Top iPhone Music AppsYour source for the BEST music apps on the iPhone / Touch

GarageBand turns your iPad, iPhone and iPod touch into a collection of Touch Instruments and a full-featured recording studio – so you can make music anywhere you go. Use Multi-Touch gestures to play pianos, organs, guitars, drums, and basses. They sound and play like their counterparts, but let you do things you could never do on a real instrument. Enjoy a full range of Smart Instruments that make you sound like a pro – even if you’ve never played a note before. Plug an electric guitar into your iPad, iPhone or iPod touch and play through classic amps and stompbox effects. Use the built-in microphone or a guitar to record, or capture any performance. Then mix up to eight tracks to create a song you can share.

Play your iPad, iPhone and iPod touch like a musical instrument
- Perform on dozens of musical instruments on the innovative Multi-Touch keyboard
- Tap out beats from the seat of acoustic and electronic drum kits
- Recreate legendary guitar rigs with 9 amps and 10 stompbox effects
- Record your voice using the built-in microphone, and apply fun sound effects
- Use the Sampler to create an instrument from sounds you record, then play them on a keyboard

Sound like a virtuoso with Smart Instruments
- Tap chords to instantly create keyboard grooves with the Smart Keyboard
- Strum chords on acoustic and electric Smart Guitars, or trigger fingerpicking patterns for popular chords
- Groove with an onscreen electric or upright Smart Bass by tapping on chords
- Drag drum instruments onto a grid to create your own beats with the Smart Drums

Create a song anywhere you go
- Arrange and mix your song with up to eight tracks using Touch Instruments, audio recordings, and loops
- Trim and place musical regions exactly where you want them to play
- Use the Mixer to fine-tune each track’s volume – solo or mute any track, or adjust pan, reverb, and echo
- Use over 250 professionally prerecorded loops as a backing band to your song

Share your songs
- Email songs right from GarageBand (AAC)
- Export your song and add it to the iTunes library on your Mac or PC
- Send a project to your Mac and open it in GarageBand to continue refining your song

Animoog, powered by Moog’s new Anisotropic Synth Engine (ASE), is the first professional polyphonic synthesizer designed exclusively for the iPad. ASE allows you to move dynamically through an X/Y space of unique timbres to create a constantly evolving and expressive soundscape.

Animoog captures the vast sonic vocabulary of Moog synthesizers and applies it to the modern touch surface paradigm, enabling you to quickly sculpt incredibly fluid and dynamic sounds that live, breathe, and evolve as you play them.

Visually captivating and sonically immersive, Animoog brings iPad based music production to the next level. Whether you are new to synthesis or a professional, Animoog’s unique user interface gives you the power to easily create a visually vibrant and sonically rich universe. It is the ultimate tool for total creative expression!

Animoog’s diverse library of timbres is derived from analog waveforms captured from classic Moog oscillators, both vintage and modern, and run through a boutiques worth of high-end outboard and analog signal processors. These include modular synth panels, Moogerfooger pedals and more.

Animoog is the newest innovation in creative tools from Moog Music, the legendary electronic musical instrument company founded by Bob Moog in Asheville, NC.

We want as many people as possible to experience Animoog. We have decided to make Animoog available for thirty days at the introductory price of $.99. Regular price $29.99.

** NOTE: IF NO SOUND from iPad speaker but headphone is working, this is an iPad settings issue. Go to the Settings app, General tab, set “Use Side Switch to: Mute” then turn switch on side of iPad on (Mute) and off again (Unmute). Then set “Use Side Switch to: Lock Rotation” to prevent problem in future. **

Key Features:

- Anisotropic Synth Engine (ASE) – An exciting new Moog technology that allows the user to move dynamically through an X/Y space of unique timbres to create an expressive and constantly evolving soundscape.

- Timbre page  - Assemble unique sounds in the X/Y space from timbres of a wide variety of vintage and modern Moog synthesizers and pedals. Note: this is NOT simple sample playback.

- Polyphonic Modulation – Simply slide your fingers to control multiple modulation parameters in Animoog right from the keys.

- Polyphonic Pitch Shifting – Easily manipulate the exact pitch of each note in a chord by rotating or sliding your fingers.

- Delay Module – A classic analog style ping pong delay.

- Thick Module – From bit crushing to unison voice detuning and drive, this module adds depth, edge and character to Animoog’s already massive sound palette.

- Moog Filter – The classic four-pole Moog ladder filter with High Pass, Low Pass and Band Pass modes.

- Record Module – Record your performance and overdub new layers, or play along live. Transfer recordings between Animoog and any other apps which support the general pasteboard.

- Path Module – Direct ASE through Animoog’s X/Y space to create new expressive and shifting sounds that will blow your mind!

- Orbit Module – Control the rate of orbit in the X/Y space around the path you created for subtle to insane voice manipulation.

