Musician Apps for Android

[pfschim]

I am coming off of an iPhone 4S and am looking for guidance on recording, mics and other musician related apps.

The iP has a very rich array of great music apps for recording (stereo and multitrack), great add on gear to interface to the apps with (pro quality mics and a/d interfaces for instruments), as well as a host of useful apps for musicians (accurate tuners and metronomes, fake books/chord charts etc.)

I have found Android versions of some of the apps I am seeking
iRealb (great fake book/chart book with a player)
Metronome
Tuner

But I have not found any solid information on good stereo and multitrack apps, or any indication that I can use anything other than the stereo headphone jack on my S3 for interfaces such as mics or instrument inputs.

So, can anyone point me at some app sources for some of these things. Also looking for mics and instrument interfaces too.

Thanks

 

[pfschim]

so, judging by the total lack of responses, I'm guessing there are no decent apps for recording or good mics.

too bad. its a very hot market for musicians. Linux has a small but useful set of musician/recording solutions, I wonder why no one is porting them or creating them for the Android/phone market.

 

[UrsusVIIILXXXVII]

I've never tried hooking up my guitar or a mic to my phone but I was curious about it. The first hurdle would be how to actually connect something. I have little doubt that it's possible but I think it would invlove a fair amount of adapters. I've seen a few old YouTube videos showing mics connected just that way. Maybe I should look into making a bluetooth dongle for guitars. *patent pending*

The other issue is latency. Android really isn't capable yet to handle this kind of input without some delay. That being said, recording through the phone's built in mic works.

There's actually a couple 4 track recorders in the Play Store. I don't know if they can work with an external input or if it's just using the phone's mic.

There's also an app called Delay Effects that adds a few effects to a connected guitar though it also says there's a delay of about 1/4 to 1 second. It has a good description on what you would need hardware wise.

I agree that it would be cool to see Android address this aspect and maybe in the future they will. Until then I guess we'll just have to make do.

 

[pfschim]

well, I have done some further homework on this topic.

It appears that for ICS, USB audio is a no go. But, it seems as if the soon to be released Jellybean version of Android will have support for USB Audio via ALSA (Adavanced Linux Sound Architecture).

So, we will have to wait and see if any clever developer latches on to this feature for Android. However, it's not clear to me that just because Jellybean provides support for this feature, that anyone will do any development for it.

I understand that the onboard mic in an Android tablet or phone can be used to record, but these usually do not provide a particularly good results (tried it). Also, the 3.5mm stereo jack does not provide a very good interface for instrument interfaces at all. Even on the iPhone, the best interface devices are connected via the (current) 30 pin jack. There is a decent selection of good quality devices (mics and DACs), and there are several multitrack solutions impending for iPad devices.

As far as ALSA goes, it does work in various Linux releases, and there are some Linux based DAW's, but they are not particularly mainstream, so it will be interesting to see how this interest area develops for Android.

In the mean time, I am thinking of picking up an iPad to regain the audio recording and manipulation functions that I lost when moving Android on the Galaxy S3. Either that or go back to iPhone when the next version (5) comes out and the 4GS's drop in price.

 

[Nivlak]

Audio Evolution
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