Smule’s Amazing, Magical New ‘Strum’ App: The New Instagram? [Daily Freebie]

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Ever since 2008, when its first smash-hit, Ocarina — an app that turns your iPhone into a playable flute — debuted, Smule has proved itself over and over again as a magical outfit guaranteed to drop jaws with every release. Their newest app, Strum, is out today, and it’s no less wondrous an app than any of their previous efforts. But there is one very big difference: Instead of sticking to their musical background (one of Smule’s founder is, after all, an assistant professor of computer music at Stanford), they’ve taken their music fairy dust and sprinkled it on the world of video.

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.

 

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