Pro Music Apps

Not everyone has access to a great session drummer, or can program a half decent drum groove. These guys have come to the rescue with a large collection of drum loops that have been recorded by..wait for it… a real drummer. Worth checking out if your ‘chops’ aren’t up to scratch…

‘NO PROGRAMMING BUT A REAL LIVE DRUMMER’
approx. 700 recorded loops and samples to paste into your multitrack app or to play along to for practicing/warming up or fun!

If you are serious about making songs, tracks or music in general on the iPad or iPhone, this is a clear and simple must have! A real drummer on your songs with a smashing sound!

• complete drum loop library for anyone making music on an iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch!!
• copy-paste to your favorite multitracker!
• perfect drummer to play along with endlessly if you want to perfect your timing on any instrument (all grooves loop automatically within the app itself).
• performed, recorded and built (may 2012) only for iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch.

Main points of interest:

• many styles in many bpms (check content list).
• two sounds for all loops and fills in every style and tempo (modern and vintage).
• 4/4, 6/8 loops and shuffles, brushes loops, loops in straight time and shuffled time.
• uncut, not time stretched, not chopped but actual high end recordings.
Audio quality: 44.1 khz, 16 bit (cd).
• All loops and fills actually played in all bpms, a living and breathing drummer!

You get 7 styles all based on what is needed to program
a great track, the bpms have been carefully chosen and are commonly used tempi in modern music production. If you need to stretch or compress a loop you will thus always be very close to your desired bpm! All loops fills and hits can be
copied directly to your pasteboard for use in any multitrack app.

Furthermore, all loops have been cut into in eighter 2 or 4 bar
loops and have been recorded simultaniously in two explicitely
different microphone settings; a ‘modern’ (close miking with room ambience) setting of 14 mics and a ‘vintage’ mic setting of in total 5 mics around the set.
This means that you can use different sounds for
verse/chorus/bridge/intro (with fills to glue it together) by eighter using the same loop in different sounds, or using different loops for the respective parts of your song.

A seperate chapter has been included with cymbal hits, cymbal hits with kick, cymbalrolls and endings (big fills) to complete a full drum part played by a real drummer!!

All loops were performed by Hollands first call session drummer, Hans Eijkenaar in the very best of recording studios on offer, Sound Vision Studios in Arnhem. Recorded with state of the art modern and vintage mics.

Drum Loops HD
Developer: G.I. Records (Go Independent Records)

Rated: 4+

Price: $9.99 Download Here

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Synth Arp & Drum Pad is an iPad app with arpeggiator and drum pad that allows you to easily play the internal synthesizer or any connected MIDI device and produce music with phrases having an abundant variety of musical styles.
(The arpeggiator automatically plays the individual notes of a chord in a selected pattern.)

There are 342 arppegiator patterns that can play phrases from all kinds of music genres like dance music, hip-hop, rock, pops, with one finger.

Use Synth Arp & Drum Pad to easily create fabulous phrases and enjoy a performance freely!

* This application is Core MIDI compatible. Wi-Fi communication possible with Yamaha MOTIF XF (body version 1.2 or above) Alternatively, use the MIDI Interface i-MX1 to communicate with all MIDI devices.
* A USB Wi-Fi adaptor, sold separately, is necessary for Wi-Fi communications.

Functions
Software Synthesizer
- Choose from 61 high-quality voices from a variety of instruments including 7 drum kits.
- Cutoff, resonance, attack, release, and portamento can be adjusted with the knob control. Setting tonal qualities is easy.
- Reverb, chorus, and variation effects can also be applied individually.

Keyboard Arpeggiator & Scale
- Choose from 342 arpeggio patterns from a variety of instruments.
- Control the swing, note length, octave range, and other characteristics for each arpeggio phrase in real time.
- Select and change the scale being played. That allows you to use Touch Control Function and you can modify the sound by sliding your finger vertically or vibrating your finger horizontally on the Keyboard.
- The velocity can be changed depending by adjusting the strength of the tap on the iPad screen, or use the ribbon controller displayed on the left-hand side of the screen.

Drum Pad
- For each of the 16 drum pads, you can assign 5 notes at a specific velocity which allows you to play chords with one finger as well as multiple percussion instruments.
- Separate notes can be assigned to the left and right sides of a pad along with their velocities for more intricate performances. The velocity can be controlled by the strength of the tap on the iPad screen.
- You can also use the built-in step sequencer of each pad, to easily create a rhythm track.
- The Learn function can be used to easily assign a chord to a pad using the keyboard displayed at the bottom of the screen or using the keyboard of an external MIDI device.
- There are 64 user templates that can be customized and saved.

MIDI Loop Sequencer/Recorder
- Overdubbing enables the blending of various layers of sound in one recording.
- In addition to standard recording, you can also record loops of varying lengths.
- Quantizing and recording speed can be adjusted, and a pre-count can also be set.
- It can be stored up to five songs.

