iOS Music And You | Turning Your iPhone And iPad Into A Music Studio

Did you miss the latest happenings in the iOS world throughout the last week? Don’t sweat it, we’ve got you covered here at iOS Music And You. Every Monday we’ll be filling you in on the most recent news, new app releases, and the on-site happenings. You can get a taste of everything that’s fueling iOS music making and catch yourself up to date. If you want to get your iOS music news fix on a daily basis, LIKE the iOS Music And You Facebook Page!

iOS Music News Around The Internet:
The big Apple news came this week in the form of a huge, annual event – the keynote presentation at the World Wide Developer’s Conference, otherwise known as WWDC. We got a sneak peek at iOS7, which includes a variety of alterations to the interface that we’ve come to know and love. The most striking new feature is the new, flattened interface, which makes the iPhone look a whole lot more colorful and less textured. It’s different and will certainly take some getting used to, but overall, its a nice change. There’s some cool changes under the hood too, including Multitasking, Control Center, and AirDrop. Multitasking will allow for true updates in the background, intelligently scheduled so that they don’t drain your battery. Control Center will give you easy access to system tools like sound controls that you use often. AirDrop sounds really intriguing, letting you quickly share files between devices, letting you move things like samples between your iPhone, iPad, and desktop computer, not to mention a collaborator’s device. There’s a lot more to anticipate in iOS7, both musically and non-musically; if you want to get the full scoop on the new operating system, check out the official page.

While it doesn’t exactly relate to music creation, iTunes Radio certainly caught my attention. We all listen to music and it’s a definite plus to have a way to discover music. I’ve tried Pandora a lot, and honestly, I’ve really wanted it to work for me; it just never could make a consistent station with enough relevant variety. These days, I’ve been using Spotify Radio, and I’ve found that it works much better; it has really made me see the potential behind this idea. When iTunes makes stations based on my previous purchases and my iTunes collection, I see this taking a step further towards a really powerful tool for discovering new music. I’ll be excited to see what the future holds for iTunes Radio – what do you think?

Remember when there was a lot of controversy around the appearance of “Inter-App Audio” when iOS6 was debuted last year, and then the functionality never actually made its way into the operating system? Well, we once again saw the term used in the iOS7 presentation, but this time, it’s the real deal – Inter-App Audio is an actual feature that will appear in the new version of iOS. The official description from Apple promises shared audio streams between apps, which is something that we already have through Audiobus and JACK; it also describes MIDI control of audio rendering, which those apps don’t deliver. For a fuller description of exactly what Inter-App Audio will do for iOS music, check out this article from Create Digital Music.

When the idea of Inter-App Audio baked in the iOS first arrived around iOS 6, everyone starting ringing the death toll for Audiobus, something that obviously never came to pass. We’re a bit more cautious the second time around, but you can’t help but wonder how this new development will effect both Audiobus and JACK. Fortunately, the Audiobus team, Michael Tyson and Sebastian Dittmann, both attended WWDC, and they got the inside scoop on Inter-App Audio. They are bound to Non-Disclosure Agreements, so they can’t give us too many details, but they seem to be pleasantly optimistic. In fact, you can read their official statement on Inter-App Audio HERE. Over at Create Digital Media, Peter Kirn actually put a positive spin on this turn of events with some great points that highlighted the fact that Audiobus and JACK actually both might get better as a result of iOS Inter-App Audio. It’s a great read that will get you excited about the new progress – check it out HERE.

WWDC is certainly a time when we hear about new developments in iOS software, but it’s really meant to be a place where developers from around the world gather to learn a lot more about programming Apple products. There’s lots of in-depth information about iOS going around, but there’s also some fun and bonding among developers, which is probably just as important as the learning. There was a hefty representation of music app developers at WWDC, and many of them got together on the off-hours to have a jam session . . . using their iPads, of course. The video below was captured by Sebastian Dittmann, the guy behind both SoundPrism Pro and Audiobus, and it features the folks behind such powerhouse apps as ThumbJam, DrumJam, guitarism, Arpeggionome Pro, polychord, and TC-11. There’s some pretty cool music going down, and it’s a good chance to connect faces with apps; this has to be seen!

The Apple WWDC keynote wasn’t the end of the good news this week, as we got a highly anticipated and very powerful new app – the Galileo Organ Emulator. There’s a good reason to be excited about Galileo – it comes from Yonac Software, the folks that gave us amazing apps like Magellan, Shredder, miniSynth Pro, and more. If you’re looking for an incredible array of organ sounds, then look no further – Galileo has got everything from classic B3 sounds to fuzzed out reggae patches, with virtual tubes, foot pedals, pull bars, and even a rotator. This app is the real deal; after using Galileo for the better part of the week, I would find it hard to imagine wanting or needing another organ app . . . ever. It comes jam packed with over 240 presets, and these are high quality sounds that you’ll find yourself using immediately. If that’s not enough for you, Galileo is highly programmable, with several effects, strong MIDI capabilities, Audiobus compatibility, audio recording, and much more. This is a monster app that you’re going to want to have on your iPad – if you haven’t checked it out yet, you can get a good idea of what it can do through the video below.

