I’m always on the lookout for new music apps for iPhone and Samplodica caught my eye recently. Bryn Space developed Samplodica with the purpose of being in their words “a box of crayons for your ears.” I’m always game to drop $0.99 on a fun music app and was intrigued enough to take the plunge.

The first thing I noticed upon launching Samplodica was the clean interface. Four color-coded bars, one for each preset (but assignable) sounds. Holding your finger on any box and whipping the phone will create a noise, similar to using a drumstick. The action you use to play sounds, particularly the more percussive elements makes playing Samplodica feel a bit more organic than many iOS apps. I would caution a user to make sure you think about your surroundings before rocking out as I nearly slammed by phone into the table while doing a John Bonham impression on some snare sounds.

The stock presets are ok, albeit a bit generic but you do get the option to record your own sounds through your device’s microphone and the Pro version (a $1.99 in-App upgrade) will allow you to load up to 3 second .wav files. This sampling feature could make Samplodica a viable option for live applications, especially if you are a musician on a budget (and who isn’t?) One gripe I have is some of the lower end sounds on the presets had some low-end hum that I couldn’t get rid of in either my Sony ‘phones or Bose desktop speakers.

I think this app has a lot of potential, and for $0.99 you have very little to lose by trying it out.

John Imsdahl has previously worked for Apple, teaching clients how to use Mac apps and products. He is also an avid music and movie lover, as well as a staff writer for T-Shirts.com.