11 grooveboxes
Fewer features than a full-fledged DAW but far more than a drum machine, grooveboxes have taken the mobile world by storm and allow you to create tunes in an instant – a great way of creating scratchpad ideas…
01 AMPIFY GROOVEBOX $FREE AL/AB/IAA | iPAD/iPHONE | 5 INSTRUMENTS 8-20 PRESETS/GROOVES PER INSTRUMENT
An inspiring tool that lets you quickly create melodies and beats. You get five free touchable instruments and while you can do a lot with these and the free patterns, they’re essentially teasers for the IAPs. That said, there’s enough to be getting on with without, so it’s well worth a download. ampifymusic.com
02 4POCKETS DIGISTIX $7.99 AUV3/AL/IAA/AB | iPAD/iPHONE | 256 PATTERNS, MULTIPLE EXPORT OPTIONS
With added sampling options, Digistix steps up from being ‘just’ a drum machine to fall into our Groovebox category, and recording and editing audio is pretty simple so it’s easy to import your own sounds into the DigiStix world. The step sequencer is intuitive and can easily be sync’d to your DAW and it comes with several edit options to help you create expressive patterns. With added effects, parameter automation and an 8-band EQ there’s a lot here for creating beats for your DAW. 4pockets.com
03 KORG ELECTRIBE WAVE $29.99 IAA/AB | iPAD/iPHONE | 8-PART SYNTH + DRUMS, 160 PATTERNS
The Electribe defined much of how grooveboxes evolved over the last 25 years, and here Korg have recreated the best bits in the company’s latest drum and synth app. It’s also a set up from Korg’s original iElectribe with double the power (eight parts each for drums and synth), 25 groove types, 29 effects and 32-voice polyphony. You get 160 patterns to play with and up to 35 motion sequences can be stored for each of the 16 parts, making it a very flexible and dynamic box of grooves. Expensive, but this is up there with the best in terms of instant dance loops. korg.com
04 LUUK VAN DER GRAAFF BEATONAL $FREE AL | iPAD/iPHONE/AN | 60 SYNTH PRESETS (PLUS USER), SEQUENCER
Beatonal is a relatively simple groovebox-type app with four channels for music making: drum machine, bass, chords and lead. You get keys (or pads) at the bottom to input each plus a good set of sound and hits. It’s all very easy to put together relatively complex tunes fast, albeit in a much more polite way than with something like Pure Acid. It is free with optional IAPs. beatonal.com
05 NOVATION/AMPIFY LAUNCHPAD $FREE ALAB | iPAD/iPHONE | 400 SOUNDS, LIVE SEQUENCING
It might have been around the block a few times – originally developed by Novation before that became Ampify for apps – but Launchpad still commands a very respectable 4.8 score on the App Store, probably because it simply does what it sets out to do so well. Think Ableton Live in terms of loop launching, with beats, bass, melody and sampled loops being launched from left to right to make complete performances. You get 400 loops to start with and can import your own audio to mix or remix things up on your own level. And of course you can tap into the Ampify IAPs if you like too ampifymusic.com
07 PURE ACID $14.99 AUV3/IAA/AB | iPAD/iPHONE | 80 PRESETS , PATTERN SEQUENCER
Here he is again. Is Dmitrij Pavlov the best developer of music production apps out there? His second groovebox on these two pages is a wonderful app for older skool dance heads doing, as it does, acid grooves with pomp and bluster. It’s reminiscent of Propellerheads’ ReBirth in that you can get the sounds of classic
Roland boxes (TB-303 and TR-808/707/909) grooving along but it’s very much updated to offer more features. There are 16 drum parts (with 35 sounds), Saw and Pulse bass waveforms, a dozen effects and a great pattern-generating section.
Damn it Jim, you did it again. jimaudio.pro
08 REASON COMPACT $FREE AL/IAA/AB | iPAD/iPHONE | THREE INSTRUMENTS, 16 KITS
It’s one of the simplest grooveboxes in this round up but consequently one of the best to get ideas, beats and melodies down quickly. You get three instruments, the Ritmik drum machine, Europa and Monotone synths and you simply select your sounds or kit, record live or step by step, and use a touch grid editor to create or change your recordings.
Mix, add effects, export audio or to Reason and you’re good to expand on those ideas elsewhere. A great starting point for ideas and as easy as it gets, although IAPs can get expensive (between $0.99 and $9.99) reasonstudios.com
09 SUGARBYTES EGOIST $29.99 AUV3/AL | iPAD/iPHONE | 80 PRESETS , PATTERN SEQUENCER
Egoist essentially takes any sound you want and lets you slice it up and mix beats and a bassline with it. You get 1000 beats to do that, 16 pattern templates, and up to 16 different samples can be used at the same time. The three engines – sample, beats and bass – then merge to go through an effects section with seven effect options. There’s lots of real-time control, random options and while Egoist might be the most expensive app in this round up, it does things a little differently and with your audio at its core, it’s totally up to you where you take it. sugar-bytes.de
10 TRIQTRAQ $6.99 AL/IAA/AB | iPAD/iPHONE | 400 SOUNDS, PATTERN SEQUENCER
Record, tweak and automate your loops with this app. You get 400 oneshot samples (in Drums, Bass, Percussion and Keys categories) and you can import your own to join the sonic party. There are four channels to play with and eight pads to input data. There are lots of export options and a free LE version lets you try the concept out with less sounds. triqtraq.com
11 UVI BEATHAWK $9.99 AUV3/AL/IAA/AB | iPAD/iPHONE | DOZENS OF LOOPS, 16 TRACKS, MULTIPLE EXPORT OPTIONS
With the dev muscle of software heavyweights UVI behind it, Beathawk delivers almost full
DAW power with the ease of a groovebox. You get MPC-style pads, 16 tracks to record into, and 1GB of sounds with which to do it. You get plenty to start on, and can add your own with a pianostyle keyboard. It can feel a little too much about the add-ons, but you can get your ideas down very quickly on it and in that sense, it’s one of the best scratch-pad DAW/grooveboxes around. uvi.net