Music On: Drums

Genre: Content Creation Application

Players: 1

.

Review:

Music On: Drums is a Content Creation Application that allows players to create drum loops on their Nintendo 3DS using the touchscreen. This game was originally released on the Nintendo DSi via the DSiWare service in 2011 and also released on the Nintendo 3DS eShop.

Unlike other entries in the Music On series, Music On: Drums is not concerned with presenting players with some sort of simulated version of its instrument to play. Rather, you’ll be working with a fairly flavorless interface allowing you to input drum sounds either through square buttons onscreen, or placing notes on a grid to place more precise patterns. Players have 16 different synthesized drum set sounds to select from, each with a variety of different drums within the set, and using this they can create eight short loops that they can switch between on the fly.

I should note that none of this is explained to the player – there’s no tutorial, only a non-interactive instruction manual. However, unlike some music creation software, I think most players could probably figure this application out through trial and error, as there aren’t many options.

This is both a good thing and a bad thing, as it may leave this tool as something more accessible to players with less experience creating and editing music, but it also leaves them with fewer options. There’s no easy way, for example, to change the pitch of a drum note. You also can’t layer the loops over one another to build them on top of each other. You can at least save your loops for later use, though.

I’m not sure how much appeal a piece of software like Music On: Drums is going to be, especially now that the Nintendo 3DS is in its final days. It’s a little too complex to be a simple drum toy, but it’s not deep enough to be a truly useful music creation tool for anything but a few simple beats. It’s a title that more or less does what it seeks to do, I’m just not sure how many are out there at this point who want what it’s trying to do. If you feel like you may be one of those someones, then… well, enjoy, I guess.

tl;dr – Music On: Drums is a Music Creation Application that allows players to create drum loops on their Nintendo 3DS and swap between them on the fly. This software is too complex to be a toy, but not deep enough to be a truly powerful music creation tool. It’s not bad, but its target audience is so narrow at this point that it may be virtually nonexistent.

Grade: C

^{You can support eShopperReviews on Patreon! Please click HERE to become a Sponsor!}

^{This month’s sponsors are Ben, Andy Miller, Exlene, Homer Simpin, Johannes, Talissa, Eli Goodman, Gabriel Coronado-Medina, Ilya Zverev, Kristoffer Wulff, and Seth Christenfeld. Thank you for helping to keep the reviews coming!}