solve this by giving the artist and song on nearly 2,500 radio stations. While not as sleek as grabbing music over-the-air as the super popular Shazam, it offers some nice features to find out what is popular and currently playing on the radio.

With Nabbit even if you’re so busy rockin’out that you forget to hold your phone to the speakers you can still find down the track info. The app provides a playlist of what is playing now and what played recently. Nabbit’s other claim to fame is that it’s for more than just music —you can also tag ads and make purchases from select Nabbit partners.

The interface is pretty easy to use, given that it looks like a car radio with pre-select dials. You can program stations that you want to check in on regularly. Nabbit can choose your location using GPS or you can establish it manually (works great if you are in a music-poor town and would rather check out Los Angeles stations). By tapping through the dials you can peruse what is playing at the moment. If you really love a particular song and must have it now then tap the link to iTunes where you can listen to an excerpt and then make a purchase. If you want to find out what is popular with other Nabbit users, then there is the Top Nabs section. There is a rundown here of frequently “nabbed” songs.

There are a variety of social networking opportunities available within Nabbit; some not yet found inside the iPhone app. On the Nabbit web page is a link to share music through not only Facebook but Twitter and Jott (Facebook integration is available within the Nabbit iPhone app).

In all Nabbit has strong integration with social networking and makes it quite easy to grab a new song. Its only weakness probably comes from its strong design: when looking at that radio-like interface you just want the songs to play. The technology is probably pretty difficult to pull off, but if Nabbit could stream all the radio stations it has access to, it would be more amazing than Last.Fm or Pandora. Nabbit will certainly be an app for music lovers to keep an eye on.

rating: 8/10
app_name: Nabbit

Melodica Light and Sound Combine for Simple Music Creation

Georges Papas — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 19:00:20 +0000

Melodica presents a 16 by 10 surface where the length represents the 4 bars of a 4/4 beat and the height is a set of 10 notes that all harmonize well together. Anyone familiar with arppegiators or sequencers will find themselves at home using the software’s interface.

But, can Melodica be one of those apps you could use as much for fun as you can in your home studio? And is it easy enough for non-pros to use and enjoy?

As far as sample quality goes, Melodica can certainly hold it’s own in a home studio setup. That being said, there really is only one sound preset, which limits Melodica, and kills it’s expandability. On a similar note, Melodica only offers three tempo settings, slow normal and fast. Without any option to specify exactly what BPM to play at, there’s no way Melodica could be used for recording.

Melodica will be most appealing to people that want to create interesting melodies quickly and simply. The lightbox interface is really beautiful and while it may take non-pros a few beats to figure out the set up, the demo video below does a great job of showing the app in action.

There’s a melody saving and loading system which will save one instance of your melody. This is nice, but a more interesting option would be to be the ability to record several iterations of the melody as the user makes changes during the process.

I think if the creators of Melodica took time to incorporate some richer features they could really have a superb app. The ability to export or or at least share your melodies with other users is the killer feature that would take this app to the next level. We’d also like to create longer tunes.

Although it won’t hold it’s own in a studio environment (and for a buck we weren’t really expecting it too), Melodica is great for creating little melodic tunes on the go. The light show is a nice feature that’s an extra layer to the simplified melody maker.

Watch the Melodica video:

rating: 7/10
app_name: Melodica

Tongue Drum Brings Archaic Music to the Modern Era

Georges Papas — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 20:00:02 +0000

The Tongue Drum, the world’s oldest form of instrument, has been used for millenia by tribes throughout the world as both a story-telling instrument and war drum. Originally crafted from hollowed out tree bark, it has evolved into a modern instrument with multiple tunings, sizes and variations. Earsmack Music has created the next evolutionary step by adapting the tongue drum to the iPhone age. So how does the digital version compare to the real thing?

The Tongue Drum app has an expectedly simple interface utilizing all but a few pixels of the screen. Whatever isn’t being used a control surface contains the necessary menu functions. Through tuning menu, the user can choose from 11 different drum tunings including Natural Minor, major, blues, chromatic, and pentatonic scales.

Adding to the application’s depth is the mallet menu, where as the name suggests, Tongue drum lets you choose which type of mallet you would like to strike the drum with. Beside the standard rubber ball, waxed cork and waxed dowel mallet, there’s an interesting analog option, which generates a sound more reminiscent of a synth harp than a drum. Utilizing the legendary Moog Voyager as a source, the synth notes are complete and offer a full range often lacking when an option differs from all the others to such a degree.

