Tag: Music app »

There are plenty of reasons for someone to show another person some photos. The trick is to find a way to do it that isn’t incredibly boring. The folks at ImageAMMO, LLC are aware of this issue and have come up with their own app to combat the problem: the aptly named ImageAmmo.

ImageAMMO allows users to display and peruse their image library using a number of 3D interfaces. These shapes range from spirals to cubes, and they can manually sift through everything or start a slideshow as they see fit. The app automatically incorporates the iOS device’s library so there’s practically no setup involved. It also supports external displays, so users with a VGA adapter (or AppleTV and AirPlay) and monitor can create presentations that are much more interesting than the norm.

The developer has also adapted the software for music libraries. IA Jukebox gives users the option to shuffle through their music libraries in much the same fashion as the photo app. Album covers reconfigure themselves on the screen to create interesting shapes, and calling up a particular song is as simple as tapping the screen a couple of times. I’d think hooking it up to a TV would make selecting background music for a party much more entertaining.

Both ImageAMMO and IA Jukebox are available in the App Store right now for $3.99 and $2.99 respectively. Just think of the presentation possibilities.

Ridiculous and physically impossible musical instruments, with equally ridiculous and physically impossible names, can only mean one thing: Dr. Seuss. Or in this case, a Dr. Seuss Band.

Players can choose from a set of five different horns, then decide whether they'd like to mess around making their own music or try to go for the high score while recreating tunes from one of ten original songs from Hop on Pop to The Cat in the Hat. The sounds each horn makes can be tweaked by adding bizarre attechments such as fishbowls and train whistles, which fits right in, honestly. It's even possible to exchange various horn parts to create some truly weird... things that make noise.

This suitable-for-all-ages piece of musically interactive childhood has just recently seen a price drop, so now anyone can compose their own Seussian melodies on their iOS device for free. Sounds awfully tempting...

The concept behind the Hello Music website is a simple but brilliant one: provide members with information regarding all manner of deals and sales, on all kinds of musical goodies. The Hello Music app does pretty much the same thing, only on iOS. In other words, with an account on the website and the app on a phone, anyone looking for great deals is covered.

The site, and by extension the application, will per-negotiate discounts on a set (and limited) quantity of various items. These range from tangible objects such as amps, pedals and such, to less tangible things like studio time. Since quantities are limited the deals don't last long (usually around 48 hours), but with a handy-dandy iOS app to monitor these deals on the go it becomes much less of an issue.

Setting up an account on the website is free. The app is free. Suffice it to say, any musicians with even a little interest in savings (and an iPhone, of course) need to take a look at this.

I won't pretend to be a legitimate guitarist, because I'm most certainly not, but Perfect Guitar Song Book seems like a very useful app for those that are. It's got all of the usefulness of an entire library of tablature, but none of the mess or back-breaking physical requirements that come with lugging it around. Of course, that's what roadies are for, right?

It's not all about portability, though. Perfect Guitar Song Book can also be used to grab and format notes and lyrics from any number of websites directly through the app. The text and fonts can also be tweaked to allow for easier reading, then saved for later use. Favorites can be exported into various formats (.PDF, Chord Pro, etc...), which I can see being a big deal for potential song writers.

The app also offers the useful hands-free option of scrolling via shaking. So if someone's presumably in the middle of playing they don't have to stop in order to "turn the page" as it were. The app also supports TV-Out, so with the proper cables a user could easily put the song up on a big screen for the rest of their band-mates/friends to use as a guide.

If Perfect Guitar Song Book sounds like a great idea, then feel free to go and grab it off of the App Store. It's available right now for $3.99 for all major iOS devices.

Everyone does it. They're sitting there listening to music, doing whatever else while the sweet melodies relax or empower them, and then they get The Urge. Suddenly, it becomes extremely important to let other people know what they're listening to. I can't even begin to explain this phenomena but it's a real thing and it happens all the time. Thanks to James Shaw, the 16 year-old app wiz, the process will be getting even more streamlined.

