Mobile Music Production With Android

The past week has seen the official unveiling of the iPhone 4 and the UK release of Dell’s Android-based Streak, both of which may be of particular interest to musicians. Although the Apple app store is more mature in terms of music production apps, there is a lot of potential in the Android arena too…

Winning Streak?

I recently covered some angles on the iPad for music production, and there is certainly a lot to be said for the larger screen in this context.

Dell, however, have seen the gap between the form factor of the current batch of Android smartphones (such as the Nexus One and HTC Desire) and that of Apple’s iPad – and they’ve jumped into that space with the introduction of the 5″ Streak.

Dell’s Winning Streak?

Is it a tablet or is it a smartphone? Judging by the photos on the Dell site, I would say the latter – it’s not even as wide as a credit card, and plenty of other smartphones/PDAs are hitting the 4″ mark on screen size anyway. It seems that this form factor is the limit of what is pocketable, and as it can be used as a phone, the Dell Streak could certainly be a useful ‘commuter DAW’.

Music Apps For Android

The Apple marketplace has a significant head start on Android, so it’s understandable that the quality and quantity of music production apps available for the iPhone (and iPad) is much better at the moment. However, Android is gaining momentum, and the open platform should allow for quicker development – and faster hardware is becoming available every month, something that the iPhone can’t match.

There aren’t a whole lot of ‘serious’ music production apps on Android yet, but there’s still some fun to be had – such as Rock Out (guitar sim). One more sophisticated offering is the modular synth from Jasuto, which is now in the Android marketplace, and well worth a look…