Creating music is hard. First, you have to buy an instrument, then you have to learn it. With TonePad, the app is free – and learning is as simple as touching the screen. It allows even the most musically defunct create unique music – and ringtones – for the iPhone in seconds.
On loading the app, you’re greeted with a 16 x 16 square of grey circles. Touch a circle and it’ll turn white and play a tone. Stroke across the screen and wherever your finger slid over, circles will light up and different tones will play.
The app then “reads” these circles like sheet music – from left to right, with higher tones at the top, lower ones at the bottom. And then it repeats, creating an on-going, engaging tone.
It’s such a simple process that anyone can create fantastic tones. Indeed, the tones are so soft and harmonious that almost whatever you create, it sounds great.
Even if you’re not feeling particularly creative, you can just tap the screen and hit “Edit” for a range of options. Flip your creation to turn the lows-high, rotate it for a whole new sound, shift it about or shuffle for a completely random sound.
Make a great tune and you can save it to load later, or upload it to the web for other people to download later. If you like, you can randomly download someone else’s web-saved tone.
In the Pro version (£0.59) you can even set your creations as ringtones. Don’t be worried about buying it first, though – anything you create in the free version can be ported over.
