Gadget review: imaschine - The Groove Sketchpad

NI are the market leaders in DJ and Music creation. You’ll find their hardware and software in every professional studio around the world. There’s a reason for that - their products do exactly what they say on the tin.

The imaschine groove sketchpad is aimed at anyone creating music on the move. Production tools and editing options allow the user to make a professional-sounding track in minutes. You can even port your audio sketches into your favourite DAW (Digital Audio Workstation). All this from your phone, it’s very clever and easy to use.

As you’d expect from German engineering the imachine fits into your busy lifestyle. Whether jet-setting between countries or on the less glamorous morning commute, the result of your efforts is an audio sketch of a track with potential.

I played with imaschine for a couple of days and was totally sucked in. It has one of the easiest interfaces I’ve used. The bundled sample library is limited but it does have good sounds. Additional library packs are available to purchase from the iTunes store and you can even upload your own samples, meaning the possibilities are endless.

The imaschine operates in four groups - you can assign a pad, keyboard or audio recorder (which uses the phone’s built- in mic). There is a library of ten projects, 25 kits and 400 plus samples all in CD quality WAV format. Included functions are tap tempo and tempo adjust. Other necessary options like play/stop, record and a 4-track mixer for effects are easily navigated. Beat repeat allows you to set the duration of beat repeats for the sample pads 1/4, 1/8, 1/16 triplets and 1/32 notes.

There is a menu for editing notes which allows you to tweak your composition. There is a search button and the intuitive layout is user-friendly. The keyboard sections are great, allowing you to pitch-shift by two octaves and are probably the best I’ve seen yet. The pads are easy to use - tap a pad to play a sample, it really is that simple.

The effects operate two send channels, which work flawlessly on the unsupported 3gs : Delay, flanger, chorus, LoFi and filters for each of the four tracks.

The imaschine is limited to four tracks but this is actually a clever move as you are less likely to over-complicate your composition and more likely to tighten things up. There’s no cut and paste so you are forced to play everything for the number of bars defined. You’ll think this annoying, but once you get it down you will improve your skills while sounding more natural in the process. Some electronic music can sound lifeless. I spend more time adjusting beats and phrases to sound more organic. So, having no cut and paste is, in this case, a good thing.

Please remember this is an audio sketchpad and not a fully fledged DAW. Treat it as such and don’t be put of by its limitations - 32 bars per composition gives you enough space to be creative while keeping things simple.

Producers like Jamie Jones have a stripped-back style which is simple but effective, simplicity is what makes the best tracks and this is where NI have cracked it with imaschine - using it will make you become a better producer.

The creative possibilities for this essential purchase are endless. Priced at £2.99 you have no excuse not to have it in your app arsenal.