Jeremy and his fellow musicians have been busy. 'Immunity' is a classic example of the kind of end-to-end creative solution that the iPad offers. Jeremy explains:

"Music video shot on iPads and edited using iMovie for iPad. Song recorded with GarageBand for iPad. This is a song I wrote and recorded on my iPad. The teens at my church helped make this silly video using only iPads and iPhones to film. Then I edited the footage with iMovie for the iPad. Enjoy."

It's a catchy tune with a solid vocal performance and a fun video. Congratultions Jeremy, you have our attention, we look forward to seeing what you produce next.

This is Galileo for iPhone. It is an already funded Kickstarter project, but we think you will love it if you are into iOS photography or video of any kind.

What is it?

"The Galileo is a revolutionary, iOS-controlled robotic iPhone platform with infinite spherical rotation capability. Just swipe your finger on the screen of your iPad or other iOS device and Galileo reacts, orienting your iPhone or iPod Touch accordingly."

Basically, the Galileo is a charging dock/holder for your iPhone that can be rotated to any angle and controlled remotely via your iPad's screen or another iOS touch device.

What can I do with it?

Lots! Check out the video above for some ideas, but it has applications for:

• recording video
• photography, time-lapse (very excited by the answer to this question)
• video conferencing
• baby monitoring
• video surveillance

and many other uses, with the added benefit of controlling your device from anywhere in the world over wi-fi.

There are plenty more examples listed on the Kickstarter page.

The Galileo also features a standard tripod mount, which means it will fit straight into and onto your existing equipment, including tripods and gimbals.

Additionally, with the imminent release of an SDK, Developers can integrate Galileo functionality into their apps, so a whole world of ideas could soon be opened up. We're looking forward to seeing what robot mounted devices start appearing.

How much is it?

Before the project finishes in (at the time of publishing) 16 days time, you can get the Galileo at a very reasonable $85 with free US shipping (but us International customers will need to add another $20 for shipping).

After the project has finished the retail price will be $129.95, so if the Galileo is something you want to have in your iOS life, you would be best advised to jump on it now, plus you'll get yours before it is on general sale.

Where can I get one?

Right now, you will need to set up a free Kickstarter account and become a backer of the project to at least the $85 level pledge to reserve your Galileo. We think it is a great price for a robotic device like this and the potential integration with your iPad as a control device has got us very excited.

Do you fancy getting the Galileo? Have you already ordered yours? Let us know in the comments.

In part 1 of this camera comparison we considered still photography, could the new iPad with its 5MP sensor compete with the iPhone 4S and its 8MP sensor? Not too surprisingly, both devices produced very similar results. Be sure to check out the entire article, which includes plenty of sample shots, for the full story.

1080p v 1080p

With video, things are a little different. Both the new iPad and the iPhone 4S capture 1080p video with decent stabilisation. We were expecting the iPad and iPhone 4S to be very evenly matched, and indeed they were. The samples from each device are almost identical. So much so, in fact, that it would likely take someone who is very familiar with iPhone 4S video quality to spot the differences. But there are differences.

The processed look

Just like with the photographs, the new iPad video capture has a slightly more processed look. We are not quite sure what's going on here. Why should the new iPad have a more processed look than even the iPhone 4 which also features a 5MP sensor? We are fully aware that minds sharper than ours are suggesting that Apple is simply reusing the 5MP Omnivision sensor as last seen in the iPhone 4, but the actual results seem to suggest otherwise. The iPad samples show some kind of edge enhancement that neither the iPhone 4 or 4S exhibit. It's not a deal breaker, in fact you may prefer this new look, but it does seem a little odd to us.

Is it possible that the new iPad is packing the exact same optics and sensor and the iPhone 4S, yes an 8MP sensor, but that the camera software is binning those extra 3 mega pixels in order to give a final 5MP image? It seems unlikely, but then it also seems unlikely that Apple has deliberately chosen to give the iPad photos and video a more processed appearance. The truth is, we just don't know the answer, and for most people the video capture from both the iPad and iPhone 4S will be indistinguishable, we really are just splitting hairs here.

Audio capture differences

Perhaps it's because the microphone on the new iPad well clear of our hands, or perhaps it's just a bit more sensitive, but whatever the reason, we are quite convinced that the new iPad picks up a little more ambient noise than the iPhone 4S. Play the video sample above through a decent set of speakers or earphones and hear it for yourself.

