Tag: App

I meant to do this as a series, but really it hasn’t worked that way so I thought I’d do the whole 24 in one go. In fact, I hope to do that with the other two ’24’ posts I have planned, one for devices, and one for books.

Anyway, for now, here’s my 24 favourite apps for Christmas in no particular order …

1. nils is one of my favourite effects apps as it does some very different and interesting things that I think no other effects apps do. Of course I really like some of Erik’s other apps too, like strng and especially Shapesynth for being the only app I know of that has the Sphero SDK included
2. Multitrack DAW is one of those apps that has just always been on my devices and has always served me very well indeed. I love it, it gets better and better all the time.
3. Audulus (3), well, Audulus in general actually, is amazing and so flexible it almost defeats me. It’s not alone in that sadly, but it is one of those apps that is so flexible and has so many possibilities that it is difficult to work out where to start at times.
4. Patterning, is just a superb drum machine and a joy to work with. Now with Link added I can see it being even more of a main stay for me.
5. Hexaglyphics is a favourite way of just having fun and enjoying noise and sounds! I love it for that reason alone. Also it’s a great design and interface. If you like sound making apps with completely unusual interfaces then you need to check this app out.
6. MicSwap Pro is superb for vocals. I’ve used it a lot with Multitrack DAW and it makes such a difference I’ve just been so impressed every time I’ve used it and I intend to use it more
7. Auxy has done great things for simplifying music creation without dumbing it down at all. That is quite an achievement. I especially love the new iPhone version which I helped to beta test. It gives you power together with simplicity and that is really impressive.
8. Monovista might come as a surprise to you, but I really like this app for just making some music accompanied with some interesting visuals, the new video recording feature is also very awesome, so check it out soon.
9. Oscilab, well this is one of the few cross platform apps that’s in my list. In fact, it started on Android and came over to iOS. Personally I really like it on the iPhone, but that’s just a personal preference for me.
10. Final Touch is brilliant and often my go to for mastering tracks, when I get that far of course.
11. Korg’s Gadget is amazing but also I’m enjoying iDS-10. I love that Gadget now has link but also exports to Ableton Live. It’s quite impressive.
12. n-Track Pro is an excellent DAW and has a huge amount of flexibility and potential. I think it’s a shame that it doesn’t get enough praise for all its capability. I’ve always been really impressed with it, and it can do things that other DAWs just can’t or at least not so easily. It’s a great app and a very useful tool in my view.
13. SeekBeats from the maker of TweakyBeat one of my fav apps, and is only really rivaled by Elastic Drums which is also an amazing drum machine and a fav of mine.
14. Samplr, what can I say? A brilliant instrument.
15. Borderlands Granular, another brilliant app that I really hope to do a lot more with soon
16. Gestrument, we used this in our SoundLab work and at our Play Space event last month, it was really well received and every time I use it at workshops it is great in getting people to make music freely
17. AudioShare is amazing and I find myself using it all the time (but I also love SECTOR and BitWiz)
18. The Donut has been a favourite of mine since it first came out and has a unique and beautiful interface.
19. TouchOSC seems to fill so many gaps and be the right thing to use in so many situations. It’s almost like Sugru for MIDI. Does that make sense?
20. Phaedra is a sequencer that I keep going back to with hardware as it’s so easy to get things working using it. I find it great for testing and experimenting to see how a new piece of hardware will react.
21. Genome MIDI Sequencer version 2 has been great since the new modules got introduced. I haven’t had enough time to try them properly and have only experimented a little so far, but I’m impressed and hoping to get some more time with them soon.
22. Jasuto is an old fav and I think it always will be. It is actually great for prototyping ideas quickly and it is so flexible and useful. I hope it keeps getting updates though.
23. MoDrum is one of the drum machines that I’ve used for ages and it is rock steady with great sounds. I love it and I know where I am with it.
24. Finally, I have to add ThumbJam as I love this instrument. It is amazing and sensitive and responsive

So tomorrow we’ll have to look at either devices or books, I haven’t decided as yet.