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Chordbot Pro - Uncover Your Inner Musician
Tested version: 1.18
Latest version: 1.25
Requires Android: from 1.5
|
Summary
Having had over 7 years of formal music education, I still have a great affinity for making music despite having quite playing the piano over 10 years ago. New music-making software is making composing music both easy and fun on your computer. Now there’s a way to make music from the comfort of your Android phone!
Chordbot Pro allows you to create amazing songs using chord progressions.
Find out what it’s all about in today’s musical test report.
Features & Use
Section rating:
It seems like anybody can be musician these days even if you don’t have an instrument. Mixing, editing and creating music is all possible from just about any computer. Instead of playing on their guitars in the subway, the new generations of up and coming musicians are sitting in cafés and restaurants around New York City composing music from their laptops. Some may see this as the end of music, while others relish the new technology available to produce music with little experience and/or money.
Although most music is still being made on laptops, there are a few apps that are making the transition over to smartphones. Chordbot Pro allows you to compose music on the go by arranging chords in any order to create interesting sound experiments. Let’s say you’ve come up with a tune in your head on your daily commute to work. With the help of Chordbot you can enter in the chords and hear what it sounds like with different instruments. Pretty amazing, right?
To get started you first select a chord root (i.e. your base note CDEFGAB etc.) This list includes all notes with both sharps and flats. After that you can select the chord type from an all-inclusive list (major, minor, augmented, diminished etc.) Finally, you can choose an appropriate time duration for your chord (2/2, 2/4, 6/4 and so on).
You can create as many chords as you like and rearrange in any order. The chord progression can be played by different instruments or musical styles. The lite version of Chordbot includes the following:
- Hammered (Grand Piano sound)
- Chicago (Piano with Drums)
- Pluckobuster (Electric Guitar)
- Kubiac (Funky Guitar)
- Dialbot (Synthesizer)
- Iceman (80s style keyboard with Drum Machine)
Chordbot Pro includes 30+ styles, but the lite version gives you a fairly good impression of what to expect.
Last but not least, you can also adjust the tempo to speed up or slow down your composition. The tempo is measured in beats per meter just like your regular metronome.
By pressing the Preview button, you can get an idea of what each setting will sound like before you commit to a change. If the tempos available aren’t enough, you can create your custom bpm (anywhere between 40 and 400).
Making tunes with Chordbot is sort of like adding layers to a cake.
For those of you more familiar with music theory, it’s also possible to transpose your chord progression by changing the pitch (or semitone) of all the chords in your composition.
Chordbot also comes with a couple of preloaded songs that you can play to get some inspiration for your own compositions.
In the full-version of the game, you can save your work to the SD card and export your compositions as a wav or midi file.
Bottom Line:
Chordbot is a great app for wannabe composers or for those of you looking to record chord progressions on the fly. With just a pair of headphones, you could be composing the next hit song while riding the subway to your day job. I would highly recommend this app for anyone interested in music and looking for a fun and easy way to compose simple yet creative tunes. Another great thing about the app is the sound quality: it’s not the usual crappy sounding MIDI. Your phone sounds like an actual synthesizer!
Screen & Controls
Section rating:
Chordbot Pro is very easy to use. Just tap on the chords to change the root, chord type, tempo etc. Each chord is numbered starting with 1. Press the + and – symbols at the bottom of the screen to add/delete chords to your composition. Just tap the Play icon to listen to what your chord progression sounds like.
There aren’t any fancy graphics, but everything is beautifully laid out and very easy to navigate.
Pressing the menu button reveals the following extra options:
Open (open existing files)
Transpose (transpose composition to another semitone)
Randomize (create a song from random chords)
Save (save to your SD card)
Export (export and/or email your composition).
Speed & Stability
Section rating:
Didn't experience any glitches or lags with the program. Chordbot Pro played all the sounds perfectly without any delay or distortion.
Price/Performance Ratio
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Chordbot Pro is available for ~$6.16 from the AndroidPIT App Center. The full-version gives you access to all instrument and lets you export and save your compositions.
There is also a demo version called Chordbot Lite offering a limited selection of instruments and lacking a save/export feature.
Getting the full-version is a must for people interested in saving and sharing their music with others. It's a pretty steep price, but I think it's worth it for real music fanatics like myself.
Comparable Apps
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Developer
Top App:
Chordbot Lite
Chordbot lets you create and play advanced chord progressions easily on your phone. (...)
Chordbot lets you create and play advanced chord progressions easily on your phone. (...)
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Market Comments
Nathan, Apr 18, 2012
HTC inspire Just keeps crashing every time I try to play the chord progression! Fix that and its 5 stars
Juan K, Apr 16, 2012
Chordbot I love this app, and had it since the beginning. My only complain is that note duration only goes to 1/4 notes. Please update so we can set at least 16th note values. Would be greatly appreciated!!!
mrothello, Apr 14, 2012
I freaking LOVE this app! this is great for learning chord functions, or if you're not good at keyboards, how your chords sound in sequence. sounds great with headphones, & the chord voicings make sense. doesn't. sound like you patched some chords together. Well worth 5 bucks without a doubt!
Chris, Apr 11, 2012
Great application. I'd like some better tablet support and a few more features, but other than that this app is incredible. Love it!
Vincent, Apr 1, 2012
Vinnie My first 5 hours with Chordbot Pro. (Yes 5hrs nonstop!) I have 2 completed songs and 3 sketches! This App is the truth!!! Simply build and tweak your chord progressions! Plenty of styles to choose from! More couldn't hurt. I exported my songs to the SD Card. Plugged in to my host computer via USB. Saved the MIDI files. Opened them in my host DAW and swapped out the stock MIDI Piano for VSTi 's in my DAW.... BAM! Just add a little cayenne pepper and you've got yourself a song! Love this App!
Lukasz, Mar 13, 2012
Awesome For me best app I have ever found. Add some other instruments I play guitar and it's amazing it is so easy to use and compose i'm speechless wow thanks for that app
Robert, Mar 12, 2012
Very good All sorts of fun and utility, but there remains so much the developer could do. For some time, it seems, the app has gone without substantial attention or refinement. Which is a loss, given the potential here. Nonetheless, no one should read this to suggest the app is not well worth buying as it is now. It is a first-rate Android program.
obogz (Bobo, Motor), Mar 10, 2012
Very nice but needs more addons Very nice app to have if you are a musician. Would be nice to have a better randomizer with a much more complex algorithm (based on music harmony theory) that can build more than 6 chord changes. Another nice thing would be a cloud where you can share, get and rate your creations. I would gladly buy an addon that makes things more complex like adding and removing instruments, making variations in the style. Something that gets it closer to band-in-a-box. I'm like to improvise over a random backing track and I realy love to set the keys, modes and instruments and then let the AI variating for me.
chris, Mar 10, 2012
Great I'm a professional musician... I love this thing... Make midi files, drop em into logic, tweak em... great
ti, Mar 4, 2012
Excellent I tried the lite version for 20 minutes and was immediately convinced to go for the pro. The interface is very intuitive and kept simple. Amazing job! I'm using it to practice basslines and compose songs as well.
Patrick, Jan 25, 2012
Great App This app has been very handy for me as far as my creative process. I love it, has become a indispensable learning tool for me as well.
Robert, Jan 23, 2012
Want more! Great app but would like to see a greater transpose range. One octave is not enough. Plus would like to transpose individual chords rather than whole song.
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