Arturia releases iMini for iPad

Arturia have just released iMini for iPad. The iMini is based on their popular Minimoog V software that is used may many producers and sound designers.

Arturia are the latest company to release a synthesiser for the iPad and iMini is a welcome addition to the various vintage synths that are available in the AppStore. It's nice to finally see a faithful Minimoog clone in the AppStore.

Arturia iMini is now avalible in the AppStore for £6.99.

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Animoog upgraded to V2

Moog's awesome iPad synthesiser has just been updated with some cool new features. 



Animoog now has accelerometer integration, this allows the user to "tilt their iPad in any direction as an interactive 3D modulation source".

The update also gives you: note hold and scale lock, load/save MIDI CC maps, audio copy/paste and it even supports audiobus.

There is also a brand new 4 track recorder available in the built in Animoog store. The 4 track recorder is available for free to existing users until December 31st. So hurry before it reverts Back to the regular price of $4.99.

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Lemur 4 coming soon

Liine have Just dropped a teaser video over at their YouTube page with the tag line "Lemur 4. The learning curve is about to drop.".

I brought Lemur the day it was released for iPad but I have to admit I don't use it as often as I should. It's an awesome controller when coupled with your DAW, but to really use it to it's full potential you need at least a basic knowledge of coding. By the looks of this teaser that's all about to change. Hopefully well see a simpler template editor as well as some brand new features. Check out the video below.



Lemur is available in the AppStore for £34.99, it's not cheap but if you're looking to turn your iPad into a feature packed touch screen controller then it's worth the hefty price tag.

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Propellerhead's Figure App is now universal

That's right, it's now a universal app, which means that you can run Propellerhead's Figure on your iPad in full screen mode instead of in x2 mode.


There's also a few other new features added in this update:


• Legato notes - Create tied notes in the pattern by drawing finger right on Rhythm wheel, then up/down 
• Clear all function - clear a whole track with one tap
• VU meters in mixer
• Updated translation (Russian and chinese)
• Choose language in Settings

You can get figure from the AppStore for just 69p.

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Beat Evolve for iOS review

Beat Evolve from Team Popo is a fun little iOS app which shares a few similarities between with Yammaha's   TNR-i app. It's a music sequencer based around a 16x16 beat grid. However this app boasts something that the TNR-i doesn't; the ability to randomise and evolve the patterns that you put into it. You can even further customise how the pattern evolves.

However, the built in instruments are a bit limited compared to the TNR-i and I feel Beat Evolve would feel more at home keeping you entertained on the couch rather than in your studio.



If you're looking for a cheap and fun alternative to the TNR-i then it's definitely worth checking this one out. While it may not be a serious music making tool it will definitely keep you busy when on your downtime.

Beat Evolve is available in the AppStore for iPad and iPhone now.

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AudioBus for iOS - Exchange audio between apps with ease

I’ve not featured any iOS audio apps on Voltage Controlled for a while but I think this one definitely deserves a mention. AudioBus is a really cool app that allows you to exchange live audio between different iOS apps that you have installed on your device. This is big news for all of you iOS musicians out there; you can finally record audio between apps!

Say for example; you want to record the output of your favourite synthesiser app into your favourite multitrack recording app. The only way to do this at the moment is with AudioCopy. AudioCopy is great for short loops and samples but what if you want to record an entire live performance in real time? With audio bus this will soon be possible.

AudioBus has currently been approved by Apple and should hopefully be in the AppStore soon. While you wait, why not check out this latest teaser video and see for yourself what AudioBus is capable of.

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HyperTunes for iOS

HyperTunes lets you compose and arrange music directly in terms of musical structure, such as verse-chorus-bridge song forms. It also lets you collect and organise all your musical patterns, song fragments, and songs within the app, so that they're ready to "plug and play" in a new song with just a few touches.

