Beep Boop: Beat Maker

Beep Boop is a step sequencer made like an instrument. Seven spaces, one for each thing you do, and one row of keys under them: TEMPO, KEEP, PLAY, PRINT and SWING. Swipe anywhere to move between spaces. Press play. A beat is already there. DRUMS Kick, snare, clap, hat, open hat, tom, rim and percussion on one dial. Eight sounds for each, chosen by name on a small wheel you roll with a thumb, one click a sound, each heard as you reach it. Sixteen step keys; hold one to accent it. CLEAR empties the beat; one more touch brings it back. Tempo from 40 to 300, and swing. SYNTH Six anthem leads, a bass and a pad, on a grid of steel buttons. Every row is a note in one key, engraved beside it, so every tune you draw sounds right. Slide along a row for a long note. Draw across the rows for a run. Drag across lit keys to put them out, and CLEAR empties the tune. PADS Twelve pads to play over the beat. Hold a pad and move your finger up or down to tune it a semitone at a time; its note is engraved under its name. SPREAD lays one sound across all twelve in SYNTH's key, so any pattern your fingers make is a melody. Touch REC, then a pad, and record up to ten seconds; set where the take starts and ends. On LOOP, every pad you strike is written into the loop; on ONCE, you play over it and nothing is added. KEEP stores the bar you play. TRACK Keep up to 64 loops, beats and melodies, on two shelves, with a wheel to turn through the rows. Carry them onto four lanes of up to sixteen bars, or drop one on the trash. Touch a lane's lamp to mute it. SOUNDS Choose the sound to start from on the same wheel, then shape it with its ten knobs, or drag across the silicone pad beneath them to move two at once. TEAR takes it from clean to destroyed: a folded wave, fewer bits, a metallic ring, then fragments of it frozen and repeated. MOTION makes a drum rise or fall like a tape stop; RATE repeats it up to 40 times a second. KEEP files it among your own, ready on DRUMS, SYNTH and PADS. PRINT A beat, a tune or a bar of pads prints as a receipt with a code on it. Tear it off to share it. Anyone with Beep Boop can scan the code with the Camera and play what you made. LIBRARY Everyone's beats, newest first or most kept. Touch a receipt to hear it at its own tempo; touch it again to put it on your keys. KEEP your own into YOURS and flick its switch to PUBLIC to share it with the world. Every receipt has a flag to report it or block its maker. SHARE sends anything in YOURS as MIDI and WAV. YOUR NAME The first time you keep something, choose a producer name or turn up a ridiculous one, and make a figure of dots with two knobs. Both are yours for good, shown on what you share; your figure dances beside the tempo. MADE FOR THE HAND Every key answers the moment it is touched. Every step lands on its exact sample, counted by the audio engine, never by a timer. On iPhone, each key, dial and switch has its own feel. On iPad, turned on its side, the panel becomes a console. WHAT STAYS YOURS Playing, recording and printing need no account. Your recordings never leave your iPhone or iPad. To share in the library you sign in with Apple once; Beep Boop asks Apple for no email and no name, and keeps only a random account number, your producer name and figure, and what you post, keep, report or block. Delete your account at the foot of YOURS. PRICE Playing, printing, scanning and browsing the library are free. Keeping loops, sounds and receipts, and building tracks, are the plan: a 7-day free trial, then US$2.99 a month, or US$19 once for life. The free trial comes with the monthly plan, once per Apple ID. Payment is charged to your Apple ID at the end of the trial. The subscription renews automatically unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period; manage or cancel it in your App Store account settings. The life unlock is one payment and never renews. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/