If I were to describe the Tilt Synth music app in one word, it would have to be "bizarre." It is the kind of application that, once installed, treats your smartphone like an instrument. However, readers should not confuse Tilt Synth with ARPIO, which I reviewed last month. While it is true that both of these apps allow people to control tones by tilting their phone and touching the screen with their fingers, the approach in Tilt Synth is slightly more strange in approach.
Created by experimental musician Karl M V Waugh and Emblems of Cosmic Disorder, Tilt Synth functions as a simple touch-based synthesizer without the keyboard element. Simply install the app, open it and let the program hijack your smartphone by creating different noises and changing colors schemes. How does the tilting factor into this app? Tilting enables users to alter the register of the noises from high to low, depending on where they move their smartphone. Like Kuno, the Tilt Synth app also uses the Unity gaming engine.
While these aspects of Tilt Synth present good creative musical possibilities. I noticed one glaring problem. Well, actually, several of them. The first manifests itself at the outset when people open the app. It contains no directions or tutorials at all about how to use the program or its key features. Just pick it up and play with it. The second problem stems from having difficulty in producing steady tones, which are usually combined with other noises. People have to hold the phone still in order to get a semblance of a tone.Recording something from Tilt Synth requires using an external sound recording app. Additionally, the only way that people can stop the sound in the app is by closing it because there is no "Pause" or "Stop" button. I am not sure why the app omits these features, but perhaps future updates to Tilt Synth can include these extra features.
Tllt Synth is good a app for people who need to create weird sound effects for an electronic piece or, perhaps, part of a soundtrack for a science-fiction movie. It has the potential to be better than it currently is, though. More information on the creator of Tilt Synth can be found on his WordPress website at karlmvwaugh.wordpress.com/. People can also e-mail Waugh through the app should they have questions or concerns (It should be noted that Waugh has deleted some of his YouTube videos on the WordPress website, due to a YouTube account termination.).
Tilt Synth is available for free on Google Play.
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