This new app promises to turn your iPhone into a LinnStrument-style '3D' controller

If you've been looking for an iPhone controller app that enables you to utilise your device's 3D Touch functionality, your search might have come to an end with the release of Kevin Nelson's Aftertouch. This was inspired by Roger Linn's LinnStrument and Madrona Labs' Soundplane.

This is designed to turn your device into a velocity- and pressure-sensitive MIDI controller. It can work with other apps and external hardware via a Camera Connection Kit or Bluetooth MIDI. It's based on a grid-style layout, and there's also a built-in synth.

Check out the video above for a demo, and there are specs below. Aftertouch is available now on the Apple App Store priced at £2.29/$2.99

Kevin Nelson Aftertouch features

Grid features

  • Configurable grid dimensions and musical intervals between rows and columns
  • Configurable note display format (MIDI note number, musical pitch, or a combination of both)
  • Easy-access transposition buttons to move the grid by a semitone or an octave


MIDI features

  • Selectable MIDI output: choose between virtual MIDI destinations (other apps), hardware USB MIDI connections (via the Camera Connection Kit), or Bluetooth MIDI devices
  • Selectable MIDI Channel, or MPE (Multi-dimensional Polyphonic Expression)
  • Configurable CC outputs for X, Y, and Z axis finger movement (with support for Pitch Bend in the X axis, and Channel or Polyphonic pressure in the Z axis)


Other features

  • Built-in phase modulation synthesizer exhibits the default expression settings
  • Velocity curve editor for fine-tuning the velocity- and pressure-sensitivity to your musical style
  • Use the full screen to set the range of control parameters, or constrain them to only respond to movement within a single pad.

Note: Z-axis support is only available on devices with 3D Touch. Other devices still send X and Y axis data, and send a fixed note-on velocity value.

Ben Rogerson

I’m the Deputy Editor of MusicRadar, having worked on the site since its launch in 2007. I previously spent eight years working on our sister magazine, Computer Music. I’ve been playing the piano, gigging in bands and failing to finish tracks at home for more than 30 years, 24 of which I’ve also spent writing about music and the ever-changing technology used to make it.