RiffWorks Review: Rock Out

I’m a musician with a problem. I collect gear. Software, hardware… it’s all gear and I need to have it. The Sweetwater catalog that takes an acre of rare endangered rainforest to print brings me both endless joy and financial ruin. Similarly,  I collect iphone apps related to music like state quarters. FourTrack is a must have iPhone app from Sonoma Wire Works. FourTrack’s smooth wifisync feature contains a cleverly placed add that lead me to RiffWorks. If I could sum up this app in a similie, I would say that Riffworks is like Reason for Rock and Roll. So plug in your Santana special edition PRS and lets see how crazy this train is.

Riffworks is not designed to look like your normal OS X application. Right from your first launch, you can tell that this app falls in line with the Line6 easy to use, easy to rock mentality. As such, you’re just not going to be using RiffWorks for mastering your next double platinum. RiffWorks is designed to give you the maximum amount of tools with the minimum amount of user effort. I’ll be working with RiffWorks Standard which retails for $129. You can take advantage of most RiffWorks features with their free app Riffworks T4. Both versions use the same setup and elements, but Standard comes with Amplitube Live, more drum tracks, ReWire, .wav export, and handles up to 32 bit sampling. Let’s take a look at the recording software interface:

You can see here in the layout that everything is done with a sweet looking analog user interface. Each section of the window represents the useful features of RiffWorks.

The top section of the Riffworks window contains your song control. Recording musical ideas in RiffWorks are sectioned off into riffs. So when you track a musical idea in this app, you’ll need to section off your song into intro, verse, chorus, bridge, etc. riffs. This top section is where the organization of the riffs, control of master volume, and file menu type actions take place. Pro Music Software users will have to get used to the simplification of RiffWorks. The timeline is just not manageable. You put riffs in, you take them out, and that’s it. You don’t stack them, you don’t stretch or cut them. You get the point.

Your riff collection resides just below the master controls. RiffWorks now works seamlessly with the iPhone app FourTrack to automatically import tracks over wifisync. FourTrack doesn’t have a metronome feature so your imported songlayers won’t be able to work with the drummer feature. Once you’ve recorded riffs and placed them in the timeline, you can record the vocals as  a songlayer instead of a riff which is actually kind of confusing.When you click on a riff, and you’ll see the layers below in the Riff Recorder:

First, let me point out the coolest thing about RiffWorks. RiffLink allow users to collaborate on songs. You and your bandmates from five states can collaborate on songs, or you can open your riffs up to the RiffLink community for a little wikisong action. There’s a little yellow stickypad at the bottom left so you can tell your guitarist in Maine to lay off the reverb, or your bassist in Texas to stop sucking. I love this. I’ll never use the feature, but I love it.

Second coolest feature: Junt. I don’t know what that means so someone please enlighten me in the comments. Junt let’s you count to four into a mic or pick a note on your guitar four times to set the tempo. Your auto drummer kicks in and you can lay down 2 measures of rhythm guitar, wait 2 measures as your first riff loops, and then lay down a lead guitar track on top.

RiffWorks has an auto drummer feature with different styles ranging from AfroIslandGrooves to a drum track called WhenIDrumAround. By turning knobs marked intensity and variation, you can get your auto drummer to do crazy fills or just chill out. It’s a unique way to set up a drum track, but you may opt to use the rewire capabilities and create a more customizable drum track in Propellerhead’s Reason.

Finally, the input control at the bottom controls your signal input. This is where the free copy of Amplitube Live plugs in. You can apply effects to your instrument or vocal signal pre board, as well as change your audio settings. Pretty straightforward.

RiffWorks is a great way to put down musical ideas with the minimum amount of instruction. Throw in RiffLink, the online collaboration feature, and the awkwardly named Junt, and you’ve got a feature filled app that any songwriter can use. From first launch, musicians will be able to instantly create some cool stuff.

This app is really made to assist in song writing from start to finish, but in its simplicity, RiffWorks may lose out to even the basic Garageband users. Sure, RiffWorks is great about putting down your ideas, but it just doesn’t have the features necessary for quality music production. And that’s ok.

Seriously, Download RiffWorks T4 from Sonoma Wire Works. It’s free and it’s got great features. If you want more auto-drummers and other features, you can purchase RiffWorks Standard for $129 which includes a free copy of Amplitube 2 Live.

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