Hi. I am a non-musician. And by "being a non-musician" I mean that I ignore what keys and chords are, and also that I can't move my hands according to a steady rhythm (I can't even follow a metronome). And I don't want to learn! Now, I can play a solo (on my iPhone/iPod Touch) using ThumbJam... ...and put together a loop either playing instruments, using ZoozBeat... ...or drawing on a grid, using Mujik... ...but is there an app to build sequences (as in verse-chorus or even as in sonata form) with the same easiness? Thanks. (suggestions about any music making app having the same approach as the ones I cited are welcome too)
This is the step where you probably want to look at Music Studio or Nano Studio, depending on the style of music you're interested in. Beatmaker might be a good choice, but I haven't played with it so I can't say how easy it is to use. It's certainly geared towards what you're talking about. One studio I had a lot of fun with when I first got it, and is simpler in some ways is iSyn - you're forced to think in 16 beat chunks, two synths and a drum machine. The interface is very glowy, but not as overwhelming with options as Nano Studio (my favorite) but it's a little more clunky too. EDIT: I almost forgot about ReBirth - this app might be right up your ally, although the iOS iteration of it is harder to use than the PC version... it's on sale this month though! (Bass synth + two drum machines + step sequencers!) EDIT2: Looking for a visual sequencer that supports more than just one screen/loop, SoundGrid looks decent.
First of all, thanks for the answer! I've tried Music Studio (the free version), and I know about the other apps you cited. They aren't quite what I meant (but some have the right approach, see below). For sure they are very easy to use and I'll reconsider them, but let me try to explain what I am looking for (I'm sorry that my original post wasn't clear). If you press the iPhone's touchscreen randomly on any of the apps I cited (ThumbJam, ZoozBeat, Mujik), the result is not good music, but it is... not unpleasant to listen to. Of course one can make better music thinking when you use these apps (or so I hope!), but you can't go wrong with them: give them to a toddler and he/she would make nice sounds. Now, my question is: is there an app that works not (or not only) at the sound-making or single pattern-making level, but at the song structure-level and fulfill the same "random/toddler criterion"? I.e. again such that you can press the screen randomly and it produces sequences of different patterns that make sense? (e.g. theme-variation1-theme-variation2) I guess that Music Studio, NanoStudio and BeatMaker don't fulfill the random/toddler criterion (with the exception of SoundGrid, see below) and that none of them fulfill it at the song sequence-level, am I wrong? If what I wrote doesn't make sense, I can try to explain it in a different way. I've read that it has a steeper learning curve than NanoStudio. (of course I want something with no learning curve, see above...) Yes, it's like Mujik (i.e. a grid/matrix sequencer), but with the ability to put more than one loop one after another. But I guess that if you press randomly (stupid example, I know, but maybe it can be useful to understand what I mean) the results are not bad as of a single loop, while nothing assures that sequences are OK. Thanks again for all the suggestions, they are precious for me!
