If you’ve created home videos with your iPhone but are having a hard time finding music to accompany them, YouTube Producer has come to the rescue! YouTube Producer offers tens of thousands of copyright-free music tracks that you can add background, ambiance, and mood to your personal productions.

Copyright-free is the key point here. Most of us have big music libraries we’d like to use, but the songs they’re filled with are copyrighted. If we add them to our videos, we could get complaints, and YouTube could remove the videos. Using YouTube Producer alleviates this concern completely. It has a great selection of music that can be sorted by genre, mood or tempo, and it’s 100% safe to use.

There are some limitations, however. Namely, the music you choose for your video must be placed in the background of the entire video. Using it’s music for just your intro, for example, is not an option. You do have control over volume, however — either mix the music with the video’s existing audio, or have the new music replace the audio track completely.

Also, YouTube Producer isn’t a full blown video editor. If that’s what you’re looking for, you need to pick up a copy of Apple’s iMovie instead.

If you just want to add a soundtrack or some background music to your the videos in your iPhone Camera roll and easily upload them to YouTube, then this is the app for you.

• Free – App Store link

Taglists is an iPhone and iPad app that lets you create and share playlists made up of music, videos, and photos that can be streamed for free by you and your friends. Just tag all the media with the same hashtag label and Taglists will generate the playlists for you. Want to enjoy these playlists via a different medium? No problem; Taglists lets you use Airplay or DLNA to play them on connected TV, A/V receivers, iPod docks, stereos, Apple TV and more.

We took a closer look at Taglists at Macworld 2012.

• Free – App Store link

Taglists lets you create and share playlists that mix free music, videos, and photos from multiple places, including Facebook, YouTube, Picasa, and SoundCloud.

• Create a Taglist by tagging songs, videos, and photos with the same hash-tag, like #inthedark (See #inthedark here: http://eye-c.tv/twv)
• Share Taglists on Twitter and Facebook automatically, and let friends add to your playlist to build your own shared channel that others can watch on any computer
• Play Taglists on your iPhone or iPod touch or iPad or use Airplay or DLNA to play them on connected TV, A/V receivers, iPod docks, stereos, Apple TV and more.

Taglists is available on the iPhone and iPad for free.

• App Store link

Have an app you’d love to see featured on iMore? Email us at iosapps@imore.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.

VicMan Visage Lab: A professional beauty laboratory for your facial photos. Remove pimples and wrinkles, outline the eyes and whiten the teeth in seconds, with all operations made automatically!

• Free for iPhone and iPad – App Store link

Super Grouper for Contacts App Groups and List Management: Create groups of Contacts and send group SMS, emails or photos in a couple taps.

• Free for iPhone – App Store link

Charadium II: A fast & furious draw-and-guess multiplayer game that guarantees you’ll be drawn in. Your goal is to draw a given word, and other players have to guess that word.

• $0.99 for iPhone – App Store link
• $2.99 for iPad – App Store link

DoReMi 1-2-3: Fun, musical ear training games challenge your children’s minds as they laugh, create, and play with moo-sical cows, boat-rowing pandas, and twinkling stars! Music lessons have never been this fun—brain-building never this effortless!

• $1.99 for iPhone and iPad – App Store link

Last Night…?: Ever woke up from a long night out without remembering what happened, or went to the coolest burger place and can’t remember where it was? Or just want to be able to monitor your daily movements if you’re a jogger or if you’re learning to drive? Then this app is made for you!

• $1.99 for iPhone – App Store link

Any other big app or game releases or updates today?

Have an app you’d love to see featured on iMore? Email us at iosapps@imore.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.

Rockmate for iPad is a music studio for the iPad. One of it’s unique features is the ability to play 4 interments at once to play with your friends. Then you can record your jams and export them as .wav or .aac files.

Rockmate is a breakthrough music creation app. It turns your iPad into a complete music studio easy and super fun to use.

