Best Music Creation Apps for iOS or Android: Analog Synths to Digital Recording Suites

From analog synths to digital recording suites, on-the-go musicians can enjoy digital instruments on iOS or Android smartphones and tablets.

May 1, 2013 TD Staff Leave a Comment

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Fidelia for Mac

by Audiofile Engineering

$19.99

Updated: Jun 04, 2012

Rated 4+

Requirements: OS X 10.6.8 or later

Fidelia is a high-definition audio player supporting a wide range of high-quality formats - including FLAC, which iTunes does not support.

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Fidelia for Mac

Features listed from site:

> Powered by iZotope 64-bit SRC (sample rate converter) to achieve optimum sonic fidelity.

> Select real-time dither via iZotope’s MBIT+ technology

Maxium formats

> Supports AIFF, WAV, CAF, MP3, AAC, Apple Lossless, Ogg Vorbis, or FLAC formats

> Supports sample rates up to 192kHz and bit depths up to 32 bit floating point

Effects

> Audio Units

> Customize with up to three effects

Library

> Direct access to your iTunes library

> Fidelia Library which additionally supports FLAC files

> Option to convert files to preferred format when adding to Fidelia Library

Remote

> Fidelia remote available in the iOS App Store

New in version 1.2.0, Lion users may now also unlock FHX™ Headphone Processing, enabling you to create a more spacious, natural soundstage over headphones. With user controls that are simple and effective, the algorithm can be fine tuned to your personal music library, listening preferences, and hardware. When you purchase FHX, a new “FHX” pane will be available in Fidelia’s preferences.

Equalify

For Windows only, Equalify is a 10 band equalizer made for Spotify.

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Equalify

Send your favorite preset to your friends or put them on your website using the “share eq preset” items in the menu. Only people with equaliy version 1.2.0 or above will be able to load the presets.

BitPerfect

By Tim Murison

Price: $9.99

Updated: Feb 15, 2013

Size: 2.8 MB

Rated 4+ (136 ratings)

Requirements: OS X 10.6 or later

BitPerfect is a simple, easy to use, audiophile grade music player that works with iTunes to deliver the highest possible sound quality.

Features listed from site:

> Unobtrusive, minimal UI

> Bit perfect output

> Exclusive (hog) mode

> 64-bit playback engine

> Gapless playback

> Full memory playback with double-buffering to ensure continuous playback of large files

> Automatic sample rate switching

> Choice of sample rate converters for up and down sampling

> Dithered bit depth reduction

> Integer mode (on supported DACs and supported versions of OSX)

> Support for sound check

> Support for AirPlay (requires Mountain Lion)

> Playback from networked drives

> FLAC support (via Fluke or other 3rd party iTunes FLAC importers)

Boom

By Global Delight Technologies Pvt. Ltd

Price: $6.99

Updated: Mar 12, 2013

Size: 7.9 MB

Rated 4+ (751 ratings)

Requirements: OS X 10.6.6 or later

For Mac only.

Boom is a simple volume booster and system-wide equalizer that lets you boost the volume of your Mac and your music files.

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Boom

Music, movies, online videos, Skype calls on your Mac can be heard louder and better.

Boom provides the ability to boost the volume of your music and video files residing in the iTunes library of your Mac and on the disk. It lets you enjoy the new boosted experience on your iPhone, iPod touch or iPad through a seamless transfer by creating a separate playlist.

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Boom site

Boom iTunes download

Features listed from site:

> Media-playing applications such as iTunes and QuickTime

> Online music and video playing sites such as YouTube, Vimeo and others

> Netflix, Hulu or cool TV shows

> Voice applications such as FaceTime, iChat, Skype and more

> Games, Podcasts and radio channels

> A system-wide Equalizer

Jplay

Developer: Jplay

Price: Single license is 99EUR

Free trial version available

Ratings: This gets pretty high accolades from many reviewers of high-end audio.

Okay so this isn’t exactly an “app,” but it does fit the audiophile category of making music sound better on your PC. This is one that Geoff Morrison reviewed. And chances are, that if you are an audiophile you’re not adverse to tweaking code for the greater cause of better sound. To that point, Morrison says, “Jplay is going to appeal to a certain type of person, that hardcore audiophile that has his speaker cable on tiny stands and obsesses about bit-for-bit accuracy. For him, this software can soothe his mind a bit about all the crap computers are doing in the background during playback.”

