MINI REVIEWS – SAMPLE LIBRARIES, ROMPLERS, APPS AND MORE

Web www.skramapp.com Format iPad

The latest entrant onto the ‘self-contained iPad studio’ scene comes from the developers of the peerless Lemur MIDI controller. Skram consists of four Devices, each with an accompanying Widget. A Device is a synth or drum machine and a Widget is a sequencer or arpeggiator for that instrument, but the delineation is a bit odd, as Widgets only work with their associated Device, and Devices can only be triggered by their associated Widgets.

The four instruments comprise a 909-style drum machine with step sequencer (BR-909), a 303-style bass synth with pitch sequencer (Skram, confusingly), and two synths with arpeggiators: one for bell-like tones (Orphic), the other for general purpose leads and pads (Heatstroke). All of them sound very good and give a decent level of control, with five or six adjustable parameters for each synth, and four for each of BR-909’s six drum/cymbal sounds.

Skram makes it ridiculously easy to get jamming, with all pitched instruments snapping to a userspecified key and mode (selected via two radial menus that are ripe for real-time manipulation), and thus always sounding ‘right’. Each Widget (and each of the BR-909’s drums) includes 16 preset rhythm patterns and can be switched between two stored sequences, and their clear, finger-friendly GUIs are exemplars of iPad interface design – although having to select individual drums for editing and sequencing separately in the BR-909’s Device and Widget pages will drive you mental.

Liine promise that more Devices and Widgets are on the way for Skram (presumably via IAP), as are “many more new features”. We can only hope that these include currently obvious omissions such as Inter-App Audio and AudioBus support, MIDI input, Ableton Link, etc, since the only communication the app currently has with the outside world is the emailing of recorded sessions.

In its current state, Skram is clearly the first step in a broader project, but it’s already a polished, fun musical toy with a bit of sketchpad potential for the experienced producer. Some will decry its limitations, others will praise its focus – we’re in the latter camp, given the price.