one’s phone. After you’re over the shock of that realization, feel free to load your
iPhone up with these music-minded programs.
* GarageBand ($4.99; also works with iPad)—It’s one of the few apps that Apple
designed, but this one’s probably the most underpriced of them all. Anyone
familiar with the desktop version of GarageBand will feel right at home here.
Even if you’re a musical newcomer, there’s plenty of instrument sounds to
tinker with here, and given that recording/tweaking tracks is so easy, it’s the
perfect way to blow off steam. Tap out drumbeats, tickle the virtual ivory, mix
up to eight tracks per song, and e‑mail completed projects right from the app.
* AmpliTube ($19.99)—What if you had hundreds of guitar effects in a pedal
board that weighed less than two pounds and cost less than $20? In a way, that’s
precisely what this app is. Rather than spend hundreds (or even thousands) on
multi-effect pedals, you can use this one app to connect guitars to have their
input mutilated and tweaked to sound like just about anything—from an acoustic
to a baritone metal axe. You need an iRig interface adapter (www.amplitube.
com/irig) to connect your guitar or bass, but if you’ve been looking for an inexpensive
way to track riffs, look no further.
* A Noise Machine ($0.99)—This isn’t your grandmother’s music app. It’s tailored
for music geeks who salivate at the mere mention of “sequencing” and “bloops,”
but it’s a wild ride in experimentation that will undoubtedly lead to the creation
of music you never knew you had in you. You use your fingers to move dots to
various spaces, with movements bending and tweaking outputs, rhythms, and
tempo multipliers. It’s a ton of fun, even if you have absolutely no idea what
you’re doing.
* Future DJ ($3.99)—Quoting the developer, “this is not a toy.” If you’re looking
to DJ a party using an iPhone or two, start here. Be prepared to deal with a steep
learning curve, but the amount of underlying power is really incredible.
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