Demo: Songwriting Studio

I was drawn to Demo because of the clean design, multitrack recording, and embedded lyric features. It’s simple on the surface and easy to use to sketch out ideas. They even have some decent effects you can chain on your recordings. - There are a few problems that I found that keep me from subscribing or fully purchasing the app. Some are little, such as a small clipping noise at the beginning of playback when tapping/selecting chords (this doesn’t seem to happen when ‘playing’ your selected chord progression just when tapping the chord to hear it). There are also some weird UI bugs in which I could not select the ‘…’ options on my songs unless clicking into a song then returning to the song menu. After that hitting the ‘…’ on a song would open the options menu once, but then if I closed it I would not be able to hit the ‘…’ on any song again(until repeating the earlier steps). - I also really would like to see a feature where you can import audio files from your device instead of solely recording through Demo into each project. Sometimes it’s quicker for me to sing a sketch into Voice Memos or record it in another app so it would be nice to import that into the Demo multitrack arranger. After some stability improvements and bug fixes (and hopefully some added features), I’ll return to Demo and bump up my rating :) Other than that, again, I think this app has a great start and I look forward to seeing were it goes.

Needs to allow more customizable tempo and melody, not just customizable chords. I don’t like paying for an app and then feeling imprisoned by the presets. I have a song I wrote before using this app, that I don’t have all the physical instruments to do on my own, and I know exactly how I want it to sound… but this app doesn’t let me plug in the notes I want in sheet music, or adjust without inserting a whole new chord progression when an instrument comes in and out… the rigid time structure makes singing anything on a funky beat or in anyway overlapping the time signature impossible, even though tons of popular songs do this. Not overly complicated songs either, it would be nice to be able to syncopate and sing without being interrupted by abrupt pauses… I wish there was a “sustain pedal” function that allowed a note to carry for 8:4 without the “PLANG” sound of the note being hit again in the middle of singing a longer note…. Just awful that I can’t adjust this more. Also does not appear to be a way to overlap voice recordings and other instruments like bells or harmonica or an extra piano for notes the app refuses to allow me to customize. Update: Awesome! The new custom rhythm update seems to use something akin to tabs, and it’s pretty intuitive. It’s still not the same as playing an instrument in your hand, but it’s a lot better than before. The guitar volume is also no longer glitching back to preset after lowering it, so that’s super helpful too. Thanks guys!

i make beats & play keys with a basic understanding of music theory. I’m not skilled enough to hear harmonic ideas in my head nor do I have a mastery over any formal chord progressions in any key. so coming up with my own unique chord progressions with no regard to key or learning chord progressions in a particular key can take a lot of time I don’t have on a day to day basis.(i’m a working adult in my mid-twenties.) i’ve only worked on one composition idea so far and the app seems to be a solid tool for learning formal chord progression ideas + experimenting with chord progressions/song structures for my own music while away from my keyboard & DAW. Hopefully the time spent in this app hearing & learning formal ideas alongside my own will lead to more time to playing/experimenting with my instrument for the composition ideas i start in app + help me be more flexible when making music with friends!! The one critique i have so far is with the rhythmic options. i like that there’s more options than just traditional ones but i think including options like tuplets & swings would b helpful for ppl to have/learn what they are & so that they can identify them in the non-traditional options presented too!!!