More sounds from the cloud (SoundCloud of course) for your delectation, created using an iOS device and/or apps. No real theme this time, just tracks we heard and wanted to share, to get you thinking about having a go yourself.

Be My Queen by Li$H

Robotic vocoder (via VirSyn's iVoxel) mashed with GarageBand strings and some fantastic drum sounds? We love it! Nice one (again) Li$H.

It's Just the Lighting by Simplexity (Derek Mecca and Jeff Pritchett)

[Update: We have amended this bit of the post after Derek contacted us and let us know some more details about the Simplexity project.]

Odd but strangely compelling to listen to, this fairly spartan track was created by Derek Mecca and Jeff Pritchett under their collaborative project 'Simplexity'. They used Korg's iMS-20 and Addictive Synth (another VirSyn app) on a couple of iPads to put this song together. We hope you like it too.

Personality Disorder….System Failure by Michaelw

And finally, an amazing, disturbing and almost operatic piece from the brilliant Michaelw (Michael Wadlow from Wales). We liked this because, although uncomfortable to listen to in places, it is also totally entrancing in others. This track is a bit of a departure from some of Michael's other stuff, he really mixes things up here and makes you marvel.

Made using Animoog, iMS-20 and studio.HD, this track left us speechless and is a great way to round things up for this instalment. Awesome job Michael! 

Show us your stuff

We hope you enjoyed listening to our picks this week, but as always, we want to hear from you too. If you have your own iOS created sounds (preferably with the iPad, but not essential) here's how you can get them to us:

• Join our iPad Creative SoundCloud group then click on the 'Share a Track' button on the group page
• If you're on a computer, click 'Send us your sounds' at top of the sidebar to the right of your screen --->
• Leave us a link to your track on SoundCloud in the comments below

We're looking forward to hearing from you soon. 

Thank your for taking the time to listen to our notable tracks, feel free to leave a comment below and let us know what you think of this week's picks.

In honour of the AmpKit Retina graphics update we mentioned earlier today and the limited time 50% off AmpKit+, we thought it would be fun to find a few tracks on SoundCloud that have been made with AmpKit. Hopefully it will give you an idea of some of the sounds you can re-create in Agile Partners' authentic sounding amp sim.

AmpKit comes with SoundCloud export built right in to the app so it is very quick and easy to share your riff, chorus or even whole song idea with the world. It is also possible to import a backing track or drum loop and play over it in AmpKit, or you can use one of the provided loops complete with bass and rhythm guitars.

There isn't any punch-in type of recording in AmpKit itself though, so you often end up with imperfect one-off takes or maybe the third, fourth, fifth (you get the idea) attempt being shared to SoundCloud.

With that in mind, we have selected three different samples that demonstrate just a few of the many different types of sound you can get from AmpKit.

'Ready Set Jam' by TheRedDash

"Messing around with some Drum back tracking" is how this track is described by Dash from New York, but it features the rich, well sustained Rock sound that you can conjure up in AmpKit without too much effort and reliably every time. We liked the tight, compressed rhythm style at the start too.

'Duckie Dux' by toño châvez

A tongue-in-cheek title for this track but toño demonstrates very nicely the auto-wah pedal sound here, which is actually quite difficult to get right in our experience.

'Strat Your Stuff' by shred_777

We have featured Timothy Khalil's (a.k.a. shred_777) work once before, but we liked the funky Blues sound of this track a lot and it provides us with a sample of the Stevie Ray type of tone that makes us so happy. Nice one Timothy!

Just three short samples of the sounds you can create with AmpKit on your iOS device.

Good enough for a Commerical album

Of course, if you want to take it to the ultimate level and incorporate AmpKit as your main guitar amplification for commercial productions, you can do that too, as perfectly demonstrated by One Like Son in our bonus track below. To find out more about their album made entirely on an iPhone 3GS be sure to read our post.

Over to you

We hope you enjoyed listening to our AmpKit made picks this week, but as always, we want to hear from you too whatever iOS app you use. If you have your own iOS created sounds (preferably with the iPad, but not essential) here's how you can get them to us:

• Join our iPad Creative SoundCloud group then click on the 'Share a Track' button on the group page
• If you're on a computer, click 'Send us your sounds' at top of the sidebar --->
• Leave us a link to your track on SoundCloud in the comments below

We're looking forward to hearing you soon.