You can compose, record and play songs with up to 4 Rock players on one single iPad. Rockmate is easy to play with smart chords progressions, sounds great with separated guitar effects and in-house produced audio samples and is also fully customizable with multiple drums and keyboard styles

• Realistic design and animations
• High-quality samples
• 4 players on one single iPad
• Realtime looper
• Smart metronome
• Mixer with level and pan controls
• Realtime Fx (distortion, multiFX, powerchord)
• Chords progression customizable
• Create your own chords
• Save your styles (Chords progression, FX, Drum, keyboard style…)
• Export: .wav or .aac
• Sharing: iTunes sharing folder and Email.
• Airplay

Rockmate is available on the iPad and on sale for the weekend for $1.99.

• $1.99 – App Store link

Have an app you’d love to see featured on TiPb? Email us at iosapps@tipb.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.

Magic Guitar is Smule’s newest music app, similar to Magic Piano. To play the guitar, hold your iPhone like it’s the neck of a guitar, and tap or slide the beams of light that pass across the screen. Just as with Magic Piano, you can listen live to others around the world while they play their music. The song selection includes many legendary artists including The Rolling Stones, Nirvana, Tom Petty, and Lynard Skynyrd.

• Free – App Store link

Check out Smule’s cofounder Ge Wang playing Scarborough Fair with Magic Guitar in the video below!

Get ready to rock! Unleash your inner rocker with Magic Guitar, and you’ll be shredding like a legend in no time. Simply hold your phone like a guitar neck, and beams of light help you play the greatest guitar songs your own way. You control the notes, speed, guitar type, pitch and vibrato. Play it once, play it a hundred times, each time is a unique experience that won’t get old.

• Simply touch the lights to play all styles of music, from soulful jams to scorching shred.
• Express your creativity and shake your phone to create vibrato, or drag your fingers to bend the pitch.
• Choose from different guitar sounds and speeds to make each song your own.

Magic Guitar’s songbook includes a huge catalog of legendary artists including:

• The Rolling Stones
• KISS
• Daughtry
• Nirvana
• Sublime
• Bruno Mars
• Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
• Goo Goo Dolls
• Incubus
• Coldplay
• Lynard Skynyrd
• Evanescence
• Styx
• Poison
• Credence Clearwater Revival
• Blue Oyster Cult
• Jason Mraz
• Santana
• …and many more!

Magic Guitar is available on the iPhone for free.

Have an app you’d love to see featured on TiPb? Email us at iosapps@tipb.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.

Muud.io is a new iPhone app that plays music to suit your mood. That’s right, let Muud.io know what kind of mood you’re in and it’ll automatically build a playlist to match it. If you like a little more control, you can save and edit your favorite playlist to fit your exact needs.

Making great mixes shouldn’t be a chore. Whether you’re out-and-about, or relaxing at home, you want the right music and you want it now.

Muud.io automatically builds playlists to suit any mood, at the touch of a button.

Simply pick a mood, and Muud.io will build a playlist for you, using the music that you love.

• Community-recommended playlists, based on a mood of your choice.
• Automatic rating of song moods via the Muud.io community.
• Manually rate song moods according to your own personal preference.
• Save and edit your favourite playlists to get them just right.
• Let your friends know what you’re listening to via Twitter and Facebook.
• Share your favourite playlists via Twitter and Facebook.

Giveaway

The good folks at App Sandwich Limited have given us 5 promo codes to give away to you, our awesome readers! For a chance to win, just leave a comment below telling us who your favorite artist is.

Muud.io is available on the iPhone for $3.99.

[App Store link]

Have an app you’d love to see featured on TiPb? Email us at iosapps@tipb.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.

Video Star is an iPhone and iPad app that lets you record music videos to your favorite songs features – you! You can mix layouts, colors, action, and frames easily and even pause recording to make scene changes a breeze. Once your masterpiece is created, it can be shared on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter.

Check out the video made with Video Star below!

Record an awesome music video, anytime, anywhere. Lip sync … dance cover … capture your friends in action. Now you are the Video Star!

