Just the phone
Nothing else needed. The synth lives in the app, your movement plays it, and the mic or a USB-C interface carries the sound. One tap and the take is in your Photos.
For anyone who wants a reel of themselves actually doing something.
Film yourself playing.
One tap.
An iPhone camera built for musicians. Open it and the camera is already live and vertical. One big button starts the take. The clip lands in your Photos.
Inspiration leaves while you fiddle with settings — so there are none in the way.
See the full set
Filmed and scored entirely by the app — gestures to the synth, camera on the phone.
Nothing from YouTube loads until you press play.
What it does
- One-tap vertical reel. No dialogs between launching the app and recording. Auto-saved to its own Photos album.
- Clean audio, your choice. Built-in mic, USB-C interface, Bluetooth — or a clean master mix streamed from your computer over WiFi instead of room noise.
- On-device tracking. Body, hands and face are tracked entirely on the phone to drive an on-screen overlay. Frames never leave the device.
- Gestures become music. Move to play the built-in synth, or send MIDI to your computer over the local network.
- Loops and collage. Layer takes into a synced loop grid with time-stretch, and burn the result into the recording.
- Go live. Push the take straight to YouTube Live or any RTMP server you point it at.
- Built-in editor. Trim, merge and re-render clips on the phone.
Two ways to run it
Wired into your rig
The phone becomes a camera and a controller for the setup you already have — Ableton Live, REAPER, an interface, whatever routes your sound.
- Audio — your master mix reaches the phone over WiFi and is written straight into the clip.
- MIDI — gestures leave as a Network MIDI session. MIDI-learn any parameter and move.
- Tempo — the phone follows your DAW's MIDI Clock, so loops and arp sit on your grid.
Seven ways to play
Each mode reads your body differently and sends a different thing.
- FX
- Hands become faders. The obvious starting point: bind a filter, a send, anything.
- Beat
- Strikes trigger drums, quantised to the bar.
- Air
- Hold a fist, hold a note. Open it and the note releases.
- Piano
- Hand position picks the note, snapped to the key and scale you set.
- Scene
- The app watches what's actually in frame and lets objects drive the sound.
- Flow
- Motion across the whole frame feeds a generative bed — the one that suits a yoga or movement session.
- Crowd
- Tracks several people at once, so a room can play the same bed together.
Add the loop grid and the collage on top and it doubles as a video-DJ instrument: layer takes in phase, warp them with a gesture, and burn the result into the reel you're recording.
Get it
Live2play for iPhone
The camera and the instrument. iPhone, iOS 17 or later.
Coming to the App Store
Free, no account, no ads.
beam for Mac
Optional. Sends your DAW's mix to the phone over WiFi, remote-controls the camera from across the room, and relays Link tempo. Open source, MIT.
Signed and notarised by Apple — it just opens. macOS 12 or later.
Privacy is the whole design
No account. No sign-up. No ads, no analytics, no trackers — the app ships with no telemetry SDK at all. Video and audio are processed on your iPhone. Nothing is uploaded anywhere unless you start a live stream to a server you chose.
Support
Something broken, or an idea? Email [email protected] — include your iPhone model and iOS version and we'll get back to you.
Requires iPhone with iOS 17 or later. A camera is required, so it does not run in the Simulator.