NSP's TOP 10 // The Creative Musician's Guide to Audio Effects Apps
A little way's back, we spoke with audio development team, New Signal Process, a pack of freewheeling artists and technicians devoted to creating 21st century effects pedals. Specifically, pedals that pipe your instrument directly into your iPhone or iPad, allowing you to manipulate whatever you're playing with the touch of a finger.
Thing is, there are 10,000 apps out there that NSP pedals are compatible with, so for the discerning audiophile/musician, which ones are the most innovative (i.e. fun)?
Luckily, NSP has provided us with the creative musician's guide to the top 10 apps (complete with some pretty helpful commentary) that can turn an iPad or iPhone into a portable toolbox--for the wandering project studio and sound art installation performers of the world.
So hit the jump now and start composing.
Smule (Creators of I Am T-Pain, Glee, Sonic Vox, Magic Piano, etc...)
These guys are, so far, the masters of creative music apps. They have bridged the worlds of computer music, pop culture, and future music creation into the beginnings of the largest world sing along ever. Smule had its start in the computer music project in Stanford, and has gone on to top the app store charts with bizarro vocal auto harmonizers and fantasy mobile phone instruments.
Glee and T-Pain are incredible apps. As is Sonic Vox. All intended to manipulate the sound of your voice, they sound especially incredible when you run a guitar or keyboard through them, or even your entire mix.
Smule's Ocarina
Besides these amazing playthrough/effect apps, they also developed Magic Piano for iPad. Perhaps one of the most fun touch screen musical experiences, the most futuristic aspect of it to me is the duet function where you can for a minute or two duet with magic pianists from all over the world. Try as I have to play an impromptu Miles Davis piece, or even a Christmas Carol, these international virtual jam sessions tend to be dominated by Cagean chance expressions and Cecil Taylor inspired micro bursts of notes. It is a mind blowing experience for any musician or non!
An app from the most famous modular synth makers ever? What more do you need to say? This app is incredible and sounds amazing. The sound quality on the play-through function is probably the best sounding of all the apps out there. And it is not just a synthesizer: It's a multi-function app and for $4.99 you get a Moog synthesizer, sampler, and delay effect.
Listen to samples of NSP playing guitar through it with a BreakOut pedal here.
Moog Filtatron
A great looking app that does just what it says and sounds great doing it. Also has a great 8-bit function. Watch it being used while on fire:
Fire, proof. from TimScotten on Vimeo.
Rjdj is some sort of collective of European mad men that have started what they call a "reactive music revolution."
People can create scenes that twist incoming sounds into alternate realities. These scenes are available for free (or some for cost) through Rjdj. The idea is to use the earbuds and mic that come with the phone, but running the NSP BreakOut with a guitar can get some seriously strange and twisted sounds, or, "scenes" we suppose you’d call them. Our favorite scene so far is called "Noble Choir." It is a free scene listed under the Interactive header in RjDj and is like a poor man’s guide to sounding like Derek Bailey. Ha! Check it out here.
The other, potentially even MORE amazing thing about RjDj is that you can actually download an application for free unto your computer where you can make scenes. ( These scenes are essentially apps within RjDj that you can build with a simple interface that are like effects patches - but you can set the Delays to be changed by the GPS location of your phone, or the looping functions can be organized around the touch screen of your iPad.
This thing is awesome. Have you ever spent weeks of your life and 3 weeks of your paychecks surfing eBay and Craigslist looking for all the old Maestro beatboxes and Roland Drum Machines? Bought that old organ from the GoodWill for $50 that sits in the corner of your studio? Try spending $2.99 on funk box. Comes for iPhone and iPad and you get an 808, a 909, a 606, a CR 78, an MRK 2, an ER1, and a MD SPS 1 all in one easy to use, awesome looking interface. Done.
Funk Box
Sampletoy is an awesome sampling tool that takes bite-sized samples from your input and lays them out visually on a grid or step system that can then be filtered and effected. It's not only instant hooks, but also 10, 15, 20 minutes gone as you lose your afternoon to an inspired improvisation.
Sampletoy
I love this app. I never thought I would be so overjoyed to turn a guitar into a saxophone, but this one is pure joy! Like Glee or T-Pain, it is designed to be used with your voice and turn your singing into an instrument - guitar, bass, synth. But when used with an NSP BreakOut it is pure and simple saxophone guitar magic.
Check out this video of us using VoiceBand to turn Willow Smith's Whip My Hair into a hair-raising Free Jazz Saxophone improvisation:
Free Jazz Willow Smith Whip My Hair NSP BroKen mix from New Signal Process on Vimeo.
These are a series of apps developed by a programmer/artist/composer from, I believe, upstate NY named Henry Lowengard.
His apps are wonderfully inventive, useful, and pretty mind-blowing sound art/drone tools. A few iPads and some amplifiers and your first sound installation is ready to go. Case in point, here is a quote about SrutiBox from the brilliant composer and sound theorist Pauling Oliveros:
"I wanted you to know that I have made my debut in Vienna a couple of weeks ago as an IPHONEist. I played two simultaneously - one with sruti box and the other with a variety of apps. I am enjoying sruti box immensely."
This one is brought to us by our friend Dana. He has been performing with a MPC for a while with his group Dana Buoy. Now though, armed with a new iPad and NSP BreakOut, he is switching over. The main tool he is using to replace the MPC is this app BeatMaker. It is a super-intuitive sampler. Easy to program, easy to perform on--and it sounds great.
And a few honorable mentions that comprise the "tenth" of our Top 10:
Here is a collection of mind blowing apps that not only sound amazing but look amazing too. And not only do they sound and look great, but they are so much fun to play as well. To us they exemplify the very beginning of artistic and musical possibilities of the touch screen. They aren't always the most well rounded in terms of long-term performance functionality, but it is fun just to be at the beginning stages:
PASY 02; snap-grid japanese noise synth. Sounds like early Terry Riley.
Sound Thingie; lines drawn on the iPad correlate to the sounds they make.
Bubble Harp on the iPad
Bubble Harp; drawn-line bubble synth. Hard to explain
and last but not least...Synth Pond.
So there you have it, folks. Straight from the experts. Now get crackin!
Email tagged Apps, Audio, Musicians, New Signal Process 