MusicTweet is an app designed to do just that: tweet music. When a user starts up the app, it will automatically find the song and album information on what they're currently listening to. When the tracks change, it'll track down the info for the new one, too. From there it's simply a matter of tapping the "Tweet" button. The app will automatically add the title, artist and other miscellaneous bits. Tracks can be changed in-app, along with the volume, so there's little reason for tweet-happy music lovers to not keep it running all the time.

MusicTweet is available on the App Store now for $0.99.

Show of hands, who here sometimes likes to blow across the top of a bottle to make that vaguely musical sound? Okay, good. Another show of hands, who here either has or has considered amassing several of these bottles filled with various amounts of liquid and recreating a real song? Interesting. Well then, have a gander at Bottle Tunes.

Bottle Tunes is pretty much what I just described, only with digital representations of bottles and music rather than physical ones. Although there's a little more to it than that. Sure it's possible to fill up some bottles and go to town, and even save tunes for replaying or editing later, but there's also a bit of a game here. Namely, users can adjust fluid levels and attempt to recreate a specific "bottle-themed" song.

I imagine the market for something like this is a little limited, but then again the appeal of magic bottle music is fairly universal. Plus it's totally free, so why not download and play around with it?

Yes, the name of the app I'm reviewing today is the entire alphabet. From this point on, I'll refer to it as abcdefg for the sake of my fingers.

I stumbled across this app thanks to the title, it initially seemed like a unique way to learn the alphabet and practice word sounds, but I soon found it was that plus a lot more and it turned into a favorite of mine and my daughters very quickly.

Upon opening abcdefg and hitting play, you're presented with a simple and easy to access play field. The alphabet is split into 2 halves, one on each side, running lengthwise on your device. At the top 4 different words: "Gravity", "Crickets", "Vehicles" and "Birds". At the bottom are 5 buttons, "Recycle", "Arrow", "Bomb", "Camera" and "Info". Honestly, this is all that you need to know to get started.

Simply take a letter from either side and drag it into the middle of the screen. When you let go, the letter will go off on its merry way. When my daughters first grabbed it, they dragged a few letters and nothing happened. Once the letters hit the edge of the screen, everything changed.

With gravity (the option selected by default), the letters simply move with your device. Each time the letters hit an edge, the "sound" of the letter is played.

Vehicles zip around the screen, making sounds as they move. Crickets skitter and make sounds when they group up together. Birds is the most diverse, with varied sound, tempo and pitch depending on where/how it's placed.

As each letter moves, it leaves a unique trail behind it, making a visual representation of the soundscape you, I mean your kids, are creating and it's easy to stop a single letter, group of letters, erase the whole picture or take a snapshot of the insanity using the buttons below.

People might dismiss abcdefg, but if you look closer at what the app actually provides, I think you'll find that it's an invaluable tool for kids. In the app, you're a conductor of sound, and you learn concepts like pitch and tempo. You also get a quick into to physics, seeing how the different letters move and interact with each other, things you don't often see in "kid" apps these days.

While abcdefg is no replacement for music lessons, it allows children to draw outside the lines of music and just perform these strange experimental mini-concerts with letters. Some of the things I've heard my daughters create simply blow my mind. They have to experiment in combining sounds together, finding ones that match in tone, pitch, whatever to create an appealing and melodic sound. They also end up with these crazy pictures of letters strewn everywhere. They get to interact with art in a way that I've never really seen, at least not in this medium.

I can honestly say that I think any kid would benefit from putting their hands on abcdefg, even if it's just to increase familiarity with the alphabet and word sounds. Beyond that, it's an introduction to physics and a way for kids to create experimental soundscapes, by simply placing letters on a screen, turning that into honest to goodness music.

For the price and for the features offered, abcdefg is much more than a simple novelty. It's an app that I recommend for kids and adults of any age. It's never too early (or too late!) to make crazy music and pictures. I look back in regret, wishing that I'd have had something even close to this as a kid, it might have gotten me that much more interested in creating and experimenting with music and sound.