Drum Pads Guru: Quaint, Free, but Surprising

lieslavish

I install a lot of trashy music apps. Really, I only draw the line when it comes to the trashiest of the trash , and sometimes -- especially before downloading an app -- it can be difficult to tell what side of that line an app falls on. Such was the case for Sergei Alekseev's free, ad-supported (ew) finger-drummer, "Drum Pads Guru."

I've tried a lot of apps in this style; an app comes at you and says, "omfg use this app 2 make trap beat in seconds ull be a #$%&in' rockstarrrrrr," and it has a 16-pad, MPC'esque layout with some preset sounds on each pad (usually corny as Hell) and a banner on the bottom that the developer is hoping that you'll accidentally touch. On the surface, Drum Pads Guru looks no different, but it's actually kind of dope, and it's getting better all the time since I downloaded it a couple of months ago.

I don't know if this Alekseev guy really has aspirations for making apps that are above shovel-ware grade (a look at the Drum Pads Guru Facebook suggests that he really expects for this app to go somewhere) or if he's just accidentally putting more care into this app than most devs would, but I was originally quite stunned by the number of presets that Drum Pads Guru comes with and how cool a lot of the samples are. Also, each pad can be configured as a one-shot or hold-and-release and can be tuned in semitones (I know, right?).

Every now and then, it'll get an update with another preset, and I'll think to myself, "huh...," but the reason that I'm posting about it, now, is that it just got a built-in sequencer, today. When I read that in the update notes, I just had to go have a look, and, sure-enough; it's kind of clunky... It's kind of- I mean, there's no way to save your pattern, as far as I can tell... but this mother #$%&er went and added a sequencer to this #$%&*. Why, Sergei? What is your end-game with this? Is this thing going to be BeatMaker 3 when you're finished polishing it up in ten years?

It doesn't have Audiobus or Inter-App Audio OR AudioCopy, so, unless you want to sample your iPad (trivial if you have an external soundcard set-up), the only way to get sounds out of it is to use the built-in recorder and iTunes File Transfer. But... this guy added a sequencer to this thing, so maybe it's one to watch? Maybe comes to IAA sooner or later?

Anyway, if you have a friend that wants to explore their budding musicality, I recommend 'Drum Pads Guru.' It's free, it sounds good, it has some very nice preset variety (which is always expanding), and I can only imagine that its feature-set will grow over time. If not, then I expect that this dev will move onto something bigger and better, and I wish him the best, god damn it.

-Lavish

fjcblanco

Thanks for the heads up.

StormJH1

Thanks for the review/post! I'll definitely check it out. It's helpful to keep in mind that the way AudioBus Forum posters view certain casual apps as "trashy" or "toy-like" is the same way many serious hardware users and pros view ALL iOS music apps. Even the ones we would consider critical darlings, like Auria, Gadget, DrumPerfect, iSEM, and so on. The point is, it's all relative, and anything that makes SOUND can be a musical instrument in the hands of a creative person with a little bit of know-how.

I also want to point out that lack of proper AB/IAA/ACP compatibility is usually a blatant indicator of a "toy app", but if you have a Camera Connection Kit (as probably most of do) and more than one iDevice (as many of us do), the Behringer UCA202/222 interface allows sampling recording in "stereo" output of pretty much any noise that comes out of the headphone jack. It's a $30 swiss army knife that really expands the connectivity of the iPad as a portable music studio.

Redo1

What about his other free apps? Hip hop producer pads? Downloading, expecting a couple mins of fun.
Ok I'm done.
Think I liked HHPP better. only 4 sets to select from though.