Drum

(34 votes, average: 3.06 out of 5)

 Loading ...

Though 3rd party iPhone/ iPod Touch apps that simulate instruments are plentiful, ones that incorporate the devices’ accelerometer are few. Drum, as the last application designed by Sean Heber for his iApp-a-Day project, needed to be innovative, but simple. Drum is both. It is not so much a normal: “Push-the-button, hear-the-noise” instrument simulator like a drumpad or drumset, but rather it is a…drumstick.

The “Drum” is played by waving the device to and fro in the manner which one hits a drum with a drumsick. Each time the accelerometer senses this motion, a tone is produced.  This tone is not the crash of a cymbal, the ring of a tom, or the snap of a snare, but a simple “electronic” tone. This tone’s pitch can be controlled by placing ones finger on the touch screen, letting the user play higher tones with his finger at the bottom and lower ones with his finger at the top.  Though it is odd that pitch modulation is available for a drum simulator that sounds nothing like a drum, it is still fun to play with.  Sean seems to have made his own instrument, one that involves throttling your device like a mad man while dancing to your own beat.

To try it out, you can download this app from installer using the iApp-a-Day source (http://www.iappaday.com/install/), and can visit http://www.iappaday.com to learn more about Sean Heber’s Drum app and his other iApp-a-Day programs.

There quite a few instrument simulators out there for the iphone/ ipod touch, but the amount of them that make use of the accelerometer is in the single digits. As the last application made by Sean Heber for iApp-a-Day, it had to be innovative. Instead of being a drum pad, drum set, or any other beat machine, it is more like a drum stick. By whacking your device violently in the air like a drumstick, a tone is produced. The pitch of this tone is controlled by what position your finger touched the onscreen picture of a drum. When your finger is closer to the top of the screen, the pitch is lower. When your finger is at the bottom of the screen, the pitch is higher. Though it is odd that pitch control is offered in a drum simulator, it can be applied to make melodic baselines instead of rocking beats. It is simple, but plenty of fun. If you want to rock out too, you can download this app from installer using the iApp-a-Day source (http://www.iappaday.com/install/), and can visit http://www.iappaday.com to learn more about Sean Heber’s Drum app and his other iApp-a-Day programs.

Screenshots: