Pocket Production
From smartphones to hand-held games consoles, there are lots of ways to make music while on the move. Liam O’Mullane takes a look at the current options.
The facilities available today for making music on the move are starting to rival what a typical home studio might have offered ten or 15 years ago. Back then, a bedroom or project studio would comprise just a few pieces of dedicated hardware – a sound module, a sampler and either a hardware or a computer-based sequencer. An audio mixer would also be required for balance and EQ work, along with some form of reverb or multi-effects unit. For many, this would be enough to write and mix professional-sounding tracks.
Although these may seem like primitive setups, their limitations had some benefits. You had to work hard to squeeze the most out of the tools available, while the lack of instant recall also helped you focus on seeing a project through, so you could clear the decks ready for the next one.
By the late 90s, computers offered the power needed for audio recording and soon after that they started to feature real-time instruments and effects. This is when the concept of working in-the-box first started to become a reality – with some limitations. Now even those limitations are disappearing as our four-, eight- and 12-core computers can cope with multiple plug-in instances and high track counts. The problem is that this lack of restrictions can be paralysing – there are simply too many options!
By way of contrast, working on portable devices offers true portability, with enough power for a few virtual instruments and effects but at the same time enough restrictions that you’ll be motivated to squeeze as much as you can out of your tools.
A testament to the processing power now available in pocket form was the recent port of Propellerhead’s ReBirth onto the iPhone. Back in 1997, this amazed everyone with its various virtual instruments, all running in real time on the much lower-spec’ed machines of the time. Now it runs on your phone.
Take a disciplined approach, then, and the power is there to produce anything from musical ideas to full compositions while on the move. So, let’s look at what options are out there.
Calling out the competition
The mobile phone market is bulging with smartphones from various manufacturers, running various operating systems which we’ll look at one by one.
Although it is now on version 7, the Windows Mobile platform currently has only a very small number of music-making apps. A few years ago there was support for this OS in the form of Griff, from PlanetGriff. This was a full virtual studio. Pocket Stompbox from FourPockets was a popular guitar pedal simulator at the time, but it had the major limitation of not having a guitar interface. There hasn’t been any newsworthy activity for Windows Mobile music-making recently, which would suggest that developers are concentrating on supporting other OSs.
Blackberry’s OS is self-titled and Nokia’s main OS is called Symbian. So far, neither of these has support for any serious music-making apps. The only ones we’ve come across are aimed at consumer-level music streaming, ringtone creation or simple dictaphone-style recorders, which compared to the competition seem outdated and overly basic.
The Android OS, owned by Google, is currently flourishing, with apps being released at an increasingly fast rate. A few strong music-making apps are available from independent developers; we are yet to see a release from an established music tech company, but this may well happen in 2011.
All of which leads us inevitably to Apple’s iOS, which runs on the iPod Touch, iPhone or iPad, all of which offer several music production apps. The difference in developer support for this platform over the competition is staggering, with a healthy number of new music-making apps being released each month. Of course, Apple got there first with a successful smartphone and iOS has had longer to mature as an OS. From a developer’s point of view, writing software for a limited number of devices, each of which tends to have a comparatively long shelf-life, also makes developing for iOS a more attractive proposition.
Over time, amendments to iOS have improved standards for music-making and the CoreMIDI framework offers a unified system for everyone to work with, whether it’s hardware- or software-based. Audio latency issues were also addressed a while back – something Android should take note of, as this is essential for hands-on audio control.
The more recent development of hardware for Apple devices was even more encouraging, going from entry-level guitar interfaces like IK Multimedia’s iRig and Peavey’s iLink interface through to the high-end GuitarJack from Sonoma WireWorks. Line 6 released the MIDI Mobilizer hardware MIDI interface and AKAI released the SynthStation 25 controller keyboard, which has already received support from many of the leading apps. Blue is another company to offer hardware for these devices in the form of the Mikey stereo microphone. This tiny add-on, now onto its second model, can capture much better-quality audio than the onboard mono mic.
The music game
Portable gaming devices are another option when it comes to making music on the move, although this will potentially take up more pocket space if you also have a phone to carry about with you. Older systems like the Sony PSP and Nintendo GameBoy used, in fact, to be a more attractive option than the phones available at the time; that’s no longer true, but the idea of making music on your portable console still has a certain appeal – it’s fun!
