Technology Review.

Every fancied making your own music but can’t afford the technology? Gear 4’s PocketLoop may be the answer, I reviewed it to find out if you can make sweet music with an iPhone application and a small keyboard.

The PocketLoops is light and relatively small. It is really easy to use and you just pop your iPod touch or iPhone into the dock and download the free PocketLoops application from the App Store, and off you go.

It is very easy to use when you get the hang of it ,and you can make some really good music. When you get to the main screen you will see a 4 x 4 grid that has 16 spaces, four for each instrument, to record different parts of your song. The instruments can be changed just by tapping on them. There is a good selection of instruments including pianos, drum kits, synthesisers and some other bass and dubstep sounds. At the bottom are the remix, speed, stop all and volume buttons. Remixing is one of my favourites, you just turn the loops on or off to include them in your song.

You can also add effects like echo, chorus or distortion via the XY Filter Pad

It has a 25 key keyboard and it uses the battery from your iphone/pod. Luckily it has a low power consumption. It is very easy to record the loops, you just hit the keys on the keyboard. You can record up to 16 different loops.

The Gear 4 PocketLoops allows you to record high quality songs and remixes, it has a well designed keyboard and iOS application. At just under £50 it is well worth the money and tons of fun.