These six apps will help you make music on your smartphone

Best for Music Production

FL Studio allows you to create beats, record vocals and mix and master your project ( Image source : Google Play Store)

1. FL Studio

FL Studio Mobile is one of the most comprehensive DAWs you can choose from if you want to create professional grade music on your smartphone. The app is versatile and offers a host of options. The app allows you to create beats, record vocals and mix and master your project. The app is a must for advanced users. You can use the app to record and produce music the same as you would with your desktop computer. The app comes with high-quality synthesizers, loops, and percussions to create the kind of beats/instrumentals you wish to. The app also allows you to import anything you want to use as well, and use a built-in step sequencer or pads to perform the music, or you can connect MIDI devices to use as controllers. Although the app boasts of a plethora of features, you may need some time to adjust to the interface. FL Studio Mobile is priced at Rs 300 on the Google Play Store. iOS users will need to shell out $13.99 to get their hands on the app.

GarageBand for iOS allows users to create songs from scratch using various tools (Image source : Apple)

2. GarageBand

GarageBand for iOS allows users to record songs from scratch using various tools. The app is best suited for beginners and intermediate level music producers. You can choose from a wide variety of instruments from around the world. Additionally the Sound Library allows you to select and download added free instrument and loop packs when new sounds are released. The app is available for iOS devices including iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. After opening the app you can start making music by instantly creating beats with just a few taps. One of the beat features that the app provides is the Sound Library that lets you explore and download sound packs. The addition of live Loops makes it fun and easy to create electronic music. The app comes with a variety of touch Instruments and can play keyboards, guitars and bass, as well as sounds designed for EDM and Hip Hop. You can also record vocals using the app. For mixing and mastering the app offers various features including volume automation, Simple EQ and Compressor among others. The app is free for iOS users.

Bandlab is a great option for creating music on the go and is best suited for beginners (Image source: Google Play Store)

3. BandLab

Bandlab is a great option for crating music on the go and is best suited for beginners. The app is also great for social interaction and sharing your work online. You can also discover other artists all within the same app.

The app offers 12-track Mix Editor which allows you to record live audio, import tracks, mix and automate your music. It comes with 200+ MIDI instruments and there is a Looper function which can be used to build up layers of beats, rhythms and melodies. The app offers over 100 guitar, bass and vocal effect presets for creating the sound you wish to build.

The app also allows you to store the projects online which is an added bonus. You can also open up your projects on other devices including iPhone or run it in a browser on any computer. The app is available for both Android and iOS devices and is completely free to download.

While most smartphone DAWs allow you to record vocals from within the app one of the key issues for many users is the quality one gets while recording audio on a smartphone. If you are using an external microphone, you can easily get a pro grade output after mixing and mastering on any suitable DAW. But if you want to use your smartphone for recording vocals, there are a variety of apps that you can use to enhance the quality of the same and record audio in a suitable format. Here are some of the audio recording apps you can use.

Best apps for Vocal Recording

ASR Voice Recorder allows the user to record audio via a Bluetooth microphone (Image source: Google Play Store)

1. ASR Voice Recorder

The easy to use voice recorder allows you to record audio in a wide variety of popular formats including MP3, FLAC, WAV, OGG, and M4A. The pro version of the app offers cloud upload integration with Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, Box, Yandex Disk, FTP, WebDav, Auto Email and more. One of the key features of the free version of the app is it that it allows the user to record via a Bluetooth microphone. The app also allows you to group recordings by tags. You can also trim recordings from within the app to save the part you want. The Android app is free to download.

Dolby On is free to download on Android and iOS devices and features noise reduction to improve sound quality (Image source: Screenshots of app)

2. Dolby On

Dolby On is free to download on Android and iOS devices and features noise reduction to improve sound quality. The app measures the background noise, while recording and gets rid out any unwanted sounds that may degrade audio quality. It comes with compression and pro-limiting features that optimise the volume to preserve the sonic mix and dynamics of the recorded vocals. The app offers dynamic EQ settings that automatically adapt to the music, and helps in creating a stereo mix of the sound. The app also allows custom styles, which allow the user to change the audio dynamics such as enhancing bass as well as boosting the treble. The audio can be shared to Facebook, Soundcloud, Instagram and more.

Voloco comes with various features including automatic tuning, vocoding, and harmony (Image source: Google Play Store)

3. Voloco

Voloco is available for both Android and iOS devices. The voice processing app comes with various features including automatic tuning, vocoding, and harmony. To start off, you will need to choose a track from Voloco’s library or your music collection. You can record your vocals on the app which will be automatically tuned. The app figure out the track key to tune your voice. The app offers a beat library that allows you to select a beat to sing. The auto-tune app offers dozens of presets, such as starter, modern rap, T Pain, 8 Bit Chip, and Daft Punk. Choose a vocal effect preset that suits you best. The developer offers in-app purchases for additional features.