Insight’s BeatSequencer BoomBap (not available in the USA) is strikingly different in design yet very interesting as it includes a 60-pattern step sequencer and a sampler that allows you to record directly with your iPhone or use any other sample.
A song can include up to 20 groups of 16 pads/samples each.
The software also provides effects like a “puncher”, delay, reverb, and chorus plus a mixer that gives you access to the 16 volume controls of the groups and also lets you assign the six effects for each sound.
With a more buttoned-down look and multi-platform capability (it is also available for Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, Windows Mobile, and PalmOS), SunVox is a powerful App combining a modular synth/sampler and an Amiga-like tracker for sequencing.
It has WAV export capabilities and provides possibilities by combining the plentiful modules available: FM synth, sound generator (saw, triangle, square, and noise waveforms), kicker, sampler, SpectraVoice (an FT-based synth), delay, distortion, echo, multi-mode filter, flanger, LFO, loop, reverb, vocal filter, and vibrato.
From Tenori to GrooveBox
For sequencing you’ll find many of basic applications inspired by Yamaha’s Tenori-On like PaklSound1, SoundMatrix II, Tripper, or Melodica.
However, as they include no MIDI or audio export functions they can generally only be considered toys. Even the option of connecting the iPhone/iPod Touch headphones output to the input of a mixer isn’t good enough compared to raw audio export.
Soundgrid which provides a Tenori-On-like matrix sequencer but which is much more comprehensive than most of its competitors features sample import, management of eight layers with eight patterns each, real-time FX (delay and multi-mode filter)… enough to entertain yourself for a while.
What about grooveboxes? They also have their place on the iPhone/iPod Touch platform.
Again, while many of them are excelent, they lack WAV or MIDI export functions. That’s why we won’t talk about them in much detail. 8Bitone is one of the most well thought out in this category, though it’s not the most versatile App.
Conceived by the developer of the RecTools recording application, it provides you with Commodore 64/128-like sounds and an excellent sequencer with piano roll view.
It’s sometimes hard to know if the synth is hosted by the sequencer or the other way around. Whatever the case, don’t miss the Noise.io Pro Synth, which can certainly be considered one of the most powerful synths available on the market for the Apple gadgets.
Combining FM and subtractive synthesis, it provides automation of every single parameter, a pitch sequencer, a trance gate, and a velocity-sensitive keyboard! It also offers a WAV export function and is compatible with BeatMaker, which is a highly rated virtual MPC for the iPhone… only lacking sound synthesis!