The Bass Geek

I spent a little time working with iZotope’s iDrum (the hip-hop edition - I am not a club kid) this weekend, and it gets decent marks from me.  It’s still not up to “live” performance level (which makes me rethink my initial objections to BeatMaker), but it is a handy drum machine application.  My only complaints are that the kits don’t come with a blank slate (you have to go in and edit pre-created beats or save the kits under another name and edit those) and there’s no real export function.  The samples are passable, though, and the interface is easy enough to deal with once you get used to it.

It also makes a handy metronome, if nothing else.  I’m not sure why metronomes and “guitar toolboxes” with tuning notes, chord charts, etc. are the first thing to pop up in portable devices (a grand tradition started with the Palm series), but they’re always the first thing listed when I look up music apps.  A couple of bucks more, and you’ve got something with a little more variety and usefulness.  Just a changeable sample alone is worth the price; metronomes are valuable tools, but the makers still use an annoying click or beep instead of something more aurally satisfactory.  And it beats the cheap standalone I had to buy for the bass book photo shoot last year.

Sidenote:  This weekend’s Zombiefest at Key Cinemas was a joy to attend.  My colleagues and I weren’t able to stay through the bitter end, but we took in the majority of the films with zeal and gusto.