Best Electronic Music Making Apps for iPad

The iPad has been successful beyond all expectations with over three million sales. It has grabbed attention because of the dynamic capabilities look and lightweight. The best music apps for iPad really come in three categories. The best making music apps for iPad, the best listening to music apps for iPad and the best learning music apps for iPad. No doubt in a year’s time there will be music options that will blow our minds.

The best making music apps for iPad cry out to a creative person. The iPad apps fire up a creative musician or producer’s dream. I first came across the music apps when I was looking for the best travel apps for iPad. What a natural fit making music while you are traveling. Whether you are in the wilderness or in a hotel room the iPad is a great creative tool that enhances the experience.

Fans and producers of electronica have been particularly attracted to the iPad music apps. When you are traveling you can make music as inspiration strikes. In selecting my top five music making apps for iPad I wanted inspiration, music classic and possibility. There are many to choose from. The top five music apps for iPad for me are Smule, Morphwiz, Looptastic HD, iElectribe and bleep!BOX. Like all music the best music apps for iPad are all about individual taste. 

Looptastic HD is the app for mixing loops. This music app lets you import your own loops from your Mac or PC in AIFF, WAV, or OGG format or mix your own loops. Looptastic has an X-Y effects pad including the glitchy repeater, scratch strip, crossfader and tempo control. There are over 900 loops included with the music application.

For those looking to go old school you can sync BPMs two iPads running Looptastic HD to get dual-tablet remixing. When you are done simple export your work as 16-bit AIFF files or use SoundCloud. I see this app really suiting DJ remix electronica but also film or atmosphere music producers. The huge number of existing loops plus your own input enables endless possibilities.

The free loop store linked to Looptastic HD gives a wide range of musical choices. Just some of the musical genres are Ambient, Breakbeat, Drum ’n’ Bass, Hip Hop, Progressive House, Reggaeton and Trance. Download Looptastic HD for £8.99 from the iPad app store.

The Korg Electribe-R groovebox is a classic amongst electronic music creators. They are not cheap to buy but iElectrib from Korg lets you turn your iPad into a groovebox for £11.99 with four percussion synth parts and four PCM synth parts. You have a 16-step sequencer to really work with these synth parts. To get you going iElectribe has 32 templates with 64 sequences preset. You don’t have to use them you can totally compose your own loops and music on the fly.

The iElectribe music app for iPad let s you automate the Motion Sequencing feature. This includes ‘pitch, pan and level with modulation, decay and low-end boost.’ You can apply a master effect from eight options that includes two delays, reverb and a grain shifter.

The glaring weakness with this music app and iPad is you cannot play with other equipment. Keep an eye on new iPad accessories in the meantime. I view this as a minor annoyance the iElectribe features make it worthwhile for creating music and any groovebox fan will concur with this. You can download iElectribe for £11.99 from the app store.  

Magic Piano is a music app for iPad that I think appeals to the whole family. I keep thinking of Tom Hanks’ giant piano from the movie ‘Big’. Magic Piano is the first iPad app from Smule. Smule is the creator of the popular iPhone apps Glee, Ocarina and I Am T-Pain. Magic Piano was developed with the iPad in mind and world renowned pianist Lang Lang has been cited as its inspiration.

This music app for iPad serves as a teaching tool and creative tool. If you know what you are doing play the piano as you would. Magic piano has a variety keyboard designs and suits the composer and traveler alike. What I thought was great fun for the family was the light following mode. You can simply follow along some classic preloaded piano tunes guided by the keys lighting up. This is perfect for those that have no piano playing experience with levels of piano playing ability able to be dialed in.

Just some of the pre loaded songs for you to follow along to are “auld lang syne”, "Heart and Soul", "Flight of the Bumblebee", “Star Spangled Banner” and "Für Elise". Download Magic Piano for 99 cents from the iPad app store.

MorphWiz is a great music app for iPad that was designed with the iPad in mind. Kevin Chartier joined up with keyboardist Jordan Rudess to design the MorphWiz app. Rudess's experience smoothes the design and the playable factory app patches. If you believe that music should be listened to and performed by everyone than you will like this music app.

At the iPad launch there was much made about iPad's accelerometer and MorphWiz harnesses it. Simply tilt the iPad and you are finessing the sound of the built-in synthesizer. When you select the traditional keyboard your notes are as you would expect. The range is from low notes to high notes as you slide left to right. Taking full advantage of the touch screen you can drag your finger vertically along the note to change timbre. There are many features for the electronic music producer. You have waveshaping, FM synthesis and 'Wavesync' synthesis and other effects. MorphWiz allows the simplest implementation to the most advanced beats and measures.

You can record your music with MorphWiz and have looped overdubbing functionality. For counting the beat there is a very cool virtual metronome. Once composed export your tune or send to AudioPaste supported apps. The major drawback with this version is no MIDI-over-Wi-Fi however there is plenty here for electronic music. Download MorphWiz for £5.99 from the Apple app store.  

The iPhone bleep!BOX app has been refined for the larger iPad screen real estate. If you recall the classic techno TR-808 and 909 drum beats then you are at home with bleep!BOX. Through in the synth bass lines and you are on your way to making classic techno and acid house music.

The bleep!BOX app lets you edit in real time and playback straight away. There are up to 50 synthesis parameters with the music app to help you create songs. You have FM, Ringmod, Sync, PhaseMod, Distortion and ten 10 Synthesizer and Drum parts with live performance and recording modes. When done you can export the song files in WAV format. Download bleep!BOX for £5.99 from the Apple app store.  

There are many more music apps for iPad these five we chose as the best music making apps for iPad because of the option of following or creating afresh. I also wanted to stay true to the original musical instrument or electronic equipment they were based on.

Music creation has come along way from being locked in your room with a set of bongos and your older brother’s guitar. I can’t wait for a Moog app, in the meantime I thing I will waste my hours with the Korg iElectribe.

Which of these music apps do you rate is the best? Take the time to complete the accompanying poll, let us see what gets your groove on.

If you enjoyed this article and found it useful let us know. I am sure there are many music developers and lovers who would enjoy this information. Feel free to leave comments about.

The beat goes on....