Agile Partners have updated their sonically amazing guitar amp sim AmpKit with new Retina Graphics and it looks gorgeous.

We think they are (at least one of) the first guitar sim app makers to update their in-app graphics for the new iPad's Retina display.

It isn't anything that really affects the every day use of the app of course, but it is a lot nicer to look at and makes the amp controls especially a whole lot clearer.

Retina Upgrade

As we are interested in how Developers are updating their apps, we took a series of screenshots from AmpKit+ before we upgraded so that you can compare them.

It's hard to see in these scaled down versions but if you look closeley you should see the added clarity and detail on the amp controls and stomp pedal graphics in the gallery below.

New Gear

With the release of AmpKit+ 1.3 Agile Partners have also added 3 new pieces of kit and bass players get a little love. From the Press Release:

Trace Elliot 1215
For the first time, a world class, full-featured bass amp and cabinet for iOS bass players.

Rocktron Metal Planet Distortion
A versatile, true heavy metal distortion pedal - not for the faint of heart

Rocktron HUSH Noise Reduction
If you aren't using HUSH, you aren't using real noise reduction for guitar.

Select the links if you want to find out more and see videos of Rocktron Hush and Rocktron Metal Planet Distortion.

50% off!

In addition to the updates mentioned above, the purchase price for AmpKit+ has been halved to $9.99/£6.99 and the 3 pieces of new gear have between 33% and 40% off for a limited time.

If you haven't pulled the trigger on that AmpKit+ purchase yet, now is the time to do it, it is well worth it for the savings you make over individual gear purchase prices.

App Store Link: AmpKit (Free) / AmpKit+ both Universal apps

Get your musical creative juices flowing for minimal outlay with new 'Figure' app from the venerable Propellerhead Software.

Digital sound sketching

Figure has been designed to work as a digital sketchpad for your basic beat ideas while you are away from your usual desktop, maybe riding to work on the bus or train, taking a break from other tasks, in the office at lunchtime, etc.

Figure looks like a surprisingly powerful creation tool from what we have seen so far.

Reason to be joyful

Existing Reason users (as well as users of other digital audio creation software) will love Figure's ability to quickly shape new Drum, Bass and Lead/Melody ideas. There is also the opportunity to add some parameter "tweaks" that can usher in a reasonable amount of complexity to the patterns they create.

The Developers see this as a platform they can add functionality to later, so we can expect more from this app in the future.

Sonic State's video demo

Here is a fairly comprehensive demo filmed by SonicState at Musikmesse a few days ago, which will give you the best idea of what to expect from Figure. Watch out for the very nice X/Y touchpad feature at around 4:55.

Export?

We haven't seen any info on exporting the recorded sounds from Figure yet once you are back at your desktop, neither in this video or the in presentation from Propellerhead at Musikmesse (link to around 8 mins in, when Figure is demoed).

Hopefully there will be some sort of export option to make Figure really useable, otherwise it may just be limited to a toy for messing around on.

Figure should be out very soon at the great price of $1/69p and we're really looking forward to getting our mitts on it.

What do you think? How useful will you find this "little slice of Reason" on your iOS device?

Another mixed bag of picks this week for you from iOS using SoundCloud-ers, showing the diversity and creativity that can be found over there.

Don't forget we have a SoundCloud group just for you, so you can share your iOS creations too.

Details of how you can get your tracks to us are below this week's song picks.

'DJBITBURNER vs PEZZERDOTCOM - AHOWOY' by Pezzerdotcom

This is a remix by Pezzerdotcom of DJBitBurner's NanoStudio track "Ah ow oy". The original was great 'Chiptune' fun (we love Chiptune stuff!) but this remix really takes it up a level and punches very hard. Great stuff!

'Solitaire' by peanut_gallery

A change of pace now, with this GarageBand-made track from peanut_gallery (a.k.a. Ian Hisert from Oakland, US). He has tagged this track with the 'Soundtrack' category and we can definitely imagine this instrumental piece being used as a soundtrack. Good use of the instruments in GarageBand for iOS, especially as it is his first track entirely produced using Apple's app.

'That Vintage Engine' by Ashley Elsdon 

Here's a little treat for you from Ashley Elsdon, who many of you will know as creator and author of the sadly mothballed Palm Sounds website (we still miss Palm Sounds, Ashley).

