- What's that old expression about squeezing a quart into a pint pot? The saying comes to mind when I look at NanoStudio, which attempts to squeeze synthesis, sampling, sequencing and mastering into the iOS app format. Sounds sexy, but I'm skeptical about "do it all" apps; none of them can compete with desktop DAWs—so far.
Judging by the reviews on the App Store, though, NanoStudio has some seriously excited users. The app includes two instruments, a mixer, a sequencer and a handful of audio effects (including reverb, compressor, EQ and delay). The aim is clearly to provide a complete mobile DAW experience, starting with recording or drawing notes, and ending with transferring a finished stereo mix to a computer. The TRG-16 Performance Pad is a 16-pad drum sampler, with pitch, pan, volume and send effects for each pad. Samples can be recorded straight in, uploaded from a computer using the free NanoSync application or pasted from another app. Complete kits can be stored and loaded, or built by mix-and-matching individual samples. The onboard Sample Editor deals with basic cropping tasks and effects processing—the processed samples can be resampled back into the TRG-16 (with a sample size limit of 8MB), as can the app's master output.
NanoStudio has just one synthesizer, the Eden, but it's flexible enough not to be too limiting. This 16-voice polyphonic synth features 2 oscillators per voice and samples can be used instead of basic waveforms. There's a filter, 4 LFOs, insert effects and 2 XY control pads. Eden includes 128 presets, in two banks, with another 64 empty user slots; the presets are pretty generic synth demo sounds—solid enough, but some tinkering is required to add individuality.
There's no restriction on how instruments are distributed across the tracks—if you want five Edens or five TRGs, go ahead. Like most iOS sequencers, although there's audio sampling, there are no audio tracks for recording vocals or guitars. NanoStudio's stated track count of 6 includes a mixer track, so there's only 5 "proper" instrument tracks. However, it's possible to share an instrument across 4 tracks, whether those tracks contain MIDI notes or other automation data, which brings the potential track count up to 64—but that's including the optional £2.99 in-app purchase of the extra 10 tracks.
New parts are created by recording in live from an external keyboard, like the Akai SynthStation 25 (specific support for this was added in the latest NanoStudio update), by using the on-screen keys and pads, by drawing notes in the MIDI editor or importing MIDI files. Automation for instrument, effect and mixer parameters can be added using the same entry methods—quite cool for an iPhone app. However it's created, the resulting pattern can be positioned on the main sequencer timeline, the Song Editor, where you can copy, paste, move, undo, split...most of what you'd reasonably need is tucked away there somewhere.
Mixes can be "mastered" by using the compressor and other effects on the main output, then the entire song (or selected parts) can be rendered to various audio file formats including .wav and .ogg, or uploaded directly to SoundCloud; MIDI files can also be created. File transfer to a computer is managed by the NanoSync app over WiFi, which works well enough, but I'd prefer to drag and drop from iTunes, as you can with most other apps these days.
I took a shot at producing a song in NanoStudio, starting with a beat, then adding synth parts, custom samples, effects and finally rendering it, effectively skimming through the entire workflow. Like any soft synth, Eden works better when used with a hardware controller. I was impressed to see that MIDI learn is present, and I wish more iOS music apps did this; it really opens up things as far as hardware control goes, making a lot more devices available for use with NanoStudio.
The TRG-16 interface and file browsing works better than Eden's, and audio sampling was very straightforward, although I kept thinking I was using BeatMaker, as they're very similar in concept, although BeatMaker is better-equipped on the drum side of things. The effects were plain but functional. I also automated a volume fade in/out on one of the Eden tracks, recording mixer fader moves in real-time, and edited it afterwards, which was all fast and easy to do. I quickly lost interested in working with the Song Editor timeline though; there were just too many navigation issues with the screen size and the controls, and that's where NanoStudio lost me. At that point, I'd prefer to transfer the song sections to my computer and build the tune in Live or GarageBand.
NanoStudio has stacks of features, and some good sounds can be had. On an iPhone-sized screen, though, features = swiping. It takes eight screens to view all of Eden's parameters, for example, and it gets boring after a while. There are other iOS DAWs available for your consideration, including iSequence, Music Studio and Xenon (a personal favourite), and if you're willing to go up to an iPad, then GarageBand is the one that other apps have to compete with, especially given its Logic project compatibility.
On the positive side, with NanoStudio it's always easy to tell what you're looking at, and what it does, which results in a shallow learning curve for anybody who's used a sequencer before. It is possible to build an entire track with NanoStudio, but it'll lack the sonic range of a desktop production. NanoStudio sounds good, and has a high feature count, but it might just drive you mad to work with.
Ratings
Cost: 3/5
Sound quality: 3/5
Versatility: 3/5
Ease of use: 3/5