The second major app release this week came in the form of the Waldorf Nave synthesizer, a truly amazing wavetable synth brought to you in collaboration between the folks at Waldorf and the developer behind NLogSynth Pro, Rolf Wöhrmann from Tempo Rubato. This is an immensely powerful synthesizer with a massive array of options for shaping your sounds that come in the form of both traditional and graphical interfaces. After playing with Nave for a couple of days, I can easily say that this is one of those essential synth apps that sits right alongside Animoog, Magellan, Sunrizer Synth, and iMini. Right from the first download, there’s a huge selection of presets that will keep you busy for quite a while; it’s pretty apparent that the beauty of Nave lies in the ability to create your own patches. There’s no doubt that this is a very intricate app with a steep learning curve though, so it may take a little bit longer to find those cool sounds that you want out of Nave. Fortunately, the people at Waldorf want you to get to your sounds sooner than later, and they’ve created some very useful tutorial videos to help you. There’s three videos below from Waldorf – one that simply shows off some of the great sonic possibilities from Nave, one clip that will get you programming your own patch in 120 seconds, and one that shows you how to use the Nave speech synthesizer. There’s some very useful information in these videos, so check them out and then spend some time with Nave!

Nave certainly caused a lot of excitement in the iOS music world, motivating quite a few people to turn out Nave inspired songs very quickly. In the first couple of days that Nave was available, we got quite a few songs hitting the online world, and I’ve got three cool songs below. The first song puts Nave together with an Arturia Minibrute, used as a controller, running into an Elektron Octatrack. The results are an impressive synth-heavy looping extravaganza. The second video comes from a familiar name around iOS Music And You – Mee Zanook. We’ve seen several videos from Mee in the past focused upon Korg apps, but in this video, he puts together a song with Nave and the iKaossilator. The last video comes from another familiar name – the amazing electronic musician Rheyne. He’s got his regular selection of external hardware in this video, along with two iPads running Nave; there’s some pretty cool sounds in this video, but as Rheyne says in the notes, it barely scratches the surface of this powerful synth. We’ll undoubtedly be hearing more tracks with Nave in the near future – this is going to be one of those apps that everyone will be using.

You’ll notice that one of the Nave videos above included an entry from Rheyne – it’s always nice to see what a powerhouse app can do in the hands of a master like this – but that’s certainly not all that he was doing this week. Rheyne delivered a total of 4 videos this week, which means that there’s 3 more to show. The first two videos are Live Jams, the type of video from Rheyne that we’ve come to love; this time around, you’ll notice a distinct difference to his set-up, which now includes two large monitors showing you the action. Live Jam #79 utilizes two iPads, running Lemur and Animoog, as well as an iPod Touch with Sunrizer Synth. The next video, Live Jam #80, also utilizes two iPads, this time triggering Lemur and PPG WaveGenerator on his iPads, with Sunrizer Synth on his iPod Touch. The last video is a bit of a different musical direction that Rheyne has been exploring lately, ambient music. He calls this one Ambient Jam #4, and it includes the use of Lemur, Animoog, and Sunrizer Synth. It’s so exciting to hear a steady stream of quality music coming from Rheyne – keep them coming!

We’ve given a lot of attention to the Artiphon Instrument 1 lately, but there’s also another virtual iOS instrument on the horizon that shows a mass amount of potential – the Jamstik. This looks like an awesome piece of technology that will get guitar players pulling some great sounds out of their iPads and iPhones. It’s a five fret guitar that can trigger any CoreMIDI app, which means that you can play this guitar through Animoog, Magellan, Sunrizer Synth, and much more. At this point, the folks behind the Jamstik have a fully funded Indiegogo campaign, meaning that we’ll be seeing the Jamstik in the near future. If you’re interested, you can still pledge your support and lay claim to a Jamstik when it becomes available HERE. If you’re not sure about the Jamstik, you’ve got to see this video, where a musician uses the Jamstik to recreate Daft Punk’s “Get Lucky” using a variety of apps, including Loopy HD, Audiobus, Animoog, Sunrizer Synth, Peter Vogel CMI, SampleTank, and iVoxel. This is an amazing video, at made me want a Jamstik – see what you think!

It’s a tradition around here to start our week with some inspiring music – it never ceases to amaze me that even during a busy week like this there’s a steady stream of things get me making music. Out first video comes from iOS musician Nathan Tillett, who not only has put together a very cool song, but has also made a video using his iPad. The music for “Celestine” was put together using guitarism, Alchemy Synth Mobile Studio, Audiobus, and GarageBand, while the video came together with Supernova, Eyegasm, and PixelSwarm – very cool stuff! Our next song comes from electronic musician Jinxpadlock, who made the best out of a long trip to China, using his iPad to create music on the plane. This song, appropriately called “Timezoned,” was written using Cubasis, bismark bs-16i, Audiobus, iMini, DrumJam, iPolysix, and NanoStudio. The last two videos show us the beauty of putting two iPads side by side and making your own one man band. These videos feature Phil Wilson making music for his myonemanband project; in the first video he puts Figure on both iPads and in the second video he makes some great sounds using iKaossilator on both iPads. There’s some pretty awesome stuff here that’s worth a listen – check it out and en make some music of your own!