Why limit yourself to your small screen on the phone? Run SpectrumGen, an app by Alexander Zolotov, best experienced on your PC or Mac with BlueStacks, the world’s #1 Android emulator.

SpectrumGen feels like a tiny paint program where the paint is sound. A pixel grid becomes the instrument, and as someone draws, it plays right away. The interface is minimal and pleasantly retro, so there is no clutter getting in the way. Dark colors push low frequencies, bright colors push highs, so a line or a dot changes the tone in a very clear way. Fans of PixelWave will recognize the vibe, but here the spectrum itself is the canvas. There are eight built in timbres to switch the character fast, plus a control for how many octaves are active, from two to eight, which swings it from thick bass rumbles to glassy top end. The live, draw-while-it-plays feel makes experimenting easy.

On a PC with BlueStacks it works nicely, since a bigger screen and mouse precision make shaping the pixels feel natural. Export to WAV is included, so those strange drones or chirpy bursts can be saved as samples for later use. USB MIDI input is supported on newer Android versions, and if the setup passes it through, a small keyboard can trigger notes while the picture stays the same. SpectrumGen is more sketchbook than full studio, which suits people who like exploring textures, quick ideas, and happy accidents. It rewards a few minutes of play with unexpected tones, and once the color to frequency logic clicks, it becomes a quiet timesink in the best way.

Eager to take your app experience to the next level? Start right away by downloading BlueStacks on your PC or Mac.