DJ App Review: Beatmaker
Dec 5th, 2009 | By admin | Category: Gear Reviews
Price: $19.99
Description: This is the closest thing to a DAW for the iPhone/iPod Touch. Beatmaker features 16 sample pads (which can include demo and/or user-generated sounds) with a beat slicer, visual wave editor, assignable X/Y pad controller for each sample, tempo/pitch adjuster, and more options too numerous to include in full. Beatmaker also includes a sequencer (with step-editable volume, panning, and pitch) and two effects busses.
Pros: It’s incredibly versatile—just go back and look at the features mentioned above. Beatmaker can also export loops and songs to WAV files, or export its sequences to MIDI. It can receive recordings direct from any Amidio application, including the Noise.io synthesizer.
Cons: For an app, the price is steep. There are only two channels of effects, which are good, if not that detailed (does a three-band EQ really count as an effect?). Samples are limited to one 16-pad bank.
Verdict: It’s amazing that designer Intua managed to fit so much into Beatmaker and have it run as smoothly as it does on the iPhone/iPod Touch’s limited memory. This limits the effects and number of samples, but Beatmaker is nevertheless packed with features that make it worthwhile for a DJ, whether to trigger sample hits, loops, or a whole track.
Words: David Abravanel
as featured in Issue 29