Ribbon Controller
- Use the ribbon controller to change velocity, pitch, and assignable parameters.

Now you can put the legendary Simmons Clap Trap right in your pocket or backpack! The Clap Trap was an iconic 1980s “Handclap Synthesizer” whose unique sound can be heard across much of early electronica.

Clap Box is a perfect emulation of the original that includes modern enhancements like full Core MIDI support, microphone triggering and BPM matching. Just clap your hands or stomp your feet in real-time to trigger it! Simple, fun and intuitive, Clap Box is a great way to drop some instant retro into your productions.

Features:

• Authentic emulation of the original Simmons Clap Trap made with real samples

• Audio Trigger via your device’s built in mic – just clap your hands in realtime to trigger!

• Full MIDI support over WiFi, USB camera connection kit or a dedicated MIDI interface such as IK Multimedia’s iRig MIDI.

• Hi resolution Retina Display graphics

• “Humanize” function creates random variations

• Quick “Tool Tip” pop ups from info button

Some Fun Clap Box Tricks

• Turn AutoTrigger Sensitivity all the way up, turn the volume up and put Clap Box on a hard surface. The vibrations will create a feedback loop. Enable humanize and Auto Speed for more craziness.

• Create all kinds of snare drum sounds using combinations of “Balance” and Crash “Decay”

• Use the MIDI input to sequence fast rolls and electronic sound design effects.

Clap Box
Developer: Micah Frank

Rated: 4+

Price: Free Download Here

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Following on from the Tenori-On inspired Koushion, the developer has just released a MPC styled MIDI controller which I like the clean interface a lot. Check it out if you have the need for something along these lines.

Pad-based controllers such as the MPC have become a ubiquitous fixture in electronic music setups worldwide. So, why would you want another? Koushion: Pads adds a new twist to the popular controller by adding a key lock feature and programmable pads. The key lock feature empowers you to improvise with a larger range of pitches by removing those that are not in the desired key. If locking yourself to one key sounds a bit too limiting, but you want to reach a few notes that are out of the 16-pad range, or even if you just want a custom controller layout, each pad can be edited independently to trigger a different note. Once you’ve found a custom layout that you like, you can easily save it for future use.

**NOTE – We are in the process of creating a setup guide and will have one up by next week. For now, please email our Support team. Sorry for the inconvenience!

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**NOTE: Pads only generates MIDI (NOT audio), and therefore will not work in the background. Pads does work with background audio apps via virtual MIDI.

**Windows and Mac Users: A third party has developed an rtpMIDI driver that other apps are recommending. Please visit this site to find your necessary drivers:

http://www.tobias-erichsen.de/rtpMIDI.html

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Key Features:

* 16 easy-to-tap pads in a familiar MPC-style layout
* Key lock: with the flick of a finger, you can lock the pads to any major, minor, or pentatonic scale
* Programmable layout: every pad can be re-assigned to any MIDI note
* Virtual MIDI

Koushion: MIDI Pads
Developer: Kudzu Creative Group, LLC

Rated: 4+

Price: $1.99 Download Here

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Love your tabs? Well some of us do anyway…. TabToolkit has just received a huge update, including a new in-app shop…

Here’s a rundown on the latest features -

TAB STORE
★ Tab Store is now open, featuring hundreds of popular songs in a wide range of genres, with more songs added weekly.
★ Tab Store songs are affordable, officially licensed, and accurately transcribed.
★ All songs are “full-score” with complete notation for each guitar, bass, drum, and keyboard track, as well as vocal tracks with lyrics.
★ Browse songs by artist, genre or instrument.
★ Search by artist name, song title, album title, or genre.
★ Request a song if your favorite song isn’t currently in Tab Store.

NEW FEATURES
★ Gorgeous, full-resolution rendering on the new iPad Retina display.

★ A/B looping, perfect for learning and jam-along.
★ Guitar tracks include rhythm notation.

★ Combine and simultaneously display right and left hand fingering on the keyboard display.
★ Drum tracks include a drum kit visualizations that shows drum hits as they happen.

★ Volume mixer to easily change the volume of multiple instrument tracks.
★ Vastly improved instrument audio (iPhone 4 / 4S, iPad 2 / 3rd generation), based on high-fidelity audio samples for over 190 different instruments.
★ Innovative vocal engine based on actual male and female voice samples for use on vocal tracks.
★ New metronome sounds for a total of 27 pairs of samples ranging from old favorites to new analog and digital clicks, percussion instruments, drum kit sounds and more.
★ Dozens of other music notation and playback improvements.