Ashley used samples he recorded from cars at the London to Brighton Vintage Car Run last year as the basis for this track, created in the super versatile Beatmaker II app. It's a clever use of samples and has a great energy. Enjoy!

Your turn

We hope you enjoyed listening to our picks this week, but as always, we want to hear from you too. If you have your own iOS created sounds (preferably with the iPad, but not essential) here's how you can get them to us:

• Join our iPad Creative SoundCloud group then click on the 'Share a Track' button on the group page
• If you're on a computer, click 'Send us your sounds' at top of the sidebar --->
• Leave us a link to your track on SoundCloud in the comments below

We're looking forward to hearing you soon.

We tweeted about this a few days ago, but in case you haven't seen it yet we just wanted to let you know that Dubspot have posted the second of Matt Cellitti's brilliant three part tutorial on sound design with the Animoog iPad app.

It's worth watching this video on your iPhone/Computer/other device so that you can follow along with Animoog on your iPad. We did this and it really helped.

Don't forget to check out the Dubspot website where you can find out more about their New York based on-site training and their newer online courses. 

We saw this video today from the Macworld / iWorld 2012 expo and thought you might like it.

Chris Breen of Macworld leads a panel made up of veteran creatives Bert Monroy (Digital Artist), Eduard Solér (Photographer) and Stephen Lipson (Musician/Percussionist).

In this video they chat about how technology has affected their particular area of creative endeavour, but also how the iPad and iPhone are starting to affect what they do and interestingly what is still required of them.

It isn't a long enough segment for us, but they start talking about mobile devices at 32:20. If you click on the video below it should start playing at the right moment, but this might not work on your iPad, we are experimenting with embedplus.com.

If you want to watch the whole session you can always drag the slider back to the beginning, these guys have seen some amazing changes in their careers and we found the whole thing very interesting.

We've got something special for you in this week's pick of iOS created music. We mentioned last week One Like Son's upcoming third album, this one recorded entirely on an iPhone using iOS apps. Today the album is officially released and we were fortunate enough to be included in a pre-release listen.

What did we think? Gobsmackingly good! Really. We cannot believe that this album was entirely recorded and mastered on an iPhone. We've not heard anything better so far!

Take a listen for yourself, go and order the album (we did), or click on the 'Buy all' button in the playlist below, then take a look at some of the details we have included from the press release about the album:

Here's more detail from the press release about the apps used in making the album: 

Using the GuitarJack and AmpKit LiNK hardware interface and apps such as AmpKit, FourTrack, Multitrack DAW, Pocket Organ, Moog’s Filtatron, ThumbJam and even Apple’s Garageband, the group produced an authentic rock record. Where most music composed on the iphone or ipad sounds like digital music, this record sounds like a live rock and roll band. 

Here's a quote we definitely agree with from Sonoma Wire Works' Daniel Codella [bold text ours]:

One Like Son have produced a full blown rock record on the iPhone that sounds like it was recorded using thousands of dollars’ worth of gear. One Like Son have really set the bar for what can be done with an inexpensive mobile recording setup. Bravo!"

And this from Hamilton Feltman of Harmonic Dog [bold text ours]:

“One Like Son has gone off the deep end and produced an entire rock album, on a phone, and it sounds… amazing! The quality is outstanding, the production, superb. Five years ago, who would have guessed this would happen. On. a. phone.”

If you haven't listened to the album yet, do yourself a favour and give it a listen now (above) and be sure to let us know what you think in the comments below.

Want to know a bit more about that rock album made entirely on an iPhone we told you about a few days ago?

Stephen Poff, the man behind 'Start the Show' has posted this video showing the apps and equipment in use. Here's a list of them as posted with the video:

Apps/Hardware used: AmpKit, FourTrack, Multitrack DAW, GuitarJack, Pocket Organ, Thumbjam, AC-7 Core Mini. Drums composed in Drumcore by Sonoma Wireworks.

Here's this weeks trio of tracks from our trawl around the SoundCloud universe, all made on or with iOS apps and devices.

Unstoppable by janogarcia

This track was arranged and recorded in GarageBand for iPad by Jano García from Spain. We love hearing what people are doing with GarageBand and this slice of brassy Electronica is a great example, we especially like the way it builds up towards the end of the first minute and into the rest of the track.

