MusicMaking Articles on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog

polychord for iPad: an inspiring way to create music

by Matt Tinsley (May 1st, 2013)

polychord (US$9.99) is a virtual instrument for making and creating keyboard / electronic-style music on the iPad. With its easy-to-use approach and layout, polychord makes it painless to get your head around the basics and start making some really lovely sounding and creatively inspiring music. ...

triqtraq for iOS, an electro jam sequencer app

by Matt Tinsley (Feb 28th, 2013)

If you love Propellerhead's Figure app for iOS, you're sure to love triqtraq, a quick and easy music-inspiration and creation app for short bursts of creativity when you're waiting for a train with a few minutes to spare, or live for improvisation. With a library of more than 350 samples, ...

Figure for iOS updated to 1.4, adds social sharing and Audiobus support

by Matt Tinsley (Feb 27th, 2013)

Figure, Propellerhead's popular and inspiring music-making app for iOS, has been updated to 1.4. The update makes sharing your musical creations even easier, now with SoundCloud integration (and, by extension, sharing on Facebook and Twitter) and AudioCopy, which allows you to copy and paste ...

Interview: Artist Growth for iOS helps manage your musical career

by Matt Tinsley (Jun 29th, 2012)

Artist Growth is making waves in the tech and music industry. For musicians, Artist Growth is a means to manage all your gigs (including live performance royalty registration), recording projects, merchandise, social media promotion as well as advice and mentoring from industry pros, all from ...

IK Multimedia announces AmpliTube SLASH for iOS and Mac

by Matt Tinsley (Jun 14th, 2012)

IK Multimedia has just announced AmpliTube Slash for iPhone, iPad and the Mac. Yes, that's right. Slash, the guitarist from Guns N' Roses (and many other musical projects), has teamed up with IK Multimedia to produce his signature pedals and amplifiers on AmpliTube. The app comes with two ...

Hands on with the iKlip Studio stand for iPad

by Matt Tinsley (May 23rd, 2012)

It's difficult to get excited about a stand for the iPad, unless it's something exceptional. But most of the time, a stand is to serve a very practical need. And with IK Multimedia producing a vast array of accessories and applications for musicians to use with their iPads and iPhones, it makes ...

iConnectMIDI provides for all your MIDI requirements, including iOS

by Matt Tinsley (May 11th, 2012)

For musicians who use MIDI, it can be difficult and frustrating to get all your MIDI gear to talk to each other, especially all at the same time. Usually you hit some kind of snag, like your USB port not providing enough power to your MIDI device. Or older MIDI gear with 5-pin DIN MIDI ...

Propellerhead announces Figure for iOS (Updated)

by Matt Tinsley (Mar 21st, 2012)

Propellerhead -- makers of the music DAW software, Reason -- had a press conference in Frankfurt, Germany yesterday where it announced some exciting new products and features. Most notably for iOS users, Propellerhead announced a brand new music making app, Figure. As indicated by Ernst ...

IK Multimedia's DJ Rig arrives on the App Store

by Matt Tinsley (Mar 14th, 2012)

Back in January, IK Multimedia announced the iRig Mix and accompanying app, DJ Rig. We're still waiting to get our hands on the mixer (due at some point later this month), but the DJ Rig app has arrived on the App Store. And you don't need the iRig Mix to take advantage of it. DJ Rig is a ...

Hands on with Propellerhead's Reason 6 and Balance interface

by Matt Tinsley (Jan 13th, 2012)

I've always been curious about Propellerhead's Reason software, but since I'm not really an electronic music-making enthusiast, and the fact that up until more recently Reason had no audio recording capabilities, I've always turned to other recording platforms for my music-making needs, that is ...

Hands on with Korg's NanoKONTROL2

by Matt Tinsley (Dec 12th, 2011)

Korg's popular, slim-line NanoSERIES USB-MIDI controllers have been updated to 2.0. We were lucky enough to get our hands on the NanoKONTROL2 control surface and put it through its paces. Like the the nanoKEY2 (a 25 key, velocity-sensing MIDI keyboard) and the nanoPAD2 (with 16 responsive ...

IK Multimedia's VocaLive comes to the iPad

by Matt Tinsley (Nov 25th, 2011)

Earlier this year, IK Multimedia introduced the iRig Mic and VocaLive app for the iPhone. Our very own Steve Sande did a review of the iRig Mic, which you can check out here. The app is good, but it's not universal which is a big drawback for folks who have an iPhone and an iPad. Of course, you ...

Tascam debuts iM2 stereo condesor mic for iPhone

by Matt Tinsley (Nov 25th, 2011)

Around this time last year, Tascam introduced the Portastudio app, a 4-track recorder modeled after the legendary Portastudio 144 4-track recorder of some 30 years ago. Now, Tascam has debuted the iM2, a stereo recorder with two condenser mics and a built-in pre-amp that's based on Tascam's ...

Amidio debuts Songineer - Instant Composer for the iPhone

by Matt Tinsley (Nov 21st, 2011)

Amidio, makers of mobile music creation apps like Seline HD, have released Songineer, a scale-based sequencer to help you create and generate melodic sound and groove while on the move. Featuring a drum machine with 5 drumkits, a beat randomizer, 20 instruments, a DNA keyboard (which means ...

Native Instruments debuts first iOS app, iMaschine

by Matt Tinsley (Nov 4th, 2011)

For some time I've wondered when and if Native Instruments would enter the iOS music-making market. Being that they have such a respected presence with their awesome music software and audio interfaces in studios and with musicians around the world, it was irresistible to think of Native ...