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Samsung’s Soundcamp is a mobile music-creation app

samsung soundcamp music creation app main 3
Image used with permission by copyright holder
Samsung, Korean purveyor of goods electronic and digital, wants you to get your jam on — if you own one of the company’s newer handsets or tablets, that is. It’s released a major update Soundcamp, a music creation app for Samsung devices that lets you channel your inner Tiesto with coterie of instruments and playback tools.

Samsung describes Soundcamp as a combination DAW (digital audio workstation) and MIDI (musical instrument digital interface) sequencer — basically, a soup-to-nuts music creation suite. It’s preloaded with a library of virtual instruments such as keyboards, drums, and guitars, plus an audio recorder with sound effects. There’s a built-in plug-in system for recording with the third-party apps of your choice, too — Samsung says the Unique snythesizer, the WOW2 filter by Sugar Bytes, Phase84 phase synthesizer by Retronyms and iLectric Piano, and iGrand Piano by IK Multimedia have been updated to support Soundcamp — and a sampler tool for importing, recording, and manipulating parts of songs and real-world sounds.

Soundcamp_Main_4
Image used with permission by copyright holder

If that degree of musical freedom seems too daunting, though, Soundcamp features paid and free “studio quality” audio loops (endlessly repeating base and beat tracks from a variety of genres) from sample library makers Loopmasters. Even cooler? If you’ve got a got a Gear S2 smartwatch, you can use gesture control to start and stop those loops, or apply effects to them as they play.

Once you’ve composed a few themes, Soundcamp’s mix board– designed to “[resemble] the mixing consoles used in recording studios” — lets you transform them. You can add up to eight tracks in MIDI or stereo audio and add synth patches, adjust volume levels, and manipulate audio signals. (The goal, Samsung says, was to provide “PC-level” MIDI editing.)

That all sound (no pun intended) exciting? There’s just one catch: you’ll need a Galaxy S6 edge+, S6 edge, S5, Note 5, Note 4, Note edge, Tab S2, S, and Galaxy View. As long as you meet that basic requirement, though, Soundcamp’s available as a free download through the Google Play store.

"Over the horizon" performed on Soundcamp Looper at IFA 2015

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Kyle Wiggers
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Kyle Wiggers is a writer, Web designer, and podcaster with an acute interest in all things tech. When not reviewing gadgets…
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