iPhone Review: ZOOZbeat Pro
by Carter Dotson
Developer/Publisher: ZooZ Mobile Inc.
Genre: Music Creation
Price: $4.99
Verdict: Want to make music without actually knowing how to make it? Go for this!
Pros: Incredibly easy to use, can share your creations online quickly and easily.
Cons: Everything sounds very ‘triggered’
Frankly, I’ve been going down the wrong career path. I’ve been trying to get a college degree so I can get a real job and all that boring crap instead of getting an oversized guitar, gaining 40 pounds, and being the next D. It’s simple! But that requires learning how to play and being able to betray my principles and my very soul to that harsh mistress that is the modern recording industry. Well, I have my price, but I don’t have the skills to make sweet tasty licks that make all the ladies go crazy. No longer is this a requirement. ZoozBeat PRO is here to make a rock prodigy out of you rhythmless rock slackers. By merely getting this app, picking your style of music, picking your instruments, hitting around randomly to create notes, and stringing together a few loops, you can make a decent enough harmony of dissonance without putting out any real work. Heck, I made this techno loop in like a minute just to show it off to y’all.
It really is that simple. You pick from a variety of musical styles (I went for Thrash first, of course \m/), pick your instrument, and a beat line crosses across the field, and you tap higher or lower to create a high or low note. For more accuracy, I recommend turning your system into landscape orientation, which will give you a much bigger note entry section, so you can really get the precise pitch you want on a note. If that sounds too hard, then just shake your iPhone like a madman and watch the notes be created. You then choose another instrument, rinse and repeat until you have a nice loop. You can then add other loops, copy previous loops until you have new loops, and make your self a beautiful little cacophony for the whole family to enjoy. You can also add your own voice to the proceedings via the microphone, if you have the voice of an angel but the PR firm of a caveman. This app is perfect for those budding musicians who have the desire to rock hard, but lack the drive or the talent required to do so.
In all seriousness, it won’t let you make stuff that’s all THAT great and everything still sounds like triggered samples, but as an app that’s fun to just play around with to make some nifty-sounding music, it’s worth it, as it is fun to play around with and make some cool layered tracks without much difficulty. And you can even share your tracks via myzoozbeat.com (and your songs available as soon as they’re shared and you can download them as mp3s, which is to be lauded). ZOOZbeat Pro is $4.99 (there are a few other single musical style ZOOZbeat apps out there, but if you’re interested, get the Pro version, the other styles are fun to play around with as well) and is worth it if you want to mess around with music without actually having to put in the work for making music.
