One thing I like playing with when working with sound is slicing and reordering samples — so I tend to be drawn to apps that allow this in some way. This track started when I was visiting family and the kids were playing with an old Fisher Price radio music box, which I sampled directly into the iPad microphone.

Music box sample

Egoist is a very cool app that does slicing, reordering, effects, and more. It allows you to chop your sample into different slices, play them back in any order, and sequence together different variations. I fed the music box sample into it, and came up with this:

Music box shuffled through Egoist

I really liked the rhythmic thing going on here, and I wanted to add some beats to it. I’d been playing with SeekBeats, a new drum synthesizer and sequencer. I started with a basic beat:

SeekBeats original beat

That beat didn’t match the tempo of my music box pattern, so I fed it through Egoist to match the tempo and simplify it:

Basic resequenced beat

Then I created a completely different variation in Egoist using way more effects for a filtered slightly glitchy feel.

Warped beat

For the final track I added some synth and piano using SampleTank and some bass from iFretless Bass. Everything was recorded and mixed in Cubasis and then finally processed through Final Touch.

Final track