Bad Fun - 2AM by Bad Fun

Mike from San Jose in California created our second helping of Electronica, this time made entirely with Korg's iMS-20 app, a solid piece Synth Pop.

Randgrid Redux by Jim Straynge

Tagged as 'Industrial Techno' on SoundCloud, this short track by Jim Straynge from Washington, was made with the Randgrid iPad app (which we hadn't heard about before) and JamUp Pro on iPad for the guitar parts. There is something dark about it we like.

We want to hear your sounds

If you have already joined the SoundCloud community you can submit your tracks to our iPad Creative group, from a computer by clicking on the 'Send us your sounds' link on the right of the screen, or on the SoundCloud group page you can click on the 'Share a Track' button. There are also a whole host of apps that can upload to SoundCloud directly. Finally, if none of that works, just leave us a link in the comments below.

However you get them to us, we can't wait to hear your sounds!

IK Multimedia are throwing their considerable weight firmly behind the iOS platform with their latest round of product announcements ahead of this year's NAMM show, starting next week.

The first of these we wanted to tell you about is the iRig Mix. Here's the trailer video which got our heads in a spin with the sheer potential of this device for the mobile musician.

Be sure to watch through to the end to see the multitude of ways iRig Mix can be used.

Check out the iRig Mix page for more demo videos of the device in action and details.

Needless to say, we are very excited at the prospect of this new device, what do you think of it? Let us know in the comments.

Ignoring for a moment that this album was created on an iPhone (3GS no less!), not iPad, we are really impressed by the production values of this new album from rock band One Like Son (Facebook link), even more so since it was recorded entirely on iOS.

We've never managed to get anything close to commercial sounding results in our brief attempts at music making. 

We realised we have heard a lot of electronic music created on iOS, but not really any full on rock tracks, which is surprising given the plentiful supply of guitar and bass effects emulators out there on the App Store.

One Like Son are inviting everyone to listen to the whole album when it is released next Tuesday 17th January on their Bandcamp page. If you go there now you can here two of the tracks from their album already, or pre-order the whole album for just $7.

Here's a teaser trailer the band have posted to YouTube, which is a bit of a masterpiece in-itself.

Let us know what you think in the comments below and especially if you decide to buy the album.

Here's this weeks trio of tracks from the creative bunch over at SoundCloud. We are kicking off with:

'Balls - the game' by Sloman

A 2-for-1 deal from Slomen in Norway. The first part was made with the iMS-20 app from the lovely people at Korg and has some great riffs and stereo pans (try listening with headphones).

The second part was made with PixiTracker (an app we keep coming back to for experimentation) and is more of a retro arcade track.

'Big V In The Sky' by Tonwelle

Totally improvised in the wonderful Animoog app, this mesmerising spacey sounding piece by Tonwelle from Bonn in Germany is one of our big favourites this week, time to chill out for a bit.

'Bright Among the Faded (Light the Way)' by Christian Pratt

When we heard this track by Christian from Ottawa in Canada we were blown away by the audio quality and songwriting. The vocals are excellent and rich with a sparse but superbly produced musical arrangement. Most of this was recorded on an iPhone! It is one of the best iOS productions we've heard.

We want to hear your picks and productions

If you have joined the SoundCloud community you can submit your tracks to our iPad Creative group, from a computer by clicking on the 'Send us your sounds' link on the right of the screen, or on the SoundCloud group page you can click on the 'Share a Track' button.

If you have found an iOS (preferably iPad) created track on SoundCloud you think we should know about, leave a link in the comments below and let us know why we should check it out (fine to do this if it is your track too).

If you spent many hours of your youth bashing a load of multi-coloured bricks with a ball in Breakout or additionally shooting them with lasers in one of its more notable clones like Arkanoid, then you might enjoy this new one from Atari.

The teaser trailer below shows the iPad version, but we're a bit puzzled as to why they haven't used the whole width of the iPad's screen. It looks a little cramped to us. Perhaps the gameplay benefits from a smaller area to swipe across?

As long as it is not overpriced we'll probably be downloading Breakout for iOS when it's released anyway for pure nostalgia. What do you think?

