As a part-time muso myself, I love seeing the intersection of music and smartphone technology... especially when it's down at a fairly elementary level (as is my talent!) In the feature quoted below and the accompanying video, Andy Myers shows off his favourite seven musician-related applications for Windows Phone. Excellent roundup, with the modest caveats that he (ahem) wrote one of the applications himself, and that one of his seven is nothing whatsoever to do with music, really!

From the original article:

Sequencer 

On the surface, Sequencer (free) seems ideal for creating quick, nice-sounding drum loops. But dig deeper and you’ll find it to be an incredibly powerful music tool. Tons of samples, 7-channel mixing and customizable synthesizer wavetables are but a few of its many features. It’s surprisingly robust—I can’t recommend this app strongly enough. Download it

OneNote 

Every song starts with an idea. But when inspiration strikes, I’m usually someplace inconvenient—like at the grocery store or on the bus. That’s where OneNote comes in handy. No matter where I am, I can record my song ideas using the app’s audio capture feature. On my Start screen, I tap “Song ideas” (a note I created just for this purpose), tap the microphone icon, and start humming. Yes, I’ve done this in public many times. And yes, I get weird looks. But I’ll never forget a song idea again! OneNote comes free with your phone. 

SoundFlake Synth

SoundFlake Synth ($0.99) has a simple, intuitive interface that lets you create loops very quickly. No matter how you arrange the blocks, you’ll almost always end up with something interesting. You can’t save your sequences (this is a sore point among reviewers), but it’s great for playing around with and well worth the 99 cents. Buy it here

BitSynth

 
BitSynth (free) is the best app ever, period. OK, I built it—but I still think it’s pretty cool! It’s a simple synthesizer inspired by the sounds of 8-bit videogame consoles. I’ll stop now. Download it

Guitar Chords 

As a self-taught guitar player, I find reference apps like this one to be incredibly useful. Not only does Guitar Chords (free) give you quick access to the most standard and exotic chords, it shows you alternate versions of every chord up and down the guitar’s neck. Download it

Accurate Tuner 

In addition to guitar, I also play a hammered dulcimer. If you’ve ever seen one, you can imagine how difficult they are to tune. Accurate Tuner (free) can handle the hammered dulcimer and just about any other instrument on the planet, no problem. Download it

PianoPhone7

PianoPhone7 (free) is a nice-sounding piano app by JEFBCreating, also responsible for OrganPhone7, XyloPhone7, Theremin7, and many other fun music-related apps. Download it

And here's Andy at work creating a dancey tune with up to four of the apps mentioned:

I'd still like to see some advanced recording tools of the sort that exist on iOS, including apps which accept input via the microUSB port. Do you know of anything suitable?