Synthesize Me! Musyc app review

Following on from my last post the Carousel House Band an integrated band of learning disabled musicians and music facilitators would like to review a music app called 'Musyc'. I stumbled upon this app when searching the app store for music apps. It was a great discovery and has proven to be a real hit with our learning disabled musicians. I would describe the app as half way between a game and an instrument. The basic premise is for the user to create an environment reminiscent of arcade games involving ramps and rolling balls and other shapes. The user can arrange the angle and placement of ramps. When released the bouncing shapes create rhythmic pitched sounds.

Audio effects such as reverb and delay can be added as desired. The feature i was most impressed with though was the ability to set a tempo and have the rolling shapes released at that rate. This means that the user can create interesting rhythmic phrases very easily by just playing around with the app exploring creating different environments. The result reminded me of the music made by Steve Reich or Terry Riley

The cherry on top is that you can then record the sounds inside the app and export the recording via email. This meant we could create some very interesting motifs that could be recorded and exported for use in our sequencer based track we are working on. I thought it was very user friendly and our learning disabled artists quickly picked up how to access all the features.

Here's some thoughts from the learning disabled band members:

‘I think its great fun to use, so many sounds that you can hear and so many different shapes as well you can use’

‘I think its fun to play with the tablet and also to try and make different sounds’

‘I like the music app its fun to play with, its easy peasy!’

‘Musyc app with trumpet sound, I like the modern jazz sound’

Please visit the links below to find out more about Carousel, a learning disability arts organisation based in Brighton, UK.

Website:

www.carousel.org.uk

Twitter:

www.twitter.com/carouselartuk

Facebook:

www.facebook.com/carouselartuk