Produced by the same creative geniuses behind the wildly popular ThumbJam app, DrumJam is a fully-featured iOS beatbox and drum sample collection, which includes a wide variety of programmed rhythm styles that span a range of world music. It also features an interface that provides both instant gratification and loads of musically useful results, which can then be used in actual music-making endeavors.
What really shines about DrumJam is the intelligence melted into the bits thanks to the drumming chops of session musician Pete Lockett, who has poured his talent and skills into this app. It comes through in a way that lets you instantly mix and match styles and instruments, along with a highly playable interface that encourages exploration. The screen is roughly divided into the top section with the drum parts and positions of individual kit elements in stereo, and the bottom playing area, which arranges itself into different configurations based on the specific percussion instrument you wish to play.
DrumJam includes hundreds of pre-recorded, looping percussion tracks, with each individual instrument offering multiple predetermined patterns that you control by triggering them on the lower-quadrant drum pads. Everything synchronizes in real-time as you play, so it’s hard to make something that sounds awful. There are also built-in effects for adding a techno touch to a drum loop, including a resonant filter, pitch bender, delay, lo-fi bit crusher, and others, which really open up the creative possibilities in a myriad of ways.
There's an extensive implementation of MIDI and audio export options and smooth background operation, allowing DrumJam to be used as a virtual drummer, keeping pace and providing the beat as you play along with other iOS synthesizer apps (which is truly cool). But if you dig apps like DM1 that work on a traditional Roland drum-machine programming matrix, you won’t find that event-level editing in DrumJam. This is one app that delivers just about everything but that fine-tuned editing approach.
The bottom line. At $7.99, DrumJam is on the higher end of the iOS price spectrum, but the power, punch, and sheer audio quality it delivers make it a bargain at a multiple of that price. And unlike most drummers I know, it’s always good to go.
iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch running iOS 4.3 or later
Extensive collection of drum samples and beats. Easy interface with high fun factor.
Lacks event-level editing tools.
