There really isn’t much explanation needed for the Dub Selector iPhone app ($2.99). You select a scene — beach, space, pinball, or studio, enter in, and then become immersed in original artwork and grooving tunes you can put your own mark on.
Go to the beach and as soon as you click on the instrument pile in the middle, a song starts to play (you can change to another one by touching the waves), waves start to splash, and clouds drift on by. And what’s in it for you? You can choose from a marching band and electric drum rolls, a cymbal hit, an electronic snare sound, a video game machine gun noise, and more to add to the ambiance.
With space selector, you tap on the moon to change tunes and colors. This scene goes from dance-y to mellow, red to orange, and blue to green. Click on martians and robots and revolving planets to hear keyboard and vocal sound effects. In the pinball studio, you release the ball to change the loop, trigger flippers, and touch buttons to play additional sound effects.
When you’re in the studio, you’re in charge of the making the music yourself. It’s not really that much different than the other selectors—they give you a couple of base songs to start with and a bunch of different sound effects from lyric to instrument samples, only here you get a mixing board to play around with and you can decide just how much of what you want, where. This iPhone app definitely gets my seal of approval: good beats, rad art, and a fun, interactive aspect.
