TRAVERSE CITY -- George Stamatakis is a session musician in Los Angeles. Nikiforos "Nik" Stamatakis is a software engineer in New York.
So when the brothers decided to work on a project together after a visit back home to Traverse City last Christmas, they put two and two together and came up with eight.
"His expertise is in music, mine is in software development. It was just a perfect combination," said Nik, 31, who with his brother developed the OctoPod audio recording application for the Apple iPhone and iPod touch.
The OctoPod, whose mascot is a purple octopus holding different instruments to show that you can record anything with the application, is one of more than 85,000 games and other "apps" that let iPhone and iPod touch users do more with their devices. Musicians -- and would-be musicians -- can download the software for a one-time fee of $2.99, then use it to practice and record vocals and instrumentals.
"It's like a mini recording studio," said George, 33, a guitarist who studied at Interlochen Arts Camp and the University of Southern California's Thornton School of Music. "You can record music on your iPhone and it has drums built in."
He said the application is among only a handful of multitrack audio recording apps and features 72 drum grooves, 12 song styles and several speed variations. Users plug the iPhone stereo headset into the iPhone, start up the program, select their preferences and record into the iPhone microphone.
"The really cool thing is the mic that comes with (the iPhone and iPod touch) is actually good quality," said George, who has recorded music -- although not on the iPhone -- for CDs, commercials, video games and film soundtracks including "Beauty Shop" with Queen Latifah and "Lucky You" with Drew Barrymore. "When you hear it, it sounds very professional."
The application took nine months to develop, including weeks of study and research squeezed between regular jobs. George, who also teaches music privately and at a music store, designed the graphics and produced the drum grooves while Nik, a software engineer for the NFL, did the programming.
"It was kind of uncharted territory for us," said Nik, whose previous work had all been on the IBM-Microsoft Windows platform. "I had to learn how to write software for the iPhone, for Macs, I had to read books. Everything was different. I had to learn from scratch basically."
The result is an elegant, simple and easy-to-use interface that has "the best-sounding drum grooves out there," he said.
The project brought the brothers closer than they've been since moving to the U.S. from Greece in 1993 and settling on opposite coasts. Besides getting together last summer at the family home on Bass Lake -- mom Marvine Stamatakis is coordinator and instructor of English as a Second Language at Interlochen Arts Academy -- they chatted or video-conferenced almost every day using iChat and Webcams.
"It's been so great to work with my brother," said Nik, who spent his last two years of high school at Traverse City Central and then attended the University of Michigan while George was at USC. "We shared a room as kids. It's been tough (being apart) because we grew up always playing together, doing everything together."
Application development on the iPhone has been one of the highlights of the device since its inception. Developers are encouraged to design and sell their own applications in the App Store, which operates like a consignment shop. Apple keeps a third of the price of any application sold, while the developer gets the rest.
While Apple does not disclose how much revenue it derives from App Store sales, it has posted over 2 billion downloads of games and other applications that allow users to do everything from navigate to watch NBA games live. Developers whose applications work their way to the top of the paid application charts can strike it rich.
Since releasing OctoPod in late September, the Stamatakis brothers have sold copies all over the world, including England, France, Greece, Italy, Spain, Singapore, Malaysia, Venezuela, Australia and Mexico. "It's not millions yet, but it takes time," George said, adding that the pair are marketing the application online primarily through Twitter, Facebook and MySpace. "We're selling copies every day. We're hoping it's going to snowball and get more and more and more popular in the coming months."
Meantime, their Fantastocrats company is already working to make improvements, from adding more music styles to increasing the number of tracks to record on.
"For the time being we're going to concentrate and make updates to this one," said George, who is splitting the proceeds 50/50 with his brother. "Down the line if it does prove successful and if it makes sense to do more applications, I would love to do it."
OctoPod is available at the App Store or at iTunes.com. For more information, see www.octopod.me.
What you can do with OctoPod
-- Use it for practicing: Record yourself or someone else playing chords, then practice singing, scales, improvisation, a song you're learning, whatever you want. Or just use the drum grooves as a drum machine to keep you in time.
-- Record a song with your band: Select "no drums" from the drum groove wheel, hook up your iPhone or iPod touch to a mixer with a Camcorder AV cable and use mics, headphones, speakers, any audio gear you have to record your next big hit.
-- Use OctoPod to record your ideas when you're on the road. Or if you need some inspiration, pick a drum groove, start jamming and see where the music takes you.
-- Record a cover song and show off your vocals: Pick the drum groove that fits, have a friend play guitar (keys, synth, etc.), add a bass line and then sing or rap over it. Wi-Fi Export to your computer, drag and drop into Garageband (or similar software) and add reverb, auto tune, delay or any other effects you want.
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