The iPhone has become an almost absurdly-popular platform for music apps this year, even given more capable, more plentiful PCs. But to those who don’t yet “get” the appeal, talk to a mobile music addict: having the ability to be creatively musically in corners of time that would otherwise go unused, like a cramped bus ride, can be a beautiful thing. (Now, you start talking about taking away my PC/Mac experience, and I will start screaming in agony – but that’s a topic for a separate post.) The question is, what form should that app take? Today, I’ve got an iPhone round-up going as I clear out my news inbox, but that thread lies beneath all the stories…

I’m working on putting together a collection of truly productive, non-gimmicky/non-toy music apps now that the platform is maturing. But two apps released this week I think deserve special mention, and mention together – partly because of the different angle they take.

They’re both essentially handheld grooveboxes. They’re both relatively powerful, bringing desktop-style production to the platform. They’re both good options, and at this price, you might go buy both. But as I go off to test these two apps, I’m already struck by the contrast between the two.

One is the kind of app that we’re seeing a whole lot of on the iPhone, just as we once saw it in me-too apps on desktop computers. It assumes that the way to reach more people is to give them a whole bunch of canned loops that already sound like the styles they might want to play, and assume they’ll be pretty limited in their ability to do much with those loops.

The other of the two apps eschews the obligatory audio loops for real synthesis, and strips out the usual “let’s try to look like hardware” interface for something a lot more minimal and (I think) touch device friendly. That’s a design lesson that might well be applied beyond the iPhone, too.

First, consider the looped audio approach.

From IK Multimedia, GrooveMaker is a real-time app for manipulating audio loops. Interestingly, IK brought it over from the Mac/PC software. There are some powerful features, real-time control over audio, WiFi upload to your computer. It’s all well and good, so far.

The problem is that GrooveMaker is yet another app that assumes the only way people can have fun is to start with a bunch of canned loops and genres. GrooveMaker comes with hundreds of loops in house, hip-hop, and club styles. But that’s it – there’s no way to really easily start a track from scratch. (Update: Note that I should say you can at least sequence from scratch, but only with the stock content – which would have made GrooveMaker bigger news on this platform were it not for the release of iDrum and BeatMaker first.)

Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not anti-sample. It’s not my own working style because it just doesn’t inspire me, but that’s a personal feeling, and not one I’d impose on anyone else. In fact, some of my best friends (ahem) are capable of doing things with sampled loops that blow my mind. The problem I have is with lowest-common-denominator thinking. In fact, I think synthesized tracks, tracks that give you real control over the sound, are often more fun for beginners.

Take, for instance, Smule. As founder Ge Wang discussed with CDM, their Ocarina and Leaf Trombone app are aimed really at non-musicians. But because these instruments use synthesized sound, people are free to really play with them and make whatever noise with them they like, rather than getting stuck with canned sounds to “remix.”

Now, perhaps a future version of GrooveMaker will make it easier to bring in other audio. Even then, it’ll have a lot of catching up to do with Intua’s far more powerful BeatMaker having been on the market for some time and offering features like integration with noise.io’s soft synth. But let’s talk for a moment about the flexibility of synthesis.

More Funner, with Synths?

bleep!BOX takes a different approach. Now, there have already been some 808 and 909 emulations on the iPhone. But you really have to see this instrument in action. Creator David Wallin has done some interesting work to make lots of sound parameters accessible.

David writes us:

I wanted to drop you a line to let you know that my iPhone groove box app is finally approved and live in the app store. It features 10 drum/synth parts (808 / 909 emulations of snares, hihats, etc and 4x 2-Oscillator analog synth parts). All sounds are generated realtime and are highly tweakable – no samples are used.

Compare the results: with the canned loop, you get something that sounds good right away – though it also sound predictable. It then actually requires a fair amount of effort to make that sound your own, if you succeed at all.

Using synthesized sound, on the other hand, you initially get, well, nothing at all. But you can very quickly get to something you’ve created yourself, even if your skill level isn’t all that high.

That’s an oversimplification, of course, but I think it’s at least born out in the design philosophies here; bleep!BOX allows the user to be more constructive than passive. (Audio manipulation techniques are capable of some tricks all their own – especially when you get into time manipulation and granular resynthesis. But that’s just the means to the end. There’s a difference between synthesizing music and consuming – or even passively remixing – music.)

I’m looking forward to spending some time with bleep!BOX as a sketchpad for beats. I’ll be interested to see how it might evolve to allow easier integration with desktop music workflows.

