The 8 Best Mobile Music-Making Apps You’ll Actually Use

Mobile music-making apps have long been seen as gimmicks—something cool to futz around with during your commute, but not necessarily serious platforms made for professional musicians. That is starting to change, though; more and more apps are looking to level up, offering software that addresses the real needs of artists outside the studio. These programs lets users spark song ideas, keep better track of drafts and demos, sequence beats on the fly, tap into new synth sounds, and more. Artists with access to top equipment are even starting to embrace them: Damon Albarn made the 2011 Gorillaz album The Fall entirely using iPad apps, and the Internet guitarist Steve Lacy’s breakout EP was largely made with the mobile guitar simulator iRig.

Here, we take a look at the best iPhone, iPad, and Android apps for hobbyists and professional musicians alike—programs that are worth your money and your storage space, don’t require external hardware to be used, and offer genuinely useful tools. Most of these apps let users export sounds or MIDI files, so your ideas can easily make the jump from mobile device to proper digital audio workstation (DAW) programs like Pro Tools or Logic. Some of the features listed below might sound intimidating for newbies, but don’t worry: All of these apps offer a low barrier to entry when it comes to making and recording music.

Beatmaker 3 (iPad) - $24.99

$25 is a lot of cash to spend on an iPad app, but anyone looking to begin mobile music production will likely find Beatmaker a worthy investment. Sequencing MIDI notes and manipulating samples are simple; anyone accustomed to an MPC-style workflow (with the ability to quickly chop a sample across a 4x4 drum pad) or Ableton Live (with its ability to arrange music using “clips”) can easily pick it up in a manner of minutes. Beatmaker also takes full advantage of the iPad’s touch screen; a special “spectrum” controller makes it easy to play samples at different velocities, giving your beats nuance. Full integration with Dropbox means you can import your own sounds and bounce audio files of your work with ease. If you’ve never made a beat before, Beatmaker’s a good place to start.

n-Track Studio DAW 9 (iPhone, iPad, Android) - $29.99 or $1/mo

If you’re interested in a more straightforward app for audio recording, check out n-Track. Essentially a middle ground between mobile GarageBand and more “serious” desktop DAWs like Logic Pro X, n-Track is good at capturing quick guitar demos, trying different vocal arrangements, and more. There’s a bevy of processing options too, including proprietary vocal tuning and a fantastic reverb that emulates the spaces of actual rooms. Importing different audio from outside the app (like tracks and samples) is simple, and an effective input/output monitoring system makes n-Track a great mobile recording solution.

Audiobus 3 (iPhone, iPad) - $9.99

Audiobus isn’t very sexy, but for on-the-fly iOS music-making, it’s essential. While you can’t actually use it to record or make beats, Audiobus acts as a host for a slew of other music apps, letting you use those other programs in conjunction with one another. With a clean interface, intuitive signal routing, and compatibility with hundreds of other App Store offerings and external MIDI devices, Audiobus lets you redirect the audio from any of your device’s synths and drum machines to a DAW app (like Beatmaker) without having to dump said audio to a computer.

MV08 (iPhone, iPad) - $3.99

MV08 is a minimalistic drum machine that comes with over 200 samples, a classic XOX-style sequencer (a modern take on Roland’s iconic TR-808 and 909 units), and essential effects (EQ, distortion, reverb, delay). The iPad edition uses its extra screen real estate to display a grid-based visualizer, which makes it easier to make a longer beat; however, the iPhone version is just as versatile. Both versions let users program in odd time signatures, assign effects to trigger on specific drum hits in the sequence, and much more. Loops can easily be exported as .wav or .m4a files.

ChordPolyPad (iPhone, iPad) - $12.99

ChordPolyPad allows you to map out chords to a 16-button layout, which you can then play with. It comes with a massive library of chords, the ability to write your own voicings on a musical keyboard and save pad presets, and even a function that offers up random chords for those in need of inspiration. While ChordPolyPad can’t export audio, it has full AudioBus support—so if you don’t like how your stuff sounds on the provided piano presets, you can easily play them on other synthesizers, both the physical kind and the ones on your computer screen. ChordPolyPad is a great solution for songwriters who are looking to quickly pair the melody in their heads with a basic chord structure when a keyboard isn’t handy.

Ruismaker Noir (iPhone, iPad) - $9.99

Ruismaker Noir allows any club kid to come up with drum patterns and scuzzy basslines worthy of a Berlin warehouse party. It’s a synthesizer/sequencer combo that can be used as a standalone app or as a plugin inside of compatible DAW programs. Instead of pads or a traditional sequencer, though, you get what looks like a series of beads and strings. Bigger beads mean louder hits, and the lower the bead is on the string, the lower the hit sounds. Techno heads and bass fiends will love how easy it is to get intricate patterns, which can then be saved, layered, and manipulated in programs like Beatmaker.

SongSpace (iOS, Android, web app) - $8/month

Dropbox and Google Docs are tried-and-true methods for cataloging mix revisions, drafts of lyrics, songwriting credits, and other clerical aspects of music-making—but SongSpace is better. The web platform allows artists to consolidate all the digital materials they might need for a song in one place, whether it’s audio, photographs, or text. A tag system lets you sort your work by “moods” and “themes” (useful in the current playlisting era) and a simple songwriting tab makes it particularly useful for bands who want to keep track of multiple songwriters or producers who work with a bevy of artists.

Oblique Strategies (iOS - $1.99, Android - Free)

The cheapest app on this list won’t let you chop up samples or synthesize cool synth pads, but it might be the most useful one of the whole bunch. First published in 1975, Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt’s Oblique Strategies is a deck of cards featuring commands and questions designed to spark creativity in artists of all disciplines who feel that they’ve hit a roadblock in a project. (Samples: “Use an unacceptable colour,” “Go outside. Shut the door.”) This unofficial app collects a version of the cards and serves them up in a minimalist fashion, meaning you’re never far from reading some wisdom that might help you finish your next song.

All apps featured here are independently selected by our editors. However, when you buy something through our retail links, Pitchfork may earn an affiliate commission.