Video Star comes with tons of built-in video effects and you can make your own. Mix amazing layouts, cool colors, awesome action, and fantastic frames. A video effects playground!

• dozens of video effects, thousands of combinations!
• instant upload to YouTube
• share published videos to Facebook, Twitter, and email
• full iPhone 4, iPod Touch Gen 4, and iPad 2 front & back camera support

Giveaway

The good folks at Frontier Design Group have given us 5 promo codes to give away to our awesome readers! For a chance to win, just leave a comment below letting us know which song you’ll make a music video to.

Video Star is available on the iPhone and iPad for $0.99.

[App Store link]

Have an app you’d love to see featured on TiPb? Email us at iosapps@tipb.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.

Play It is a music player for the iPhone and iPad that is controlled solely with gestures. It also lets you customize the look and syncs with iCloud so that your settings match on all devices. Additionally, Play It supports the new Twitter function in iOS 5, so that you can quickly tweet about the music you’re listening to.

Check out the promo video below!

Play It is a fun and useful app to control your music with innovative, but simple gestures.

• iCloud
• Personal colors
• Twitter
• Multi touch
• Useful on the road
• AirPlay support
• Headphone remote support
• Controls from the lock screen
• Synchronization with iTunes
• Uses the music from the iPod app
• Also plays popcasts and audio books
• Shuffle function
• Search function
• Sort albums by album or artists

The updated includes:

• iCloud
• Colors and scroll style personalization
• iOS 5 Twitter (auto and manual)
• Lyrics
• New gestures
• Albums crash fix
• Other important bug fixes

Play It is available on the iPhone and iPad for $0.99.

[App Store link]

Have an app you’d love to see featured on TiPb? Email us at iosapps@tipb.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.

VocaLive is a new iPad app that allows you to capture vocal recordings with your iPad and includes 12 real-time professional vocal effects. Combined with IK Multimedia’s iRig Mic, this is a great little setup for musicians.

VocaLive provides singers and vocalists with a suite of 12 real-time professional vocal effects along with a capable recorder for studio-quality sound in a portable package. The effects can be combined into a chain of 4 processors and saved as presets. A collection of up to 50 presets is included to get you up and running immediately.

• Real time vocal processor + recording app
• 4-processor vocal effects chain
• 12 professional studio quality vocal effects
• Single track recorder expandable to a full 8-track recording studio with master effects section, available for purchase in the in-app Shop
• Import and play songs to be used as backing tracks directly from your music library or computer
• Voice Cancel feature lets you create sing-along backing tracks by removing the vocal track from existing recordings
• 50 presets included with 4 Favorites for fast recall
• Includes metronome and vocal warm-up tools
• Low-latency for real time vocal processing

VocaLive is available on the iPad for $19.99. The iRig Mic is available for $59.99.

[App Store link]

Have an app you’d love to see featured on TiPb? Email us at iosapps@tipb.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.

Launched alongside iPad 2, Apple’s multitouch version of GarageBand has just been updated as a universal app — that’s right, it now supports iPhone and iPod touch as well. GarageBand for iOS is a re-imagining of Apple’s traditional iLife music recording, mixing, and rendering app for their modern mobile platforms.

Apple’s SVP of Marketing, Phil Schiller:

GarageBand on iPad has been a big hit and we think customers will love using it on their iPhone or iPod touch,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. “The innovative Multi-Touch interface combined with Smart Instruments makes it easy to create great sounding music, even if you’ve never studied music or played an instrument before.

Here’s the full update list:

• Universal app designed for iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch
• Create custom chords for Smart Instruments
• Support for 3/4 and 6/8 time signatures
• Reset song key without transposing original recordings
• Transpose songs in semitones or full octaves
• Additional quantization options for recordings including, straight, triplet and swing
• New audio export quality settings for AAC and AIFF (Uncompressed)
• Arpeggiator available in Smart Keyboard
• Adjustable velocity settings for Touch Instruments
• Numerous enhancements, including automatic fade out and improved audio import options

Get it, plug it in, and tell us how well it works for you on the smaller screen.

