I haven't figured out how to record yet. I accidentally had to cancel it once, but I have no idea as to how I got there in the first place. :)
On Sep 2, 2010, at 10:41 AM, Esther wrote: > Hi Florian, > > On Aug 31, 2010, at 23:33, F10r14n wrote: > >> In the meantime, noone seems to have answered my >> questions *sob sob* >> >> Florian > > I'll paraphrase your earlier questions. You asked about how to play chords > for the acoustic guitar instrument selection (citing difficulties getting > your fingers down on all the notes of the chord simultaneously), and you also > asked about whether the music you played in ThumbJam could be recorded, for > instance, in an app like GigDaddy. Although you didn't explicitly state this, > I assume you're using ThumbJam on an iPhone. > > The quick answer is that ThumbJam lets you adjust the spacing of notes on the > screen for each of your selected instruments, and it also allows you to > change the octave range of your notes, as well as your key, so you can > control the span of notes and their spacing on the screen for your > performance. ThumbJam also lets you record your performances in the app, and > use them to create mixes -- so you could record a chord sequence and play it > in background as a loop, and then record on top of that a different melody > line with the same or different instruments. You can also adjust the > relative volume in a mixer. > > In ThumbJam, you can control the spacing of your instrument keys by using the > key controls along the left side of your screen, assuming that you haven't > toggled them off to hide them when you play. I described the key controls > and what they do in an earlier post, but to repeat the information and give a > more detailed answer for what you ask (playing chords on an instrument whose > default spacing for different notes doesn't let you fit your fingers onto all > the notes you want at the same time), run your finger along the left side of > your iPhone screen about at the middle of the screen. You should hear > VoiceOver say "cipher underscore plus, button", "span", "cipher underscore > minus, button". Double tap the "cipher underscore minus, button". This > decreases the note range span of the instrument in the vertical direction by > fitting fewer notes between the bottom (lowest note) and top (highest note) > on the screen. Effectively, you've increased the separation between notes, > so that you can fit your fingers (simultaneously) on multiple notes of a > chord. You're probably going to have to double tap the "cipher underscore > minus, button" three or four times, depending on the size of your fingers. > > If you want to keep the spacing at this setting for chorded work, you can use > the next set of key controls just under the "span" controls to move your key > range up or down octaves. These are announced by VoiceOver as "cipher > underscore plus, button", "October", "cipher underscore minus, button". (If > you find this strange, and set your rotor to "character" mode so you can read > off the label letter by letter, you'll find that the developer has used the > abbreviation for Octave as "O C T", and that VoiceOver has decided to help > you out here by reading "October".) Same principle works here: double > tapping the "cipher underscore minus, button" shifts your keys down an > octave, and double tapping the "cipher underscore plus, button" shifts keys > up an octave. > > For those people who want to read the earlier post, the link to this post in > the Mail Archive for the macvisionaries list is: > > http://www.mail-archive.com/macvisionaries%40googlegroups.com/msg28572.html > (Thumbjam iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad music app instructions) > > You'll have to read down to the bottom to get my first post about the > controls layout, since I didn't cc: this to the macvisionaries list (which > also made it available to the Mail Archive for easy searching and linking) > until the next iteration of questions and reply made it clear that people > were going to ask about this app again. > > Now, I use ThumbJam on my iPad, so here's where it turns out that the key > control layout differs from the iPhone setup, based on installing Thumbjam on > my iPod Touch. On the iPhone version, by the time you come to the labeled > controls for changing octave (or "October", as VoiceOver would say), you've > reached the bottom of the screen. On my iPad, when I run my finger down the > left side of the screen to listen to the key controls, the "cipher underscore > minus, button" for the octave is only 60% down from the top of the screen -- > slightly below the vertical midway point. If I continue to run my finger > down the left side of the screen where the key controls are announced (when > not toggled off from the "Sound" menu -- button in the top left corner), I > hear "Rec underscore icon, button" and "metronome underscore off, button". > These buttons aren't present in the iPhone version of ThumbJam because > there's not enough space along the left side of the screen to fit them in. > Instead, I believe you have to go to the "Loop" button at the top right > corner and double tap. Do a two finger flick up to read off the options. > There will be some controls for both loop recording, mixing, playback, and > loading and clearing off loops, as well as regular session recording (so you > can have a track looping in the background, I think, and play and record over > this, and the metronome controls can also be accessed here.) > > OK, I don't know how this works on the iPhone, but here's what happens on my > iPad. I double tap the "rec underscore icon" button at the left