Although various sampler- or synth-based sequencing apps have been available on the PSP and GameBoy over the years, the Nintendo DS is the main device currently receiving official support for music-making. Most recently, Korg released the M01, which is an eight-part, M1 synthesizer-based workstation (although the UK release is still TBA). Before this Korg released the DS-10, which features MS-20 emulation. Although the Korg iMS-20 app for the iPad has now brought this classic Korg sound to touchscreen users, these DS games have stylus control and a two-screen display, all in a much more compact unit. NanoLoop, from Oliver Wittchow, can be used on the DS or previous GameBoy machines. This is a far less impressive-looking application, as it was designed for the original monochrome GameBoy screen. But it has that lo-fi eight-bit sound character that many people desire these days, so it’s excellent for creating ‘chiptune’ tracks, and although the step sequencer may be very simple, it is also easy and fun to use.
Across platforms
NanoLoop is also one of the few cross-platform apps, as it was recently ported across to iOS. A possible advantage of this version is the ability to export a mixdown of your work rather than the alternative of recording the audio output of a GameBoy/DS. But part of the charm of these devices is their lo-fi sound quality, so you may find that the iOS version is a little too clean-sounding for your tastes.
On a similar crunchy, lo-fi-based theme, a multi-platform app called Sunvox by Zolotov Alexander is a modular, tracker-based virtual studio. It’s available for free to run on Windows Mobile, PalmOS, Windows, Linux (desktop or pocket device versions) and Mac OSX. An iOS version is available to purchase for £2.99 and there is a lot of power in this app on all of the available platforms, including FM synths, samplers and multi FX. Its modular interface routes sound sources and effects in a similar way to programs like NI’s Reaktor and Max/Msp, by dragging connection lines between each module block.
This app’s cross-platform compatibility makes life easy for collaborating with people on various devices. However, those who are used to using pattern- or piano roll-based sequencers might find a tracker system confusing to use, plus the app’s interface suffers on a touchscreen device due to the number of features it has and the way in which they have been spread over various re-sizeable windows.
If you like to sit and just create sounds, then the Jasuto modular synthesizer is available for iOS, Android and, in plug-in form, Windows and OSX. This would enable you, for instance, to create that next pad or lead sound wherever you may be, then load the patch into your DAW at a later date.
Android-specific
There are only a few good-quality music-making apps available for Android, two of which are developed by Niko Twenty. Electrum is a sample-based drum machine featuring editing for eight drum sound slots and 32 possible 16 step-patterns to program. You can export audio from Electrum to then arrange it alongside other audio files in ReLoop. This is a basic audio sequencer that can import loops or one-shot sounds to sequence over eight tracks. You can re-pitch single shots to create melodies and export parts to mix
on your main computer. Electrum can be expanded using paid-for sample packs or you can import your own sounds, which is especially useful if you’ve already invested in some quality samples packs.
Depending on your Android device’s microphone quality you can easily record and sample the sounds around you for some found-sound creativity. This could be done in Electrum itself or in the TapeMachine Recorder app from Samalyse, which enables you to record up to two hours of audio, edit and then export it.
One promising-looking app currently in the beta stage is Su-Preme MPA from Boom Bappz. This is a sample-based drum pad and keyboard sequencer with audio editing and looks like it may offer a complete sampling workstation which will offer a better level of features for Android users.
The big Apple
As mentioned before, iOS apps for music-making are in abundance and their level of sophistication has matured over time along with iOS itself. You can now get various types of apps to either cater for all your needs at a basic level or focus on one element at a time with a higher level of detail and finesse.
Various multitrack recording apps are now available for iOS devices, from the most basic (and free!) to better-featured, paid-for apps. Visually, these tend to take one of two forms: either emulating old-school tape machines or adopting the familiar timeline-based approach of modern DAWs.
FourTrack by Sonoma uses the former (tape recorder) approach and simply has a scroll wheel to navigate round a project. EQ can be added to sounds as they are recorded, with further EQ and compression available on the output to polish your mixdowns. For those wanting the simplest of setups, Sonoma’s own Riffworks T4 software will import FourTrack projects to your computer, where you can add those finishing touches. FourTrack’s simplicity works well for musicians who just want to record their performances, whereas an app like MultiTrack by Harmonicdog offers a timeline-based layout for those who want to sequence audio. Up to 24 tracks can be recorded onto or used to sequence imported audio, so it has the ability to create some quite complex arrangement work. It has only basic track controls though (volume and pan), so it’s best used alongside more focused apps for sound-creation and processing.
If you prefer to work in a virtual MIDI studio-based environment there are a few options, and NanoStudio by Blip Interactive is a good example in terms of features and ease of use. It has four synthesizers and a sample-based drum machine. Each synth has various oscillator options as its sound source or you can load in audio samples to trigger and process them through the synth’s filters, envelopes and effects.
