iPad Music Apps

I first bought SampleTank (the desktop version) about 3 years ago.  It was a solid workstation back then, so I was excited to hear it was making its way into iOS.  After getting some experience with the app, what stood out the most are the quality of the sounds and the amount of sounds it comes with.  You’ll get 136 instruments with the opportunity to expand with additional purchases.  These expansions are reasonably priced at $4.99 and compliment the program nicely.

You can choose from over sixteen instrument categories, which is a rarity for an iOS workstation, and you also get hundreds of melodic and rhythmic templates to get help you get a groove started in any situation.  Export your work via iTunes or email.

The only considerable flaw in SampleTank is the 4 track recorder.  Four tracks doesn’t give you much to work with and the app alone cost $19.99.  Hopefully an update will bring us more tracks, but nonetheless, this is still a cool app worth checking out.  The quality of the sounds alone are worth the money.

Rockmate is a unique audio scratchpad that allows several people to play the app’s  on board instruments at the same time.  This means I can play the keys, you can hop on the drums and Freddy can play some rhythm guitar for us all at once.   Try wrapping your head around an iPad rock band that only uses 1 iPad…

Rockmate is the only iOS software (that I’ve came across) to incorporate a functional platform for multiple users.  Being able to work with a fellow music maker on a project has never been so easy and I would say this app is great for touring rock bands.

FingerLab (the developers) boast up to four players at once, but expect some tight quarters.  While the app is meant to handle several players, the iPad is not.  You can do two players at a time fairly comfortably though.  If you’re in a band that tours a lot you could make good use of this app in generating song ideas.  You might not spend a lot of time huddled around playing the app together, but it’s the type of thing I could see passing around the van while on the road.

Rockmate is easy on the eyes, responds well to touch, and gives you the ability to record.  It’s also on sale until December 21st for $.99 making it an absolute steal.

NanoStudio became known for its success on the iPhone as being one of the best music making apps in 2010, but the iPad makes even better use of this software because of a bigger screen.  There are a lot of reasons why this feature-laden program is a special one.  First and foremost, the depth of NanoStudio, makes it one of the most complete iOS production app’s available.

It comes with a decent catalog of processors and sounds and gives you the ability to work with a maximum of 16 tracks if you purchase the app store upgrade.  You can import your own samples and manipulate them.  You’ll get a sequencer, a mixer, a performance drum pad, a synth engine, a piano roll and extensive exporting capabilities.  Export final mixes or tracked out elements directly to your computer using Nanosync.  The app supports MIDI, allows you upload your work directly to Sound Cloud, has undo/redo options, and an intuitive audio copy and paste feature.

If you don’t own this app and you’re serious about making music on your iPad you need to get it.  It’s impressive and worth the $15 price tag.  I also recommend you purchase the 16 track upgrade.  Ten extra tracks go a long way.

Pro Keys is a multi instrument and recording tool for singers, songwriters, and musicians.  With the ability to record vocals this app is somewhat of a simple DAW.  The majority of the sounds revolve around different key instruments (piano, Rhodes, B3, etc.).  You’ll get a dual keyboard interface for playing and each keyboard can have a separate sound allowing you to play two different instruments at one time.  It’s also worth mentioning that the app responds to touch very well.

Do you suffer from chubby fingers?  Change the span of the keyboard range from covering two octaves to one octave and thus double the size of the keys.

Other cool features include Mirrored mode, which allows you and someone sitting opposite of you to play together.  Overdubbing, vocal recording (requires headphones) and the ability to work with loops are all cool as well.

On the downside, I don’t feel that the sounds really do the app justice.  They just sound a bit like ‘general MIDI’ – there’s no flare or realism.  My other issue is the app’s stability.  Larger sessions seem to overload the app and cause it to crash on occasion (sometimes frequently).

I think Pro Keys has some great potential especially with some higher quality sounds.  I really like that you can record vocals and I wish other apps similar to this one made use of its sensible approach.  At $2.99 I don’t feel bad saying Pro Keys is worth the money – so long as it’s stable on your iPad.  The app’s price tag will probably rise in the future as more features get added.

Here’s a snippet of a cool beat made using BeatPad 3.3

BeatPad 3.3 ($6.99) is a drum machine with a built-in 4 track audio recorder for you iPad. The newest version comes with more sounds than its predecessor and even boasts a slightly cheaper price tag (supposedly).

It’s cool that you can type up and save lyrics to a particular beat right within the program. This is great when you get some quality lyric ideas while you’re working on your production, which often does happen.

You also have some great exporting and sharing options in being able to upload your work directly to Youtube and Facebook. BeatPad comes with quantize capabilities and a built-in sound library to get you up and going. The stock sounds are decent and it seems that XME will continue to expand this library. This is promising because it’s the one thing I think BeatPad needs most – a bigger and better sound library.

It’s worth mentioning that customer service is pretty good too.

BeatPad 3.3 is a quality music production app for the iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch. I would recommend it to anyone looking to make music on one of these platforms.