This app offers a fresh approach to song management and and arrangement on the fly. For more details check out hypertunes.net

Hypertunes is available in the Apple AppStore for £6.99

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DM-1 Drum Machine now available for iPhone

The DM-1 from Fingerlab has got to be one of my favourite drum machines for the iPad, it's simple to use and it just looks great. So I was happy to hear that it's now available on the iPhone and it's priced very generously  at 69p (GBP).

Check out the video of the iPhone version below.

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Stochastik Drum Machine for iPad

Stochastik Drum Machine for iPad is now available in the iOS AppStore. The app lets you use a probability engine to program your beats, allowing you to create dynamic rhythm patterns and endless variation to to your drum loops.

Say goodbye to boring, repetitive drum loops and welcome a little randomness into your life.

The best thing about this app is obviously the probability engine. You can program a simple straight forward drum pattern into this thing and then use the probability engine to add a subtle variation to a drum part (say the hi-hats). This helps to give the beat that evolving feeling without making it sound completely random. That's not saying that it can't do random, if you set all of the steps to a low probability then this awesome little drum app will spit out a constantly evolving drum pattern (perfect for genres such as IDM).

I love how useful this thing is for fills and subtle changes. Say you're programming the drums for your new track but don't want to use that same loop all the way through the track. You want subtle variations to a snare fill or maybe that odd bit of percussion randomly coming in and out to keep your listeners on their toes. To program all of these little surprises by hand can take hours but if you program your beats on your iPad with Stochastik you could get this same effect in minutes, seconds even.

Of course the probability engine isn't the only thing that this app does well. It's packed with over a thousand high quality drum samples that can make an awesome addition to almost any genre of music that you can think of. Programming drum parts in Stochastik is really simple too, so even if you're not too familiar with programming drums then it should be pretty easy to learn how to use this thing. The app also has background audio, audio copy and WIST support meaning that you can wirelessly sync it with other iOS devices.

If you're taking your music seriously then you might want to use your own drum sounds or maybe even a hardware drum machine. At the moment Stochastik doesn't yet support MIDI in and out. But fear not, this will be included in the first major update to the app. Also that update will include other features such as multi channel exporting of drum sounds and mute/solo for each drum part.

All in all this is a solid drum machine app that not only offers you high quality sounds and simple programming but it also offers a truly inspirational way of programming beats and coming up with ideas. In fact I'll go as far to say that it's one of the best iOS music apps that I've seen in ages.

Here I've uploaded a video of my playing around with Stochastik, showing of a quick D&B pattern and an over the top mad glitch sequence.


Get Stochastik from the AppStore here.

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How to create a custom background for iElectribe for iPad

If you've watched the video that I posted on youtube of me creating a beat with the iElectribe drum machine for the iPad you'll have probably noticed that I had a custom background image on my copy of the app.

This is a really simple feature in the app and it's really easy to do. I've had a few people ask me how it's done so I thought I'd do a short screen cap video of me changing the boring red background to something a little cooler.

As you'll see this is a fairly simple feature. But this is here just in case. You know.

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Making a simple dubstep bass with Korg iMS20 for iPad

The Korg iMS20 was the first app that I ever installed on my iPad. I love the Korg apps (even if they are a little on the expensive side), they just sound completely awesome.

Now, the iMS20 might seem a little confusing at first but once you get into it, the possibilities of this thing are amazing. Don't be too put off by the semi-modular patch bay or the analog style sequencer, a little knowledge of analog synthesis will help a lot but to be fair it's pretty easy to pick up.

Here's a short screen cap video of me making a pretty simple dubstep style bass sound & showing off the sound of this brilliant synthesiser.

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NodeBeat HD iPad screen capture demo

Here's another video of me playing about with the display recorder tweak on my iPad. This time the app I'm using is the NodeBeat HD app, which is a fun little generative music sequencer.

I'm hoping to get lots of these iPad display recorder videos up on the site, they're fun to make and it gives me a good chance to show off some of my favourite music making apps.

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iPad display recorder & DM1 drum machine demo

iPad demo videos have become a pretty big part of Voltage-Controlled over the last few months. I've uploaded quite a few videos that I've taken using the camera on the back on my iPhone. That's all well and good but the quality of the videos have obviously suffered, so I got thinking about how I could go about making my videos a bit better.

