Get into the groove with Novation’ s latest box of music-making tricks., Audio
Get into the groove with Novation’s latest box of music-making tricks. Holdouts balk at the idea of pawing at a glass surface when making music. They don’ t know what they’ re missing. The iPad – and to some extent the iPhone – revolutionised music-making on the go. And it’s all down to apps like Groovebox. This isn’ t so much music-making for the rest of us as a music studio for everyone. If you can barely keep a beat with a tapping foot, Groovebox nonetheless enables you to make amazing-sounding loops in minutes. More of a pro? Then splash out on IAP, delve into virtual knob-twiddling, sync Groovebox to the slew of other apps on your device, and pump up the volume until you get a record deal – or everyone in the immediate vicinity demands you stop. Getting started is child’s play: decide whether you want a new track with a drum, bass or lead module, and then choose an instrument. Groovebox will immediately play a looping pattern. Hate it? Tap the dice button to get something new. Tap Load and the track is ready. Do that a few times and you’ ve got a loop. Rival apps mostly stop there, but Groovebox blazes onwards. Because the app’s MIDI-based rather than using samples, you can tap a button to access a piano roll and edit the loop’s notes. If you’ re feeling creative, delete the lot and start from scratch, or switch to the on-screen piano and record live. The immediacy and approachability of Groovebox recalls the instant, friendly nature of Novation’s own samples-based Launchpad, and also Reason-infused loop-creator Figure. But with robust note-editing, you get something that simultaneously nudges on GarageBand or even Korg Gadget territory – and it’s an intoxicating combination. This sense of power continues when you delve into the other features: twisting the Poly–8’s dials to transform a sedate synth into an ear-smashing monster; overlaying multiple drum tracks with varied pitches to add richness; having Groovebox sync/connect with other music apps through Ableton Link, Audiobus or Inter-App Audio. Generously, all of this comes for free. But what if you’ ve got money to burn? Two $2.99 sound sets are available at launch – Bass Rewired wakens your inner 1990s raver; Deep Analogue is all swirly synths. And for $7..99 a pop, you can expand each of the three modules, so you can tweak drum waveforms, drag oscillator and envelope sliders, and slather synths in effects. For newcomers, this is perhaps overkill; but for serious musicians, that extra control will be much appreciated. It’s all rather brilliant, bar one major issue: there’s no song creation facility. Groovebox gets you fired up and inspired, and enables you to create cracking loops, but then you can’ t take them further within the app. In that specific area, it feels like a bit of a tease. But for everything else, this is a cracking music-creation tool, and an excellent foundation on which Novation can build.
