New Strum App

Even if you don’t recognize the name Smule, chances are you’ve still heard of one of their apps. The Palo Alto-based mobile developer has delivered some pretty big iOS hits in its day such as Ocarina, which turns your phone into a flute-like instrument, Magic Piano, and I Am T-Pain.This past week, Smule introduced its latest creation: an iPhone app called Strum. Unlike the aforementioned titles, Strum doesn’t help you create music, but rather it allows you to create and edit short movie clips with Instagram-like video filters, digital audio filters, and more. Strum will allow you to shoot videos of up to 15 seconds in length, and then edit them with a library of visual and audio effects. The advanced audio filters automatically compose music to match your video and range from simple background melodies to crazy remixes of your favorite tunes. In my short time playing with the app, I have to say, I’m actually very impressed. The UI is great, in-line with Smule’s other applications, and it’s really easy to both share your creations, and view those of others. In fact, it looks like Smule has built its own full-blown social network here. But I also discovered a couple of caveats. Like for instance, you can’t get very far into the app without creating an account — which is extremely annoying. And even though the app is free, like other Smule titles you have to pay for most of the audio and video filters by way of in-app purchases. Regardless, Strum is still an engaging release, and it’ll be interesting to see if it gains any traction over the next few months. If you’d like to check it out of yourself, you can find it in the App Store for free. Just like most of Smule’s apps, Strum is inordinately simple. You shoot a short, 15-second video, and pick a filter; then the app applies Smule’s secret sauce to create a music video of sorts, based on the filter you picked. The filters not only add video effects (which you can preview before saving), but also — and here’s the real wizardry — adds music and effects that somehow dynamically fit whatever is happening in the video. Those familiar with Smule’s AutoRap app and Khush’s LaDiDa and Songify apps (Smule swallowed Khush last year) will recognize the effects, because technology from those apps is baked into Strum. All of this is cool — but add a social media twist and one of the cleanest, best-looking interfaces we’ve ever seen and you’ve got an app that may take the world by storm. Or Strum.