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iOS: Awareness funnels in outside noise over a certain threshold to your headphones, while you listen to music on your iPhone.
Awareness is perfect for joggers that want to stay alert to oncoming traffic, people waiting in a doctor's office that want to hear their name called, or any other situation in which your music might drown out your surroundings. Just set the mic and volume threshold in the app, hit the power button, and you're good to go. It will funnel in any outside noise that reaches that level, so you can hear it while you listen. You can also set it to just vibrate if you so choose. It's a very, very cool idea, and worked surprisingly well in our tests. It's usually a hefty $8, but you can grab it today for free, so even if you're a tiny bit curious, get it while you can!
Android: If you're stuck in an office where you have to sit with your back to a walkway or the entrance to your cubicle, you know how startling it can be when you're listening to music and someone walks up behind you and taps you on the shoulder. Around Sound for Android makes sure that never happens again—the app uses the microphone on your headset or your phone as an extended ear, and if a loud noise is detected, the app will pause your music so you can pay attention.
The app allows you to set the trigger volume manually so you don't find your music pausing all the time for false positives, like construction noise outside your window or someone walking past your desk on their phone. You can also tell the app to play back the sound that triggered it, so you know whether it's something you should pay attention to. The developer said that he wrote the app so he could listen to music while he worked but never miss his dogs barking so he could check out what upset them—you can use the app for the same purpose, or for those times when someone walks up behind you and tries to get your attention without startling you.
Before you give the app a shot, keep in mind that it works seamlessly with most stock music players and a few others, including DoubleTwist, Winamp, and our favorite, PowerAmp. The app is completely free and available now at Google Play for devices running Android 2.2 or higher. There's also a $0.99 pro version which adds a few features and supports the developer.
It's not hard to find instrument apps in the iTunes App Store for the iPhone and iPad. Actually finding a use for most of them is a different story. However, a few simple hacks and the acceptance of what a touch screen instrument should be can lead to some great implementations in the real world for musicians. Here's how to do it.
Generally, when people think about music on the iPhone, they think about the ways apps like Garageband emulate real instruments. Just picture someone awkwardly air-strumming a fake guitar on an iPad and you'll get an idea of how these work. In practice, these are fun and weird gimmicks, but they're not really practical. However, a few really solid replacements exist as do a handful of complex (and awesome) effects pedals. We'll take a look at how these usually work in the first section before moving on to how to actually implement them in your music.
You're not going to get real instrument quality out of an iPad or iPhone. Typically, the best apps are the ones that are either completely new instruments or they're emulating a digital (or at least synthesizing) instrument. This is where iOS really excels. Instead of dropping $1,000 on a synthesizer, you can get a digital version for around $20. Here's just a few examples of some of the stuff that's emulated really well on iOS:
Yamaha TNR-i ($19.99 for the app, $999.99 for physical instrument).Korg iElectribe ($19.99 for the app, $499 for the physical instrument).Korg iMS-20 ($32.99 for the app, $1,500-$2,000 for a used one on eBay).Animoog ($29.99 for the app, no physical version).
Thousands of other options exist, but the above are a taste of what the iPhone and iPad have to offer. Obviously, if you have the real thing it's going to sound and look a lot better, but if you're just running emulators off a laptop, the iPhone can be a great addition to any musician's toolkit. The big problem is how to actually make them work with your setup. If you're using just the iPhone and nothing else, you can run it out to a mixer with a standard headphone cable. But if you're looking to do a little more, there's a few tricks you can use to sync the software with everything else you're doing and even send audio in and back out.
Tons of great software is great, but if you can't actively implement it then it's a moot point. One of the biggest problems with the iPad and iPhone is the fact they don't have separate inputs and outputs, which means it's difficult to find a use for using these instruments in the real world. Thankfully, you can hack together old technology to create a number of different uses for the device, here's a few ideas. Photo by Christian Jensen.
One of the handiest things you do with an iPhone is turn it into an effects pedal. While you probably don't want to set it on the floor and step on it, the iPhone can serve up some pretty good effects for both instruments and vocals. The catch, however, is figuring out how to wire everything together so that you can actually run your instrument in and back out of the one headphone jack.
You can pick up a commercial solution like the iRig, which allows you to run an instrument through the iPhone so you can use it as to alter the sound before sending it off to the amp. Better yet, you can hack together your own from a few RCA cables you probably already have laying around. Both of these solutions utilize the iPhone's built-in microphone port so you can plug an audio input in and then send it back to an amp. Want a cheap delay pedal for your guitar? Check out AmpKit. Want to sound like a robot with a vocoder? the iVoxel app might be just what you're looking for. The point is that once you can send audio both in and out, the apps become significantly more useful.
One of the most interesting things you can do with an iPad is to use the above software (or any music software, really) and use a real instrument with it. To do this, you'll need either Apple's Camera Connection Kit or something like the Line 6 MIDI Mobilizer. What exactly is a MIDI controller? It means you can use your physical music keyboard to control the software keyboard. This means one cheap, physical keyboard can sound like anything you want.
