Preschoolers get iPhone music app that teaches them keyboard skills

You know how much kids of all ages love to experiment with new toys, and how they are often irresistibly drawn to shiny technology like the iPhone and iPad. Well, to ensure they’re learning a whole host of things — including basic music reading and keyboard skills — while they’re having fun, we have the Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star Preschool Storybook Piano app, launched today on the iTunes App Store.

Full of cute, colourful characters, musical notation and a keyboard, the app lets young kids begin to learn how to read music from a stave and play the keyboard using well-known nursery rhyme songs.

Key features:

• Watch the story unfold and hear the song being sung
• Press the start button and sing along
• Record and hear their own voice
• Select 7 different types of instruments and learn about the sounds they create
• Add animal sounds to the song
• Watch the piano keys light up one-by-one with the melody
• Follow the lighted piano keys to play the song
• Match the colorful music notes to the piano keys and play along
• Sing and read karaoke-style lyrics in English, French and Spanish
• Include their parents as they sing and read together
• Increase their vocabulary and language awareness
• Improve their auditory comprehension and listening skills

Available now priced $0.99 (59p). iTunes Link (Via)

If you’re looking for other resources, here are 10 recommended books to help your child learn to play piano and keyboard

Popularity: 1% [?]

ReBirth Roland emulator for iPhone/iPad: TB-303, TR-808, TR-909 in your palm

Propellerhead Software (probably best known for Reason) has announced the availability of a three-in-one synth emulator for Apple’s portable devices.

ReBirth faithfully recreates the TB-303, TR-808 and TR-909 units on screen, offering all the functionality you’d expect from the real things but at a fraction of the cost, and completely virtually.

Features include:

• 2 x TB-303 Bassline synths
• TR-808 Drum Machine
• TR-909 Drum Machine
• Pattern Controlled Filter
• Distortion unit
• Compressor
• Mixer
• 5 user mods
• Pattern sequencing
• Full automation
• Combine patterns to build songs
• Share songs with other ReBirth users

Go retro or create something completely new. The choice is yours and for the tiny sum of just £3.99.

Get more information or go to the iTunes Link for ReBirth.

Popularity: 2% [?]

Mobeat Synthesizer launched for iPod, iPhone, iPad

We haven’t covered a lot of iPhone/iPod Touch apps recently, but with the recent launch of the iPad, and the possibilities that brings with it, we thought we’d start taking a keener interest again.

On that note, here’s the Mobeat Synthesizer, released yesterday on the iTunes Store.

It claims to be able to “create an almost infinite number of sounds” and has the following features:

• Dual Oscillator Module
• Fine Tune
• Waves Types, Square, Triangle, Sawtooh, Osc
• Glide Rate
• Octave Selector
• Scrollable Keys
• Modulation Module
• Resonance
• Envelope Generator
• Attack, Decay, Sustain, Release
• Filter
• Arpeggiator

A free, ‘lite’ version is available, though the full version is only £1.19 ($1.99) so it isn’t going to break the bank.

You can see a virtual demonstration of the app over at the Mobeat web site, or find Mobeat on iTunes.

The app was designed for the iPod Touch and iPhone, but it will also work on the iPad.

Popularity: 1% [?]

JR Hexaton Pro comes to iPhone: Jordan Rudess approved!

Developers continue to push the envelope for using the iPhone as a music creation device. JR Hexaton Pro is one of the latest rhythm generators/live performance apps available.

Pairing Amidio, makers of other hit iPhone apps such as Star Guitar and noise.io with legendary keyboard player Jordan Rudess (who demoed Yamaha’s Tenori-On last year) and you know you’re going to get something pretty special.

It’s pretty unique too, being the first drum machine / rhythm and loop generator built on a hexagonal playing surface. It also responds to the iPhone’s movements, making for some interesting live performance possibilities.

Amidio describes it:

“JR Hexatone Pro is something totally new. There’s nothing like it, it creates sonic textures based on absolutely unique principles. It can be called a 6-channel 6-directional step sequencer with variable step length and artificial intelligence of each channel. Given that you can easily load your custom samples, you can create anything, any kind of loops, for all music styles.

The best way to see what’s going on is to watch Jordan demo the app.

Alternatively, check out the factory presets here:

It’s available from the iTunes Store right now.

Popularity: 4% [?]

Review: Tripper for iPhone

A couple of days ago Xyster.net released Tripper for the iPhone.

Tripper is a fairly simple 16-step looping sequencer spanning ten distinct notes. All highlighted notes are played, together with colourful animation.

At present there’s just one sound, which could be likened to some kind of toy/electric piano. There’s not a lot of fancy stuff – you can’t swipe your finger to create runs of notes, alter sounds, change velocities, or do the sorts of things a Yamaha Tenori-On would offer you, but then you wouldn’t expect that from a 59p (99c) app.

One interesting feature is the ability to create “Game of Life” cell formations onto the board and have the melodic patterns evolve over time.

