One of the areas which has lagged behind on the Android platform when compared to the iPad has been in professional or even prosumer level music software.  For us amateur musicians this has been quite a waiting game but thankfully one company has stood up and felt our pain.  Single Cell Software released Caustic last year and more recently released Caustic 2 and boy am I glad they did.  What is Caustic 2?  Caustic 2 is a powerful digital rack-mount simulation in the same vein as the well known 'Propeller's Reason'  for your Android device.  It combines digitally simulated rack synthesizers, a drum machine, samplers and mixer all in one smooth operating interface that can be operated in real-time and with no internet connection required.  It's basically the ultimate portable music creation tool...at least until we get an official version of VST or Reason for the platform.  Take a look at the video above and you'll get a quick idea of how it works.  Here are some of Caustic 2's features:

* Virtual analog subtractive synthesizer
* PCM synthesizer
* BassLine synthesizer (303-like synth)
* Sampling drum machine
The app also includes
* Effects rack supporting 2 effects per machine. (7 effect types)
* Mixer desk with Delay/Reverb
* Song sequencer
All files are stored on the SDCard, and users can supply their own WAV files for use in the PCMSynths and BeatBox.

 



Now Caustic is free to try although save and export are disabled unless you buy the Appl.  Once you do however you'll be able to save your works to SD card. You can even import your own .wav files to the beatbox or PCMsynths rack.  The developer has also recently announced a new loop 'Loopstack' program that is a great compliment to Caustic 2 as well and should be out in the market shortly.  If you're a music maker who's been looking for something like this for your Android device, you'll appreciate Caustic 2 and if you're new to the music making scene this is a great learning tool because it let's your dive in and learn the basics of digital music creation without the incredibly complexity and confusion an more sophisticated app might cause.  Hit the link below to get Caustic 2 in the Android Market.  I've also included another video showing a tune being created and mixed below.