Noise.io hypes itself as the first real musical synthesizer for the iPhone. And it is one hell of a synthesizer. It’s nearly endless controls let you tailor just about every thing to do with the sound generation in this app. Amazing flexibility. The sound processing and variability are just amazing and nearly endless. Take a look at the Youtube videos below for some examples.

Here’s a demo video that gives you an idea of what you can do with this amazing app:

The developers have also included the ability to share the presents you create and to download presets others have created. You can go to their web site and see a list of the presets available to download. Take a look at the full list of features here.

Kaossilator-type pitch scale mapping is a new addition to the app in this latest version. It adds some interesting possibilities to the pad. Here’s a demo of that from the developers:

I haven’t even begun to scratch the surface of what this synthesizer can do — but I’m already amazed. For one it’s a huge app and I have yet to get a crash from it. In addition they’ve done all of this amazing processing and there’s not a lag to be found. Those feats alone should earn the developers an extra star. Nice work.

And there’s no way I could write a review that does this app justice without weeks of research. If you are into electronic music hopefully I have given you a reason to go look at this app a little closer.

If you are not really into electronic music creation - well here’s a great place to start. You aren’t going to find a better synth for 10x the price.

As for my musical ability, I can dream I guess.

RjDj Album is a fantastically interesting app that has me fascinated. The basic idea of the app is that instead of listening to a song, you listen to a scene. That scene you are listening to is influenced by the sounds the application picks up from the microphone in your iPhone. Seems odd, but you have to hear this, it’s fantastic.

The bad thing about this is that it doesn’t work that great if you keep your phone in a pocket as the mic gets muffled. I haven’t had a chance to try the app with the supplied iPhone headphones with the built in microphone. I do not know if it works with those. Also note that if it doesn’t this app is only for the iPhone — not the iPod Touch.

I am really enjoying this app. There’s a demo available, give it a try and see if you like it. If so, get the full version, RjDj Album to get additional scenes.

RjDj single

Category: Music / Music
Released: 2008-12-04
Price: FREE

Ocarina is sort of a social app jam session. The app gives you a simple music instrument and you get to play a world-wide concert. While the musical instrument is fun to play, the real fun is exploring the songs others have posted.

The app does a good job of emulating a simple wind instrument, the ocarina. You actually have to blow smoothly and correctly into the microphone to get it to play properly. Too bad the iPhone didn’t come with a spit valve. Be careful there.

When you play, your song is automatically played for someone else in the world — maybe not immediately but at some point. If the user likes it and hits the heart button, you will see notification on the about screen.

After you finish your masterpiece, you can go to the performance section - a rotatable and zoomable world globe - where you can see and hear other people’s performances. The performances are both visual and audio — as the notes play, green discs float up from the performers location.

Here’s a great performance of Ocarina:

In addition, you can share your musical scores online at the Ocarina score generator page and view what others have shared.

Overall Ocarina, while not the most exciting musical instrument on the iPhone but it does use the network connection on the iPhone to it’s fullest to create a fantastic social application. It’s a lot of fun.

Leisuresonic’s Cosmovox is a different kind of musical instrument application. It doesn’t try to emulate a pre-existing physical instrument, it’s creates it’s own. And does so very successfully.

Included are a variety of scales and controls. All of them modify the sound coming from your iPhone. Hit up the YouTube video below to get an idea of the sounds that can be created.

Once you have your scale and other settings tuned in you control the instrument by moving the phone. The accelerometer is used to change the note that you are playing. It doesn’t take a lot of skill to do — but does take a lot of skill to sound good. But it seems that just about anyone can produce something that at least sounds interesting.

A couple additional features I’d like to see. One is the ability to save presets so that you can come back to them later. Kind of like saving instruments. The other is the ability to record the song for later playback or to play along / layer songs.

Cosmovox is a great little musical toy. It’s priced at $1.99 which is a pretty good deal. While it is a toy, and I doubt anyone would use it as serious instrument, it is a very fun toy especially if you are, like me, very lacking in musical talent.

Developer: iZotope
Price: $4.99 per edition
Version Reviewed: 1.0

iDrum is an interesting take on using the iPhone for music creation. Part fun tool and part drum beat composer, this application is lots of fun for anyone who likes to think they have a little bit of hidden musical ability. Very little ability in my case.

iDrum has been released, initially in two editions. Hip Hop Edition (App Store) and Club Edition (App Store) they each offer unique sound samples and an identical interface.

The application is navigated from the top down from the top list of sample kits, then from there to the song view, from there you can navigate to a single pattern (also known as island), from there you will see the individual parts. This sounds very difficult but it is fairly easy and quick to navigate once you have gone through the process a couple of times.

Here’s a demo video that shows you all of the various screens in the application and how they form together to make a song.

Overall the sound quality is excellent and the program itself it fun and easy to use. While this may not be the application to use if you are a music composer, I find myself playing with it for long stretches of time like I’m some mad drummer. Give this on a shot, I think you’ll like it.