At first I thought about investing in a decent camera but Voltage-Controlled rakes in little to no money from ads and donations so I couldn't really afford it. I remembered someone telling me a while back that if I jailbreak my device I can use third party software to take screen captures directly on the iPad. I looked into it but found out that the iPad 2 that I was using couldn't be jailbroken on iOS5.

However, I heard a week or so ago that it's changed and I can now hack my device and install the screen capture software. So I did it, I jailbroke the iPad and brought a tweak called display recorder.

It's a pretty basic app but it doesn't record audio which is a shame. That's not too much hassle though as I can record the audio into my laptop using my Saffire 6 interface and then sync it later.

Anyways, I thought I'd try it out and upload a video to YouTube. Here's me messing around with Fingerlab's DM-1 drum machine, one of my favourite drum machines on the iPad. DM-1's available in the appstore for £3.99 but I think I picked it up a few months ago when the price dropped to 69p.

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Animoog hits the iPhone

Animoog is my current favourite synth on the iPad, it's beyond awesome and it sounds really cool. Moog recently released it as an iPhone app so as you can probably guess; I brought it. The iPhone version is currently on sale for 69p so it's pretty cheap for such a cool little synth.

With the iPhone version I can now have the power and awesomeness of Animoog with me at all times. The iPhone app is pretty much exactly the same as the one on the iPad with the layout slightly modified so that it fits nicely on the smaller screen.

Your probably getting sick of hearing me complain about this but this app isn't universal, I don't understand why some companies think that people should buy their apps twice. I know it brings in a little more money but many people aren't going to buy something twice anyway. I've only made an exception here because of the low price and the quality of the app, but I still feel slightly cheated here. Universal apps are the way forward, stop scamming your customers out of their money.

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Korg iKaossilator updated, includes iPad support.

The Korg iKaossilator has just been updated to version 2.0.0. This new update includes quite a few cool features and improvements that make the app that little bit more useful.

The first thing that I noticed was that now the iKaossilator has native iPad support, meaning that now you can run it perfectly on your iPad without having to run it in that annoying x2 mode. I think this is an feature that should have been included at the start, the iPad makes playing and performance a lot easier (as I mentioned in my first review) as the bigger screen allows for more precise control of the x/y pad.

Audio export is another feature that was needed from the start, it's a standard that nearly every music app has and I'm surprised Korg missed it from the original release. Along with audio export comes audio copy which basically allows you to exchange recorded parts from iKaossilator to other iPad apps that support the audio copy feature (GarageBand for example).

Support for soundcloud has also been included in the update. Users can now share their loops, phrases or tracks with the world via. the popular soundcloud platform.

An unusual addition is the flex play function which "makes it easy to generate fills and breaks". Flex is a way of further manipulating your loops, giving you more creative options and room for experimentation. Just hold the loop size or tempo buttons and move your finger around the x/y pad. The x axis will effect the length of the part and the y axis with effect the tempo. By doing this you can come up with quite a few interesting results.

These new features really help the iOS version of the Kaossilator. When I first downloaded it onto my iPhone I could tell that it was a bit limited so I'm glad this update didn't take long to come about. Finally I can use it on my iPad without having to run it in x2 mode.

Update: To celebrate the release of iKaossilator v2.0.0 Korg are offering their other iPad apps for half price until December 2nd 2011.

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Bloom iPhone app

Here's a short video of me playing about with the Bloom iPhone app. Bloom is an ambient generative music app for iOS. It's perfect for creating chilled out loops.

Bloom is available in the app store for £2.49

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Moog Animoog gets an update.

The Moog Animoog iPad synth has been updated to version 1.0.1. This update brings a few new features to the app and fixes a few bugs.

So, what's included in the update?

Animoog now has support for background audio, meaning that you will still be able hear audio from the app even if you close it. This is especially useful if you want to jam out with some of your other iPad instruments and Animoog at the same time.

