Make music with groovebox

3 min read

TUTORIALS Easy music making

This music maker is brilliant fun for beginners and experienced alike

IT WILL TAKE 20 minutes

YOU WILL LEARN You will learn how to make electronic music with Groovebox

YOU’LL NEED Groovebox, iPadOS 13 or later, iPad

If you’ve ever wanted to make electronic music but worried you didn’t have the ability, Groovebox (Free, with IAPs) is here to help. It’s one of the simplest, fastest and most fun ways to create exciting tracks on your iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch, and it’s fun for serious musicians too.

Although you can use Groovebox like any other electronic music workstation, what makes this particular app so good is its use of presets. Simply pick the instrument you want to use, find a preset you like and add it to your song. Choose another instrument, pick another preset and you’ve already got a tune. You can then create multiple song sections, each of which has its own selection of loops, and switch between them with a single tap as they play in tune and in time.

Groovebox is free: the manufacturers hope you’ll like it so much that you’ll then buy additional presets and features. As we’ll discover, the free version is tons of fun.

HOW TO Get started with Groovebox

1 Begin with a beat

When you launch Groovebox you’ll see this rather minimalistic screen. The five boxes you see here are your instruments: Drumbox for drums, Retrobass for bass and then three distinct synthesizers. Tap Drumbox to begin.

2 Pick a pack

Groovebox comes with a selection of free sound packs, which are loops you can use as-is or edit to suit. The packs are listed down the left; tap on the loop name to listen to it, then on Load to load the selected one into your project.

3 Hear your beat

The bottom section of the Drumbox interface shows each individual bit of the drum kit, and if you tap play at the top of the screen the instruments light up as they’re making a noise. Tap Rec if you want to record your own bits too.

CONTINUED… Get started with Groovebox

4 Edit the steps

If you tap the icon top left, above drum settings, Groovebox switches to its pattern editor. It’s showing the same beat, but each box is when a particular instrument plays. Tap and hold to add/ delete notes and drag to move them.

5 Add another loop

At the top of the screen, you’ll see an orange rectangle, which is your current drum loop. To add another, tap the ‘+’ icon. Choose Drumbox again, select a pack and loop, and you’ll be returned to the Drumbox interface.