Stop Fiddling With Mediocre Apps And Start Writing Songs With Hum
Hum ($1.99) by Just Hum is an all-in-one solution for anyone who wishes to write their own music. What originally spiked interest through a Kickstarter campaign that was cancelled, Hum is by individuals who understand the chaos and fragmentation that comes with using multiple apps for writing lyrics and recording samples. To remedy this chaos, Hum aims to replace all of these apps with one that has creation in mind.
The app’s main menu shows a list of songs that you are working on with the option to listen to the recordings. Tapping on the + button in the top right corner will get you started with a new song, presenting a blank canvas for you to type your lyrics onto. Dismiss the keyboard, and a recording panel at the bottom will allow you to record your music using your iPhone’s microphone. While it’s a bummer that only one recording can be made at a time, this feature still beats jumping back and forth between Apple’s Notes and Voice Memos.
If you swipe to the left, a panel with all sorts of programmable metadata is waiting to be tinkered with. You can set the key of your song, the type of tuning it requires, the location of a capo, and the mood. Not only is this useful for recalling how the song should be played and sound in the future, but you can also sort through a huge list of ongoing projects by filtering items by this metadata. For example, are you looking for a song that you know requires a capo on the seventh fret of your guitar? In as little as three taps, you can filter your list results to this.
However, despite its strengths and the fact that Hum is the only app that caters to songwriters and musicians like this, the app does come with some drawbacks. As I have already mentioned, the option to add multiple recordings to a project would be very useful, along with the ability to actually search for music using keywords. The fact that there is currently no option to backup your data from the app can make some songwriters uneasy, but thankfully, the developers have voiced that they plan on adding support for Dropbox in the future.
For the musician or songwriter who is looking to get rid of their cluttered collection of recordings, notes, and sets of lyrics that are dispersed across different apps, Hum is nearly perfect. The ability to use this app and have lyrics, notes, musical metadata, and recordings all in one place is any artist’s dream.
To get your songwriting in order, you can pick up Hum in the App Store on your iPhone for $1.99, although this discounted price won’t last forever.
