Polaris is a music-making app that lets you produce electronic music right from your Android phone or tablet. Whether you are an experienced musician or a complete beginner, you should quickly feel right at home using it.
Polaris has been meticulously tailored for phone and tablet use, with special attention to interface design. This is not another "all-in-one" app, losing you through a very complex user interface. Instead the design philosophy here is to provide the most essential components so you can focus on your music-making process, and have fun while doing it.
Polaris sequencing logic is inspired from modern drum machines and grooveboxes. Simply press a step on the 4x4 grid to start your creative journey. Activated steps will trigger any of the six track sounds, like clockwork.
Step modulation allows you to create complex variations within seconds. Select one of the four available parameters you want to modulate (like pitch or volume), and drag the modulation value for each step, simple as that.
Because a 4x4 grid can be limiting, you can adjust step duration for each track, from 1/32 bar to 1 bar. And thanks to trig conditions, any step can be active once every 2 or 4 loops.
One of the perks of electronic music production is the variety of sounds you can experiment with. That's why Polaris' sample engine ships with a meticulously curated sample bank that will keep you busy for a while. You can also load your own samples into the app to benefit from limitless sonic exploration. And if you want to play with some synthesis instead, the synth engine is at your disposal, featuring a dual-oscillator architecture.
These two sound engines should cover most of your needs from creating lush pads, deep rumbling basslines, sharp drum hits or bright plucky notes. In addition, each track includes a multimode filter so you can sculpt these frequencies the way you intend to. And because you sometimes just need some additional punch, built-in distortion is at your disposal.
After crafting the perfect combination of sounds and sequence for your current project, use mixing tweaks to magnify and fine tune your pattern.
Spice up the stereo image of your sounds using the reverb and delay units. Send tracks independently to these powerful tools to create a wider soundscape and push your sonic exploration to new heights.
Whether you want to carefully adjust the mix between your tracks, or take advantage of the mute buttons to perform live, the virtual mixer is here for you.