MadPad Review

Countless times have I been on the subway, flying, grocery shopping or sitting at a restaurant and started to realize I was tapping my finger to the beat. Although it wasn't music I was humming to. It was a server clearing a table and clinking glasses and silverware or it was a round construction crew unknowingly conducting a symphony of jackhammering, street cleaning and bulldozing. This is where I believe MadPad shows its true grit. Its ability to capture video with sound and then allow the composer to use those videos to manipulate a quick beat or an entire track.

First, the user must set themselves up. In MadPad, the user has 12 blocks or sets that signify different sounds. To easily reference the different sounds a picture can be used to represent it. But what does the user create a set with? Anything really. From the above mentioned construction, server or subway, the user can record anything with sound. And the more creative the user is the more interesting the sound and the more potential there is for a legit track.

As for setting up the iPad as an instrument, the user only needs to record and then MadPad automatically allows the user to interact with each video to create different sounds and potentially a good beat.

The user taps the individual video like they would a drum. But the app is much more than just a record and hit instrument. The videos can individually be customized with volume, pitch and more. The user can even compose a loop to establish a background beat to sound off with the other instruments. The sound can easily speed up or slow down by a quick touch gesture.

Where the app gets to be really useful is how it has the ability to record for the ultimate music creation tool. Better yet, it's saved as a video and can be shared to YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and email.

If creating sets isn't on the agenda, MadPad's developer, Smule, has done most of the legwork prior to the install, giving access to over 50 sets. In addition, the app also allows access to sets made by other app users within the community.

For its creative use of everyday sounds combined with a feature rich set of useful sound tweaks, MadPad is one of the most interesting song generation tools on the app store making it an easy purchase for the music enthusiast.