An end to end experience

There simply isn't another consumer video camera on the planet that has a display quite like the new iPad's display. It's also true that there is no camera available that has the video editing and soundtrack creation goodness that iMovie and GarageBand bring to the iPad. As an end to end video capture, editing and distribution solution, the new iPad is in a league of its own making. People will produce stunning videos using nothing more than the new iPad and a couple of cheap apps. Yes, the new iPad is a bulky device for capturing video, but you have to remember, this isn't just the camera, it's the entire solution, and an extremely powerful one at that.

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

Would you even consider taking photos or shooting video with an iPad? That's the big question, because if the answer is no, then the huge increase in camera quality that the new iPad has over the iPad 2 is a moot point.

It's clear to us that the current trend is to treat the very idea of tablet computer photography and video capture with utter derision, almost every iPad 3 review that mentions the camera includes a comment or two about how stupid you would look doing so. We are reminded of the reviews of early smartphones. 'Who would be so stupid as to take pictures with their phone', they said. Now less than ten years later the iPhone 4 is the most popular camera on Flickr. Conventional wisdom often misfires.

If you're still reading this then there is a good chance that you are open to the idea of tablet photography and video capture. It's also quite likely that you already own an iPhone or another brand of high-end smartphone. So, do you have anything to gain by using the iPad as your camera instead of another device? Perhaps.

iPad vs regular smartphone

Some of the latest smartphones from Nokia, HTC and Samsung are equipped with cameras that should easily outperform the new iPad. We have seen 8MP shots from some very popular smartphones that struggle to match these iPad 5MP photos, but in the main, the very latest smartphones are more capable at capturing stills. However, things are not so clear when it comes to video capture. Apple have done a sterling job with the video stabilisation, so much so in fact that it's quite hard to tell the difference between iPad 3 footage and dedicated video camera footage. The new iPad offers 1080p video capture with superb stabilisation at very high bit rates and with clear mono sound capture. If you are a proud owner of the new iPad, it's also worth noting that you just purchased a first class video camera too.

iPad vs iPhone 4S

In theory the iPhone 4S and the new iPad should be very close in terms of general camera performance. In some ways this is true. For example, both the new iPad and the iPhone 4S have similar dynamic range of luminance and colour balance. However, the iPad has a more processed look. The iPhone 4S shots have considerable more fine detail when viewed at 100%. Our guess is that Apple engineers have fine-tuned the iPad camera so that its stills and video look their best when viewed on the iPad display. This makes sense, though we would have preferred a slightly inferior iPad viewing experience and a cleaner final image. In short, the iPhone 4S captures cleaner, more detailed, images and video than the new iPad, though you'll need to zoom into the frame somewhat to notice the difference. The iPhone 4S takes the lead, but it's not by a country mile.

An end to end experience

One area where iPad photography and video capture makes perfect sense is when looking for a complete end-to-end experience. Consider this; the iPad 3 has a higher quality display then any consumer camera. It also takes great quality 5MP stills and top spec fixed lens 1080p video with stabilisation. Add into the mix iPhoto, iMovie and any number of the superb photo and video apps available for the iPad and you have a pretty compelling end-to-end solution.

There's one market for which the new iPad camera makes perfect sense. The education market is going to adore this new iPad. We can't wait to see how students of all ages put this new camera/computer combination to use.

Anyway, enough of our rambling. Be sure to check out this Flickr set for direct comparison shots. You'll find iPad photos first followed by iPhone 4S shots taken a moment or two later. In each case we have made sure that we've focused on the same area of the scene. They are all available at full resolution, so why not download them to your iPad or computer and examine them for yourself. We would love to know what you think, so please be sure to leave a comment below.

In part 2 of this series we'll be looking at video capture.

Further viewing: iPad vs iPhone 4S Flickr set 

Ever fancied speaking/singing like a Cylon (original series), a Dalek or even Metal Mickey (it was a big 1980’s weekend tea-time show here in the UK)?

Voice Synth by Qneo can help you do just that, but there is so much more to the app than that. We’ve been playing with this universal app on both iPad and iPhone for the last few weeks and we love it.

If you need a fantastic sounding vocoder with a great UI, myriad range of controls and options, or even if you want to sound like some sort of robotic popstar, we recommend you go and get this app right now.

