The Best Mobile Apps for Music Production
Aug 2, 2022
The Best Mobile Apps for Music Production
If you’re a musician looking for ways to take your music production to the next level, there are a number of great mobile apps available for you. Technology keeps getting stronger every day and while a daw is a complex piece of software, it is now possible to run it on almost any common smartphone.
This doesn’t mean it is without limitations, a desktop is still preferable in terms of computing power, But we have gotten to a point where mobile is an attractive alternative, especially for newcomers that just don’t have the budget for dedicated studio gear.
This is why In this blog post, we’ll take a look at some of the best mobile apps for music production available today.
What are the best mobile apps for music production?
There is a multitude of mobile apps for music production available, but which is the best for you?
Some apps are geared towards beginners, while others are more advanced. Here are my top 3, each one has its pros and cons and is better suited for certain situations, but together they cover a wide variety of use cases and needs.
Bandlab
The best mobile apps for music production are the ones that allow you to get your ideas down quickly, without having to worry about technical details such as file formats or bit rates.
BandLab does exactly this.
A web-based music studio that hails itself as, “The Future of Music.” where you can “Make music anytime, anywhere. Connect with millions. Release your tracks and engage with fans” while keeping “100% of your earnings”, its no wonder why they are at the top of our list.
Already an impressive sounding platform, Bandlab doesn’t don’t stop there: they also provide all the necessary tools for editing your audio, providing feedback from other users, and socializing with other musicians who share a love of what you do - essentially giving anything and everything in relation to music creation through mobile devices.
The best part is that it works across platforms—if you’ve got an idea in your head, you can pull out your phone and start recording right away without having to worry about whether or not the app will be compatible with your device.
Plus there is a large community of band lab users—you can usually find answers to your questions quickly and easily on the forums— which makes it a great option for beginners and pros alike.
FL Studio Mobile
FL Studio Mobile is an app to, “Create and save complete multi-track music projects on your mobile Phone, Tablet, or Laptop”
It’s made by Image-Line, who also makes the popular digital audio workstation FL Studio.
The interface feels a bit crowded at times, but it’s still easy to use.
It has all the features you can expect from a mobile daw such as:
Advanced Sound Creation with synthesizers
A high-quality audio engine
Ability to export to WAV, MP3 or AAC, FLAC & MIDI
Multi-track mixer with Per-track mute, solo, effect bus, pan, and volume adjustment
Built-in effects include an Auto Ducker, Chorus, Compressor, Limiter, Distortion, Parametric Equalizer, Graphic Equalizer, Flanger, Reverb, High-Pass/Low-Pass/Band-Pass/Formant (Vox) Filters, Delays, and Phaser to enhance your mix
The downside is that it costs ~$14.99—but if you’re serious about making music then it’s worth every penny!
Auria Pro
Auria Pro is an ios app for the iPad and it is packed with features.
Most notable is that it includes some highly regarded instruments and FX made by Fabfilter.
This is the next level because as far as I am aware, these have only been available as vst plugins in the past.
On top of that, according to their website you also get, “comprehensive MIDI capabilities, real-time audio warping, powerful internal bus routing, audio quantizing, audio transient-to-MIDI conversion, groove templates, transient slicing, unlimited tracks” and more
What are the benefits of using mobile apps for music production?
There are a number of benefits to using mobile apps for music production. Perhaps the most obvious benefit is that mobile apps are portable, so they can be used anywhere.
This is especially useful for musicians who like to work on the go.
Mobile apps also tend to be more affordable than traditional music production software, and they usually require less hardware. This makes them a great option for a beginner or budget-conscious producer.
Mobile apps also tend to be more user-friendly than traditional software, so they can be a great way for beginners to get started in music production.
How can you get started using mobile apps for music production?
If you’re interested in making music using your mobile device, The process to get started is fairly straightforward as all the apps we mentioned above are available on either Apple’s App Store (ios) or The Google Play Store (Android).
Just navigate to the download page, download, and you should be all set
Honorable mentions
Other than our top picks mentioned above, some other tools that are worth mentioning are:
Cubasis LE by Steinbergh (android + ios)
MPC Studio by Akai (ios)
Ableton Live (Ipad)
And if you’re looking for something more simple, there are a number of apps that let you play around with different types of synthesis like:
Synth One by Audiokit (ios)
Caustic 3 (android)
Whichever app you choose, be sure to explore the tutorials and other resources available online to help you get started.
Thanks for reading! We hope this blog post has helped you to find the best mobile apps for music production.
