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Smule Guitar app plays nicely with Sing (video)
Bay Area app developer Smule has amassed an army of mobile instruments, but really, what fun are all those music makers without a little good old-fashioned jamming? Today, the company's offering up the simply named Guitar, an app that lets you strum along to songs recorded through its equally straightforwardly named Sing. At present, the company has hand-picked a dozen or so singers, letting you play along (though expect that number to increase, as time goes on), becoming "the first pair of [Smule] apps that actually talk to each other," according to the company. Using the app will be pretty intuitive for anyone who's messed around with Guitar Hero and its ilk, letting you know when to strum via swipe through a dynamically scrolling layout. On more advanced modes, you can choose the chord you want to play, but in Easy, it'll just do it for you. You can pick a single string with a tap and add vibrato by shaking your iPhone / iPad. We got a preview of the app during a recent visit to the Smule office for the Engadget Show, back when it went under the (arguably superior) name "Strum." Check out video of that and the final version after the break.
Guitar Hero out on iPhone now
Wait, isn't Guitar Hero out for the iPhone already? I guess it wasn't (competitor Rock Band came out months ago), but as of the keynote yesterday morning, it is now. Activision has finally released a version of the very popular music game for Apple's device, and the early reviews are pretty good. Unlike most of the music games on the iPhone, you can actually use the multitouch screen to "strum," in a minimal imitation of the game's guitar controller. The game also offers up customizable rockers, and it's Facebook-connected as well. The soundtrack is pretty impressive, too, although the pickings are slim without in-app purchases. There are six songs to play right away, from Queen to Rolling Stones to Weezer, and then you can buy various 3-packs of songs from different bands like Protest the Hero and Vampire Weekend. The app itself is priced at just US$2.99, so it looks like Activision is aiming to compete with the $6.99 Rock Band by going cheap and making it up on the in-app purchases. Which is actually not a bad idea -- this way, you only have to pay for the songs that you want rather than a big song list that you're not interested in. Otherwise, the app seems like a respectable version of the console game on Apple's handheld. It's a little late, given that competitors have all released their own versions already, but it's priced and featured accordingly. If you've still got room for another music game on your iPhone, it's worth checking out.
Pocket Sitar is a virtual sitar for the iPhone
NPR posted the other day about an app that promised to simulate a sitar, the stringed instrument used mainly in Indian music. So just for you, dear readers, we downloaded it [iTunes link] and gave it a shot. The verdict? If you can already play the sitar, you'll probably find it a reasonable approximation. Just like the guitar simulators on the iPhone, there are various strings on screen that you can "strum," and the notes are labeled under the virtual strings. As for actually learning the sitar, however, you're probably out of luck. There's one instructional page, and links to eHow videos, but there's nothing solid in terms of actually learning the device. And unfortunately, the app just feels pretty cheap -- there's a large part of the screen taken up with a one-hit sitar sound, and quite a few times, we'd try striking different strings and get the same notes, as if the app had bugged out and gotten stuck on one file. Of course, I can't play the sitar (though I'm pretty respectable on the guitar), so maybe I was just doing it wrong. But even a little experimentation with the app didn't bring up an easy way to do it right. Still, NPR has a point -- you can't always carry your sitar around with you. If you want to pay 99 cents to have a Pocket Sitar around, this will app will probably strum your chikari.
