Hexpress musical instrument is an app by CastleWrath in the Music & Audio category, listed since at least December 2022. It includes native code for ARM 32-bit and ARM 64-bit, so it runs on practically every phone.
It asks for 3 permissions, 1 of them sensitive: record audio.
What's new in v0.39.0
A new piano instrument
All instruments adapted to various displays aspect ratios
Sound sample fixed to reduce cracking
Small visual updates adaptations
Description
From the listing uploaded by “appupdater”.
Hexpress is a collection of musical instruments for your phone. You can use it for learning, playing and composing music whenever you have the time - on train, while waiting in line and during boring meetings. Using headphones (non-bluetooth) is strongly recommended for louder and better sound quality, and to not disturb others around you. The application has simple, colorful and clean interface designed to be accessible to young children.
While each instrument behaves differently in some way, in general notes are played by touching shapes on the screen, and sound is shaped by tilting the phone left-right and up-down. Different instruments have different effect controls - fade in, reverb, tremolo...
Most of Hexpress instruments have unusual honeycomb note arrangement that's sometimes called "harmonic table note layout". It is identical Tonnetz layout, only rotated. It has many interesting properties compared to standard piano layout:
• effective utilization of device screen (3+ octaves range)
• note relations (intervals) are uniform across whole range; to transpose song to different key just play same patterns on different part of instrument
• most chord shapes are grouped tightly and they can be executed with single finger swipe
• in typical scale and melody runs, notes are alternated between fingers of two hands, so they can be played with speed and precision
• large intervals are as accessible as smaller intervals
Besides honeycomb layout there are also instruments with conventional fretboard, and a drum set for finger-drumming.
The app features a looper used to record repeating section. The looper is enabled from main screen and can be used in almost all instruments. Saving or exporting loops is not supported in app.
Instruments are not meant to be reconfigured within the app. One reason for this is that it gives you a chance to actually learn the instrument (you couldn't learn a guitar if the tuning was different each time). The other reason is that constraints and limitations actually encourage creativity and make it more accessible to younger users. I'd like to improve existing instruments' sounds and visuals based on your feedback, but there will most likely never be any settings/options to fiddle with.
The app is work in progress - interface, sounds and features are all subject to change. The app doesn't collect ANY information about user and cannot access internet. Microphone permission is optional and is used in single instrument for recording it's samples.
Hexpress is without ads, free and open-source. Your feedback is much appreciated.
Security & authenticity
Security rating: Trusted
Signing certificate
Certificate issued to “Josip Miskovic”Not the developer's name (“CastleWrath”). Names in certificates can't be verified, so this alone proves nothing.
Uploaded by “appupdater”Gold tier · 117,810 followers · uploading since 2020
Scans and ratings come from the source store; the certificate comparisons are AAPKs's own, made from the files' published signatures. AAPKs doesn't scan files itself — compare the MD5 and signer after downloading.
Permissions (3)
Hexpress musical instrument requests 3 permissions, 1 of them sensitive.
Record audio (microphone)Sensitiveandroid.permission.RECORD_AUDIO
Bluetoothandroid.permission.BLUETOOTH
Control vibrationandroid.permission.VIBRATE
Required hardware & features
Microphoneandroid.hardware.microphone
Landscape screenandroid.hardware.screen.landscape
Hexpress musical instrument APK: questions and answers
Can I install this APK over the version I already have?
Only if it is signed with the same certificate as the copy on your phone and isn't an older version. If Android says “App not installed”, the certificates differ; uninstalling your copy first works but deletes its data unless it is backed up.
Is the Hexpress musical instrument APK safe?
No one can promise that a file is safe, but some things can be checked. The source store rates this file Trusted. After downloading, check that the file's MD5 is 40bb055996e853c3e737694f51a5eb4f.