Now that we can embed iOS playable tunes from the prolific bunch of creatives over at SoundCloud (a bit like YouTube for audio), we thought we would try and share a few of the iPad-made tracks we come across over there, but there's more.

New iPad Creative SoundCloud Group

We are watching new additions to the various iPad and iOS groups on SoundCloud to see what musicians are creating with their devices but we have also created our own iPad Creative group.

Now you can send us your tracks directly at any time (from a computer) using the SoundCloud 'Send us your sounds' link under the Social section on the right hand side of this page -->

A Few Discoveries

We are really looking forward to hearing what sounds you create on your iPad and featuring them here for everyone to listen to. In the meantime, here are a couple of tracks we enjoyed listening to this week as we were browsing around SoundCloud: 

'Mizu Ryu' by Keiran Klaassen

This one takes a while to warm up, but give it a minute or so and we think you might like where it goes. All the synth sounds you hear are made in the awesome Animoog app.

'Chill by Fire' by Li$hus

Made in GarageBand for iPad, this is described as a "A relatively unpolished ditty…", but we still enjoyed it.

'Funny Hearts' by Rumbleheyner

This one made us smile, it sounds like the soundtrack to some sort of manic cartoon. Made on the iPad with Ampkit+, iSequence and StudioTrack.

Over to you

Plenty of iOS apps now have SoundCloud export built-in so it is easy to share your audio creations with the world.

If you're on SoundCloud already please join our group and if you have anything to share post your sounds.

After we complained on Twitter this morning about the hassle we had trying to get a SoundCloud embed working on the iPad (well Safari for iPad really), SoundCloud tweeted us straight back and basically said, "Wait til later today!", and they have delivered.

They have just gone live with the announcement of their new HTML5 Widget, it's now an extra tab on the 'Share' pop-up and it works great. If you are reading this on your iPad, check out the lovely HTML5 widgetyness below (sorry about the tune, I didn't have much to use). 

Expect lots more audio goodness from SoundCloud on your iPad now that this widget is finally live.

We mentioned before Neil Johnston (Store Van Music) and his super creative iOS projects when he was working on a music education lesson with Kids and iPads.

His latest venture is another iOS affair, using an iPhone to record the video below, plus iOS apps like GarageBand to record and even play the theme tune for new game Tiny Invaders, which looks like a lot of fun.

If you really like the tune you can download the track as an iTunes Ringtone for $0.99 (69p). Check it out:

Ok, let's get straight to the point: If you don't already have a MIDI input device for your iPad/iPhone, if you want one and can afford it, go and order the iRig MIDI right now!

We can't think of any major reason why you wouldn't. But if you want to know a bit more about iRig MIDI, why we think you need it and IK Multimedia's new SampleTank for iOS software, be sure to watch the video below and then read on for the inside scoop...

iRig MIDI Hardware

Setting up and using iRig MIDI really is as simple as the video above makes out!

In the box, as well as the iRig MIDI, you get:

• 2 x 5.2' standard MIDI cables - DIN to 1/8" jacks
• 1 x very short USB to Micro USB charging cable
• Quick Start guide

The iRig MIDI has 3 MIDI ports: In, Out and Thru with two Red LEDs which reasurringly light up to indicate throughput in and out.

Setup is very straight forward. We had no trouble at all using our M-Audio Oxygen 8 test keyboard controller with any of the CoreMIDI compatible apps we had installed on our iPad.

We tested the iRig MIDI with a fairly simple setup but the Thru port also allows some more complex setups and a few alternative use cases are detailed on IK's site.

Little Shorty

The only real problem we had was the ridiculously short USB charging cable. This cable connects your standard iPad/iPhone charger to the iRig MIDI and charges your iOS Device while in use, which is handy and very useful.

But because the cable is so short we had to leave the iPad on the floor to be close enough to the charger and this meant we couldn't control the apps or use the touchscreen as it was out of reach.

In the end we used a 4-gang extension cable and had this sat on the desk, which took up precious work space and got in the way a bit, but it's not the end of the world and the extra sockets were handy.

Update: We heard from IK Multimedia after posting this review and apparently they wanted to include a longer cable, but doing so would not meet Apple's power rating requirements to charge the iPad and so they had to go with a cable of this length to get approval. Still, as they pointed out, at least you do have the option of charging the iPad with iRig MIDI and they supply the cable in the box.

