Music (built-in app)
Phil Spector gave us the Wall of Sound. Julie Andrews gave us the Sound of Music. Now, Bob Marley's family wants to give us the Bag of Rhythm. I've written about the House of Marley before, and their commitment to both quality audio equipment and charitable efforts through their 1love foundation, named after Bob Marley's classic song.
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At a certain point, probably around $100, any set of headphones is going to be just fine for the majority of listeners. So at that point, it comes down to quality, comfort, style, colors, and branding. And if the House of Marley, founded by the legendary Bob Marley's family, has anything to say about it, a manufacturer's ecological footprint and philanthropic efforts should also be considered.
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IK Multimedia has been a company on a roll lately, with a slew of hardware and software products tailored for amateur and prosumer musicians. Whether its stands and clips for iPhones and iPads or multitrack recording and sampling software for the iOS platform, IK has been expanding their catalog at a prodigious rate. Their latest releases include a MIDI hardware connector for the iOS platform, a sound sampler app and a iPad version of their popular VocaLive software. This review will take a closer look at each.
iRig MIDI
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The apps that Apple bundles on their iOS devices are slick, polished and almost perfect. But for those power users who need just a bit more tweaking to attain an even higher level of perfection, they have to turn to Apple's App Store to seek out programs that scratch that particular itch.
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"Awesome!" and "Adorable!" and similar pronouncements were shouted when I displayed the Headphonies® "Stryker" Portable Micro Speaker to my kids! At first, they thought it was a cute little toy like their plethora of figurines from Disney and Hello Kitty, but when I showed them that it was a portable speaker, that actually performed a useful function, they were really into it.
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There are a lot of apps that claim to do speech recognition. In reality, what those apps typically do is record your speech and upload that recording to a server that does all the heavy lifting. Examples include the very popular Dragon Dictation, Vlingo and most importantly, Siri, which was actually acquired by Apple. This method can be effective when you have a fast network connection but the Holy Grail of speech recognition needs to be performed in-app.
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Whether you are a sophisticated musical aficionado or a novice, you have some significant audio power in your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad. Of course, I'm not talking about the ghastly built-in speakers or earphones that come with the iPhone and iPod, though that might suffice for some uses. You'll have to buy a pair of earphones for the iPad anyway (buying better ones for the iPhone/iPod is also recommended). However, in addition to good headphones, there are several ways you can liberate music from your device and improve your listening experience.
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The iPod/Music apps have a few features you can customize. To see these, open Settings >iPod on your iPhone or iPad, or Settings >Music on your iPod touch. Here's what you can do:
 Shake to Shuffle: (iPhone and iPod touch only): As covered earlier, this feature uses the device's motion sensor to switch songs randomly every time you shake it. You can turn the feature ON and OFF from here.- Sound Check: Since every music track is recorded at different sound levels, this feature lets you play all tracks at the same base sound level.
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The Genius feature "listens" to the music you're playing and finds similar songs and artists from your music library or from the iTunes store. You can create a quick Genius playlist from the songs currently on your iOS device. Here's how:
- Make sure Genius is turned on in iTunes on your Mac or PC. (To do this, open iTunes, click on Genus in the left column, and follow the screen prompts. When finished, sync your iOS device.
- Open the iPod app (or the Music app on the iPod touch).
- Tap on Genius Playlist (or the Genius icon in the lower left corner of your iPad screen).
- Tap on the song you want to base your music preference on.
- On the iPad, the Genius playlist will be displayed after a few seconds.
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