Here is the feature set from the site:

> Jplay is a stripped-down, bare-bones playback engine fits completely inside CPU cache and can be used as stand-alone player or together with popular music management software.

> An audio player that operates as a Windows Service. By leveraging ‘Session 0 Isolation’ Jplay can get to non-fragmented memory sooner than with current approach of manually tweaking loading order of Startup programs. No user intervention is required as Windows guarantees Jplay will be started at earliest possible moment for best results.

> CD material is guaranteed to work with lowest latency of 1 sample on most PCI or USB audio interfaces.

> Provides direct integration with many popular music management players on the market like JRiver Media Center, foobar2000, MediaMonkey, music streaming services: Spotify (via fidelify), Qobuz and many more – the only requirement is that host player supports ASIO output.

> Features multi-core decompression of individual FLAC & Apple Lossless tracks.

> Makes use of both 32-bit and 64-bit CPU-s’ architecture.

> Supports 16-bit Red Book and High-rez 24-bit files in WAV, AIFF, ALAC or FLAC formats – we say no to lossy codecs.

JRiver Media Center

I learned about the JRiver Media Center application through The Computer Audiophile. Check out their review and some helpful tips. They had this to say, “JRiver Media Center version 17 is the best media playback application I’ve used to date. Many different modes of audio playback, support for nearly all relevant audio file formats, and seemingly endless customization options offer users an incredible computer audio experience for around $50. New features such as Audio Path support and the HDTracks integrated store are evidence that JRiver Inc. is dedicated to the needs of computer audiophiles. I’ve yet to see an application that meets all the needs of all users all the time. There’s no such thing as a perfect piece of software. JRiver Media Center version 17 may not be perfect but it reigns supreme as the playback application by which all others should be judged.”

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JRiver Media Center

Features listed from site:

> Bit perfect. This means that it can output your CDs, your HD audio (88.1 KHz, 176 KHz, and more), your DSD, and any other audio perfectly to your DAC.

> All audio handling inside the program is done with 64 bits of precision. Most high-end hardware uses 24-bit output, meaning the engine has an additional 240 dB of precision above the hardware’s output. As a result, should you choose to use them, digital volume, room correction, and other audio functions are pristine.

> Supports WASAPI, the best way to communicate with a DAC on Windows.

> Matt Ashland, JRiver’s CTO, created Monkey’s Audio (APE), one of the first lossless compression codecs. Media Center fully supports WAV, AIFF, FLAC, APE, WMA Lossless, Apple Lossless, and WavPack.

> Plays high definition formats of FLAC available from HDTracks

> Can bitstream DSD to high-end DACs using ASIO 2.2

> Includes an (optional) audiophile-grade crossfeed that makes headphones sound more natural and less fatiguing.

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JRiver Media Center

JRiver is available for OS X and Windows

If you like playing music, then there is no limit to the number of devices that you want to learn to play. Unfortunately, a lot of the cooler instruments are bit too pricey to just pick up as hobbies and many of us are forced to settle with only a handful of options. Thankfully, app developers have made it possible to play a myriad of virtual synths, drum machines, noise effect pads, recording suites and more for the avid musician who can’t put down an instrument for more than a few hours. These apps are so robust, even a musical novice can have fun with this collection.

Depending on your genre of choice, you can find instrumental apps that range from analog models to electronic models, and some that even offer both types of sound. Drum machines also run in the same variety — from analog drum loops to digital synth and sample pads, these mighty little apps can recreate a physical drum machine or synth at a fraction of the cost.

Apple’s GarageBand is also available in a mobile option. This transfer of the easy-to-use popular recording suite has even more added advantages on its mobile platform. Using WiFi or Bluetooth, users can actually create jam sessions with three other devices and, as with almost all of these apps, allow users to post created content to the cloud or other media hosting sites for instantaneous sharing.

Enjoy the flexibility of on-the-go music creation, sampling, recording and just plain fun with this collection of apps. The apps featured in this collection showcase a few of the more popular types of instrumentation apps out there. There are numerous different types of synths, drum machines and other music effect apps out there just waiting to be discovered.