iPad and iPhone For Musicians For Dummies

Chapter 4

Exploring iOS Instruments

In This Chapter

Evaluating the available instruments for your iPhone or iPad

Playing familiar instruments on your iOS device

Discovering new touchscreen-based instruments

One of the best parts about playing music on an iPhone or iPad is the amazing diversity of instrument options available to you. For a few bucks (or sometimes even for no bucks at all) you can install a synthesizer on your iOS device whose real-life counterpart might have cost you hundreds of dollars. All that sound for a fraction of the cost — and it’s available for a few taps in the App Store.

This chapter takes an extensive look at all the types of sounds you can load on your iPhone or iPad. We can’t tackle all of the possible apps, because new and different apps come along every day, but we can take a look at the types of apps you’ll run into and the sorts of things those apps can do. Whether you decide to stick to more familiar synths and drum machines or dive into instruments specifically designed for touchscreen use, you’ll have plenty of options to work with. And apps are far easier to carry with you than four or five trailer’s worth of keyboards and other equipment. ...