But if you want to know a bit more about Voice Synth check out the video and a few of our notes below it.

Video Demo

Here is a very comprehensive walk through of Voice Synth from Qneo which tells you all you need to know and we promise everything that is shown in this video demo is easily achievable within minutes of opening the app.

Impressive

As you’ll see from the video, the range of controls, filters and effects is mind-blowing, check out the features section of the Voice Synth site for more detail.

The UI is lovely looking and not just eye candy, it is functional and responsive too. We especially liked the EQ with its swipe-to-set action and live meters, as well as the central Pitch/Scale Shift dial (very HAL).

The controls were a joy to use and fit the feel of the app perfectly. All this for just $4.99/£2.99 at the introductory 50% discount.

Incoming update and much needed features

As much as we enjoyed using Voice Synth, our main gripe with the app was not being able to send audio out to GarageBand or other DAW type app on our iPad, with email being the only way to get recorded audio out of the app currently.

With the upcoming 1.1 update though, much needed ACP (Audio, Copy & Paste) support is being added along with MIDI support and uncompressed WAV audio export. This will give Voice Synth some serious potential for use in recording of your vintage 80’s/futuristic tinged iPad productions.

We are sure that Voice Synth will provide hours of fun for anyone though, even if you are just letting the kids play around with their voices. Our iPad Creative kids loved the Sampler feature and also the Live mode where Voice Synth converts your voice instantaneously (best with headphones but also works well through a hi-fi or amp).

We recommend picking up Voice Synth now while it is carries a 50% discount so that you can start delving into its powerful features and you’ll have it ready for the more useful 1.1 version which is imminent.

App Store Link: Voice Synth

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.

The latest quarterly results from Apple show that demand for all Apple products is at an all time high. 37 million iPhones, 15 million iPads, plus millions of Macs and iPods sold in just 3 months! That's an impressive result by any standard.

Well over 15 million iPad sales in a single quarter is an astonishing achievement. As you can see from the chart above, the iPad reached 15 million sales per quarter in half the time the iPhone took to break through that same barrier.

The multi-touch tablet market is all about the iPad

Given this rapid uptake and also taking into consideration the comments from Apple CEO Tim Cook, it looks increasingly likely that the iPad will soon be selling in quantities that exceed even the mighty iPhone. We would not be too surprised if that occurred for the first time at some point during 2012. Apple entered the smartphone market as a fresh faced newbie with lots to learn, the same cannot be said of the tablet market, Apple created the multi-touch tablet market. With the iPad, it currently defines the entire market. If at some point over the next couple of years Apple decide to split the iPad range into high, middle and low end devices, it's hard to see how it would not sell iPads faster than it can manufacturer them.

At the recent education focused event that saw the launch of iBooks 2, the new iTunes U app and iBooks Author (more on this soon!), Apple failed to explain exactly how schools will be able to afford thousands of iPads. We believe that Apple will address the lower end of the iPad market this year with a cheaper variant. Will this cheaper iPad be for education markets only? It's certainly a possibility, though not that likely.

As we said on Twitter recently, the iPad is now Apple's primary computing platform. We fully expect to see it mature rapidly throughout the next 3 years, to the point where only a relatively small percentage will pick a Mac over an iPad. In short, the iPad story is only just beginning and we'll be following it every step of the way!

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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.

The nice people at Positive Grid have sent us a note to say that JamUp Pro, the relatively new Guitar FX-app-on-the-block has just been updated to Version 1.3.

We loved this boutique looking and great sounding app when we reviewed it back in November last year.

What's New?

New in 1.3 are an "updated DSP engine, audio copy and paste, and 20+ new amps and effects available via in-app purchase.".

The new in-app purchases are obviously the big thing, but we are particularly excited to see support for ACP included in this update too.

If you're quick you can take advantage of a 50% discount on the new expansion packs, but for just one week only.

Go and grab your update.

App Store Link: JamUp Pro

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.

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.

Yes we know Instagram (a love it or hate it iPhone app for sharing moments with other Instagram users as well as Facebook, Twitter and Flickr friends) doesn't have a native iPad app. But it is one of the few iPhone apps that we have used on our iPads from time to time.

Because the iPad's rear camera is such poor quality, tarting them up a bit with the Instagram app makes photos just about acceptable when viewed on a mobile device or printed at postcard size.