There's now a four beat count in for the record module which can be configured in the setup page. Also, a preview button has been added to the timbres page so that you can now select timbres silently or choose to audition them.

There's now a new 'Random Preset' button in the setup page. When you press this all the settings on Animoog with automatically randomise and give you a complete new sound. I'll warn you though, this can get addictive. It's also very hit and miss, you might end up with an awesome sounding preset or you might just get noise and sometimes absolutely nothing at all (silence).

You can get Animoog for iPad in the AppStore now for just £0.69

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Korg iKaossilator app for iPhone/iPod touch

I've had this app on my phone for a while now and I keep coming back to it every now and again for the odd jam session. It's a fun little app and it's great for making a little noise on the move.

At first the iKaossilator didn't really impress me that much but after a while it grew on me. I've always wanted to own one of the hardware versions so when it hit the AppStore I brought it instantly without any thought. It was £6.99, I don't usually spend that much on a single app (especially for the iPhone) but Korg have impressed me twice with the iMS20 and the iElectribe so I thought that I'd give it a shot.

This app is really basic, I know that the original kaossilator was aimed at amateur music makers and Djs but I was expecting a whole lot more functionality from the iOS version. Don't get me wrong, it's a really fun gadget to have on your phone but I expected Korg to implement a little more into the software version.

The app on it's own is alright for a quick noise making session while your out and about but to be completely honest I can't see me making any serious music with this thing.

If you have an iPad running iMS20 or iElectribe then you can have a whole lot more fun with it. The iKaossilator has the same wireless syncing technology (WIST) that Korg have put into their other apps so you can pair it up with your iPad and run it along side the other Korg apps (or any other app that supports WIST).

I'm really surprised that the iKaossilator is only available on the iPhone and iPod Touch, an iPad version of this would have gone down a whole lot better. The bigger screen on the iPad would have made playing this thing a lot more easy where as on the iPhone it's hard to actually make anything that doesn't sound like random noise. Since I've brought the iPad I've found that I've moved all of my music making apps from the phone to the tablet. I don't know, maybe I just need a little practice.

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Moog Animoog iPad app Demo

Here's the video of me messing around with the Moog Animoog iPad app. this video was supposed to be uploaded alongside the review that I did last week. I couldn't upload it because of internet connection problems (the estimated upload time was approx. 1900 mins). My connection speed increased earlier so I thought I'd upload it while I had the chance.

So here it is.

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Fingerlab DM-1 drum on sale for £0.69

DM-1 is a vintage style drum machine emulator by Fingerlab. The app is currently available in the app store for a limited time at just £0.69. I already have some great drum machine apps on my iPad (iElectribe, Funkbox, Molten, etc.) but when I saw DM-1 on sale I thought that I'd try it out.

The drum machine is built up of 5 main parts; a step sequencer, drum pads, mixer, X/Y effects trackpads and the main song sequencer. All these different sections are spread out over different pages which makes navigation around the app really simple.

The step sequencer is easy to use and works just like any other drum sequencer, it's really fast to build a beat and get your ideas down. The included drum sounds are superb, they are professionally recorded and ready to use. There's the classic drum machine sounds (which are the standard 808, 909, etc.) along with some acoustic drum kits and exclusive DM-1 kits for you to play with.

There's two things that caught my attention with this app which have quickly made this one of my favourite drum machines for the iPad. The first one is the GUI, it's beautiful and really gives off a slick retro vibe. I'm loving the leather background to this app.

The second one is the X/Y track pads. I know, every music app on the iPad seems to have an X/Y controller of some sort but it's very rare that you see them on drum apps. The pads really give you a whole new way to sculpt your sound, they're really fun too.

For £0.69 you can't go wrong with this, I'm glad I brought it and it will be a nice addition to my line up of iOS music creation apps. Get it now while it's still on sale.

DM1 - The Drum Machine for iPad - By Fingerlab from Fingerlab on Vimeo.

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