There was always something exhilarating about clowning around with your friends and making beats on anything from your school desk to a trash can. The new iPhone app Fingerstomp brings this fun to the iPhone, providing a unique environment for old-school and new-school beat-masters alike to develop their own one-of-a-kind sound.
At first glance, Fingerstomp looks like a lot of its competitors, all of which provide users with an interface to produce custom beats from assorted sounds, but none of the similar apps can match it in overall quality. On the opening stage, users are presented with 11 metallic objects of various size and shape, each generating its own distinctive sound when touched. The various sounds can then be orchestrated to produce anything from a simple beat to a complex rhythm arrangement.
Using the 22 total objects, users can take their music in any direction they like, whether they want to utilize the clangs of a stop sign or the squeaks of a basketball sneaker, and then record it using Fingerstomp?s easy-to-use recording system. The objects can be dragged and dropped in whatever arrangement best suits the beat being created, allowing for further versatility with beat-construction. Even if you don?t quite have the rhythm of the old-school masters, you can build up your chops in the practice mode, where you can learn the many pre-set beats included in the game.
To add to the ease of creating your own beats, Fingerstomp?s touch interface is extremely responsive, producing sounds the instant their respective object is touched. Unlike many of its competitors, the game allows for up to three sounds to be activated at any one instant, making it easy to synthesize complicated beats without much effort at all.
Topping off the Fingerstomp experience are the amazing graphics and audio. Every object and background looks extremely realistic, with every detail perfectly attended to, and the animations are completely fluid. Not only are all of the recorded street sounds totally authentic-sounding, but the pre-made beats really show off what the app has to offer.
Overall, Fingerstomp offers a unique gaming experience that few others can match. With its intuitive interface, vast array of sounds, and quality playback and beat-construction, the game is not to be missed by anyone who enjoys making one-of-a-kind beats in the spirit of the band Stomp. Even though $.99 (iTunes Link) may seem a bit much for a relatively simple game, but there is a lite version (iTunes Link) for you to try out. The sheer depth and high-quality of Fingerstomp make it well worth the price if you are into street music and experimental music.
