I like Groovebox because the layout and simplicity of the app makes it so easy to create a good song sketch (for electronic music).
Unfortunately, the app is missing features that would make it an amazing and complete sketch tool.
For me, the biggest issue is the lack of MIDI out. If I could sketch a song in Groovebox, start with stock sounds - then set each track to a MIDI channel out to hardware or another DAW…this would be my main sketching tool.
Other cons?
- Very limited piano roll (It can’t be split by a specific note value)
- No AU version
- No audio channel outputs
- Automation is mysterious and limited. (Can’t map to a controller? Is it using CC’s?)
- Can’t record audio loops. (Which would be fantastic for developing vocals, adding guitar or something else)
It seems like the dev has not intention of adding to this app; so, I’m looking at other apps, but this is good for someone new to music production.
Fun
Cool sounds and fun
Song mode please
This is a great app but i sure wish it had song mode. It is easy to use and inspiring for a newbie like me.
Incredible app for writers and composers
I’ve had this for a couple of years. I can’t say enough about how great this app has been for my workflow. It’s easy to use, friendly, straight to the point and effective. And that’s without any purchases yet. The sound quality of the files are amazing and I plan on purchasing a lot of the additional features they also provide. This is not only an intuitive programmable drum machine, it’s also a fully in depth sound designing tool, it has some great features if you know your music theory and you’d like to program some chords to see how they sound as a loop. 10/10 recommended
Great sound, easy to use.
All the synths in this sound _great_, and between them can cover a lot of different musical styles. Very tweakable and can record all tweaking too! You can get both clean and gritty sounds Bass has that classic 90s Novation Basstation sound.
The pre-programmed grooves are OK, I don’t use them much, but the sequencer is pretty easy to program, and it’s also easy to record on the fly. You can leave quantize on or off while recording, so you can do more live-sounding takes as well. Export is dead easy. The reverb is OK, but tends to make everything a bits samey-sounding. No panning, so you will definitely want to export your stems and mix elsewhere. Drums for some reason aren’t very punchy, but the synths make getting this one a no-brainer.
I absolutely love this app…
This is imaginatively totally amazing. The functionality is incredible and super user friendly. I’ve spent almost a year using Groovebox. I figured it was time to give an honest opinion. Thank you so much team you are amazing!
Beautiful sounds but app a bit buggy
I’m really enjoying this app but with my iPad laying horizontal, while scrollling through the synth menus, the envelope page and color are always disappearing. I have to load it again for them to reappear and be careful not to scroll the menu too much otherwise they’re disappearing. Other than that, I totally love the sounds coming out from this app.
Hope they fix that with the next update.
Needs an update in 2024
Still cannot export clips created in Groovebox directly to Launchpad… why?
Sequencer needs some updated features (probability, euclidean, etc).
Add a more full featured mixer? Add a sampler or granular device?
I still love the workflow, just wish there was more substance than just selling me sound packs.
Sad. So much potential.
It’s like they almost finished each thing but just didn’t quite make it to the end. No way to get your midi tracks out of here. Bundle out is not to anything on the iPad. Row transitions are not synced so you can’t prestage any changes. No way to export a song. Not sure why such critical things are missing after all this time.
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