Drawing Music: SoundBrush Transforms from Toy to Tool with Revamped iPad App

This week, Canadian startup LeafNotes launched a new version of SoundBrush, its flagship mobile app.

SoundBrush uniquely lets users quite literally “draw” music. The VeloCity Garage member pivoted last year from a student note sharing platform. Now it has raised its app to a new level.

“The old SoundBrush is a toy, designed to see how people would react to drawing music,” explained founder Basil Al-Dajane to Techvibes. “People really liked the idea. So we set off to work on the new SoundBrush, such that it can aid the user, without limitation, in creating some truly awesome songs.”

According to Al-Dajane, the new SoundBrush is just as much about creating music as it is about collaborating with people from around the world. The old app, which the Canadian entrepreneur describes now as a toy, received 130,000 downloads; he hopes the new SoundBrush, more of a “tool,” will be even more successful. He’ll certainly enjoy at least one download: Paul Graham dubbed SoundBrush “one of the coolest tablet apps I’ve ever seen” on Twitter.

The app used to have an upfront cost but now employs a freemium model. It’s free to download with in-app purchases to buy more instruments.