Don’t toss that Windows Mobile gadget yet. In fact, you might want to keep glued to Craig’s List for a used unit, if you like the idea of road warrior music production on the cheap, sans laptop.

Amidst all the hype around the iPhone and iPod Touch, Windows Mobile devices could actually win on power apps for on-the-go music making. Maybe that’s because of the similarity to developing Windows desktop apps, maybe it’s because of fewer restrictions compared to Apple’s SDK, or maybe some combination of that and fortune. Nonetheless, during this Summer of iPhone, the makers of powerful Windows Mobile sequencer/sampler studio Griff note on their new blog that Windows Mobile just got a new music app.

Yes, you read that right: a new app for Windows Mobile.

Wildly enough, MeTeoR is basically a pocket-able miniature DAW, boasting:

• 12 tracks of audio with stereo mixdown
• Audio waveform editing with cut, copy, paste, and processing (fade, normalize, reverse, etc.)
• Various effects (delay, chorus, reverb, phaser, filters, pitch shift, noise gate, graphic EQ, and more), with routable aux sends
• Metronome with live recording
• A mixer with full automation envelopes for each tracks (for the mixer lanes and effects)

The whole thing is basically reminiscent of an old version of Cakewalk for Windows, only running in your pocket. I could see it as fairly useful for doing some quick processing or pre-processing on a big project – load those extra files on the subway and keep working on that project, even if you’re up against a deadline.

Not only that, but because the system requirements are fairly flexible and used Windows Mobile devices are fairly worthless, you could easily rescue someone’s unused PDA and press it into service as a music device. They’ll thank you. The environment will thank you.

US$29.95, but unlike Apple’s iTunes store, you can download a demo version. (Imagine that.)

All of this is on paper (erm, pixels); no promises, as I haven’t used it yet. I have to brush off my Dell PDA and give this a try. I know there’s a charger here somewhere…

MeTeoR @ 4pockets.com [Demo download and purchase links, detailed features]

Being on the go is a terrible reason to have to give up your music creation tools. Syntrax is a popular solution, with a sequencer, a synth, and a sample editor in one software package for Windows Mobile (PocketPC) devices and Symbian smartphones from Nokia, Siemens, Sony Ericsson, and Motorola. Now, this popular package is free.

I just discovered the other day that Syntrax one of the PocketPC/Smartphone sequencers has now been released as free. It only has a monophonic synth, but its quite customizable, and you can do pretty long and reasonable quality compositions on it… Moreover it’s free.. and a lot of people have pda’s/smartphones sitting round…

Indeed. And not only does this work nicely on your new fancy smartphone, it’s a great way to resurrect a retired model (ahem, broken contract), especially as that’s an opportunity to remove any nasty software installed by your carrier.

Could be quite useful as a sketchpad, or even for throwing in some extra tracks as a set.

Syntrax at finished.nl

And yes, this fits squarely in the category of things you can’t do with an iPhone. (What is it about technological progress that often leaves you with less?) Many of you are big fans of the not-free but well worth the $16-27 Chocopoolp Software for Palm/Treo, including the legendary Bhajis Loops. I do wonder what will happen to them when Palm OS goes away, in favor of Linux; maybe a mobile Linux port?

But certainly, if you have a Symbian, Windows, or Palm phone, you have lots of mobile music options. (Blackberry, iPhone, cheap phones … not so much, unless someone knows of a Blackberry sequencer.)

Tuning pianos involves some heavy science and art. In other words, Reyburn Pocket RCT has absolutely no relation to that simple guitar tuner you’ve got in your gig bag. It’s a US$900 powerhouse of visual tuning:

Reyburn Cyber Tuner / Pocket RCT, for PocketPC (Windows Mobile)

This is probably old news if you’re a piano tuner (either this or the Mac/Windows laptop version), but I saw it this weekend while I was staying at my parents’ house and a tuner came over to adjust our Baldwin grand. The tuner was more than happy to show it to me. You can’t tell in this screenshot, but the UI pulses like some sort of alien eye as you near the pitch. The software was able to guess that the piano was a grand of more than six feet just by listening to the harmonic content of the sound (already impressed); it can compensate tuning for the size of the piano. The system uses aural tuning, meaning it looks not only at the fundamental but directly samples and matches partials, which is the way tuners are trained to work.

Cris (aka atariboy) sends us Theremin emulators for your PDA — it’s theremin to go. Cris writes:

Pete Moss ThereMini (US$10):
This guy has a Theremin emulator with MIDI out, no less! For PalmOS on his Palm software page.

Got a PocketPC? check out Clanger. (Free) You can even change the tremelo rate and decay time.

Cool stuff. Got an app you love for your Palm, PocketPC, or phone? Let us know. (Okay, my current favorite phone app is the “off” function, but how about you?)