SmartGrooves claims to be "A whole new genre" of app. We're not quite sure we'd go that far, but it is certainly not something you see every day on S60 phones - a music generator and mixing desk that lets you manipulate audio and video loops to create.. stuff. Does it dig a groove, or plough a furrow? We find out in our SmartGrooves review.
The first thing you will probably notice when running SmartGrooves is an error message - "SmartGrooves run in landscape mode, please turn your phone and tap to restart". Sadly, just turning it (or popping the keyboard out) and carrying on doesn't seem to be an option and a tap just closed the app. Hey ho.
With the app finally running, things take a turn for the better and you are instantly greeted with some music. You have the option of loading a pre-saved mix, fiddling with the mixing desk or just jumping straight in to the visual side of the app. We opted for the latter.
Gosh. Fuzzy, layered graphics. Semi-random text slogans ("DIRECT NEURAL HOOK UP", "ROBOLOOP", "LISBON") over indistinct, solarized images of dancers, traffic and negative landscapes.
SmartGrooves' main interface is basically an early 90's dance music video in interactive form. We don't necessarily mean this as a bad thing. Imagine watching The Chart Show on a week the had Dance as the specialist chart, if you can remember that. This video would have been number one Also, in all likelihood, numbers two through ten.
You can manipulate the visuals using the rightmost of a row of control icons at the bottom of the screen. The others do things like change the beat, drop everything except the beat, switch to mixing mode and start the recorder.
The mixing desk is an array of sliders and faders that will let you add beats, sound effects and melodies from a library of presets. Unfortunately these must be cycled though before you can get to the one you want - given the admirable number of samples that SmartGrooves ships with (not to mention the add on packs that are available) this can take a while.
Recording mixes is one of the more interesting aspects of SmartGrooves as the app is very much geared towards sharing your creations, using SMS messages to pass the settings along as comma-delimited data. Sadly, this is hampered by SmartGrooves being unable to access your addressbook - forcing you to remember any numbers you want to use. Still, nice idea and one that will definitely prolong your enjoyment of the app if you can persuade your mates to get on board too.
We enjoyed playing with SmartGrooves. Ultimately, what you get out of it is going to depend on your tolerance for the kind of music it generates, but we found it to be a fun way to pass a tube journey. Our biggest complaint would be having to step through all the presets in order to reach the desired sample and a marked lack of variety in the visuals - odd, considering the number of video clips that come with the app.
Details
Price: £1.50
Size: 7.26 MB
Check out our SmartGrooves review photo gallery:
