Play Along To Your Own Music With Play Carl Palmer’s Drums
Play Carl Palmer's Drums ($4.99) by Dynamic Web Page Design and Hosting is a drum simulation app that lets you play a replica of one of British classic rock’s legendary drummers, Carl Palmer. Palmer is known for his chops in such bands as Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Asia, and Atomic Rooster, among others. Now, you can bang away on his custom-made kit while his smiling mug looks up at you from his drum throne.
The app has a picture of Carl Palmer, sitting at his drum kit and smiling at the camera. Each cymbal, rack tom, kick pedal and snare is on the screen and can be tapped for sound. You can try your hand at a drum solo or, add music from your iPad or iPhone’s music library. You can adjust the sound output of the drums to fit the song and start playing along with the Beatles or whomever you want. You can even add your entire music library with the tap of a button.
The app also offers listings of Palmer’s upcoming shows, videos of him playing live in concert, links to purchase music and other memorabilia, and a direct link to Palmer’s website.
The audio quality of this simulated drum kit leaves a lot to be desired. The snare was recorded as a drum roll and the hi-hats are recorded as open instead of closed so they overpower the beats. I don't know why the decision was made to record the drum pieces like this. Carl Palmer himself does not exclusively play drum rolls on the snare or open hi-hats all the time. Frankly, there are better sounding drum simulators out there for free.
Overall, the app is overpriced as a drum simulator app, but fans of Carl Palmer will love it for its other features. Even though I didn't like the way the snare and hi-hat were recorded, the fact that you can play along with any song in your iTunes music library makes it fun to play around with. The drum roll-exclusive snare and constantly open hi-hat is easily drowned out by the rocking beats of "Without You" by Asia.
