20 Music Apps to Rock Your iPad
This is like Music technology on crack... I hope you brought a pipe...
It’s been said that if you play your guitar at midnight, sitting at any crossroads, that the devil will come and teach you the blues in exchange for your soul. Well, I bet you could pull a trick on the red one by playing the Seline HD iPad app (number 14 below) instead of a real guitar. But the Seline HD isn’t the only one on this list able to deceive the ears of the Deceiver. Here are 19 others that are just as wicked:
1. Reactable lets you make music with Touchscreens And Sound-Altering Modules
Björk uses it. Music Technology Group developed it. Creative musicians need it… Reactable Mobile rocks 6 ways from Sunday. Drop it on your iPad then move around visual squares (each being a sound module) to create brain bending new sounds.
2. Glee
The show is kind of a big deal… and the app will be just as big. Sing into your iPad and it’ll correct you to perfect pitch, drop in a Glee-style chorus to harmonize with you and record the entire thing. Then, for the attention whores among us, you can share your song easily via Facebook or Twitter and earn points towards free songs in the process.
3. Nota Piano App for iPad
Nota is heaven for the true I-use-actual-instruments musician. It’s a music theory quizz app, chord/scale suggestion app and a staff/note identification app all wrapped into one. You can find it for the iPhone or the iPad, but the iPad version seems more user-friendly due to more screen real estate.
4. RJ Voyajer for iPad
DJ = Disc Jockey… RJ = Reality Jockey. Load a scene (a.k.a. song) and navigate your scene via your device’s touch screen. Tap at the screen to shape a mix based on the scene. RJ Voyager is more a fun app than a technical one, but it’ll give you boatloads of ideas to use when you fire up Reason/Sonar/Acid/whatever.
5. iPad app for DJs: mixr
This app is for the electro-DJ crowd… the kids that have never spun nor want to spin real vinyl. Plug your iPad directly into the sound system and move the crowd using two virtual turntables. No record stack, no mixer, no effects modules required.
6. Rebirth for iPad
Ask anybody that’s ever made or mixed any electronic-based music; ReBirth was (and still is) the program to have. And this app is ReBirth reborn. Expect to see ReBirth’s familiar Tb-303/TR-808/TR- 909 interface greeting you with a smile… and don’t forget to smile back
7. Magic Fiddle
The Magic Fiddle sounds remarkably real; you get that beautiful fiddle voice without the finger calluses. You can even set the app to record a “score” as you play so you can join competitions against other Magic Fiddlers. Smule is the company to thank for this half-cool/half-geeky music app.
8. iBone XL for iPad
You don’t have to be Einstein to guess what the iBone XL is all about… and please keep your mind out of the gutter. This app may be the only way to “play” the trombone without puffing your cheeks like Dizzy Gillespie. You can even use it to teach you how to play preprogrammed songs, making it perfect for the Glenn Miller in training.
9. Polychord App for iPad
Polychord is an accompanying band in your pocket. It’s your drummer, bass player and keyboard in one. Press a button to activate your chord, strum your chord with a swipe of your finger and you’re ready to make beautiful music.
10. Andrew Zuckerman: Music App
This app is dripping with inspiration. Get access to interviews, pictures and film clips from 50 different musicians such as Iggy Pop and Joe Jackson. Then stop dreaming and get back to practicing.
11. Spectrogram HD
Spectrogram makes the audible sound a visual experience. Capture any sound within range of the mic and the app automatically breaks the sound down into frequencies and displays the breakdown onscreen. Plus it costs less than 2 nugget meals at McDonalds, making it a win in my book.
12. EnglitinaXL - 48-Button English Concertina
The English Treble Concertina sounds similar to an accordion. If that type of sound is your thing then the EnglitinaXL is something worth looking into. Play your screen as you would an actual Concertina, and when you’re ready to learn more songs just click the help screen to pull up fingering charts.
13. PatternMusic MXXIV for iPad
PatternMusic looks like a strange derivative of Tetris, but don’t let that fool you. There are few apps on the market with the same level of chops. You play PatternMusic and it spits out synthesized notes… then you can arrange these notes into full songs. And when you’re not busy making your next hit, you can play along with any song you have in your music library from within the PatternMusic interface.
14. Seline HD – The iPad Orchestra
The iPad Orchestra looks and feels futuristic, and pumps out sounds that are amazing. Use it to improve with 23 different instrument sounds or write full-on songs; it can even predict the next note as you craft the melody. Bottom line: this app absolutely rocks, in a year 2079 kind of way.
15. StreamToMe App
At first glance, StreamToMe looks like nothing more than a standard media player app. Then you find out it can stream video and/or music via WiFi and all the sudden it’s kind of more than a media player. This effectively eliminates the need to sync with your computer when you get new music, making the app way cool.
16. Air Harp for iPad
The Air Harp app is a digital air harp that sounds virtually identical to the real thing. You can strum and pluck out notes over 2 octaves in G Major. And, following the modus operandi of most instrument apps, you can load up popular songs and play along.
17. Korg iElectribe for iPad
Korg is king when it comes to keyboards and synths. The sound engine is identical to the real Electribe R, but you’re obviously not getting the feel of actual knobs and sliders. But for like $250 less are you really going to complain?
18. Pianist Pro for iPad
From what I hear Pianist Pro is the godfather of iPhone piano apps. The sound is full, touch interaction is life-like and you get a full 88 key layout to tinker with. The app has MIDI support too, so you can drop your work directly onto your main workstation. And it’s all yours for less than 10 bucks.
19. Pandora Radio
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you already know what Pandora is all about. This app puts the personalized radio platform onto your iPad, and doesn’t cost you a penny.
20. Aweditorium brings high-quality multimedia to the iPad
Aweditorium is a cool concept that is like having access to an encyclopedia of music artists. It pulls together pictures, lyrics, interviews and video to make it easy to get your idol-worship on. But the real benefit, according to the marketing plug, is the “tactile feel” the app restores to the whole music experience… something similar to the days of reading a CD’s booklet before listening to it.
