iPhone music

Creating music on the iPhone continues to consume me. If you’ve talked to me in a while, you have likely heard me rant and rave about how I’m convinced the iPhone will be the next major compositional music platform.

Think about it. It’s always with you, it’s relatively cheap (compared to, say, a desktop computer… plus the fact that you’re likely going to buy a cell phone anyway). The apps are beginning to be realized. They’re pretty inexpensive.

I project that in two years you’ll run into a group of modern electronic musicians in a huddle, bluetooth MIDI sync, creating collaborative, electro/organic music on their phones. It’ll be this weird blend of tactile (due to the touch controls) and electronic. And it’ll be accessible to the slightly technology advanced masses.

Here’s something I ran across today. Sonoma Wire Works has created a pocket 4-track for iPhone. I won’t expect much from the recording quality, but this has to be the start of something. If nothing else, they’ve made it look pretty sweet. I can see a USB recording mic that interfaces with the iPhone at some point.

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I’ve been using Beatmaker for the past several months and haven’t tired of it yet. It’s a 16-pad sampler well stocked with sounds and an amazing sequencer. A friend mixed a live set on it for us a few weeks ago in the car as we headed to the Weezer concert.

Brian Eno’s Bloom is a new foray into generative music and takes full advantage the iPhone’s touch pad and accelerometer. I’ve been known to score by own ambient soundtrack for the walk home at night. Can you imagine the power of an app like this being about to connect over Wifi or Bluetooth to another iPhone. They could start playing off of each other, utilizing the processing power of both devices. This could get very, very cool.

And for the slightly odd, but more expressive, I suggest you try Smule’s Ocarina. A jam session might look something like this (but hopefully less Zamphir-like).

SMule: Ocarina [Stairway] from SonicMule, Inc. on Vimeo.

Keep your eyes open, this little platform could be changing things.