http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLLjRH6GJec
I have an iPhone. And now I have Propellerhead Figure and they are a match made in heaven. Yes, there are DJ and music making apps, but to me they all seem awkwardly shoehorned into the small but beautifully formed screen. But then today, I came across one that made me spend more than 2 minutes playing and wishing for my time back. Indeed, I found myself sneaking 5 minutes here and there while making cups of tea – such is the utter wonderfulness of Propellerhead Figure.
Figure is a highly addictive music creation app. It’s the most idiot-proof way of knocking together dance music with little more than a few presses and swipes that I have ever come across. Addictive just isn’t the word, and the results are outstanding. I see this as a useful too for adding in your own quick fills in your own mixes, or just throwing some randomness into your live sets.
The official Propellerhead Figure press release:
Press Information – for immediate release
Propellerhead Figure Puts Great Sound at Anyone’s Fingertips
Brand new iOS app with Propellerhead’s legendary sound makes music making fun, fast and direct
Stockholm, Sweden (April 04, 2012) – Today Propellerhead announces the immediate availability of Figure for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. Fast, streamlined and fun, Figure enables even an inexperienced musician to make amazing sounding original music in seconds.
Figure for iOS is designed from the ground up for mobile environments where users want to make some music fast. Even non-musicians will quickly be playing their own beats and songs with drums, bass and lead parts. With an incredibly easy-to-use touch interface, Figure offers a huge amount of control with simple gestures. Figure is deceptively deep, facilitating many ways to tweak sounds and parameters—making it entertaining and inspiring to use for a minute or for hours. With major synth power under its hood, powered by Propellerhead’s Reason, Figure sounds phenomenal too.
“In our foray into music making mobile applications we have discovered the interface and operating environment are, of course, different from a computer’s—touch, small screen, earphones, no external input devices, etc. However, mobile users’ aspirations are quite different as well. They desire immediacy, a diversion, to start playing fast and most of all to have fun,” says Ernst Nathorst-Böös, CEO of Propellerhead. “Figure fits those needs, giving people the great sound we’re known for in an extremely engaging way.”
Figure highlights
• Make songs with drums, bass and lead synth
• Play by sliding a finger across the play pad
• Always stay in key and on the beat
• No previous playing skills required
• Tweak and twist tracks on the fly
• Sounding amazing has never been this easy
• The sound of Reason on an iPhone, powered by Kong drum designer and Thor synthesizer
Full product info on Figure can be found at: propellerheads.se/figure
Pricing and availability
Figure is available exclusively through the Apple iTunes App Store today for EUR €0.79 / USD $0.99:
It’s worth pointing out that this is one shot fun only. There’s no facility to save or sequence. It does keep the last groove you created, but Figure is all about being in the moment , and performing live.
For the princely sum of less than a single pound, euro or dollar, you get the best fun you’ve had on your iOS device ever. It’s the sheer quality of the end results that astounds me, so ugh so that I think I just found a very cool way to generate incidental music for my video clips.
I’m not even going to review it. For the money, just buy it – I guarantee you won’t regret it, although you might hate me for pushing you into the productivity black hole. It really is that addictive and that good.