Making Music With Your Mobile

Published: 10-08-2012

Your mobile phone has more computing power than all of NASA in 1969. NASA launched a man to the moon. Now we launch angry bird into pigs.

Only 10 years ago people were playing ‘Snake2’ on Nokia phones to pass the time during history class. Since then, progressions in technology have now brought us to a time where anyone without a smartphone are looked upon as a lesser part of society, and subsequently laughed at in playgrounds, hipster café’s and Music company workplaces. Ahem. But what effect has this had on music?

Thanks to app developers, creating music from you smartphone is easier than ever! Thousands of music applications can be found by browsing the apps store, some will cost and some are free. Synthesizers, sequencers, multi track recording programs, beat machines, turntables, guitar chords, songwriting tools, and much more are literally at your fingertips!
In 1946, ENIAC (the world’s first computer) could perform 385 multiplications per second. Today, the iPhone 4 can perform 2,000,000,000 instructions per second (The iPhone 4S and 5 are even faster).

One app which we’ve found most useful for creating beats and ideas on the go is “iMaschine”, developed by Native Instruments. There was a time when certain producers on their way to the studio would need a beat for a particular song. One trusty set of Sennheiser HD25’s and a smartphone later, you’re able to come up with concepts for songs in a matter of minutes, and later present that to the band/artist in the studio.

A quick Youtube search for anything ‘iphone music’ will reveal thousands of people using their smartphone to create music. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tgd7Iqghv2E

World wide animated superstars ‘Gorillaz’ album, ‘The Fall’ was almost entirely creative on the iPad. “The music was recorded during spare time while on the road. I did it because there’s a lot of time that you just spend staring at walls essentially. And it was a fantastic way of doing it. I found working in the day, whether it’s in the hotel or in the venue, it was a brilliant way of keeping myself well.” – Damon Albarn http://ipadinsight.com/general/gorillaz-album-recorded-almost-all-on-ipad-is-out-now/ 

Whether you are a bedroom producer, profession musician, songwriter or international rockstar; the practicality, simplicity and power to create music from your phone on the go, is a music tool that everyone should be prepared to try.
Two debates can arise from this subject; 1 – is it really organic music creation, and 2 – won’t everyone just sound the same? The answer is really up to you and how you use these programs. Personally we use this technology to draft ideas and demos that we’re able to embellish at a later time, however we also have had the experience where the beats made from a phone ended up as the main beat in the mix!

The game has definitely changed in the 21st Century, the avenues of music creation and distribution are ever evolving – it’s up to us to keep up now.

Categories: Basic Production, Studio Gear, Tech Talk