Studio.HD Brings True Music Mixing To The iPad

Studio.HD aims to be one thing, and one thing, only: to be your all-in-one resource for music mixing and recording on the iPad. With that in mind, developer Sound Trends has spent a lot of time perfecting a touch-based interface that keeps all the important bits only a few clicks away.

Loops are placed along the bottom, and adding them to the mix is as simple as dragging them into place. Once added, loops can be trimmed by dragging their “head” or “tail” around, and copied with a quick two-finger pull. Studio.HD features eight full tracks of music playback, each of which can be layered a truly awesome number of times, leading to 24 playback tracks total.

One of studio.HD’s most impressive boons, however, is its excellent audio effects. With a single click, users can change out the loops station for an effects powerhouse and a scratch pad. Effects can be dragged onto any open channel, and then mixed to perfection with the pad at right. It’s quick, touch optimized, and miles above GarageBand. Using a combination of effects and level controls, the iPad finally has a true audio mixer.

It’s tough to find anything wrong with studio.HD’s brilliant interface. It’s obvious that the developers have created the app with professional use in mind, and the end result is a layout that responds quickly and intuitively to touch. However, studio.HD is intended to be loop-based, so how does it fare with more traditional recording?

And the answer is: quite well, actually. I did some quick spot recordings with instruments I had laying around, simply plugging away while studio.HD listened. The results were clean and clear, though obviously there are better utilities for this kind of recording. Studio.HD doesn’t come with any of the amp emulation, virtual instruments or effects pedals that GarageBand does, but then again, why should it?

At the end of the day, studio.HD is one of the cleanest loop-based editors around. The app isn’t a MIDI brick house that can handle all of your Ableton Live gear, but one should hardly expect that.

The app’s stellar interface and killer effects make it the perfect mixing studio, especially for tracks created in Sound Trends’ own grüvtron or Looptastic HD. And with support for Sonoma Audio copy and paste, studio.HD could easily be the landing pad for tracks recorded elsewhere, if you’re still hell bent on more traditional recording.

Studio.HD is every bit as good as Apple’s own GarageBand, offering a one of a kind recording and mixing experience on the iPad that truly is as efficient as it is mobile. The price is right ($9.99 in the App Store) meaning you have no excuse to leave the app by the wayside during your next project.