Social media-savvy musicians consistently encourage fans to
get interactive by remixing tracks or creating videos to accompany their favorite songs. But virtual band Gorillaz upped the ante last year with
The Fall, an album recorded entirely on the iPad. The latest apps now grant iPad owners even greater creative freedom by allowing them to compose and mix their own music from scratch.
Korg iElectribe Gorillaz Edition: Gorillaz used
20 distinct apps to record
The Fall, but they’re aiming to bring a more streamlined approach to iPad music-making with this beat-box app. Made exclusively for the iPad in collaboration with
Korg, the virtual synthesizer allows users to create and manipulate sounds for layering into electronic tracks. The app is not Korg’s first iPad venture: its original
iElectribe app made waves thanks to its impressive analog beat-box capabilities. However, this special version is distinctively band-branded and it uses Gorillaz-created sounds for sampling. Initially billed as a limited-edition offering, the app is nonetheless
still available in the iTunes store.
Shapemix: Aspiring DJs will revel in this remix app, which lets users reinvent nearly 100 pre-existing tracks by adding effects, shuffling musical phrases, layering in newly recorded sounds, and sharing their best versions via Facebook and Twitter. Shapemix is not the first user-friendly mixing program—both
David Bowie and
Bob Dylan previously released apps (for iPhone and Facebook, respectively) that allowed fans to remix songs from their classic albums. However, Shapemix separates itself from the herd with an element of e-commerce, as mixers can listen to one another’s original tracks and purchase their favorites via iTunes at two bucks per song.
Polychord: What Shapemix does for sound sampling, Polychord does for songwriting. The app features virtual drums, bass, chords, and accompaniment, but is driven by chord progressions above all. When a user chooses a chord of their liking, drums and bass automatically follow, allowing for effortless composition of a melody. The program has been touted as ideal for beginners (though
pros are making use of it, too), and a recent update allows the program to be used as a
MIDI controller, giving musicians the ability to play it wirelessly during performances.
Demos abound on the web—so if you still can’t figure this one out, you’ll have nothing to blame it on but the
bossa nova.
