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.

Today is set to be an orgy of computer music-y, Abletronic, drum machine-loaded, Max-patching news, so let’s throw one out to the guitarists. IK Multimedia has two new announcements today that are actually quite cool. The StealthPedal is a Wah pedal that’s actually an audio interface, sort of like a James Bond pen that’s also a gun. And IK also landed the only official Fender-endorsed software amp emulation.

Here’s a quick look at the specs. By the way, I’ve consulted everyone I know (especially as I’m not a guitarist), and basically what we’ve come up with is that a whole bunch of the guitar emulations out there (Apple, IK, NI, and Waves) are pretty damned good. Apple recently upgraded their own guitar emulations, meaning even what you get in GarageBand ‘09 is a big leap forward (and I have it on good authority that they sound terrific). NI has a guitar announcement coming later today, too. I’d choose based on taste, basically; each has a unique personality.

AmpliTube Fender

• 12 Fender guitar amps (Twin Reverb, ‘59 Bassman LTD, Super-Sonic, Metalhead)
• 12 matching cabinets
• 9 microphones
• 6 stomp effects, 6 rack effects (tape echo, Fender reverb, fuzz/wah, triangle flanger, wah, the works)
• Digital tuner, stomp pedal board, amp head, cabinet plus mic, rack effects. (Here’s one point of differentiation: NI, for instance, has more toys here; IK plays it a little more conventionally; that’s a matter of taste.)
• SpeedTrainer, RiffWorks T4 recording included
• “Certified” by Fender
• US$229.99 for the full set, or get the LE (4 amps, 5 cabinets, 2 stomp, 2 mic, 2 rack FX) with the StealthPlug USB audio interface for US$139.99
• Available late February

It’s a pretty stunning deal if you’re a Fender fan.

http://www.amplitube.com/fender

Stealth Pedal

• Looks like a wah pedal – same form factor
• Works as a controller (it’s basically an assignable expression pedal)
• Comes with a double foot switch, and you can optionally add a second expression pedal via a foot input
• Also a USB audio interface (24-bit, 44.1/48)
• “Low-noise” input stage
• Headphone out, volume control, LEDs for use as a tuner or level indicator
• ASIO PC, Core Audio Mac drivers
• Software bundle
• US$269.99
• Available late April

This looks just incredibly functional for someone wanting something compact. There have been controller/audio interface bundles before from IK, NI, and others, but this you can throw easily in your case.

http://www.stealthpedal.com

Americans are busy getting ready for Thanksgiving and … everyone is busy, anyway. But there’s still time to:

1. Tell us what makes you musically thankful – we’ll feature your responses on CDM.

2. Tell us if you’d like to get handcrafted, human-written exclusive notes in your inbox occasionally from CDM (totally optional).

3. Get a chance to win the deluxe edition of T-rackS 3, the tasty mixing and mastering suite, with lots of new routing, models, and metering.

I’m actually working on a way to visualize all of these “reasons we’re thankful” in Processing, so I’d love lots of responses! Keep them coming!

You have until the end of the day Friday, November 28 NYC time.

Answer below (takes about a minute), or head to:

http://cdm.thanksgiving.sgizmo.com/

Thanksgiving is an American holiday on this international site, but the basic ideal for which the day has come to stand – giving thanks – is a noble one. So we want to do three things here for CDM:

1. Ask you what for you’re thankful, musically speaking. It might be a synth, or a collaborator, or an album, or a song, or the metronome you’ve used since you started playing, or having more discipline practicing. It could be tech (you know the slant of this site), or not. I’ll be putting together the answers in a big, warm heap for us to share, like virtual pumpkin pie.

2. Meet CDM Notes. Like you need another mailing list, I know. This one will be different – it won’t just be an automated dump of headlines; it’ll actually be an email from me with personal notes on the week’s events in music and motion, and some exclusive tidbits not elsewhere. You don’t have to sign up for the mailing list, but this is a chance to do it if you like. And it’ll include some things to be thankful for.

3. You could win a copy of T-RackS 3 Deluxe. Whether you opt for the mailing list or not, you’ll be entered to win a copy of IK Multimedia’s latest release of their mixing and mastering suite. (I’m playing with it now; watch for a review soon.)

Enter now: http://cdm.thanksgiving.sgizmo.com/

There’s a strange debate going on over the free software (as in freeware, not necessarily open source) issue of Computer Music magazine. After seeing the magazine’s top 10 reasons to use free software, commercial developer IK Multimedia got surprisingly defensive, and issued a rebuttal:

Why you shouldn’t use free software – a commercial developer’s view (at Music Radar, the online site for the magazine’s publisher)

Now, there’s probably a much simpler way to put this.

Why to use free software: It’s free.
Why to use free and open source software: It’s got source that’s free and open.
Why to use commercial software: It’s supported, and you probably can’t get exactly the same thing as free and/or open source.
Why to use a combination of all of the above: Because then you get a combination of all of the above.

(For more of the above, stay tuned for “Peter says not very interesting and obvious things Special Issue,” not coming to newsstands soon. The bonus disc includes a 2-oscillator virtual analog synth that has no interface and produces no sound.)

Why is this a Debate?

Obviously, most of us use a combination of different kinds of software. If you’re serious about using commercial software, you pay for it, because you’re serious about support and you’re smart enough to understand that if you don’t send the developer money, they won’t make any more software. If you love plug-ins, you try free plug-ins, because it gives you more tools, and if you believe in the power of communities and sharing for technology, open source software is at least part of your setup, too. I find even people running Linux passionately often use some proprietary software, like the recently-released EnergyXT for Linux or any combination of software they’ve bought inside the Windows compatibility environment WINE.

Also, it’s worth pointing out that, despite the rebuttal from IK’s UK representative, commercial developers were not calling Future Publishing to cancel ad accounts when they heard about the free software. They don’t host ritual burnings of Computer Music’s cover disc, nor spit on newsstands when these issues come out. Presumably, they instead assume the obvious, that these discs generate interest and get more people involved in the computer music market, which is good.Native Instruments, for instance, supported the issue and involved their own free Kore Player instrument.

But forget NI for a moment — how about IK? IK Multimedia have themselves long used free software editions to promote their for-fee tools; I included not one but two free instruments from IK on the cover disc of my book Real World Digital Audio. It was actually IK’s idea.

Now having said the obvious, there are elements of the software development landscape that are anything but obvious. If you work for a proprietary developer, you had better be thinking about some of these issues. When does it make sense for something to be free? How do you get people to pay for software, if that software requires money for development and you require money for rent? As musicians, when do we benefit from software being proprietary versus open source, and when to we benefit from paying for it versus getting it for free?