Source: App Store Link

Shows is an iPhone app that uses your music library to determine who your favorite artists are and then keeps you up to date and notified about upcoming concerts near you. You can also search for specific artists and share concerts on Facebook and Twitter.

If you love live music, and you love nicely designed, smartly executed iPhone apps, you want Shows on your home screen.

Shows is the ultimate live music companion you’ve been waiting for. It automatically scans your iPod for artists and makes it easy to import ones from your Last.fm and Rdio libraries. But that’s just the start.

• Push notifications for newly announced concerts in your area.
• Distance slider to set how far you’re willing to travel for a gig.
• Location offsetting, to know what’s happening at your next travel destination.
• Easily search listings for artists you follow and thousands of others.
• Share concerts with your friends over Facebook, Twitter, SMS, email.
• Concert favorites.

Giveaway

The developer, Sam Vermette, has given us 5 promo codes to give away to our readers! For a chance to win, just leave a comment letting us know which band or artist you most love seeing live — who’s concert can you simply not miss!

Shows is available on the iPhone for $2.99.

[App Store link - Web Site link]

Have an app you’d love to see featured on TiPb? Email us at iosapps@tipb.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.

DM1 is a virtual drum machine for the iPad. It comes with over 40 electronic drum kits: 18 classic vintage drum kits plus 22 in-house produced electronic kits. Too see the DM1 in action, check out the video below.

DM1 is an advanced vintage Drum Machine. It turns your iPad into a fun and creative beat making machine. Easy and fast to use, loaded with 40 superb electronic drum kits and beautiful hyper-realistic graphics, DM1 has been designed for a lot of instant fun.

DM1 offers 5 main sections:

1. The step sequencer frees your imagination with a smart use of the multi-touch screen. Just turn on and off steps in your sequence with the tip of your fingers to create cool beats, or unexpected rhythms!
2. The drum pads simply lets you play and record the beat that tickles your fingers. No need to be a first-class drummer, automatic quantize does the work for you.
3. The mixer for quick and subtle sound mixing of your drum kits. Featuring settings for volume, pitch, sample length, custom drum kit element for each channel, mute and solo mode.
4. The FX trackpads a creative duo of FX trackpads to distort, modulate and transform your beats. The effects include: Overdrive, Delay, Phaser, Texturizer, Robotizer, Filter and Compressor.
5. The song composer allows you to quickly make a song with the beat patterns you have created. Just drag and drop the patterns onto the timeline. Fast and easy.

Specifications:

• Graphic design by Jonas Eriksson
• Smart ergonomy for fast creativity and fun
• 40 vintage and produced drum kits, mastered at in-house Fingerlab Sound Studios
• Mixer page with pitch, length and level rotary controls, pan controls, and custom drum kit per channel
• Extra fast drum kit loading
• Playable pattern selection for extra creativity
• 9 Big Drum pads, quantized recording and MPC-like Repeat touch-stripe
• Step Sequencer with multi-touch matrix
• Duo FX Trackpads for real-time sonic destruction and multi-FX
• Mode song with intuitive editing
• High-quality export to email or iTunes shared folder
• Audio background mode

Giveaway

The good folks at Fingerlab have given us 5 promo codes to give away to you, our awesome readers! For a chance to win, just leave a comment below!

DM1 – The Drum Machine is available on the iPad and on sale for $0.99 until October 24.

[App Store link]

Have an app you’d love to see featured on TiPb? Email us at iosapps@tipb.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.

Smule has released a new music app for iOS, MadPad. It’s a video soundboard – of your life. After using the camera on your iPhone or iPad 2 to record 12 tiny clips of video and sound, your soundboard is created and you’re ready to start remixing.

I cannot justly describe the awesomeness of this app, so please watch the video below. And because we know that our readers are much more creative than us, TiPb is gifting 5 copies of MadPad for iPhone and 5 copies MadPad HD for iPad!

