iPhone Music – Sounds Like A Mac

The iPhone has generated a huge amount of hype, but its greatest strengths lie not in what it does by default but in what it can be made to do via developer applications. Musicians have been particularly excited by the iPhone, not because it’s a phone, but because it is essentially a hand-held Mac…

Mac To The Future

Now that the SDK has been released, a huge number of custom apps have appeared which leverage the music-making potential of the iPhone (and iPod Touch). Because both of these devices run essential Mac processes such as Core Audio and Audio Units, they are surprisingly powerful musical tools. Couple this with a very portable touch-screen interface and you have a delightful platform for innovative instrument development…

There are already many apps that can transform an iPhone into a guitar, keyboard or sample controller. One programmer created an app that allows you to control Pro Tools with your iPhone. You can even control your Pro Tools rig from another part of the world if you really want to. For an introduction to the world of iPhone musicry, check out this post by Peter Kirn.

Helping Your iPhone Make Music

Other music utilities include an iPhone guitar toolkit, featuring a tuner that uses the microphone to detect your bum notes. It also provides a set of guitar chords in tablature format, and a metronome function.

Helping Your iPhone Identify Music

Shazam have developed a free app for the iPhone which will identify tunes for you. Just play some music at your iPhone and the app will rummage through its database of songs in search of a match. This is a nifty little idea that is perfectly suited to a mobile device, and will save you having to sing to your phone to achieve the same result.