Whereas NanoStudio is excellent for strong, electronic-sounding tracks, MusicStudio from Alexander Gross uses a more classic but broad GM-sounding palette of instruments to help you focus on creating melodic content rather than sculpting produced sounds. MIDI can be imported and exported so it is very useful for those who like to compose complex arrangements. You can load the MIDI into your main computer DAW to take it to the next stage.
File transfer protocols
Standalone apps can be sound sources such as drum machines and synthesizers or more experimental instruments. Sound-processing apps are also useful to get more texture in your production work, and this is possible only thanks to another standard in the iOS app developer community. As iOS doesn’t provide a ‘shared’ area that multiple apps can access, in-app audio copy and paste support has become highly desirable when using multiple apps for one project.
Sonoma’s AudioCopy/AudioPaste format (ACP) offers the most functionality over the generic Apple and Intua pasteboard formats. Sonoma’s format keeps a history of 12 copied audio files and also shifts information like tempo, format and duration between apps for ease of use. ACP also supports the other two formats, so there shouldn’t be any issues as long as your main app for putting everything together supports ACP. An example of when this might be useful would be to take a drum loop created in one app, then paste it into Moog’s Filtatron to dirty it up with some analogue-sounding drive or filter modulation. Then you can paste the new version of the file back into your main app to work with it further.
Most recently, one of the leading guitar processing apps, AmpKit from Peavey and Agile Partners, added this feature, which means that you can now use its re-amping feature – designed to process clean guitar recordings – for adding effects to anything. This offers another palette of sonic possibilities and makes it easier to stay within your device without the need for processing elsewhere.
File movements
When it comes to shifting files around your devices, Android has the advantage of being more open in terms of file access. You can easily store files on a memory card and use them with other apps. The nearest thing to this on iOS is to use apps that allow access to your iPod library to share samples collections between apps. But it doesn’t allow you to save to this shared space: the only write area on your device is the App File Sharing folder, which is unique per app. See the step-by-step box for how to do this.
If your app of choice doesn’t support this folder system, then you can always do things the old-fashioned way – using a Wi-Fi connection between your device and computer to transfer files. This is a slow and sometimes unreliable method, however, so if your app hasn’t been updated for file-sharing yet, we suggest you request it from the developer – it might save you loads of time and hassle.
Some apps don’t have the means to record their own audio, such as the Curtis Heavy granular synthesizer from The Strange Agency. If this is the case, the only option is to record its output to another device or computer in real time as you would any other instrument. This will require linking your phone to a device capable of recording, which may take us out of the ‘mobile’ realm, but it can still be worth it to create unique audio.
A work in progress
A mobile device, whether smartphone or games console, isn’t simply a miniaturised computer and, as we’ve seen, for better or worse, it requires a different approach in use. So a good question is Why Bother?
Well, we think a big selling point is the ability to maximise on those snippets of time from day to day like getting to work, sitting in the park or any other short amounts of downtime you may have which can be utilised for creativity. You don’t necessarily need to have a compositional focus; for instance, you might try only creating drum parts for a few weeks, or sound FX. Doing this can create a lot of material without the need to focus on a long project.
For creating full productions on your device, source sounds are incredibly important, and it can be worth importing a well-chosen selection of sample material onto your device before you do anything else. Then, with careful use of specific apps, you can craft each part into your final mixdown.
Another approach to mobile production can be to get just the basic ideas down in one app without thinking too much about the perfect sound, then export each element to perfect it using your full DAW’s mixing tools.
This time next year, we hope to see more music-making tools for Android or Windows Mobile as the market develops. But this will depend on whether those operating systems decide to evolve in favour of music-makers or not. Only time will tell – so keep reading Music Tech to keep up with new developments! MTM
This feature first appeared in Music Tech Magazine issue 95
Filed under
Home,
General Features,
Features
Sign in to download this article
New users, please register here
See also...
 MTM 104 |
Steinberg RND Portico Plug-Ins Review |
 MTM 104 |
Audio-Technica AT2022 Review |
|
 MTM 103 |
25 Tips for Cubase 6 |
MTM 102 |
Ultimate Guide to Filtering |
|
MTM 103 |
Harness the power of additive synthesis |
MTM 103 |
Bob Katz Interviewed |
|
MTM 103 |
Drum Production Masterclass |
 MTM 105 |
Bettermaker EQ 230P Review |