But notice what you can do with synthesized sounds – you can actually play. I think this is part of what made the Korg DS-10 such a smash hit on the Nintendo DS, even given the DS’ extremely constrained audio fidelity. (The iPhone – and, incidentally, Sony’s PSP – fare much better.)

Whether you’re a beginner or advanced user, “play” and expression are really what it’s about. A kazoo, for instance, doesn’t have canned sounds. It doesn’t come with presets. It can, frankly, embarrass you. But it’s fun to play, because you can feel a certain amount of freedom with it.

Ironically, I think it actually requires a fairly advanced user to have that kind of freedom with pre-canned loops. Aiming at a “lowest common denominator” is too often disparaged, when it can really mean aiming at a large public.

But maybe the reason “lowest common denominator” gets a bad name is that more advanced tools are often more fun. I’d love to see more work done on synthesized sound that’s really fun to play with.

The choice is yours, naturally. The two instruments:

http://www.groovemaker.com/
http://www.bleepboxapp.com/

So, iPhone/iPod touch users – now that the novelty has worn off, have you found apps you continue to use over time?

And, since you do come to CDM for opinions, anyone care to disagree with my take (or nod approvingly)?

The iPhone and iPod touch are getting more in the way of playable software instruments that could ease its transformation into a handheld idea-capturing gadget. noise.io lays claim to being the first full-featured soft synth on the platform, with unusual FM synthesis control – and I still like the fact that it isn’t anything like most soft synths on your PC. And of course there have been beat machines like the surprisingly capable Intua BeatMaker drum machine/suite. On mobile platforms, though, the more the merrier – especially given the bargain-basement prices. So I’m pleased to see the likes of noise.io and Beatmaker joined by two recent apps.

Released today, iSyn is a mini-suite of music apps released by online retailer AudioMIDI.com and a known quantity in soft synth design — VirSyn, makers of Tera and Cube. I’m giving this a try now, but the feature list looks impressive:

• Touchable drum pads, keyboard
• Three-track sequencer: two virtual analog synth tracks, one drum track
• Programmable virtual analog synths with tilt, X/Y pad for modulation control
• Sample playback drum machines pre-loaded with 808, 909, synth drums, other retro kits

It’s a little vanilla compared to noise.io – though the more conventional UI may be welcome to some for the same reason. It’s apparently missing the ability to use your own drum sets as on the iDrum app (with the desktop app) and Beatmaker. But it nonetheless looks promising, even a little reminiscent of the Korg DS-10 for Nintendo DS in presenting a simple combination of 2 synths and 1 kit.

Oh, yeah — and it’s a quite-reasonable $4.99.

Full information, videos, forum and such at the app site:

iSynApp.com

A Strummable Virtual Guitarist

(Ocarina killer? Hmmm… Amidio / Smule smackdown, perhaps?)

In a different vein, Star Guitar, from the makers of noise.io, simulates a guitar in software, down to passable imitation of the sound and strumming patterns. Tap the chords you want, choose a style and timbre, and Star Guitar produces accompaniment that’s more than good enough to noodle with song ideas. It could be a huge boon to songwriters, especially with mic input for iPhone and second-gen iPod touch.

The sounds are similar to Steinberg’s Virtual Guitarist, but the developers at Amidio get the idea right: a virtual guitarist makes a lot more sense when it fits in your pocket and costs $3.99. Star Guitar is ideal for quickly sketching out an idea while laying on a hotel bed or working out a new chord progression on the bus. The strums are mechanical, to be sure, but realistic enough to get an idea flowing. A metronome means it can even become a practice tool. Not being a guitarist, I was surprised to find myself trying new ideas I might not have sitting at a piano. (But where’s the flat-13 button?)

Details on this and other apps:
Amidio [makers of Star Guitar, noise.io]

And that to me is ultimately the way in which these apps start to make sense. Transposed to a mobile device, the instruments take on a different meaning, and you use them in different ways.

The challenge is also on to me to provide these kinds of capabilities on other mobiles. The Google Android currently lacks real-time synthesis capabilities – something that otherwise should be perfectly workable, even without a floating-point unit onboard (as on the G1). As far as I know, the Palm Pre SDK lacks these capabilities, too. Windows Mobile has long been capable of such things, but the instability of that platform, middling handset quality, and other problems have prevented breakout synth hits. So while I really like the idea of something like Android, it’ll be interesting to see if it can deliver these kinds of features. (In fairness, the iPhone didn’t even have an SDK in its early months, so we’ll see.) I raise the point only because I think there is great potential to making music way, way out of the studio.

We’ll have some hands-on tests of these apps and a guide to actual music workflows on the iPod touch and iPhone. So here’s a question: how would you like us to cover these apps? (I’m thinking hands-on tips for actual production, rather than just some dry reviews or round-ups.) And if you could wish for any mobile music app, what would it be?

