So lately I’ve been really enjoying using my phone for making music/making sound. I never really took it seriously until recent years with apps like Drambo, MiRack, Audulus, Korg gadget and others, I’ve even got DefleMask for chiptune stuff.
I’m a sound designer first and foremost and really only enjoy making music when I’m using my own synth patches and samples from my personal sample library (that I’ve been curating over the last 19 years from when I first started out!) and I’ve notice while there are a really good amount of full fledged synthesizers in the iOS world and are now finally a couple of decent king of mini-DAWs there doesn’t seem to be much in the way of dynamic samplers that are based around using your own library, lots of preset based ones and that’s fine and good for playing around and learning it’s just not enough for me when it comes to actually being creative but I do know there are a few options but I’m looking for the best one/your favorites.
Ideally a good iOS sampler would:
Not be cumbersome when it comes to loading in/referencing your own samples, like something as simple as accessing them from the Files folder and being able to recognize and be able to navigate the folder structure they’re in.
Be able to be ran as a plug-in in an iOS DAW environment (or at least have Inter-App Audio) and not just be a standalone.
Have plenty of options for editing your sample, including the basics like start/end point (maybe loop point too), pitch, insert effects etc etc
So essentially an MPC or Maschine but for iOS.
I used to work at Akai and in fact worked on the iMPC (Dev management and QA) and while it was decent it was far from what I’m currently looking for.
I also have the NI Maschine app and its fun to mess around with it still remains in the ‘music toy’ realm since it’s missing so many features and is clearly just a vessel for NI to sell you samples.
I had high hopes for Ableton notes but while you can (somehow) load your own samples in you can not use plugins and to add insult to injury the built in synths are insanely limited. So I’m browsing around at my options now but before I bought something I was hoping for some feedback from you guys. I just bought the new iPhone and it has 1TB of storage which is what got me thinking since I could literally fit my entire sample library on there now
So what do you guys think?
(Sorry to write a novel for such a simple question but I’m stoned)
Thanks I’ll check it out and see if it’s the one for me.
I didn’t work on iMPC2 but from what I’m reading it’s stupidly cumbersome to load you’re own user library like to the point of not being usable in that way so I don’t know what they were thinking on that one.
The common theme among all these apps seems to be the guise of a “beat making app” but only it’s a vessel to sell people preset packs…which to be fair is probably a huge market especially given the price and accessibility of a phone with apps vs a real computer with a full fledged DAW…what is a shame because phones not are absolutely powerful enough for real deal DAW activity. I feel like there has to be a decent chunk of people out there who would want to mess around with music and ideas on their phone using their own sounds but it’s just not something I hear other musicians talking about
Oh nice, I didn’t realize that. I actually already have Koala sampler so that works. I’ve messed around with it a few times but kind of wrote it off because I thought it was only for using samples that you record in the moment, I didn’t know you could load your own sample library. I’ll have to dig more into it. Thanks!
Also I’ll check out Beat master
Alright glad to hear all the support for Koala since I already had it and did enjoy the little time I spent messing around with it.
I spent a little while today moving some samples over to my phone, I got a little over 80gb I’ve moved over so far and it was relatively painless, The only issue was more of an iOS issue and it was that when you plug your iPhone into a MacBook and access the “Files” section of the iPhone in finder it doesn’t allow you to access your files and folder directly but only add/remove files from within individual apps, I wanted to just add a folder and call it Sample library then reference it from whatever app from there but instead I had to put the folders into the Koala sampler app files…Not a huge deal but still.
So I’ve got 80gb to play around with and I upgraded it to included the time stretching, slicing etc options, Going to mess around with it tonight but it’s pretty awesome to have a big sample library of my own samples on my phone and for iOS apps to be so capable. Nothing beats hardware but being able to sketch out ideas on the go or even on the couch is dope! also the ability to export to Ableton drum racks is perfect
Fucking around with Koala sample in Drambo right now and god damn!
Tbh it kinda makes me regret just dropping $40 on Korg gadget 2. Gadget is just barely not a “music toy” it’s definitely got some nice features and decent built in synths and it’s fun and quick to play with but there’s a lot of limitations when it comes to trying to work in (what I would consider) and professional way.
Drambo with Koala sample is excellent, I love that I can do individual outs and use effects etc
Throw in some extra synths to go along side building your own like MiRack and Sunrizer and it’s a mini work station
This is a ton of fun
Have no fear or regret. Use Gadget to make loops and melodies, then feed those loops into your dRambo/Koala for chopping and experimenting. Gadget has a lot of great sounding modules.
Very true! I’ve contacted Korg ages ago about how the modules produce sound and some of them use Korg’s VA like Phoenix, Chicago, Dublin and Berlin. Some newer modules may also use VA, it was about 2 years ago that I asked. The rest is sample based but doesn’t sound bad either.
I’ve just remembered that Korg Gadget also includes an Ableton Lite license. Maybe you can sell it to get a little discount on your initial purchase price?
