Apps - Page 6

At first glance, Coaches Eye might not seem like an app that has any use in a musical setting. While it’s actually designed for sports trainers and coaches, I’ve found its usefulness goes well beyond those groups. The app allows you to import a video (or shoot your own from within the app), record your commentary, annotate the video with...

Notion Music has released Progression 2.0, the latest version of their composition software for bass, guitar and drums. New features include a more intuitive interface, desktop/iPad compatibility, and real instrument sounds for playback including bass samples by Victor Wooten. Other real samples are provided by guitarist Neil Zaza and drummer Roy “Futureman” Wooten. Progression 2.0’s ability to work on multiple...

DigiTech has expanded their E-pedal offering for the iStomp with the introduction of the 3Q, a 3-band EQ. Each of the band controls – Bass, Mid, and Treble – offer 12dB of boost or cut, while the Mid Freq control selects the midrange frequency range between 500Hz and 3kHz. The DigiTech 3Q E-pedal can be downloaded and used with an...

I’m doing something a little different this time by reviewing an app I came across for your desktop computer. While not an iOS app, I thought that I’d be remiss if I didn’t let you all in on this. MusicalEar is an ear training and theory app, going way beyond any on the market. The app contains over 200 compositions,...

Funkbox Drum Machine is a fantastically done, retro-styled drum machine loaded with some of the most popular drum machine sounds from the 70’s and 80’s. This app has even been used live and in the studio by many artists including Joan Osborne and, most famously, by Gorillaz. If you’re at all familiar with the drum machines of old, then you’ll...

Jazz Box, in my humble opinion, has just helped to fulfill a need for a thorough, high quality harmonic study app. While not perfect and not 100% inclusive of every harmonic consideration, it goes way beyond any of the other apps I have seen in explaining scale considerations in the jazz idiom, spelling out various chords and explaining what certain...

Ever since I got my first iOS device, I’ve become a bit of a metronome junkie. I’m endlessly curious about how many ways one can implement time keeping into a design aesthetic and how many functions can developers think of doing. I’m also a fan of minimalism… I love a great, bare bones design: no fluff, no fat, just what...

iHarmony is an app described by its creator as “a fully complete collection of scales, chords & harmonizations…” The harmonization part of the description describes what is actually a list of chord qualities for every note in a given mode (i.e.: Maj7, -7, -7, Maj7, Dom7, -7 & -7(b5) for the Major modes), which is quite handy. While I wouldn’t...

Professional audio technology company Aphex has introduced the Audio Xciter Music App, a mobile application designed to improve the quality of digital audio through the use of their proprietary Xciter digital signal processor. The app, which works with music as well as audio books and podcasts, makes audio sound more dynamic with Low, Medium, and High presets as well as...

I just discovered JET Powered Apps’s Rhythm Calculator app, a gem of an app I guarantee will live on my phone for quite some time, and I suspect that’ll be true for you other iOS device-carrying folks as well. Rhythm Calculator is exactly what the name suggests: an interface that allows you to enter rhythms of most any type, in...

Dream Theatre Keyboard wiz Jordan Rudes has been making quite a name for himself as the mastermind behind some pretty creative musical iOS apps like MorphWiz, SampleWiz, Geo Synthesizer and now, Tachyon. The common theme to these apps is that they offer an ethereal aesthetic which serves to mesmerize to the point where one almost forgets that they are making...

Fans of musical mobile device apps will be interested in Loopr, a new looping app for iOS. The new app is designed for simplicity and allows for musicians to record continuous loops to groove, practice, and perform with. Once you’ve created your loops, you can save them as independent files, including tempo and time signature information, and share them with...