Both the camera connection kit and the Line 6 MIDI Mobilizer can be used to allow your iPhone to talk with real hardware dating all the way back to the '80s. This means you can use an app like the above mentioned iMS-20 with a real keyboard—giving you tactile control over the software (you can find a huge list of compatible hardware over at iOS MIDI). Run a compatible keyboard through the MIDI port on the Line 6 or the USB on the Camera Connection Kit and suddenly your iPhone has all the capabilities of your laptop. As a practical solution, it works great. It's portable, easy to use, takes up little space, and with the right software is just as powerful as a laptop.
Happen to own an iPhone and an iPad you want to use together? The other option you have is to use the built-in Wireless Sync Start Technology. A lot of the music software comes with this packed in and it allows you to sync two devices together so they start and stop at the same time. They can also help maintain the same tempo, which means if you're using say, a drum machine on your iPad and a synthesizer on your iPhone, they can stay in sync. It's essentially a form of Bluetooth MIDI. You can find a list of compatible software here.
Hopefully the above software and hardware tips give you a starting point for creating something interesting. You'll find more gimmicky software for the iPhone than you'll find useful stuff, but that doesn't mean your iPhone can't be a powerful tool. Be sure to share your own methods for using an iOS device in your music making in the comments.
There are plenty of reasons why you'd want to load up a digital music player and take it with you instead of streaming music from the cloud, like better audio quality, not wanting to drain your phone's battery, smaller size. Whatever your reasons are, last week we asked you which device you kept handy to keep and play your digital music (that isn't the iPod, since it's clearly the king of the market.) You answered with tons of great suggestions, and then we took a look at the top five digital music players and put them to a vote. Now we're back to highlight the overall winner.
The majority of you—45% of the overall vote, in fact, say that your smartphone, whether it's Android, iOS, Windows Phone, or something else, pulls double duty as both streaming and local music player. Why carry another device, when you already have a phone with tons of storage in your pocket? Behind that, 21% of you showed some love for the now-defunct Microsoft Zune and Zune HD. In third place with 18% of the votes cast is the Sandisk Sansa line of music players, like the Sansa Clip and Fuze. 9% of you preferred the Creative Zen series of music players, and bringing up the rear in fifth place was Cowon and its line of music players, which many of you praised for great audio quality.
Google Music was supposed to have an inside track marketing music to the 200 million Android users, but performance so far is not what was expected.
Three months after launching, Google Music hasn't lived up to expectations, CNET has learned.
The Google Droid was a centerpiece at Google Music's launch party on Nov. 16, 2011. (Credit: Greg Sandoval/CNET)
Google's managers have told counterparts at the labels that customer adoption and revenue are below what they expected, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the talks.
Google Music has been live barely a full quarter so nobody is panicking. Google has yet to throw the full force of its marketing muscle behind the service and managers have told the record companies they are trying to correct certain issues. Still, the numbers are low enough for some in the music sector to be concerned, the sources said.
A Google spokeswoman declined to comment.
Google Music was supposed to be a music powerhouse. As a companion service to Android-powered mobile devices, the service has a massive audience in which to market music. At the time of Google Music's November launch, there were more than 200 million activated Android phones and tablets.
If Google managed to convert just 10 percent of those device owners it would mean 20 million customers. Google Music sells downloads and also streams songs to users who store their music libraries on the company's servers. The service sells tracks from a host of indie labels as well as three of the four top major record companies. Google has yet to license tracks from Warner Music Group.
Google managers have told label execs that the service will get a boost once Google implements its hardware strategy, the sources said. Google plans to start competing against Apple by building an array of consumer devices.
Two weeks ago, The Wall Street Journal reported that Google is building a wireless entertainment system that would stream music throughout the home.
The troubled start for Google Music comes as the music sector shifts attention away from downloads and onto subscription services, such as Spotify, Rhapsody and Rdio. These companies sell consumers access to huge pools of songs for a monthly fee.
Handset manufacturers and network providers, such as Research In Motion, T-Mobile and Cricket and MetroPCS have bolstered their music offerings.
Just last week, CNET reported that Microsoft has held talks with some of the record companies about creating a new digital music store that would serve owners of the Xbox videogame console as well as buyers of an upcoming Windows-based phone. The parties have discussed the possibility of streaming music as well as downloads.
Phones are important to the labels. They see a future where subscription services offer unlimited access to music and the fees are wrapped into phone bills. The thinking here is that this will make the consumer's buying experience much more painless.
So is Google Music out of step with current music tastes?
The record companies didn't think so when Google first approached them in 2010. The recording sector couldn't be happier that a company with Google's money and marketing might would be taking on iTunes. Because of Apple's domination of music sales, the company has been able at times to dictate terms to the labels.
Despite all the excitement surrounding subscription services, it remains to be seen whether these services are very profitable.
The music industry is still too much in flux to say who the winners or losers are.
