Skram – iOS app by creators of Björk and Daft Punk stage tech offers music creation for all

Berlin, Germany – April  2016 – Liine recently released Skram – Electronic Music Maker for iPad. Skram gives users everything they need to create electronic music. The app enables fans to make music with convincing results and provides an immediate tool for seasoned musicians.

For those who are unfamiliar with Liine, they also brought the legendary Jazzmutant Lemur to the iPad, a multi-touch screen device created in 2005, 5 years ahead the iPad. Among the team are more widely known musicians like Richie Hawtin and John Acquaviva.

“We realised there was a need for an accessible platform, something to enable fans to make the music they like without feeling patronised” says Liine’s CEO Gareth Williams. “We felt that we could build something that inspires existing musicians too, for whom simplicity stimulates creativity, freedom and fun.”

So lets dive into the official video to see Skram in action:

App structure
Skram consists of 4 expressive synth and drums ‘Devices’. ORPHIC (Synth), HEATSTROKE (Synth), SKRAM (Acid Bass) and BR-909 (Drums). Users will soon be able to choose from a wide range covering many genres.

Skram Devices: ORPHIC (Synth), HEATSTROKE(Synth), SKRAM(Acid Bass), BR-909(Drums)

Each device contains a so called ‘Widget’ to create musical patterns. There are three different widgets: Arpeggiator, Drum Sequencer and Pitch Sequencer.

Skram Widgets: Arpeggiator, Drum Sequencer and Pitch Sequencer.

With the global feature you can change the speed of the song (bpm), record and export your performance (via email), and you can change the key as well as the scale. With the selection of a key, the complementary harmonic keys will be highlighted (in terms of harmonic relationships on the circle of fifths). That’s a fancy feature! Here you can learn about harmony if you aren’t that familiar with the theory. There is also a mixer to control the volume of each device.

Skram keys and scales.

DEVICES
SKRAM (Acid bass)
If you love acid, you will fall instantly in love with this instrument. The quality of the bass sound is incredible. Go from dry silky bass to screaming acid. Use the Pitch Sequencer to create bass lines up to 16 steps. Accent mode for the next version strongly desired by us.

HEATSTROKE (Synth)
The HEATSTROKE creates the lead sounds of your session. Turn knobs Wow, Dirt, Sick and Filter to sculpt frequencies that cut through the mix.

BR-909 (Drums)
Classic dancefloor drums. Kick, Snare, Closed Hihat, Open Hihat, Tom and Clap. You can tune each sound with the following four parameter: Level, Length, Pitch and Special. This will add your very unique sound signature to the drums. In the Drum Sequencer you program the rhythm. Here you can also set the pitch level for every step per instrument.

ORPHIC (Synth)
Kind of dreamy bells, in conjunction with the Arpeggiator THE perfect combo for all kinds of techno. And of course other genres. Special pitch effects give Orphic its unique flavor, so much fun to fiddle around with this synth.

Quick Start guide

The Quick Start guide kickstarts you into music creation. I have to say, the app is very intuitive by itself, so I did not need it to get going. But go through it to explore Skram to its fullest. Listen to the recording I came up in the first 30 minutes playing around with it:

PRICING AND AVAILABILITY

Skram is available on the App Store at an initial price of $4.99 / £3.99. Skram is designed for iPad and requires OS 9.0 or newer.

App Store Link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/skram-electronic-music-maker/id1085836793?ls=1&mt=8

CONCLUSION

What makes this application a great tool, are two things: the very intuitive user guidance plus a really good sound. That makes it very addictive and fun to play, you get instantly hooked on.
In its current version, 1.1.0, it’s a very basic feature set. What is missing is a save option for your current session. But because you’re very fast creating a session, you will export it in one go. So there is a certain room of future improvements, but again, it’s already real fun to play with this initial version and you will love the sound.

So we are already excited what devices and widgets are coming next, and looking at the other products of this company, we believe there are good things to come.

Visit https://skramapp.com to learn about future plans.