Noise

A modular synthesizer in your hand. App Store link (3.99 €)

This synthesizer is not for the faint at heart, but for the rest, it is a great instrument.

I am for sure not the best person to review a music App like this. Note also that this is not an easy App, so if you are just curious or have no idea about synths at all, you’ll probably be frustrated with Jasuto Pro. But don’t forget: you won’t get such a powerful modular synthesizer for 4 euros anywhere else. I will not describe all what Jasuto does or can. It would require to much space. Take a look into the Jasuto site for detailed info on how to use it.

It’s good to see how different developers explore the iPhone capabilities in different ways. It is clear that this App embraces the iPhone as a full-fledged computer. The amount of work invested here is amazing. And I can’t wait to see it on the iPad, which many see as a bigger iPhone. It is indeed interesting how our way of thinking about computers has changed in the last years, and how Apple has contributed to it.

App Store link (3.99 €) and developer link: Chris Wolfe

See some of the noise you can get out of Jasuto Pro in these two videos:

synthPond splendour

Play the music of the spheres with synthPond. App Store link (1,59 €)

synthPond is a synthesizer to create music in a new way. Instead of a standard keybord and some knobs, you have a graphic interface, a space in which you put nodes of different types to create sounds.

synthpond is another beautiful app from Zach Gage, the maker of unify. I won’t explain here how to use synthPond. It may seem difficult at the beginning, but it is very intuitive and the help pages are very good. There is also a video tutorial in Zach’s page.

The idea of a graphic synthesizer is not new. But there are not so many apps using it. You don’t have the whole freedom of a standard synthesizer here, but this is not the aim of this app. Personally, I like how synthPond makes music visible in a simple and compelling way, and translates the temporal component of music in a spacial one.

You won’t probably write the next summer hit with synthPond, but you will create nice music pieces, or sound compositions with it. And the will look even better.

App store link (1,59 €) and developer link: apps.stfj.net

Playing a song

Leaf trombone is a musical instrument application with interesting online features. App store link

Playing the leaf trombone is technically easy: you hold your iPhone in front of your mouth and blow into the mic to produce the basic sound. If you don’t like blowing you can use the touch mode. You control the tune by moving the golden handle attached to the leaf. You can make squeezing sounds by dragging the handle or play clean notes by tabbing somewhere on the leaf.  The little green pegs mark the positions of notes. The plus and  minus buttons will shift the octave up and down. That’s basically it for the free play mode.

If you want to play a song you first have to choose one from different lists. On the play screen two additional elements will appear: a musicbox that will play background rhythms and small leaves that slowly approach the pegs. Play the note when the small leaf reaches the peg to perform the song.

On the world stage you can perform a song live to people who are willing to listen. They will judge your performance. To play on the world stage you need leaf tokens. For a start you get 4 tokens. You can earn more by judging other peoples performances.

Leaf trombone really works as an instrument and has a funny and original sound. It’s relatively easy to learn a song, because the small leaves will guide you – you don’t need to learn how to read notes. So if you have at least a little feeling for music you should try this!

App store link, lite version and developer link: Smule

Smule also did another instrument called Ocarina, a flute based on the famous video game “Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time!”

This guy is performing “When the Saints Go Marching In” with Leaf Trombone:

And this is a special about the creator:

Lost in music

Lilt Line is a music game from the underground. App store link

In this music game everything works a little different. The first obvious difference is that the music is really good for a change. It was produced by 16bit and it’s not at all pop-songs, it’s dubstep. Music is always hard to describe – you better listen to a snip of “PCP” by 16bit:

The second difference are the controls. You control the end of a thin white line up and down by tilting the phone left to right. This is a strange twist of directions but it works fine. While the music is playing an abstract pathway made of colour gradients moves to the left underneath the line. Your task is to keep the line on the pathway. When it touches the edges, you will hear a disturbing noise overlaying the music.

Occasionally white vertical bars appear. They are rhytm events and move to the left with the pathway. Tap them when they intersect the thin white line. But something is twisted again here. They usually don’t mark the bassdrum, they focus on other, more dubstep related beats. And it’s actually not about the moment you tap them, it’s rather about the moment of releasing your finger which fits the music style very well. If you miss a marker, the music will turn down and ony return to full volume if you catch the next marker.

In this game you don’t make points, you start with a number of points and you’ll lose them if you make mistakes. If you run out of points the level ends. You’re not asked if you want to retry the level, the game automatically restarts it, which is cool I think. The graphical style, the colours, the countdown before the level starts and the production of the menu elements are rough but funky. They fit the underground vibe.

This is really a special music game. I really like the music and playing the game. There are enough levels and it’s fun to play the same level over and over again.

App store link and developer link: Different Cloth

RJDJ listening screen

RJDJ generates music with the help of the headset microphone and different algorhythms to manipulate the input. The result is a soundtrack to your realworld experience. App store link

One scene for example takes the sounds sourrounding you and echos them. But it’s not a simple echo – the sounds are bend and pitched which produces a mind-boggling effect. Another scene somehow seems to undestand different kinds of sounds. So it able to replace the actual sounds with it’s own sounds.

It’s hard to imagine what it sounds and feels like because it works with your evironment. You should definitly try it out yourself if this sounds interesting to you. I promise it’s an interesting experience.

There are some extra functionalities: you can share your sound experiences with the RDDJ community and you can build you own soundscenes. I didn’t try this yet and I possibly never will.

Right now (April 2009) they are giving away all three RJDJ apps for free, I think they want to reach a wider audience. So go get the apps now!

App store link and developer link: Reality Jockey.