Spoke groove machine app for iPhone and iPad


4.1 ( 4371 ratings )
Music Entertainment
Developer: The Strange Agency LLC
Free
Current version: 1.1, last update: 7 years ago
First release : 12 Aug 2009
App size: 1.1 Mb

✇ Spoke is not your typical drum machine.

✇ Spoke is the perfect scratchpad for making loops of any style.

✇ Spoke has no grid, just free-flowing beats.


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This is what Spoke seeks: analog positioning on a digital platform.

Of course we are limited by resolution. Of course this limit is arbitrary. Of course this limit is transitory. Of course this limit need not go very high before we supercede human timing accuracy.

Nonetheless this is the spirit: do away with the position grid, do away with the quantize. Place the beats where they need to be. Place the beats where they sound most true.

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➠ The colored discs represent individual drum sounds that you can drag onto the cicrcular platter.

➠ Position sound discs around the platter, as on a turntable. Discs close to the center will be quiet, while those on the perimiter will be loud.

➠ Drag sounds off the platter to erase them. Shake the phone to clear the platter.

➠ Use the arrow buttons near the bottom to switch into SAVE, SWAP, or LOAD mode. Then click one of the circular slots to perform the action. You can use these slots to save your compositions. They will still be there the next time you open Spoke.

➠ The default tempo is 120 bpm. Tap quarter notes in the center four times in a row to set a new tempo, anywhere from 60 to 240 bpm.