Used as a virtual instrument along with a sequencer and some of the iPhone’s other synth apps, this could be used to general an interesting, evolving base for mmore ambient/experimental compositions and performances.

A pause/edit button would be a useful addition to make it possible to build up a pattern without the instrument playing. It makes setting up accurate formations, particularly for use in “Game of Life” mode, very difficult.

It’s possible to save compositions for later playback, but although the app states that it’s possible to email these to other users, I’ve not found out how.

Another cool feature for power users on my wish list would be the ability to transmit notes via OSC, for hooking up to an external sequencer/sound generator, or the ability to save a composition’s MIDI file for later editing.

More sounds, of course, and maybe some other gestures, would be great, but this is the first version and it is a very inexpensive app. Good job from Xyster for fun and maybe a bit of inspiration too.

Tripper App Store link

Popularity: 3% [?]

iPhone musician to play Wembley Stadium

When the iPhone was first launched it didn’t immediately jump up and shout about its music creation credentials. Sure, it’s an iPod, but that’s really about playback of music — the closest I really expected it to get to music creation was by hooking two or more together with some digital decks and DJing with them.

Nevertheless, two years on and with third-party applications aplenty, the iPhone has such gems as Star Guitar, noise.io, PaklSound1, Bloom, SynthPond, and numerous other music composition and synth creation tools.

Perhaps, then, it’s no surprise that the iPhone will be the gadget star of forthcoming concerts at Wembley Stadium:

The London Evening Standard reports:

Singer, songwriter and producer Gary Go will be playing his iPhone instead of guitars and drums at a series of Take That concerts in July.

Go, 24 – real name Gary Baker – has already written several tracks for his first album using software downloaded to the phone. He used it to recreate guitars, drums, piano and horn sections.

All the demos for his album were laid down using a virtual four-track recording studio installed on his phone.

“I think it’s pretty amazing that I’m going to be using a mobile phone on stage at Wembley Stadium in front of so many people. I grew up behind the stadium, and used to listen to concerts in my back garden, ” said Go, whose single Open Arms is released on 11 May.

“My biggest worry is that my phone will ring mid-song.”

We’ll be ramping up our coverage of iPhone musical apps over the coming weeks, because (particularly for a mobile phone/entertainment device) there’s some pretty nifty bits of software available to complement or even replace recording studio and live performance gear and PC software.

Popularity: 3% [?]

iPhone gets Star Guitar synthesiser

The number of music applications available for the iPhone just keeps growing, with Star Guitar being just one.

Amidio Software, creators of noise.io, put together an app that lets you play guitar in a variety of styles from a single touchscreen interface.

144 of the most common chords can be played just by tapping a few buttons on the interface, and there are several varieties of guitar and style available.

Unlike some software, the app isn’t designed to simulate the method of playing the guitar, but instead is meant to inspire and to provide an adequate “stand in” when you don’t have a real guitar or guitarist available.

It also allows vocals to be recorded along with the chords, and compositions can be saved in WAV file format and also used with the iPhone’s Beatmaker sequencing software.

Of course it’s not a perfect substitute for a real guitar but it can aid in composition, impromptu performances and just having fun.

Here’s a video demo of the app in action. It currently costs US$3.99 and can be downloaded from the iTunes App Store now.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Basic noise.io for iPhone video published

Following news of noise.io for the iPhone, here’s a basic demo video of the software in action:

Popularity: 1% [?]

PaklSound1: Virtual Tenori-On for the iPhone

Funnily enough, yesterday I said how cool it would be to have a Tenori-On simulation on the iPhone, and lo-and-behold I find a YouTube video of one in development.

It’s not perfect, of course, but it has all the makings of being a great application. Maybe I’ll do some digging around at some point and see what the comparative specifications between the two systems are. That might give an idea as to how much further this application could be taken.

(Via MatrixSynth)

Popularity: 2% [?]

noise.io iPhone synthesiser software coming to App Store

The iPhone is one very cool phone, and thanks to the recent addition of third-party applications, there’s some pretty nifty software coming out for it.

I must admit, though, that I’d not considered the iPhone being used for any serious synth work / music creation. Yes, there are applications that let you play a virtual keyboard or guitar, or build up basic four-part tracks from preset loops, but noise.io sounds like one of the first dedicated bits of synth software for Apple’s handset.

Technabob reports that Amidio will release the software on the 25th August. This full-featured sound synthesiser uses Enhanced Subspace Frequency Modulation (ESFM), and features a unique multi-touch interface (as you might expect from any self-respecting iPhone app) which lets the user manipulate every aspect of the created sound.

The software should include a sequencer, audio effects, plus 81 sound presets and a preset editor. As it will only cost $6.99 (about £4) when released, I’m tempted to give it a go. It’s probably going to be best suited to dance-style music, but there’s nothing wrong with that.

Now, what other music and synth apps will be developed for the iPhone? How about a soft Tenori-On?

(Via Technabob)

Popularity: 1% [?]