Ten of the Best Mobile Apps for Music Production in 2024
by The Press Desk
Ableton Note
What it is: Described as “a playable iOS app for forming musical ideas” the Ableton Note comes with a 16-pad grid for finger drumming the beat that’s in your mind, a 25-pad grid or piano roll in order to create melodies, a sampler that makes use of your phone’s microphone, the ability to record and save performances, the capability of quantizing and adding layers to your sounds as well as creating variations of your loops. Create eight tracks with up to eight clips on eight scenes and export your project as an audio file to be used in future productions.
Requires: iPhone (iOS 15.0 or later), iPad (iPadOS 15.0 or later) and/or iPod Touch (iOS 15.0 or later).
Akai Professional iMPC Pro 2
What it is: Akai’s MPC workflow for iPad made by Akai Professional and Retronyms. The iMPC Pro 2 is a 64-track music production station with built-in sampling functionality, sound library, effects and performance driven features. Its GUI recreates the classic MPC 2000 and can be broken into five tabs - Main, Program, Mixer, Timeline and Song adapting the original hardware’s workflow while enhancing the user experience when making use of the touch screen. The InterApp Audio support gives users the ability of routing audio into and out of the app for 3rd party FX processing and there’s also a desktop version for mac.
Requires: iPadOS 11.0 or later. Desktop version runs on macOS 11.0 or higher and Mac with Apple M1 chip or later.
Apple GarageBand for iPad
What it is: Originally released for macOS back in 2004 and brought to iOS in 2011, the Apple GarageBand is probably the first DAW that many professional producers of this era have dealt with, a natural born classic refusing to get old. Currently in its version 2.3.14 GarageBand for iOS offers up to 32 tracks for touch instruments, audio recordings and loops. It is compatible with third-party Audio Unit apps and offers many virtual instruments and effects for free by downloading from GarageBand Sound Library.
Requires: iPhone, iPad and/or iPod Touch running iOS 16.0 or later and iPadOS 16.0 or later
Eventide Pro Effects Bundle
What it is: Renowned for its hardware and software products Eventide brings 6 of its effects processors for the mobile format in Eventide’s Pro Effects Bundle for iPhone and iPad. Available as standalone apps and Audio Units AUv3 this bundle includes Eventide’s CrushStation (Overdrive/DIstortion), Blackhole (Reverb), Crystals (Harmonizer), Undulator (Modulated Tremolo), MicroPitch (Delay), MangledVerb (Reverb + Distortion). A great set of tools to start mobile mixing with high-quality software.
Requires: iPhone, iPad and/or iPod Touch running iOS 11.0 or later and iPadOS 11.0 or later
IK Multimedia TONEX App
What it is: IK Multimedia’s Tonex is a complete ecosystem based on AI machine modeling technology. Tonex App gives users the access to thousands of amp and effects pedal software models - called ‘Tone Models’ - that can be used as standalone or through AUv3 compatible host applications. The app seamlessly integrates with IK’s hardware such as iRig interfaces and ‘Tonex Capture’ used to model any rig with or without a microphone and upload it to your collection. The app is free to download and includes 20 premium must-have and 20 à-la-carte Tone Models; you can easily expand it by accessing Tonex’ huge library with paid and user-created Tone Models.
Requires: iPhone, iPad and/or iPod Touch running iOS 11.0 or later and iPadOS 11.0 or later
Image Line FL Studio Mobile
What it is: FL Studio Mobile as its name suggests is a mobile version of Image Line’s FL Studio Digital Audio Workstation software. FL Studio allows you to create, save, record, sequence, edit, mix and render complete songs in multi-track music projects inside your preferable mobile device running Android, Chrome OS, iOS and iPadOS just as you could do by making use of the software’s desktop version. The app features touch controllers for virtual piano and drum pads, it is MIDI ready for external devices, packed with all the effects you need in order to produce your songs right away and much more.
Requires: iPhone, iPad and/or iPod Touch running iOS 10.0 or later and iPadOS 10.0 or later. Android and Chrome OS.
Korg Gadget 2
What it is: Korg Gadget is an all-in-one production software and plugin collection on which 40 small synthesizers and drum machines called “Gadgets” can be freely combined to be used with up to 14 insert effects in an unlimited number of tracks. The app supports MIDI over bluetooth as well as playing from an external MIDI device, users are also able to download a desktop version (VST/AU/AAX and NKS ready) for Mac/Windows in order to use Korg Gadget as a plugin in their DAW of choice. You can try it by downloading a free LE version available with some limitations such as the number of tracks and gadgets you are able to use.
Requires: iPad Air, iPad mini 2, iPhone 5s, iPod touch (6th) or later running iOS 11.0 or later.
LANDR App
What it is: LANDR is a subscription-based platform that offers users the ability to create, mix, colab and master audio projects online. With the LANDR app for iOS and Android you can access your song library and check up on collabs from anywhere. The app allows you to listen to your ongoing projects from anywhere you want to, a nice way of testing how your audio can sound in different sound systems. Users are also able to get notifications and time-stamped feedback and respond to them through messages or video chat.
Requires: iPhone and/or iPod Touch running iOS 12.0 or later and Android
Moog Minimoog Model D App
What it is: The Minimoog Model D App is based on the original circuit design of Moog’s legendary Model D, said to be the world’s first portable keyboard synthesizer. Play with over 160 included presets and expand the original hardware unit’s capabilities by making use of up to four-note polyphony, an easy-to-use arpeggiator, a real-time looping recorder with unlimited overdubbing capacity, a stereo ping-pong delay module with tempo-sync and the ‘Bender’; a wide-range stereo time modulation effect module. Minimoog Model D app also supports AUv3 extensions for use within your preferable mobile DAW.
Requires: iPhone, iPad and/or iPod Touch running iOS 14.4 or later and iPadOS 14.4 or later
Steinberg Cubasis 3.7
What it is: Simply put, this is a miniature version of Steinberg’s acclaimed DAW, and as with its bigger brother it comes many capabilities such unlimited tracks, real time time-stretching and pitch-shifting, automation, a full-blown mixer with channel strip, wealthy sound content, inter-app audio support and much more. Cubasis can also handle up to 24 physical inputs and outputs with resolution up to 24-bit/96kHz, which makes it a fine choice for a compact recording system.
Compatibility: iOS 13, iPadOS 13, Android 8 or later and Chrome OS
And there goes our list - time for a few comments:
- As expected, iOS users are in a much happier place when it comes to mobile music production than their droid-using peers. Partly due to the immense device diversity and lack of a universal solution to handle audio on all that hardware, music production on Android is severely limited when compared to Apple devices - which explains the iOS apps taking the majority of the spots on our list.
- The iPad seems to be the most enticing device for mobile music production right now. Thanks to its size it can provide bigger computing and storage capacity, not to mention the fact that a bigger screen can provide greater ease of use, so it’s basically a computer you can take everywhere and accomplish things that would at least require a laptop just a few years ago. That doesn’t mean iPhones are out of the table for serious work, as those tiny processors are also extremely capable nowadays.
- More hardware manufacturers are becoming aware of the fact that mobile music production and recording is here to stay, and recently we have seen brands such as Apogee, RME, Audient and others offering iOS support for their audio interfaces, not to mention the myriad of controllers that are currently available under many shapes and forms.
For more on mobile music production visit our Audio Production Apps + Peripherals forum.
