Mobile apps for making music have exploded in recent years. With technological innovations pushing us ever forward into the techno world, apps designed for music production have gotten ever better.

However, finding the best phone apps for making music gets trickier and trickier with each passing year. We certainly have our favourite (as you’ll soon notice), but this list is full of answers to the question: what is the best app for making music?

Even major DAW players such as FL Studio have their own interactive music production mobile app. If that doesn’t tell you about the direction of the market, maybe the functionality of Roland’s Zentarcker will!

Zentracker

Zentracker, available for both iOS and Android, is one of the most recent software releases by Roland and is our favourite music-making app for mobile.

Zentracker supports both punch-in and standard region recording options and has no limit on the number of tracks available to you.

Punch-in allows you to overwrite only a portion of a prior recorded track during playback – keeping all of the recordings before or after that portion safe from being overwritten.

Each channel allows you to plug two effects at a time and each channel has two sends. Available to you is a “track freeze” which allows you to keep your project rolling, even if your phone processor starts to run slow. It does this by freezing/bouncing down the work you have done so that you’re working with audio files rather than MIDI data.

The free version of Zentracker gives you a Compressor, Reverb, EQ, Delay, Chorus, Flanger, as well as Auto Wah!

Roland even gift you 200 onboard looped samples with its free version!

If you wanted to use the paid version, Roland Cloud gives you unlimited access to more features. These include nine additional effects types, as well as unlimited track sends and timeline automation. On top of all these awesome tools are 20 loop packs rather than 200 looped samples.

BandLab

Up next comes BandLab. BandLab is also available for both iOS and Android and it packs a massive library of virtual instruments, as well as loops and sample packs.

BandLab is totally free and is accessible in your internet browser!

However, you only have 12 instrument channels to make a track with and your song can’t exceed more than 6 minutes. This is just enough to create a professional track and it does include almost 200 built-in instruments. BandLab even features AutoPitch, as well as plenty of effects & presets.

Where BandLab and Zentracker meet in the middle is collaborations and recording capabilities. Providing you have a strong internet connection, these two awesome tech tools allow you to collaborate via the cloud. It’s very easy to share your music with friends and fellow producers, as well as listen to their music too. One solid perc is access to the full history of your activities in each project which is great if you make a mistake and need a previous version of the track.

BandLab also runs competitions much like metapop, and actually won Microsoft’s Start-up Partner of the Year Award in 2016.

Soundtrap

In the same way that BandLap and Zentracker are, Soundtrap is also available for iOS and Android devices. Created by Spotify, Soundtrap works on both your phone and tablet. Unlike Zentracker, it also works on PC.

Like BandLab, Soundtrap also features AutoTune, automation capabilities like Zentracker, and over 4,000 top quality samples and presets.

But the similarities don’t stop there. It too also provides a space for collaborations between friends and artists. It provides a range of virtual instruments, samples and loops, and you can record your own audio.

Soundtrap allows you to watch featured tutorials as soon as you sign up so you don’t get lost and can get stuck in much sooner. It’s pretty easy to find your way around thanks to its easy to use interface.

Similar to Zentracker, certain effects do require payment. But Soundtrap is a fantastic tool for recording any ideas on the spot!

Zenbeats

Back with Roland, Zenbeats is a music-making app for Android and iOS that has a design that’ll keep you in the flow. Its unique selling point is its design around a vintage collection of new and classic Roland sounds.

The app is an easy to use design that utilizes Roland’s history of sound creation. It turns this into an accessible music creation application.

Zenbeats houses a plethora of presets, samples and creative tools that will blow your palette into the sky. Available for purchase in the app are also hip-hop and electronic sample packs.

Zenbeats lets you multitrack record your ideas and bounce the stems to your DAW straight away. However, be mindful of the fact that the sound files do take up a lot of storage on your mobile.

Playing around with vintage Roland synths is a favourite pastime of many producers, and Zenbeats provides a generation of them.

Garage Band

The GarageBand mobile app, like its Mac counterpart, is one of the best DAWs for newcomers out there. The mobile version is a near-exact adaptation of the Mac DAW.

It is exclusive to Apple products, but it does come free with every iPhone and iPad… so, pros and cons.

But its Mac exclusivity is why it’s number five on our list.

It’s incredibly easy to use, and also features instrument loops and a mountain of professional-quality sounds. Not only does it come with sounds, but it also features high-quality presets for effects such as EQ. With Live Loops, you can easily make electronic music and have fun along the way.

GarageBand is definitely the most popular application, but we think its exclusivity is more of a drag on the product itself.

It’s easy to play, record, and share music. GarageBand features the Alchemy synthesizer, which is one of the most advanced synthesizer tools available. Garageband even allows you to plug in a guitar and record up to 32 tracks at once.

As well as a platform to make great music, you need a platform to find great sounds. Great sounds are the foundation of great music, so they should be as accessible as possible.

This is our mission at Mixxed. We work with an extensive range of sample labels and creators from a variety of backgrounds and genres to provide you with a premium sample subscription service that’s more accessible than before.

For less than $3 a month, you’ll have access to our growing catalogue of loops and one-shots that you can browse, download and keep forever.

Sign up today and find your sound!