Sonic Valentine

My second page of apps.

I am obsessed with my iPhone.  I don’t even try and hide it.  My wife would probably throw it in the ocean given the chance… that’s why I had to get her one… so that she could “get” it.

If someone asks me if I like it or tells me that they are thinking of getting one I tell them that an iPhone will change your life.  If something happened to my beloved friend I would go out that day and get another one… no doubt about it.  It not only changes the way that you interact with people it changes the way you do things.  I have two computers, my macpro at the studio and a macbook at home.  The macbook probably sees thirty percent of the use it once saw.

There are probably about fifteen apps that I use everyday.  I am only going to cover the apps that I use frequently as an audio engineer.  Some of them I use everyday.  Some of them I use once a month but they save the day every time.

Cleartune – bitcount $3.99

It is nice ALWAYS having a good tuner.

I use Cleartune about once a week.  I can’t tell you how handy it is to ALWAYS have a tuner in your pocket (how often do you not have your phone on you?).  Just last week I was “jamming” with my father in-law and we were less than in tune.  I whipped out the phone and away we went.

I did a lot of research before I bought a tuning app.  At the time Cleartune was the clear winner.  Well, much to my dismay a couple of weeks later Peterson came out with their strobe tuning app.  I love Peterson strobe tuners and use the strobostomp everyday.  Even though, if I had it to do all over again I would go with Cleartune over the Peterson app.  I have used Peterson’s app and while it is great I honestly don’t think you need a strobe tuner in your pocket all the time.  The majority of the time that I pull Cleartune out it is to put in front of someone else’s guitar.  Your average joe isn’t going to know how to use a strobe tuner.

Metronome TS – Thezi Studios – $3.99

Click, Clack, Click, Clack

Nothing overwhelmingly special here.  It is a metronome… and a good one to boot.  It has a fairly accurate tap tempo.  Does triplets.  It is loud.  Could you import it into Pro Tools and expect it to line up to a grid?  No.  But it will get you more than close enough.

While the artist or the band is playing their tune I whip out Metronome TS and tap in the tempo.  Go into the control room and set up my click/grid.  Nine times out of ten it is dead on.  The one time out of ten it is probably my lack of rhythm to blame.

I use about 40% of what Metronome TS can do.  There is a playlist function and a tuning tone… I guess someone would use that stuff.

iProRecorder – Bias $1.99

I use this to record the weird noises my dog makes...

Walking down the street and think of a guitar part or song idea… hum it in.

Yes iphone os 3 comes with a voice recorder.  This one is made by Bias though!!!  I love Peak… use it everyday.  This was kind of an impulse buy based on brand recognition.

There are two things that I think set this recorder app apart from the others.  Number one, the massive amounts of gain you can add on playback.  20dB I believe.  Plus it distorts a baritone uke into another world if you want it to.

The second feature I love is the ability to share the files over ip.  The app will give you a website to go to and you can listen to or download your recordings right from your browser.

Pay up mofo..

Invoice2Go – Invoice2Go - $9.99

Not gonna lie… this is the most important of the batch.

I used to say walking out the door “I’ll email ya an invoice” and then a few weeks later wonder where my money is.  Oh ya… never sent the invoice.  Well no more excuses.  I actually send the invoice as I am sitting there talking to the person.  Put in their contact info (or select from your contacts) select from services and prices you pre set or put in new ones.  Hit email and mail out a PDF invoice with a link to pay via paypal.  I can honestly say that this app has gotten me paid immediately twice when I would have normally had to wait weeks.

I love this app… I love it soooooooo much.

Ahh crap... the new John Mayer is really good.

Rhapsody – Rhapsody – free (14.99 monthly subscription)

I can’t tell you how useful Rhapsody is to me.  There is no way that I could possibly go out and buy every cd someone tells me I should.  I don’t really listen to pop music but right now I am working on pop music.  All of this research would be very costly if it weren’t for Rhapsody.

Sure it is $14.99 per month… about the cost of one cd.  I have found many many artists I like (and for that matter, found out I don’t like many too) for free.  If I really listen to something a lot I go out and buy it.

It beats my old system of downloading a song from limewire just for research.  At least the artist gets paid something.