Remix your life with MadPad, Apple’s official iPhone and iPad App of the Week. Turn everyday sights and sounds like your car, an empty soda can, or your friends into the ultimate percussive instrument. Who would have thought everyday life could be so musical?

Create video soundboards from your life

Oh the possibilities! Just aim and shoot to capture sounds all around you – your local café, car, kitchen, kids, cat, friends – MadPad magic will take care of the rest.

• Easily record video clips to create interactive video sets.
• Mix in clips from the community to create new mashups.

Simply tap to play

Tap to play video sets just like a drum. Have fun creating your own rhythms, beats and loops.

• Over 50 FREE sets included: pianos to piccolos, silly sounds to sweet guitars.
• Discover new sets from the MadPad community daily.
• Remix exclusive content from YouTube sensation Mystery Guitar Man.

Share with the world

Record and share music videos for the world to enjoy! Or see how your friends remix your life.

• Record your performances like a music video, and then post on YouTube.
• Share your favorite sets through Twitter, Facebook or email.

Giveaway

For a chance to win a copy of MadPad for iPhone or iPad, let us know which version you would prefer and give us a little hint on what type of soundboard you plan to create! (Must have a US or Canadian iTunes account to win. Apple’s rule, not ours!)

MadPad is available on the iPhone and iPad for $0.99 and $2.99 respectively.

[iPhone App Store link] [iPad App Store link]

Have an app you’d love to see featured on TiPb? Email us at iosapps@tipb.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.

iSheetMusic, an app that allows you to download sheet music to your iPhone or iPad, is now available.

iSheetMusic is an educational music app providing fully dynamic sheet music to amateur/hobbyist musicians across every genre imaginable.

• Download your favorite sheet music directly to your device.
• Search for Music in FKBK or PVG formats.
• Use In-App purchase to download new music to your sheet music collection.
• Organize your music into sets; or view by Artist, Composer, or Genre.
• Both an Audible and Visual Metronome are included. Each song defaults to the music default tempo, but you can adjust freely.
• Guitar Chords Diagrams are included (when appropriate).

iSheetMusic is available on the iPhone and iPad for free. Screenshots after the break.

[iTunes link]

Have an app you’d love to see featured on TiPb? Email us at iosapps@tipb.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.

Coverjam Pro by Electric Pocket is a new iPhone and iPad app that, while listening to music, displays photo slideshows of the band.

Listen to your music and Coverjam Pro will search Instagram and Flickr for photos tagged with the band’s name to create a stunning full-screen slideshow of the artists as you listen!

• Enhance your listening pleasure with photos of the artist
• Share the photos you like with friends via Facebook, Twitter or Email
• Get a fresh slide-set each time your track changes
• Play music from your iPod, or select from within Coverjam
• View photos in Safari, find out more about them and see other photos by that photographer
• Ban photos you don’t like so they’re not shown again

Coverjam is available on the iPhone and iPad for $0.99. Screenshots and video after the break.

[iTunes link]

Have an app you’d love to see featured on TiPb? Email us at iosapps@tipb.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.

Fingerlab has released their new drumming iPad app, DM1 – The Drum Machine. It will turn your iPad into a fun and creative beat making machine.

• 12 classic vintage drum kits plus 12 in-house produced electronic kits
• Smart ergonomy for fast creativity and fun
• 24 vintage and produced drum kits, mastered at in-house Fingerlab Sound Studios
• Mixer page with pitch, length and level rotary controls, and custom drum kit per channel
• Extra fast drum kit loading
• Playable pattern selection for extra creativity
• 9 Big Drum pads, quantized recording and MPC-like Repeat touch-stripe
• Step Sequencer with multi-touch matrix
• Duo FX Trackpads for real-time sonic destruction and multi-FX
• Mode song with intuitive editing

I may not know much about drumming nor have the musical creativity to put this app to any good use, but I know a good UI when I see one – and I see one in DM1.

DM1 – The Drum Machine has a launch price of $1.99. Screenshots and video after the break.