With that in mind, we recently tried out a service called StickyGram and we thought we would share the experience with you in case you want to try it our for yourself.

What is StickyGram?

Using photos from your Instagram stream, StickyGram will create a set of 9 magnetic backed prints. These little 50mm by 50mm magnets are perfect for gifts, sharing with friends or just sticking on your own fridge and telling a story.

We tried the service out with some of our recent favourites on Instagram and we were really happy with the results.

Great Price and Quality

A set of StickyGram magnets will set you back a reasonable $14.99 with free worldwide shipping. Ours arrived in just a few days, but we are in the UK (StickyGram is currently based in London). 

Colour matching was good, and the size of the prints is about the same as they appear on the iPhone's screen, so quality isn't too much of an issue.

None of the images were dead centre of the magnetic tile, which annoyed us a little bit, but that's really splitting hairs.

For their intended purpose, in our case keeping the kids artwork attached to the fridge, the Stickygram magnetic prints are more than fine and a lot of fun.

The kids loved them too and spent a good while sticking and unsticking them on our fridge and metal filing cabinet.

Overall, great service, a brilliant idea and a nice tactile way to experience our photographic creations in the real world.

Find out more and order your own StickyGrams.

Have you tried out the StickyGram service? What did you think?

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 couldn't make it to this year's MobileArtCon hosted by iAMDA (International Association of Mobile Digital Artists) in New York, this video they recently added to YouTube will certainly make you want to go next year.

Such a great range of artists, developers, accessory makers and other creative types all came together for 3 days from 30th September to 2nd October this year and it looks like they had a fantastic time collaborating together and celebrating mobile art and music creation.

We loved watching this video and really wish we had been there, maybe next year...

If you were at MobileArtCon this year please leave us a comment and let us know what you thought.

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.

Got a White iPad 2 and an LED light? You might want to try this out. As the commenters say on YouTube, Apple should build this in to the next iPad!

And if you have a coloured LED...

When some videos created with PhotoSpeak popped up in our iPad Creative Art and Design group on Flickr they seriously freaked us out! You really have to check out that first link to see what we mean. But we were also fascinated by these videos and we had to find out more about Photo Speak.

What we discovered was a ton of fun and a great way to entertain ourselves and the kids in the dark winter hours. It also provides portrait artists with another creative outlet, if for nothing other than a bit of silly fun.

What PhotoSpeak does

As you can see from the video above, this app takes a still image portrait and renders it as a 3D animation. Using some amazing technology called Motion Portrait, the app attempts to identify the eyes and mouth as reference and animation points.

It doesn't always manage it though and we had to try a few different images to get it to work. You can scale and shrink the image to help the detection engine and we found that, depending on the image, zooming in our out gave us a better result.

Once PhotoSpeak has located the eyes and mouth it will use the internal mic to pick up your voice and animate the image as it repeats what you have said, it literally makes your Photo Speak in near realtime in response to the audio it hears, amazing stuff! There isn't curently the option of importing audio already on your iPad, though, like songs or audio in your iTunes library.

Making Movies

The app can also record audio from the built-in mic or other audio input so that you can export that audio and animation as a movie. The processed movie can be saved to your Photo Library, shared to Facebook, YouTube (although we had trouble getting this to work) or via email.

It is a bit annoying that the app only works in Portrait mode, which means videos with big black borders on the side, but we understand that the primary use of the app is with 'portraits' so it sort of makes sense.

Even with the fairly gimmicky feel of the app, in the hands of more creative minds than ours some amazing and frankly, creepy, pieces of animated art can be produced with PhotoSpeak.

(We would love to show you some of these movies here but unfortunately, Flickr video embeds still do not work on iOS. If you haven't already followed the link in the first paragraph, check out these examples in our Flickr group from some of the most creative iPad owners out there. Thanks again to everyone who has contributed to the Flickr group.)

If you would like to try this out for yourself PhotoSpeak is on sale until the end of January for just $0.99 (59p), after which it returns to its $2.99 price.

If you do create something on your iPad with Photo Speak feel free to add it to the iPad Creative group, new members are always welcome.

As for our effort, it is very poor we realise, but our excuse is it was done very quickly over a lunchtime, enjoy all 6 seconds of it below: