Music mixing — at least for the average Joe — is usually filed under the word "hard." However, a new iPad app, ShapeMix, aims to navigate the practice into the the realm of "intuitive."

ShapeMix [iTunes link] — available now for $4.99 — was developed by Colin Owens, a musician and graphic design professor at RISD, as well as Legion Enterprises. ShapeMix is the first company to come out of Legion Enterprise’s incubator program.

Owens thought of the idea after exploring audio mixing interfaces on the computer in the pre-tablet days. "I thought they hadn't translated well over the computer," he says. "As a musician and engineer, I thought we could do this in a more interesting and intuitive way."

At the time, he was working with a touchscreen he had imported from Korea, but when the iPad came out, everything came together. The device replicated the tactile sensation of working with a mixer much more than anything he had experienced on a computer.

The app itself is extremely easy to use. Full disclosure: I have absolutely no experience mixing music, but I was still able to pick up my iPad and navigate through the app rather rapidly.

Within the app, there are more than 100 free tracks that one can use to create a mix. Each song within the app is broken down into such tracks, which are basically instrumental sections (piano, drums, organ, stutter, boom, etc). One can also mix tracks from different songs — so, for example, you could add the drums from "Dirty South" to "Ghetto Blaster."

Once you've chosen all of your tracks, you can toggle between two screens. The first comprises a series of colored circles denoting an instrument, which you can move up to make the instrument in question louder, and down to do the opposite. Moving them left and right changes the panning of the sound (left ear, right ear). One can also hold down on a track to add effects (reverb, delay, flanger, low pass).







One can then toggle over to the "time" screen, where one can decide which tracks come in where over the course of the song, and how they mingle with other tracks. A finished track can then be saved and published to Facebook or to another website. You can also save a track to your account and share it with a friend. (The only places you can access a mix are ShapeMix's website, Facebook and in-app, however, which is a drag.)







Soon, the app's catalogue of music will receive a major boost through a partnership with Downtown Music Publishing. Users will be able to buy those songs and tracks, and remix them at will, keeping ownership to the mixes they make. The app will also feature about six to 10 new, free songs per week.

"I originally thought of this as a tool for professionals," Owens says. "But I kept getting feedback that this would be an awesome apps for kids, or for anyone who's a novice."

Mike Sepso, CEO of Legion Enterprises, concurs. "Legion's core audience is digital natives," he says. "We've created a new app that will engage an audience that doesn't traditionally buy music." Sepso thinks there's an allure to buying music in ShapeMix because users can manipulate it themselves.

We think this app is ideal for the audience that Sepso described, but can't see it truly catching on among working musicians unless it affords them the opportunity to upload and remix their own, original music. However, Owens and Sepso say that this could be a possibility in the future.

Musicians and mixers both casual and pro: What do you think of ShapeMix? Would you use it to create your next big jam?