If you’re at all intrigued by the idea of making music on your iOS device, but don’t quite know how to make those sounds pop, you’ll wanna check out this set of iPhone production tips from two of the more inventive musicians in electronic music today.
The electronic music know-it-alls over at XLR8R went out and picked the brains of Mark Pritchard and Steve Spacek, who comprise the experimental electronic duo Africa Hitech, who used the iPhone app iSyn prominently in their recent, not to mention fantastic, album 93 Million Miles. Together, they’ve been making some of the most weird and inventive electronic tracks for the last couple of decades, releasing solo albums on legendary labels like Warp and working with artists such as J. Dilla. On their collaborative album, they took inspiration from the teched-out sounds coming from Africa.
In order to replicate some of those sounds, the duo turned to the iPhone app iSyn, which they say packs plenty of punch. Their other key piece of advice for aspiring smartphone musicians? Get a good pair of headphones.
Make sure you have either a good pair of headphones, or a mini-jack-to-phono-lead so you can connect to a decent soundsystem or studio set-up. A lot of these music apps may initially come across as toys. But be warned, a handful of the really good ones can kick out some serious sound, and can easily cover all those fat frequencies so prevalent in modern production. In particular, with iSyn, be wary of your listening level, especially when using headphones, as you will find that the bass along with some of the other frequencies can really kick out and damage those precious ears!
Clearly, those white earbuds just won’t do. But seriously, if you’re a production nerd, check out the XLR8R piece, which has all the awesome, supremely useful, technical jibba jabba. [XLR8R]