Flawless Operation

This issue aside though, the iRig MIDI worked flawlessly with our MIDI Keyboard and apps like GarageBand, Addictive Synth, Animoog and NLog Pro, all recognising the Pitch Bend and Modulation wheels without any further setup (as you would expect with Core MIDI) and there are over 100 apps that are compatible with iRig MIDI listed on IK Multimedia's site.

The iRig MIDI is highly recommended by iPad Creative. For us, it certainly lives up to the promise. Go and get one.

SampleTank for iOS by IK Multimedia

If you want to start using multiple MIDI Channels or layering with your iRig MIDI, then you will probably need to use IK Multimedia's own SampleTank app, which comes in a Free version (available now from the app store) with a limited sample set initially.

Upgrades

In-app purchases can be made for different sample packs as you need them. The range of options for upgrades and add-ins is a bit complex to be honest, but it does give you the chance to add what you want if not everything suits your musical or playing styles.

The best value seems to be the upgrade to SampleTank for $9.99 (£6.99). Upgrading to the whole lot will set you back around £30 ($39.99) though, making it a more considered purchase for many of us.

Professional Sounds

All the samples are taken from IK's well respected desktop version of SampleTank which has been used in many professional and commercial projects.

The app has been designed for live use and its design allows you to switch between one of the four instrument banks, play over riff loops and/or presets using a midi controller and the onscreen keyboard simultaneously. 

The samples sound really good for the most part, just take a few minutes and give them a listen in the video demo below.

The main features of SampleTank for iOS are:

• 4-part multi-timbral live sound module
• Over 900 MB on-board sound library with over 400 instruments in 16 categories
• Huge selection of melodic and rhythmic patterns for accompaniment or groove creation
• Instruments are processed using 20 different insert FX with up to 4 simultaneous inserts per part
• Master reverb effect with individual sends

The full set of samples takes the app up to just under 1GB, which meant a bit of app juggling on our 16GB iPad. This gives you a great range of sounds with a nice batch of Presets to get you started. The presets cover a good selection of styles from Pop through Reggae to Rock and a few Thrashy ones. There are also 3 pages of empty Presets for you to save your own customised versions. 

We were especially impressed by the quality of the samples in the Woodwind sections such as the Sax samples and also the Piano and Keyboards sounded great.

A Few Issues

As impressed as we were with the sounds in SampleTank for iOS, we thought we should mention the two issues we had: 

1. We know the app was designed with live performance in mind, but we really missed a recording function. (Update: IK Multimedia have said that a recording feature is on the wish-list but there is no timescale as yet)
2. The app is currently not Universal, so on the iPad we have to use it in 2x mode. It isn't the ugliest app at 2x we've seen on the iPad, but the text and keys do look pretty fuzzy and the lack of clarity gets annoying after a while, especially for those of us that rarely use iPhone apps on the iPad precisely because of this. But, an iPad version is on the way according to IK and hopefully it won't be long. (Update: IK Multimedia have confirmed to us an iPad version "is on  the way and it WILL be Universal", plus it will be a Free upgrade for those who have already paid for SampleTank for iOS)

These issues are not deal breakers, and we know that both of them can/will be addressed in future updates.

Final Thoughts

Because SampleTank for iOS is initially a free download and includes a selection of IK Multimedia's professional sound samples we would definitely recommend you download the app and have a look.

Because of the onscreen keyboard you don't need to have an external controller, so SampleTank for iOS stands alone.

Combined with iRig MIDI and an external controller though we think IK Multimedia have provided live performers with a fantastic way to incorporate their iPad and favourite Core MIDI compatible app into their setup.

IK Multimedia are at it again, throwing their considerable weight behind the iOS device platform as a viable tool for Musicians and Music Producers.

iRig Midi looks awesome, just watch the video below! More soon...

David Kyte is a very talented artist, mainly painting sports cars in both 'model' and action poses. He is also a fine iPad and digital artist, having posted a good number of images to the iPad Creative Flickr group. We found this video portfolio from David on YouTube and thought we would let you know about it here.

We like David's work a lot and hope you do to, enjoy the video:

You can see more of David's iPad art (and buy prints) on his website, on his YouTube channel and see more iPad paintings in his iOS Flickr set.