Figure and Launchpad

In the sound session this week we also played with an app called Figure, which is available on the iPad. I would have added both tracks I created to the other sound post I made this week however I wanted to play around with them a bit more before putting them up. Figure is also a very easy tool to use in the sense that you can personally play around with and record 3 separate pieces and stick them together. You're limited to using drums, bass and synth but there are a lot of different types to choose from for these instruments. The app also allows you to set the rhythm, scale steps and range of both the bass and synth, whilst choosing which parts of the drum kit do what. There is also a tweaks section where you get to modify and distort sounds in case you wanted something slightly different from what you recorded.

The first track I recorded made use of the Studio drum-kit, 'Scream At Me' bass and the Coffee synth set. It was mostly the result of me playing with each instrument to see what I could get rather than planning out a tune and replicating it.



The second tune I created in Figure was much more structured than the first and had a far better beat to it in my opinion. This one used the Elektro drum-kit, Multipass bass and Unpredictalead synth.



The other app we were briefly shown was called Launchpad. We were only given a quick demonstration and rather than practice it in session we were told to try it out in our spare time. This app was possibly the most fun as it takes care of all the timing for you, not initiating the pad you press until the next bar starts. This makes it sound far more rounded than the music I could produce in Figure and far more detailed than Bosca Ceoil. All you have to do is tap the pad you want to play and the app will leave it going until you press it again, which makes it very easy to have an underlying beat whilst you focus on developing the track.

My first recording in Lauchpad used the 'House 2' pad set. I played around to see which pads I liked best and when I had a small plan in my head of which would work well together, I hit record and did what I could.


I then looked at what other sets were available and the 'Drum&Bass' set caught my eye. After exploring the pad I found a lot that I felt I could weave together to make something pretty decent. So I messed around finding good combinations then hit record and was pretty happy with with I had afterwards.