[iTunes link]

• Rhythm Guitar: Play guitar with your iPad! [$2.99 for iPad - iTunes link]

• Tagged Recorder: Simply record conferences, lectures, seminars, talks and easily find your records by tags and location. [$1.99 for iPhone - iTunes link]

• Horse Zoom: – Over 2000 images of Horses by renowned professional photographer. Mark J. Barrett. [$11.99 for iPhone and iPad - iTunes link]

• Miso Music: Plectrum: Learn how to learn to play the guitar, ukulele, bass, banjo and mandolin. [Free for iPad, with in-app purchases - iTunes link]

• Busy Gears: Tap anywhere on the screen to jump from gear to gear to spring to air puff while reaching the bonus stars. Watch out for the spikes, flying razers, speed gears, and invisible gears. [$0.99 for iPhone - iTunes link]

Any other big apps or game releases or updates today? If you pick any of these up, let us know what you think!

Have an app you’d love to see featured on TiPb? Email us at iosapps@tipb.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.

Progression is a guitar tab editor for your iPad that gives you the convenience of an easy-to-use guitar tab creation tool right at your fingertips. It is loaded with features and functions such as vibrato, slides, string bending, hammer-ons, pull-offs, whammy-bar, bass slap, effects, mutes, and harmonics.

• Enter, edit, and playback tab, notation, or both
• Acoustic Guitar, Electric Guitar, and Bass Guitar samples included (add additional instruments such as Classical Guitar, Acoustic Fingerstyle Guitar, Mandolin, and Banjo)
• Search for tabs online
• Open NOTION files
• Open Guitar Pro files (versions 3-5)
• Clean and intuitive user interface
• Interactive 24-fret guitar fretboard for fast entry
• Quick and simple selection palette
• Distortion and reverb effects
• Full audio mixer
• Convenient file sharing
• Full-range of guitar functions and articulations including: bends, vibrato, slides, hammer on, pull off, mutes, whammy bar techniques, bass slap, harmonics, and more…
• Drag and drop cursor option
• Insert text
• Quick “Undo” and “Redo” functions
• Chord and melody modes
• Easy delete and erase capabilities
• Help Files
• Enter and edit title and composer information
• In-App Purchases to add more instruments and gear
• Free scales and exercises included

If you pick this one up, let us know what you think! Check out the screenshots after the break.

[$4.99, with in-app purchases - iTunes link]

Have an app you’d love to see featured on TiPb? Email us at iosapps@tipb.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.

Amplitube 2 by IK Multimedia is an awesome little app that allows you to convert your iPhone into a full on guitar rig. Their iPad version was recently featured in one of the new Apple iPad ads. The app has 3 versions currently – Amplitube Free, Amplitube LE ($2.99), and the full Amplitube version ($19.99). We are using the full version for this review to give you a complete picture of what’s available.

To use this app, you’ll need to purchase an iRig, which are currently priced at $39.99. You’ll simply plug your guitar or bass into the iRig which then plugs into your iPhone or iPad. The 3rd outlet allows you to plug into the audio output of your choice. We just used a standard surround system (receiver) for this review. You’re also free to use an amp or headphones, which can be great if you’d like to practice quietly. And hey, it’s a lot easier to carry around the iRig than an entire guitar rig.

iTunes Link

When you first launch Amplitube, you’ll see a plethora of different options. You can choose between different cabinets as well as add effects pedals. The full version of Amplitube comes with most of the effects pedals and tons of extras. You can also purchase more gear via an in-app purchase. We also purchased the four track recorder, which is not included in any version. We tested the iRig and Amplitube 2 with not only a surround sound system, but headphones as well. The results really were quite pleasing. In-app purchases are easy enough and add even more features to the app. They are also extremely reasonably priced when you look at what a new physical effects pedal would cost, for example.

This app is great for anyone who wants to learn to play guitar but doesn’t want to invest into a major setup right off the bat. It’s also great for professionals who may travel a lot and don’t want to always carry a full rig with them. The app also features basic tools like a built-in tuner and metronome as well. The song feature allows you to drop in songs from your iTunes library through file sharing. Then when you launch the app, you can play along with your favorite songs within the app. This is a great feature for wearing headphones and practicing when you don’t want to disturb anyone else.

