So, after months of dropping hints about bringing musician apps for real-time audio processing to its phones, Samsung finally let loose a handful of programs, which will surely mark the beginning of a new trend among Android devices. There are two notable pioneer apps, available in the Galaxy Apps store right now – Samsung's own Soundcamp, which is still pretty barebone, but looks to aspire to become a true iOS Garage Band alternative; and IK Multimedia's AmpliTube – a guitar amp simulator, which started its way from PC, had a version of it made for iOS, and has now, finally, landed on Android, albeit only for Samsung devices. More on that later.
Well, real-time audio processing apps, such as elaborate DJ tools, guitar amp simulators, digital audio interfaces (DAW), and even karaoke apps, have been a common sight on iOS for years now. What started with Garage Band grew into a handful of casual apps for playing around, and eventually evolved into an ecosystem, which gives musicians access to some pretty adequate mobile recording solutions, or even ones that can be used live, on-stage. For around 3 years, musicians who wished to be able to just plug in and practice on the go, or record that perfect idea, with nothing but their mobile device, have only had one choice – either choose iOS, or use the good old method of carrying a mini rig wherever they go. It may seem like a niche but, in today's mobile world – where everyone looks to own a smartphone and many people have access to affordable musical instruments – it's a pretty big niche, which has been dominated by Apple for quite some time.
Well, that's a good question. For one, earlier versions of Android had huge audio latency issues; when we are talking live audio processing – this is a hard no-no. Android 4.1 Jelly Bean promised to remedy this, but even after its release, app developers complained that they were trying to work with latencies of 200 milliseconds and above, which may seem like a small delay on paper, but, in the field of live audio, is an eternity. To top it off, developers were hugely turned off by Google's platform, due to the fact that there is so much hardware out there that one can't possibly code a sophisticated audio processing algorithm for all of it.
Samsung hasn't avoided positioning itself as a firm Apple competitor thus far. It is a bit weird that this is the company to bring live audio processing to Android before Google itself, but here it is –
But what are we talking about, you ask? Why is this such a big deal?
Well, real-time audio processing apps, such as elaborate DJ tools, guitar amp simulators, digital audio interfaces (DAW), and even karaoke apps, have been a common sight on iOS for years now. What started with Garage Band grew into a handful of casual apps for playing around, and eventually evolved into an ecosystem, which gives musicians access to some pretty adequate mobile recording solutions, or even ones that can be used live, on-stage. For around 3 years, musicians who wished to be able to just plug in and practice on the go, or record that perfect idea, with nothing but their mobile device, have only had one choice – either choose iOS, or use the good old method of carrying a mini rig wherever they go. It may seem like a niche but, in today's mobile world – where everyone looks to own a smartphone and many people have access to affordable musical instruments – it's a pretty big niche, which has been dominated by Apple for quite some time.
So, why hasn't Android tapped into that thus far?
Well, that's a good question. For one, earlier versions of Android had huge audio latency issues; when we are talking live audio processing – this is a hard no-no. Android 4.1 Jelly Bean promised to remedy this, but even after its release, app developers complained that they were trying to work with latencies of 200 milliseconds and above, which may seem like a small delay on paper, but, in the field of live audio, is an eternity. To top it off, developers were hugely turned off by Google's platform, due to the fact that there is so much hardware out there that one can't possibly code a sophisticated audio processing algorithm for all of it.
Ok, and what did Samsung do?
Samsung hasn't avoided positioning itself as a firm Apple competitor thus far. It is a bit weird that this is the company to bring live audio processing to Android before Google itself, but here it is –
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