Yo, Akai and Android heads!
I just compiled a short but greatly explained list of essential apps for beat-making/music production on Android apps - ... yes I have too much spare-time!
These are what you need in MY experience, but there are many more apps out there, so YMMV. Check it out!
ESSENTIAL APPS FOR BEAT-MAKING ON ANDROID DEVICES:- DAW: Caustic (Single Cell Software ©)Caustic is a DAW - an absolutely brilliant rack-based Reason-clone with a very nice-looking OpenGL GUI. The virtual rack contains the following units: one SubSynth, PCMSynth 1 and PCMSynth 2, Bassline 1 and Bassline 2, one BeatBox, a mixer and a piano-roll/sequencer. Botht the PCMSynths and the BeatBox can be used for .wav-samples. The PCMSynths can load .wav's and with the default settings you can play back the .wav's as loops if their BPM = your Caustic project file's BPM. The real treat for samplers, though, is the BeatBox. It's a "drum sampler" that contains 8 slots. It comes with a lot of kits (808, 909, etc.), but you can easily load your own samples into each of the 8 slots and save it as a kit. This is IMO the over-all best music production app for Android. NB: I have e-mailed a little with the creator, and he's ATM in the beginning stages of working on an MPC-style unit in the virtual rack consisting of maybe 8 or 12 pads. At least that's what he wrote to me.
- Sampler: Su-Preme MPA (BOOM BAPPZ ©)For pure sample-based, boombap hip-hop beat-making, this is the #1 app for Android. It's a great, faithful emulation of the MPC "invented" (although not programmed) by earlier Sunz of Man-producer Su-Preme. It currently lacks a few features that would be useful, but they are working on implementing them (the last time we got a 'Song Mode'), but as it is right now you basically have everything you need to make a dope MPC-ish beat. I think it's even better if you use it in combination with Caustic. Make the drum loops, and chopped sample melodies in MPA, save it and export it as .wav-files. Then load them up in the PCMSynth (or BeatBox) in Caustic and loop 'em. Now you can continue working on the beat, but with the additional synthesizer-, mixer- and piano-roll tools available in Caustic. You're just able to make more complete songs if you combine the two apps.
- Audio editor: TapeMachine (Samalyse ©)A very advanced sample editor/recorder for what you can expect at this point in the development of Android audio apps. You can process the audio-file, trim, chop, set loop-start and end points, save as .wav-file, etc. etc.! Also comes with a very handy recorder widget that allows you to record your vinyl player playing by one click on the widget, and then afterwards open the recording in the main TapeMachine with one click more, and process it from there. The third needed essential app to use with Caustic and Su-Preme MPA.
- Sampler: Electrum Drum Machine (nikotwenty ©)If Su-Preme's MPA is the equal of an MPC1000, then nikotwenty's Electrum is the equal of an SP-1200. It also looks great! I prefer the MPA, because frankly it is more powerful in the long run, but they are both beasts in their own right, and both are definitely worth checking out.
- Sample slicer: Sonic Chop Sampler (nikotwenty ©)Developed by nikotwenty (who also made the first GOOD sequencer for Android: ReLoop, and the first GREAT drum sampler: Electron which to this day has still only been beaten by MPA). Sonic Chop is basically a beat slicer you can use to slice up your sample. You can either chop up what you have recorded with the Android phone mic, or import an MP3 file to wave, then chop it up and save the slices piece by piece. Very handy tool for slicing a sample into, say, 12 or 16 chops before throwing them into Su-Preme MPA. So make this the 4th app to use in combination with Caustic, Su-Preme MPA and TapeMachine.
- Virtual DJ app: DJStudio 3 (Beattronic ©)Recently released in its 3rd version, this is thee quintessential DJ app for Android. With better stability and speed, you could rock a party with it definity, or make a mix-CD - although it takes practice. You don't learn this app in 10 minutes. But if you have a stable, dual-CPU Android smartphone, this really might be for you. Ideal if you want to mix beats together you've made in Caustic for example. ALL other virtual DJ apps suck - this one is so far ahead of the competition. And it looks great as well.
OTHER BEAT-MAKING RELATED ANDROID APPS WORTH CHECKING OUT:- Audio rap battle app: Rah Digga's Straight Spittin (Appalachian Apps, LLC ©)- DAW: Uloops Studio Pro (SoundBits ©)- Groovebox: RD3 (mikrosonic ©)- Sampler: SPC (mikrosonic ©)- Wifi MIDI controller app: TouchDAW (humatic ©)- Wifi MIDI controller app: TouchOSC (hexler ©)...
That's all, folks!