Groovebox gives its musicians access to three different types of sound: Drumbox, Retrobass, and Poly-8, and within these categories are different pieces of music. Each has its own unique sound, allowing you to manipulate the music in different ways, but together they can be combined to create a song. For example Drumbox lets you choose from eight beats, Retrobass from 20 bass lines, and 19 tracks are available on Poly-8. By using trial and error, you can mix any pre-made track to go into your song, and then further edit it by changing aspects like distortion, pitch, and delay. Other eatures you can manipulate to the song as a whole are speed, key, and rhythm.
There are more sounds and features available in the paid-for version of the app, with downloads ranging from £0.99 to £4.99; these are only relevant for those looking to take things a bit more seriously, though. Once you’re happy with the sounds you do have, Groovebox provides you with save files so that you can leave and return to it later, or alternatively send it elsewhere. In choosing to do so you can save it as an AAC or WAV file depending on the size you want it, and then send it to iCloud Drive or via Message, Mail, or AirDrop.
Groovebox is perfect for those who want to have fun and mess around with sounds, but nothing more. The choice of music it provides is good if you’re using it as a way to see how you can mix them together, but anything more detailed and it proves to be a shallow selection – this can hardly be a criticism for a free app, though. What is frustrating about Groovebox, though, is how fiddly and difficult to use the ‘knobs’ can be. Half of the fun of playing around with a piece of music is testing what happens when you turn the distortion up, increase the pitch, or give the song more resonance, but in Groovebox this proves more annoying than enjoyable. Touch isn’t responsive enough; it works sometimes but others it swipes to a different screen. The problem may lie in each ‘knob’ being shown in a percentage rather than 1-10, so the margin for error is small. Whatever the issue, though, it ruins the experience.[sc name=”quote” text=”Just to put a few songs together, Groovebox can be quite fun.”]
Just to put a few songs together, Groovebox can be quite fun. Even if electronic isn’t your type of music, it’s interesting to see how much is involved in making a song, even at this low-a level. The ability to export is a great feature – though it’s doubtful anything worth showing off will be created here. Perhaps if it were easier to navigate around and use, Groovebox could be a useful tool for beginner musicians. Instead, it’s more a hindrance than a help.