A quick video showing the new store

For more details - http://agilepartners.com/apps/tabtoolkit/

TabToolkit
Developer: Agile Partners Technologies, LLC

This inspiring, unique and fun electro style music sequencer has just had a bunch of new features added…

What’s new:

Pitch Modulation via LFO (Low Frequency Oscillator) available to three tracks.
Adjust LFO speed and depth.
Adjust trigger time for LFO for Pitch Envelope effect.
Ability to save all settings to memory.
BPM can now go in increments of 1.
Graphics have been improved.
Some minor code optimization.
Removed unnecessary volume control.
Latest update features independent volume for each track (Will be available in a few days)
IMPORTANT:
Older memory saves are not compatible.
Attempting to load from disc an older version memory save will not work.

For more details check - http://www.beatsnbobs.com/

Tic Tac Beatz Electro
Developer: Rob Wilmot

Rated: 4+

Price: $0.99 Download Here

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More freebies from Roland this week….Aimed at V-Drum owners!

V-Drums Friend Jam is an app that makes your daily drum performance and practicing even more fun!
Drum practice songs for rock and jazz are available free of charge, and you can use them for enjoyable practice. If you use this app with the latest Roland V-Drums electronic drum system, your performance score and world-wide ranking will be displayed, allowing you to compete and socialize with drummers around the world.

[ Main Functions ]

When you start up the app, songs for practicing and playing the drums in a variety of musical styles will be downloaded automatically. You can play back these songs for enjoyable drum practice.
For even more drum performance enjoyment, using this app with a V-Drums system that supports wireless LAN functionality will let you use the following functions.

● When you drum along with a song, your drumming will be shown in the screen of your iPhone/iPod touch, and will be scored when you finish playing. Your results will be shown as a world-wide ranking.

● Your drums and your iPhone/iPod touch will be connected via wireless LAN, allowing songs and performance data to be exchanged. This means that without having to make troublesome cable connections, you’ll be able to perform while listening to high-quality songs via digital transmission.

● You can operate the app almost entirely from your drum pads, so there’s no need to set down your sticks.

● You can load favorite songs from the music library of your iPhone/iPod touch and participate in performance and ranking.

● You can post your performance times and ranking to Twitter for enjoyable communication with V-Drums users around the world.

V-Drums Friend Jam
Developer: Roland Corporation

Rated: 4+

Price: Free Download Here

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Glitchbreaks is an iOS Universal manipulation tool for “Glitching” breakbeats. Manipulate beats to create new beats and record them.

What’s new in v.1.02 -
Glitch Pad – Made it more dynamic, now it glitches where the waveform is, and moving your finger changes the index.

Loop Modulation – Now it locks into the loop start, instead of letting the waveform play to catch up, also if you set loop start to the very end it will not cross over anymore.

An option to turn off Loop Modulation latching was also added.

Index Tracking – now when you Glitch, Cut, Loop Mod, or Reverse it remembers where you started, and when you are done, it drops you to where the sample would have played to on it’s own, making it so these functions do not take the sample off time.

Now supports Background Audio and mixing with other apps.
Bug Fixes in the File Loader.

GlitchBreaks
Developer: Alexander Matheu

Rated: 4+

Price: $4.99 Download Here

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An inspiring fun music sequencer. There are no menus, just buttons waiting to be pressed.
Designed for electronic style music like 80s electro, disco, dub-step, house, drum & bass and techno.
“STEP” button to offset the pad/hit sounds to the beat
Featuring 8 tracks including 4 drum tracks, a baseline track, a synthesiser track, a chord/pad track and an effects track.
6 patterns can be recalled at any time.
Two of the tracks step at different speeds for less repetition.
High quality sounds taken from well known and respected synthesisers and drum machines like Access, Waldorf, Novation and Korg.
Other functions such as tempo, a write-protect button to avoid accidental pattern saving, volume control, mute tracks, and an auto-un-mute function for jumping into a pattern after a build-up.
Save all your patterns for later.
Sounds great on headphones or Hi-Fi.

For more details - http://beatsnbobs.com/tictacbeatselectrodescription.html

Demo video of the features

Tic Tac Beatz Electro
Developer: Rob Wilmot

Rated: 4+

Price: $0.99 Download Here

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Still one of my fav music apps on iPad, Rockmate is so refreshing and fun to play, especially with a bunch of….mates! Apart from an expected Retina visual update, there’s some new sounds, plus singers can now join the jam!

What’s new

Fingerlab is very proud to announce the new version of Rockmate V1.1 with the addition of new super cool features: microphone, Retina graphics, new sharing options, new drum kits and new keyboard kits, for an even better music experience with your iPad.

V1.1 spec:
-Microphone
-Retina graphics
-New exports: FaceBook, SoundCloud, AudioCopy
-6 new drums kit
-8 new keyboard kit
-3 octave keyboard
-Minor bug fixes

Rockmate
Developer: Fingerlab SARL

Rated: 4+

Price: $2.99 Download Here

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