Top 10 iOS DJing and music production apps
Want to know which is the best iOS DJing and music production app for you? Check out this Top 10...
If there’s one thing the iPhone and iPad are good at, it’s taking complicated things and making them easy. Thanks to their simple touchscreen interfaces, there’s nothing to stop anyone from picking up their tablet and making beautiful music. In fact, the hardest thing is working out which apps should install.
Fortunately, we’re here to help with our guide to the best music production and DJing apps available for iOS. Sadly, we can’t guarantee the quality of your musical endeavors.
10. Cross DJ Remote
This app must be used in conjunction with Mixvibes’ CrossDJ Free, but you can use it to control most of the functions of that software. With it, you can control the crossfader of the virtual DJ mixer, browse tracks, create loops and view track waveforms.
If you already have Mixvibes’ CrossDJ Free, this could be the killer app you’ve been looking for.
Control Cross using your iPhone
Korg’s Kaosillator handheld synths have proved popular over the years. Being touchscreen devices themselves, they’re the perfect crossover product for iOS devices.
IKaossilator features a loop sequencer, over 100 sounds that you can play by touching the screen of your iOS device and the ability to export your creations. It even features the Kaosillator’s famous X/Y interface.
iKaossilator apes the real thing
Akai has drawn on its synthesiser know-how to bring you SynthStation – an app that provides many functions that let you transform and alter sounds as you see fit. It features adjustable LFOs, oscillators and much more. There’s also support for crafting your own beats, and given its low price it’s a bit of a bargain.
Akai SynthStation is great for tweakers
Yes, it’s another app that lets you wirelessly operate an existing application on your computer, but this one controls Atomix Production’s VirtualDJ. With it, you can operate virtual decks, load and play tracks and trigger samples.
If you find yourself in dire need of the toilet while recording that perfect mixtape, this could be the app prevents you having to stop and start from scratch.
Virtual DJ iRemote lets you control Virtual DJ wirelessly
6. GarageBand
Apple’s venerable GarageBand is a highly popular and accessible means of constructing tracks on the move. It features a virtual instruments and the ability to record multitrack songs. You can cut and edit tracks to make them more appropriately resemble the song in your head.
If you own an iOS device you should probably get this downloaded.
Create tunes on the move with GarageBand
FL Studio Mobile is the iOS version of Image Line’s excellent FL Studio digital audio workstation (DAW) software. With it, you can create beats, melodies, killer basslines or whatever you want using the virtual keyboard or the ‘piano roll’.
The piano roll lets you draw key presses onto the screen, which can be handy if your fingers are too big to play chords on the virtual keyboard. It’s no replacement for a proper computer-based DAW, and it’s a bit fiddly, but it’s fun nonetheless.
FL Studio Mobile has many features of the full FL Studio
4. iDJ
For those who don’t know, Numark is a massive and important manufacturer in the DJing industry. IDJ is its foray into the world of iPod DJing, and unlike many other DJ apps, iDJ doesn’t offer too many options. Instead, you import tracks from your iPod and then press a button to have it automatically mix the tracks for you.
It’s a fun app that’s perfect for the layperson who’s looking to get into the artform.
iDJ is simple but fun
3. ReBirth
Roland’s TB-303 bassline synth and TR-808 TR-909 drum machines are classic instruments that are venerated the world over. Now, you can get experience the classic bubbling and pounding sounds of these instruments on your iOS device.
Available for the iPad and iPhone, ReBirth is a complex app that lets you tweak, play and create your own acid house tracks wherever you happen to be sitting. It’s a little tricky to get around at first, but once you get the hang of it you’ll enjoy it.
Amazing – a TB-303 for little money
2. Djay
Algoriddim’s Mac-based Djay is a popular DJing application, and rightly so. It’s not bloated or complex, and that’s where its strength lies – in its simplicity.
Algoriddim’s iOS implementation is a pretty faithful port, letting you control the speed of a track, add special effects such as echo and phaser, and drop the needle of the virtual deck wherever you want to.
You can also view the waveforms of each track and scratch tracks using the virtual deck platter, although the glass screen of an iOS device isn’t suitable for cutting “Frrressh” or “Aaahh!”
The best thing about it is Technics-like wind-down when you press stop. Nice.
Djay is a high quality DJing app
1. iMaschine
IMashine lets you sketch out beats and grooves on the move using 16 drum pads, two keyboards and an audio recorder. Once you’ve created your catchy killer groove you can export it as an audio file.
The gain, panning and volume of each section can be modified to suit your needs, and you can easily select and apply up to two effects to your track, such as chorus, delay and flanger, which greatly enhances the depth and realism of your composition.
OMaschine is an extremely addictive app that makes it easier than ever to jot down those killer grooves that pop into your head. Top dog.
iMaschine is a highly addictive groovemaking app
