Another day, another free music-making app to stay at home and play with: this time, we’re talking about Roland’s Zenbeats for iOS and Android.
To be completely accurate, we should say that the core app has always been free, but right now, you can get the unlock in-app purchase, which adds significantly more features and usually retails for $15, for nothing as well.
Zenbeats is a cross-platform production app that promises to “make music creation easy”. It’s based on Open Labs’ Stagelight software, which Roland acquired in 2019. It features drum sounds from Roland’s TR range of drum machines, and offers sampling, instruments and effects. You can record using drum pads, keys and the note grid, and sounds can be tweaked using touchscreen gestures.
The free unlock gives you the full complement of 23 instruments and a 500MB Sampleverse content pack. It also adds mixing features and more export options - you can export stems for use in your main DAW, for example.
You can grab Zenbeats now on the Google Play Store and Apple App Store.
