 This is Ross Miller with The Verge and we're looking at Impactor for iOS. Now we've seen synth apps in the iOS app store before. This one has a little bit of a different kind of innovative input mechanism. What it's doing when in a very quiet space is actually feeding off the taps. It's basically hearing the percussion sounds and converting it to a digital instrument. Sorry, we have this on the table. We're trying to make it a quiet-ish room. So if we do that, we... You can kind of see based on the volume you get different sounds. It's agnostic of the location, however, so... Provided the audio is about the same, the slam gesture, I suppose, is about the same. When you open up the app, you're basically given a very simple looking interface. Obviously, the thing is very sensitive. It's picking up me talking right now, if you can see that. You've got the waveform saying this is what's being picked up and kind of what it looks like. You've got simple controls for volume pan. You can change effects right here. Delay, reverb, and you've got six presets for different sounds. This is the default. You've also got middle drum, which is tabla. Big conga for a very bassy sound. We've got the lay on. Turn that down a little bit. So you've got the basic interface. If you want to get a little more detailed, you've got, of course, the entire synth wall of pitches and dials. You can kind of change every little nuance of the audio. This is probably more detail than you ever need, but if you're into that sort of thing, you can definitely, definitely dig deep into the detail of the sound. One of the nice tricks is you have a sequencer, which you can use to kind of record over preset sounds or kind of make your own. Clearly, it's going through a very nice prerecord option. Turn that off. But also what you can do is you can make recordings. We start a live recording here. The other nice thing is you can audio copy. Very nice if, say, you want to paste this directly into GarageBand for iPhone or iPad. You can just do that. You copy it. You go into GarageBand. You paste it. Now here's the catch. Even if you adjust sensitivities, and you have a lot of sensitivity adjustment options at normal right now, and you go very low, it grabs very little, very high, and of course my voice becomes a very loud instrument. So you need a quiet room. The other catch is you're going to need headphones without a microphone because otherwise it's going to pick up on the shirt level instead of, say, the table itself. You need headphones that will still use the iPhone or iPad's microphone built in. With the right conditions, however, it is a very compelling product. At $49.99, it's not the cheapest of synth apps, but it is fun. And again, if the environmental conditions are right, it actually can be pretty effective.
 This is Ross Miller with The Verge and we're looking at Impactor for iOS.
 Now we've seen synth apps in the iOS app store before.
 This one has a little bit of a different kind of innovative input mechanism.
 What it's doing when in a very quiet space is actually feeding off the taps.
 It's basically hearing the percussion sounds and converting it to a digital instrument.
 Sorry, we have this on the table.
 We're trying to make it a quiet-ish room.
 So if we do that, we...
 You can kind of see based on the volume you get different sounds.
 It's agnostic of the location, however, so...
 Provided the audio is about the same, the slam gesture, I suppose, is about the same.
 When you open up the app, you're basically given a very simple looking interface.
 Obviously, the thing is very sensitive.
 It's picking up me talking right now, if you can see that.
 You've got the waveform saying this is what's being picked up and kind of what it looks
 like.
 You've got simple controls for volume pan.
 You can change effects right here.
 Delay, reverb, and you've got six presets for different sounds.
 This is the default.
 You've also got middle drum, which is tabla.
 Big conga for a very bassy sound.
 We've got the lay on.
 Turn that down a little bit.
 So you've got the basic interface.
 If you want to get a little more detailed, you've got, of course, the entire synth wall
 of pitches and dials.
 You can kind of change every little nuance of the audio.
 This is probably more detail than you ever need, but if you're into that sort of thing,
 you can definitely, definitely dig deep into the detail of the sound.
 One of the nice tricks is you have a sequencer, which you can use to kind of record over preset
 sounds or kind of make your own.
 Clearly, it's going through a very nice prerecord option.
 Turn that off.
 But also what you can do is you can make recordings.
 We start a live recording here.
 The other nice thing is you can audio copy.
 Very nice if, say, you want to paste this directly into GarageBand for iPhone or iPad.
 You can just do that.
 You copy it.
 You go into GarageBand.
 You paste it.
 Now here's the catch.
 Even if you adjust sensitivities, and you have a lot of sensitivity adjustment options
 at normal right now, and you go very low, it grabs very little, very high, and of course
 my voice becomes a very loud instrument.
 So you need a quiet room.
 The other catch is you're going to need headphones without a microphone because otherwise it's
 going to pick up on the shirt level instead of, say, the table itself.
 You need headphones that will still use the iPhone or iPad's microphone built in.
 With the right conditions, however, it is a very compelling product.
 At $49.99, it's not the cheapest of synth apps, but it is fun.
 And again, if the environmental conditions are right, it actually can be pretty effective.