The IR-909, a simple but lovely-looking Roland TR-909 drum machine clone, is now available for the iPhone. Description:

IR-909 is a drum machine for the iPhone inspired by the Roland TR-909. IR-909 features a 16-step sequencer, 4 patterns and 8 different drum sounds. IR-909 includes individual pitch, attack and length controls for each sample. By default IR-909 comes with 6 different sample packs, these include the original TR-909 pack, TR-808, TR-707 and TR-606 packs, plus two additional ones called "Tech House" and "Kärv".

This isn’t without some caveats. Reader Todd notes that it lacks pattern saving, audio export, and audio import, and tempo adjustment is a bit crude. Then again, it’s available, it works (apparently), and maybe we’ll see some other adjustments in the future. US$4.99 via iTunes.

Interestingly, you can still download the beta for the 1.1.4 iPhone firmware for free – useful if you haven’t yet taken the leap to the new firmware, which is causing some bugs and crashes for many readers.

IR-909 @ roventskij.net

The app we’re really waiting for from developer Einar Andersson is his iPhone synth, a beautifully minimalist synth plus step sequencer with modulation via iPhone tilt.

I will actually stick by my earlier claims. The iPhone is cool, and there are some interesting apps for it, but you may actually get a richer experience on a cheaper device via the hacked gaming systems out there and even Palm and Windows Mobile. On the other hand, what we’re hearing from many readers is that the iThings’ controller capability is the real star, and well worth jailbreaking your iPhone/iPod Touch for. (We expect some official controllers, sans jailbreaking, soon.) Then again, that’s why choice is always, always a good thing. A “state of the mobile plaforms” post is clearly in order – expect something later in August.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m back to playing with the DS-10 that just arrived. More soon.

It’s Flash 909, and Amiga Flash.

Code wizard Andre Michelle has already made a name hacking audio capabilities into Adobe Flash and ActionScript 3. We got to see his work in the form of real-time audio effects processing in the GarageBand-like online sample-and-compose interface for Splice:

Interview: How Splice.com Has Taken Music Real Audio Processing to the Web

Well, there’s more, well into the “Things Adobe Wouldn’t Normally Expect People to Do With Flash” category. There’s 8BitBoy (warning: link autoplays music), a Flash-based player for Amiga MOD tracker tunes. There’s a 909 emulation (cutely named FL-909). There’s open ActionScript 3 source called popforge [@ Google Code] with all the Flash-hacking tricks needed to do audio.

Now, the most tantalizing bit yet: Andre has a new music environment coming, and to tease its arrival, he’s put up a little application with Roland emulations and stompboxes — and it’s all part of the Rich Internet Application of the Future:

The Hobnox Audio Teaser is a new approach to give you a great opportunity to create music [compositions] online in your browser. The underlying audio engine is based on dynamic digital signal processing to provide very complex audio compositing in Flash. The graphical user interface is based on an unlimited sized desktop to layout your chosen devices as you wish to operate.

The first application design delivers you some Roland emulations and effect floorboards to play with. Since this is a Teaser, you don’t have the option to save your environment. However, already at this early state we provide you with some well-known software features as history, clipboard and auto-alignment of the devices.

“Hobnox” will be about more than some TB-303 toys; it promises to be an “online entertainment and rich media publishing platform.” I assume we’ll find out just what that means later. For now, there is a limited beta sign-up with the audio application; it wasn’t quite online when I looked for it, but hopefully it’ll show up soon:

Hobnox Audio Teaser – Come and register for private beta

Hobnox.com

It’s not all sunshine and happiness. These are hacks, not fully-supported features of Flash — and Adobe, like so many developers of supposedly “Rich Internet Applications,” often doesn’t have a clue about sound. Andre has run into problems with his hacks for that reason. Now, I know what you’re saying — why should Adobe, a hugely-successful business, care about your MOD player? And of course, they shouldn’t. But that’s not the point. The vision of Rich Internet Applications is software that is expressive across media, and that includes sonic capabilities. Maybe people don’t care about the ability to play old Amiga tracker tunes — well, unless Timbaland is looking for some new tracks. But they might care when speech and creative music applications and interactive sonic interfaces come into play. We’ll never know for certain if the RIA developers keep ignoring audio completely, because then we lack the platform for people to do interesting stuff.

In the meantime, though, it’s comforting to have guys like Andre hacking in brilliant ideas. I hope Adobe takes note.

Thanks to Chris O’Shea for this link. Be sure to check out his all-new Pixelsumo blog.