The drum samples themselves are wonderful, mostly owing to the fact that they were recorded using a real hand-crafted tongue drum. It’s interesting to note that finding such a drum is very difficult and the creators of the app mention TongueDrum.com as their source for the instrument. You should definitely take a look at their work if your looking for a serious hand-crafted tongue drum to add to your percussion collection. However if your looking for a cheaper, more practical alternative, the Tongue Drum app from Earsmack Music is more than adequate.

rating: 9/10
app_name: Tongue Drum

Looptastic Producer Makes Mobile Mashups Mainstream

Georges Papas — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 22:00:07 +0000

Looptastic Producer – As far as iPhone looping software goes, it’s either a hit or miss. Some developers seem to over-complicate or oversimplify, while others can find the just the right balance.

One of the latest contenders in the loop station race is Looptastic Producer by Sound Trends, which used loops from piploops.com to develop their application. Which category would this latest effort fall into?

Looptastic Producer presents the user with a series of preset loops in various categories including Breakbeat, Drum n’ Bass, Minimal and Trance. After selecting the loop set, the user is shown ten loops that when combined create a full, rich-sounding song.

One of the many issues with most iPhone loop apps is the overabundance of small buttons. Looptastic removes the clutter of volume sliders by controlling the volume of loops by their height on the mixer channels.

The single crossfade is quite limiting since the center channel is always playing, but the software is responsive enough to make this a minor issue. This could be addressed in the future by adding a crossfade channel selection option found on most hardware mixers with more than 2 channels. Looptastic Producer has a menu option Sound Trends calls an “Effect Menu”, which is in fact an EQ pad with great presets for bass cut, high cut, notch and band pass.

Anyone who has used Ableton Live will feel right at home with the Looptastic’s drag and drop interface. It would be interesting to see one of the key Ableton Live features, loop playback quantizing, make it’s way into Looptastic Producer. Apart from the easy-to-use interface, my most appreciated feature was the deep recording mode. Not only does the app record audio, it records and plays the performance’s video, showing you exactly how you constructed your masterpiece. Another feature I would like to see integrated into a future release would be something similar to the Beatgrid option in VirtualDJ.

The loops used in Looptastic Producer aren’t quite up to par with today studio standards, but are more than enough for the average person to create great music on the go. Apart from those packaged with the application, you can import loops in a variety of formats from your computer, allowing amateurs to mix their own songs on the go. If that’s what your in the market for, then Looptastic Producer is right for you, check out its many flavors at the App Store.

app_name: Looptastic Producer
rating: 8/10

Slacker Radio Competes with Pandora

Amelia Sauter — Fri, 22 May 2009 01:00:47 +0000

I used Slacker Radio for the first time today, and I was impressed. Slacker Radio is a free custom internet radio app developed by Slacker, Inc. that provides some extra perks that its main competitor, Pandora, does not.

Slacker Radio offers the same basic features as Pandora. You type in the name of a band or artist, and Slacker Radio creates a custom radio station for you that streams songs from that artist and similar artists. Slacker Radio boasts a library with millions of songs from thousands of artists. One of my favorite indie bands, The Rescues, was even in the library.

Like Pandora, you can purchase the music that you are listening to on Slacker Radio directly from iTunes, view album art, prevent your iPhone from sleeping and save songs you like in your favorites. Both apps stream smoothly on WiFi or 3G.

To test Slacker Radio out, I searched for one of my favorite bands, St. Germain. Slacker Radio created a fabulous play list for me featuring St. Germain and similar artists, some that I already knew such as Thievery Corporation, and others that were new to me like Tom Middleton.

So what does Slacker Radio have that Pandora does not? The main feature is over 100 pre-made radio stations like Alternative Chill, Outlaw Country, Dysfunctional Holiday and Party Rock. Slacker Radio also lets you “fine tune” each station by allowing you to narrow music selections with limiters such as popularity and year. I also found Slacker Radio was much more intuitive when it came to navigation.

Most apps have some downsides, and Slacker Radio is no exception. First, the ads: every six songs or so, you have to listen to an audio commercial on Slacker Radio. Pandora has ads, but the ads are in banner form and you can close them when they pop up. Second, Slacker Radio will only let you skip six songs per hour. Both of these annoyances can be avoided by signing up for Slacker Radio Plus which costs $3.99 per month. Lyrics are also only available with Slacker Radio Plus.

Apps like Slacker Radio give a whole new meaning to the word “radio.” Slacker Radio is a major player and essentially two apps in one: you can stream a huge variety of music by genre or hone in on your favorites. You should try Slacker Radio, even if you are a Pandora lover.

rating: 9/10
app_name: Slacker Radio