Top Music Apps for iPad
draft – please expect more apps to be added.
This is an extended subset of my list of inspiring iPad apps that focusses exclusiveley on sound and music apps.
Beethoven 9
Beethoven 9 by Amphio (app acquired from Touch Press) contains four different complete recordings of Beethoven’s 9th smyphony, the complete video with Bernstein, an interactive score, informative comments in sync with the music, busy musicians as pulsing dots, and lots of video interviews. You can even switch between the interpretations at any time to hear the different orchestras! This is marvelous and designed with so much passion and deep understanding.
As a side note, the executive producer Max Whitby is also the director of Hyperland – a 1990 BBC documentary with Douglas Adams and Ted Nelson. Watch minute 18 to see the grand grand grandpa of Touch Press' app.
From Touch Press’ Blog:
Bloom HD
Bloom by Brian Eno and Peter Chilvers is a classic. Originally for iPhone, it is a conceptual beauty to play or autogenerate ambient music. Left and right touches go to the left and right channels. From bottom to top you climb up the scales. Do not try it if you are in a rush. Take your time. Start dreaming. And do not forget to set the sleep timer before :)
Windharfe / Aeolian Harp
This is my first sound app. It is still one of my favorites. I love to sit on a bench in a park, iPad with head phones and play. Of course, it needs to be Summer! Marimba, Kalimba, Balalaika and Koto are aranged on a real compass. (This way I figured that my home is not in straight East-West orientation as I believed for years.) Touching or swiping over the spokes emits notes that wander and echo and fade over time. Very meditative.
Soundrop
Hello friends of minimalistic apps. Soundrop is so simple that it defines an entire category of generative sound apps. Tiny dots drop down the screen and bounce between the lines. Adding and adjusting the lines changes the rhythm and melody. Simple and complex, but not chaotic at all.
Physynth
Imagine Soundrop with 4 mixing channels and a hyper-realistic user interface. Physynth look gorgeous, much like an ancient synthesizer. Each channel defines a separate bouncing pattern that can even be set into rotation. The piano keyboard is used to insert new notes into the mazes. If you are not so much into music apps then the wonderful transitions between UI screens remain impressive. Term to remember: skeuomorph user interfaces
Seline Redux
This app looks cool, and it sounds even better. A good collection of samples can be assigned to two banks. The layout of the keys is very ergonomic, and it allows to play very harmonic melodies with ease. My favorite is the Majestic Flute one octave down, with lots of echo (delay) in a large concert hall (reverb). This reminds me of a live concert with Al Di Meola; his percussionist came back after the break and gave an incredible duet with himself (echo/delay) whistling on beer bottles!
[Update 2/2014] I've used Seline for a little jingle for a recent presentation – check it out at the Multivisionswand – OK, AudioBus and JamUp Pro had also been involved. The timpani is coming from ThumbJam (below) and everything was recorded and mixed with MultiTrack DAW. Do you think that this was too much effort? Maybe, but fun!
SoundPrism Pro
The touch screen seems to be a wonderful playspace to explore new concepts and layouts to play music. SoundPrism divides the screen into two areas with a control bar in between. The modifiers adjust the number of octaves that are played at the same time, the horizontal length of the white bar; and the accords from a single note to a triad, the height of the chiming area. The collection of available sounds is limited in the free version, but more sound packs can be purchased. I prefer the Pro version because of the MIDI support. For example, this makes it possible to play ThumbJam’s instruments with SoundPrism’s user interface.
Orphion
I could not believe what’s going on here. Still on my first generation iPad it already feels like a fifth gen touch device with pressure detection. Touch softly to produce soft sounds – hit hard for loud and tinny sounds. Stunning. Bastus Trump did a splendid job developing this new digital instrument.
[Update 2/2014] Bastus was demanded by Apple to remove the app from the app store last year b/c Apple did not like the way Orphion uses the shape of the touch to play loud and soft sounds. What a silly decission! But your can still enable and enjoy the effect by double-tapping the version number in the about box.
Orphion | orphion.de | Orphion meets Moog | Bastus at Soundcloud | video tutorials
ThumbJam
The best to say about ThumbJam is that it makes me curious to explore the world of music on the iPad. The number and quality of included sampled instruments is impressive. The number of scales is a cultural journey around the globe. FYI there is more than major and minor! I’ve configured the screen above to play Hang 1. More layers are added for Hang 1.1 and Hang 1.2. MIDI support allows other apps to interact with ThumbJam.
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