- Flexible Modulation Matrix – Amp, Filter and Mod Envelopes, LFO with infinitely variable wave shapes and sync, and four super flexible and assignable modulation slots.

- MIDI in/out – Use your Little Phatty or any other MIDI controller to control Animoog.

Great modular studio environment. Contains recreations of classic drum machines, synths, and effects.

Full featured synthesizer app with a Kaoss-pad like interface. More info at http://www.bleepsynthapp.com/
iTunes Link

Great Synthesizer app for the iPhone – full keyboard, tons of parameters, great sound, nice interface and decent price.

bleep!BOX is a combination drum machine and synthesizer box for your iPhone or iPod Touch. bleep!BOX has NO SAMPLES – every sound is generated in realtime, so you can tweak to your hearts’ content and kiss repetitive, cookie cutter drum beats goodbye. bleep!BOX is not a simple toy – it’s powerful enough for you to make real music. Great for house, hip hop, R&B, electronica, drum’n’bass, trance, techno, IDM and more.

bleep!BOX is the mobile app that musicians, DJ’s, and producers have been waiting for.

Features:

* Realtime processing – NO SAMPLES
* Classic, tweakable x0x drum emulations
* Analog style 2-Osc synths
* 10 parts (voices)
* 50+ Parameters
* Ringmod, FM, PhaseMod, Sync, Distortion
* Global delay FX
* 8 Waveforms
* Tempo, swing, pattern length
* Save patches and presets
* Live performance modes
* Step sequencing + recording modes
* Parameter automation

Here’s a youtube video overview: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55JQK5300D4

bleep!BOX was made by White Noise Audio Software (http://www.whitenoiseaudio.com/), makers of Zero Vector, Additive and Doppelmangler. We have over a decade of experience coding synthesizers and effects!

Check out audio samples, videos and news at bleepboxapp.com

What list would be complete without the Ocarina app, one of the highest grossing apps on the iPhone? Ocarina quickly rose to extreme popularity due to it’s intuitive method of playing – by blowing into the microphone and covering virtual holes with your fingers. It’s loaded with features, such as being able to hear performances from other people around the world. Definately a must have.

DopplerPad is a great app. It’s intuitive, fun, looks great, and sounds good. Making melodies can be a little difficult (live recording is favored over step sequencing), but even just messing around this app can be fun.

From the app description:

Quickly create and perform musical hooks, phrases and loops with a variety of custom synth and sample-based instruments. Make samples on the fly and weave them into compositions.

DopplerPad is an expressive touch instrument designed for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Use rhythmic and melodic automation to create phrases by freely moving fingers around the musical touchpad.

Drags and taps come to life with responsive visual feedback, making the groove visible.

Some of DopplerPad’s features include:

* 37 Instruments Including Leads, Bass, Sound Effects, Drums, and Samplers
* Two Musical Touchpads
* Visual Feedback to See the Groove
* Two Recording Modes: Overdub and Replace
* A Mixer for Cross-Fading, Muting, and Playback Control
* Save Loops and Phrases. Load Them into the Performance
* Gate Arpeggiator to Create Expressive Rhythmic Patterns
* Create Samples Anywhere with External or Built-In Mics
* Adjustable Tempo and Loop Length
* Programmable Scale to Stay in Key
* Adjustable Octave for a Full Range of Notes

Noise.io was (and still is) one of the best full-fledged synths on the iPhone.

Some features:

* 3 Generators (Brother, Sister – 2×25 possible waveforms, Noizer – dedicated noise-generator with own filter and limiter)
* 2 Filters (Advanced Multi-Filter with 6 Filter Types and Noise Filter)
* UNLIMITED Banks, Presets
* 6 Effects (Delay x2, Chorus/Flanger, Phaser, Bitcrusher, Distortion)
* 3 assignable LFO (23 possible waveforms and dedicated Sample & Hold)
* Tap tempo – BPM
* Immediate on-screen preset choose menu
* 3 Sequencer Types (Piano Roll, Trance Gate, Custom parameter modulation)
* 12 patterns (3 sequencers x 4 patterns (A, B, C, D) in each)
* Unique ControlSurface, Zones and SoftRibbon controllers
* 5 On-Screen Zones buttons (map a note, pattern or any action to them)
* Download & Exchange presets via internet
* 3-Band EQ (Equalizer)

My critcisms: Only monophonic sound – no doubt due to processing limitations. The interface is a bit ‘strange’ for my tastes – just some weird naming (“brother and sister” for the names of the two oscillators?) and layout choices (cutesy space graphics abound.. things could be a lot simpler looking and thus easier on the eyes). I also wish the ‘Free Noise’ mode worked a little differently. Right now it’s an XY pad for controlling parameters. It would be cool if you could have each square mapped to a note in a specific scale – that would be really nice for jamming, and really well suited to the iPhone’s screen.

Anyway, criticisms aside, it’s clear that this synth is capable of some great sounds. If you’re looking for a pocket synth, this one is your best bet.