The only down sides we noticed when testing this app was the cramped layout. I pulled my brother in on this review, as I do not pretend to be a master guitar player. He really enjoyed playing with this app and using it, but he was sometimes frustrated by the cramped layout. If you have an iPad that you carry around with you frequently, I’d suggest using Amplitube with the iPad over the iPhone. The layout is much more spacious and it’s harder to press buttons on accident. He would frequently hit the wrong tab along the top when trying to toggle between effects pedals or other settings. This is one thing I’d like to see some improvement on in the next iteration. Other than that, this is a great app and one I’d suggest any guitar player to look over. If you aren’t sure about buying an iRig just yet, check out the free version of the app and browse through what’s available first. It’s definitely a decent investment for anyone who wants to be more portable with their guitar or bass.

Pros

• Easy setup with iRig
• In-app purchase makes it simple to buy more effects on the go
• iRig and app are reasonably priced for what they offer
• The Songs option is a great feature that takes advantage of file sharing

Cons

• The layout on the iPhone version is a bit cramped
• The four track recorder is not extremely easy to learn, but once you figure it out, it’s a nice feature to have

Smule, makers of Ocarina, Leaf Trombone, Magic Piano, and I am T-Pain have announced their latest app — Magic Fiddle!

Uncover your musical talents and learn new techniques effortlessly as your friendly fiddle leads the way. Compete for global high scores and earn medals and badges as you accomplish fabulous feats of fiddlery. Show off your newly discovered musical aptitude with friends, family or even broadcast it to the world.

Check out video of it in action after the break and if you want to win a promo code to make it your very own, just leave a comment telling us how much you want it! (Promo codes require a US iTunes account, Apple’s rule, not ours!)

[$2.99 - iTunes link]

Pick Up and Play Beautiful Music: Amaze yourself as you pick up and play songs by following streams of colored light in the Songbook, no previous skill required. Impress your friends by playing any of the 20 songs that come bundled in the Songbook, from video theme songs to Ave Maria and everything in between.

Learn Fiddling Techniques Easily: Learn to bow, pluck, trill, vibrato and glissandi directly from your iPad. Your fiddle takes you on fun learning adventures with the Storybook – an 8-chapter interactive journey that teaches you different techniques with fun activities and step-by-step instructions.

Take it To the Top! Show off your newly found musical aptitude to your fellow fiddlers as you compete for the high score on the global leaderboards. Play your heart out to earn scores and medals for each song – your best performances combine for your global high score. Earn badges as you accomplish new heights.

Listen and Share Globally: Inspire your friends and family with your musical talent at home or experience social music on the Smule globe. Listen to other fiddlers around the world, broadcast your masterpieces and show support for fellow fiddlers by “liking” their songs.

The Financial Times is reporting that Apple may be in cahoots with the Big Music record labels, Sony, Warner, Universal, and EMI to create bonus-material laden Apps in an attempt to reignite interest in full album purchases among consumers. This project is said to be code named “cocktail” and would include:

a new interactive booklet, sleeve notes and other interactive features with music downloads

Since the advent of iTunes, sales of digital singles has risen but full albums has fallen. In previous decades, from vinyl through cassette and compact disc (CD), with the exception of 45s (original, not the new digital kind) and compilations, albums were often the only way to get popular tunes.

While some, including our own editor-in-chief, still prefer buying whole albums so as to get the whole “story” an artist is trying to tell, others have maintained since the days of vinyl that some artists were just as content to put effort into a couple hit songs then quickly produce filler for the rest of the album.

So “Cocktail” could well enhance even those mega-albums filled with great music, much as they did in the heydays of physical media, but will they be compelling enough to get consumers to fork over $9+ instead of $1.29 to get filler from that one hit wonder as well?

[Via MacRumors]