Another favourite Strange Agency app that I’m rediscovering since getting my iPad 3. Excellent for making noises.
Tag: iOS
Apple’s mobile OS. I find that I use iOS (on the iPad and iPhone) for a lot of things these days, mainly because it’s just so useful.
App revisit: Flourish
Flourish is quite old now, but was a great idea and is still an interesting idea for a sequencer app irrespective of what platform it’s on.
It works as a circular pattern. An idea that’s been used a number of times before, but always in a slightly different implementations. Flourish is very nice implementation in my view. It is simple enough for a relatively non-musical user to enjoy, but allows enough complexity to be build up to create interesting compositions.
Sunvox is awesome on the iPad 3
Returning to my iPad 3 and finding lots of apps that I really enjoyed again. Sunvox being a good example although I can’t wait to see the live recording and other stuff Alex has in store for version 1.7.
Ambientness
When Brian Eno’s Bloom app came out it caused a stir. I guess that people didn’t expect there to be something like that for a mobile platform from someone as significant as Eno. Personally I thought it sent a very clear signal as to how important mobile was, and that was great news.
Even though these apps (Bloom, Air, Trope) haven’t had many updates I still like them. I still find them interesting to listen to and play with, and I’m glad that Eno did them. I hope he’ll do something more in the mobile space, something really innovative, but if he does I expect it will be quite unexpected.
App revisit: Randgrid
This app is one that hasn’t seen an update in years I think. It’s one of the original synth / drum machine apps, and whilst the interface isn’t great, especially by today’s standards, it has a nice randomise function to it which can be quite fun to play with.
So I think it can stay on my music iPhone 3G.
App revisit: Aurora Sound Studio
Aurora is one of the best, if not the best, grid based sequencer on the iPhone. It is just so versatile. So I expected that it would just crawl along on my iPhone 3G. But I was wrong. It works really well on the 3G.
So there’s another app that will be staying on my 3G for some time to come.
Thump, Thump, Thump
I very clearly remember when this first came out. It was very exciting. Thump went a bit further than the more traditional 2 x synths and 1 x drum machine app. It had more scope for playing with the sounds, especially in terms of drum sounds, which was a little unusual back then. When I say back then of course I only mean 2009, which isn’t that long ago at all, but things have moved on a great deal.
I still like Thump. It’s just different enough to give it a slightly unique sound, and that’s not something you find everyday.
App revisit: iSyn
Another app that I haven’t used in ages but is still a very good app on the 3G. I remember when iSyn first came out and was a real revelation. It’s still just a 2 synths and drums app, but what it does it does well and the synth controls and sequencers are easy to get around.
If I had one complaint it would be about the project save functionality although I doubt very much that it will be updated or sorted out at any point.
Hey, I’m in an app! (called AriVibes)
And what’s more it’s a really cool reactive app as well, which makes it even more of an honor to be in the app. If you haven’t tried it, then you need to try it. What more can I say? Seriously, if you know and love RJDJ or the Inception app or that kind of thing, then you should give this a go. You won’t regret it one bit
Oh yeah, and if you hadn’t noticed, the preset name is AshPalm, for Ashley from PalmSounds.
miniMusic, Pianofly Pro Synth and more thoughts …
miniMusic will turn 13 years old soon, and even though they haven’t put out anything new for quite some time I thought I’d give PianoFly Pro Synth a go again. It’s a lovely app, a lovely synth with some features that still aren’t available anywhere else.
I’d hoped that they’d bring out Tympanum, their second app soon, but it still hasn’t seen the light of day. I’d like to think that miniMusic would do something for their birthday as they remain one of my favourite developers.
I am Ashley Elsdon 