Don’t Bother With Any Of The Rest, This Is The Best!! – Electronic Toolbox Pro Review

Like others who have recently posted reviews, I do not normally write them either. Only when 1) an app is really, REALLY excellent 2) I use it continuously- on a daily or near-daily basis 3) I have BEEN using it for a considerable period of time (at least a year usually) I.E. It has STOOD the TEST of TIME 4) Not an absolute requirement, BUT...it should have an excellent GUI, it should be easy to use and intuitive, regularly updated to take advantage of the latest Apple technology (iPhone and iPad display advancements, Apple A(x) chip capabilities, iOS code/GUI improvements, major new features such as the Retina display back in the day, screen touch sensitivity more recently, dual cameras (wide and tele), iPhone X TrueDepth, etc AND LAST BUT QUITE POSSIBLY THE MOST IMPORTANT (or at least nearly so)- 5) The app should contain No...NO...NO....NOOO ADS, NO POP-UP CRAP that covers part of the screen and hence, part of the app GUI, NO LOCKED or GRAYED-OUT FEATURES with prompts to make in-app purchases in order to simply USE the features that are part of the app, especially sneaky stuff where you knew there were upgrades via in-app purchase, but you thought that you had access to the fundamental features which were what caught your interest in the first place and were the motivational factor behind making the purchase in the first place! And I don’t want it to cost $0.99 just so that I will buy it, only to find out that this costs money, this other thing costs more money, such and such is only a partial version; the full thing is another $5.99 upgrade...and so on. That works for teenage and pre-teenage girls (who are of course, the dominant purchasing age group of all consumers in the western world... (!!!)...crazy huh? But it’s true. Of course, it’s their parents providing the money and hence, the purchasing power. But make no mistake. The teenagers hold the power. And those kinds of layered, tiered-access app designs that tease the buyer with a $0.99 price initially and are so chock full of pop-up ads and in-app accessibility purchases that you can hardly see what you are doing let alone pay attention to it are utterly useless to me, period, end of story. Literally I guess, as it were. But I digress... The requirements I’ve listed are rarely fulfilled in their entirety in my 10+ years of iPhone life, and I can probably list on one hand all of the apps that I own which have nailed it completely. Ok, let’s see here——- 1) Multitrack DAW Digital Audio Workstation software. Just killer. A must have for anyone doing music production or audio production on iOS. Starts with 8 playback tracks and expands via one of the very few in-app purchases up to 24 full playback tracks. Which, I might add, actually WORK, and actually PLAY BACK without glitches, clicks and pops as long as you’re rocking an iPhone 6/6s or later. And 8 tracks play back perfectly on just about any iPhone newer than 3gs. Again. Just fundamentally killer. 2) Faber Acoustical’s SignalScope Pro and SignalScope X. The last word in audio and signal analysis. It’s that simple. It begins with an FFT and Oscilloscope. In-apps get you additional analytical tools such as Spectogram in 2D and 3D, RTA, Room Analysis tools, Sig Gen, Signal Recorder, Data Acquisition and tons more. Sick. .........Sick, sick, sick. I gotta use it. Every day. I just do. 3) iCircuit. A circuit simulation app with just an excellent GUI and very slick implementation of components, black box modules, ported circuits, and so on. Virtual multimeter and o-scope tools included. No in-apps at all. Love it. 4) This puppy. I use it constantly alongside iCircuit running on two separate iPhones, 8+ and 6s+, the 8 for iCircuit and this app on my 6. Hours and hours of use. And good clean fun. 5) Filmic Pro. It’s a dedicated HD video camera app, no still camera just video and it’s literally the last word on shooting vid within iOS. If you care, check it out. Footage shot with it has literally made it to the Sundance Film Festival and not just once but quite a few times at this point. And I’m not kidding about that. Add a couple of hardware add-ons, get some good audio production tools to use alongside and you can literally shoot professional work. And I think that’s all that needs to be said in this review. I may have said more about every other app than this one but strangely I think that says more about it than I could have by raving on about all of the insane amounts of collected information and tools in this bad boy. But it’s all there, just get it and look for yourself.
Review by Todd House on Electronic Toolbox Pro.