One of the biggest launches in music hardware of recent years has been that of JazzMutant‘s Lemur touchscreen controller, a first for the industry by virtue of its multi-touch screen that could have multiple sliders, buttons and pots all controlled simultaneously.  Sadly it was well out of the budget of most musicians, and even the lower-cost Dexter follow-up was pricey at around $3,600, so you can see why the prospect of the iPhone – complete with its multi-touch display and portable processing power – is being eyed up as the next-big-thing in classic instrument emulation.  Hence this MPC500 software, based on Akai’s iconic sampler workstation, which aims to put “a studio in your pocket”.

Sad as it may sound, one of the best programmes I had for my old iPAQ 4150 was a theremin emulator, which made highly entertaining Clanger noises.  This MPC500 software – sadly not available for download as yet – blows the theremin out of the water, and could reasonably be used as a proper musical tool.