What it does
c-60 is built around a loop of tape with four tracks on it. You play the synth or the drums, record a part onto a track, and the loop comes round again with it playing while you add the next. When a loop works, it becomes a section, and sections become a song.
It is made for getting an idea down while it is still fresh, with big controls for fingers and a MIDI keyboard rather than menus.
Tape
- Four tracks, recorded in time to the beat. Overdub to add to a part, or replace it: a replace take records one pass and stops by itself, so a forgotten Record button never wipes what was there.
- Varispeed from double speed down through stop to full reverse, with a little wobble and saturation, like the real thing.
- Lift and drop a part to move it between tracks and sections, or drop one onto another to bounce them together. The last ten edits can be undone.
Songs
- Eight sections, A to H, each from one to eight bars long. Loop one while you build it.
- Arrange them into a song with repeats: A A B A C, and so on.
- 4/4 or 3/4, with a metronome and a count-in.
Sounds
- A two-oscillator synth with a filter and envelopes, on an on-screen keyboard or a MIDI one.
- Sixteen drums in two banks: kick, snare, hats, clap, toms, cowbell, congas, ride, crash and more.
- Your voice or an instrument, from the iPad's microphone or an audio interface.
Mix and export
- A mixer with level, pan, EQ, mute and solo on every track.
- Export WAV: the whole song as one mix, or one stem per track for any other app.
- An Akai MPK Mini works the moment it is plugged in: keys, knobs and both banks of pads.
What you need
- An iPad running iPadOS 17 or later
- There is no iPhone or Mac version.
- Headphones, for recording a voice or an instrument
- Otherwise the microphone hears the speakers as well.
- A MIDI keyboard, if you like
- Optional. Any USB MIDI keyboard plays notes; on an iPad with a Lightning port it goes through Apple's camera adapter, and a keyboard that wants more power than the iPad gives needs a powered hub.
What it costs
Free to download, and most of it stays free. The synth, the drums, the tape and the mixer all work without paying, with up to two songs. Exporting WAV and having more songs than that is the full version, a one-time purchase of $9.99. No trial to run out, no subscription, no account, no ads.
Your music is never locked away. Every song opens, plays and saves whether or not you have bought the full version.