edge of the > screen. If I do a two finger flick up to "read all", I find that the top left > corner now reads "Cancel Record, button" and the top right corner now reads > "Record from Mic, button", while just after that, in the center of the > screen, a short way down from the instrument heading, is a message, "Touch to > start instrument record". (Actually, what I hear in sequence is "Sound", > "Cancel Record, button", the instrument name in the heading, "Record from > Mic, button", "Loop", "cipher underscore key, button", "Touch to start > instrument record", and then the other items from the "Key Controls" menu > along the left side of the screen. But if I touch the top left and right > corners directly, I hear the buttons to "Cancel Record" and "Record from > Mic".) If I leave VoiceOver on, (but first touch the center of the screen -- > maybe at the "Touch to start instrument record" message, so focus is in the > playing area, and not on the "Rec underscore icon, button" among the key > controls along the left side of the screen), and do a double split tap on the > screen, I'll hear the message under my finger change to "Recording > instrument", and if I now check the top left corner I'll hear "Cancel Record, > button", while the top right corner has changed to "Finish Record". > > So here's how I would record a loop on the iPad, where I can leave the left > side key controls up or hide them without interfering with my playing: > 1. Double tap the "Rec underscore icon, button" along the left side of the > screen, about a quarter of the way up from the bottom of the screen. (On the > iPhone, you would probably first hide your key controls along the left side > of the screen by double tapping the "Sound" button at the top left corner of > the screen, then run your finger down to "Key Controls, button" and double > tap to hide. Then you would double tap the "Loop" button in the top right > corner, and then run your finger down to the "Record Loop" button and double > tap to start recording.) > 2. Toggle VoiceOver off by triple clicking the home button. > 3. Start playing and tap the top right corner of the screen when I'm done to > end the recording. > > As soon as I tap the top right corner of the screen, what I've just played > will start playing and looping. While you could toggle VoiceOver on again > and double tap the corner, ThumbJam will be recording silence over that > interval, and the silent part will get looped, too. Also, if you turn > VoiceOver on while the music you recorded is looping, you find that the area > that had the messages like "Touch to start instrument record" reports the > number of beats per minute -- which will not be correct if you leave a large, > silent passage at the end of your recording -- along with the instrument and > "unsaved". I don't have difficulty tapping the spot in the top right corner > to end the recording with VoiceOver off, but you can either use reference > points of your case, or simply put an elastic or cloth band, or some of the > non-sticky type of tape to mark the corner you want to tap. > > You can toggle VoiceOver on while the track is looping, double tap the "Loop" > menu in the top right corner to save the loop (run your finger down past the > "Record Loop, button" and the "Pause underscore icon, button" which is the > play/pause button to the "Save, button". Then dismiss the "Loop" menu and > double tap the "Sound" menu to optionally switch to another instrument and/or > bring up the key controls again to make any adjustments for the next > instrument you want to use for playing against the looped track. This can be > the same instrument -- maybe you recorded chords, and you now want to play a > melody line after first changing the note spacing with the key controls. > When you've chosen your configuration you can toggle VoiceOver off again and > start playing against the looping track. If you decide you want to record a > second track, go through the same steps to start recording another loop. The > "Loop" button brings up controls not just for recording loops, but for > playing/pausing the current loop, saving loops or deleting the last loop (if > you decide you want to record it again), bringing up a mixer to adjust > relative volume of all saved loops, loading up loops that were previously > saved, clearing off all current loops if you want to end your present session > (saved loops stay in the program), or loading up previously created loops > (which are named by date and time of creation). The program is set to wait > for the loop to reach the end of its cycle before starting to record the next > loop, although you can likely override these settings. Each new loop is > identified by beats per minute, instrument name, and by a time stamp name (if > it has been saved -- otherwise it will be labeled "unsaved". You can either > save individual loops or loop sets, but I think that with sets you can' t use > individual tracks of the set if they weren't separately saved. > > There's also a session recording switch under the "Loop" menu and the "Load, > button" will let you load up not only previous loops, but previous sessions, > add them to the current set, edit to remove loops, etc. just do a two finger > flick up or down for "read all" to view these options. I've fiddled a > metronome under the "Loop" menu. You can turn it on and It doesn't get > recorded when you record your loops. > > There are way many more features that I haven't tried, some of which are > options to use Thumbjam as a midi or OSC controller over Wi-Fi for synths on > your computer. I'm guessing there are list readers who regular work with > mixing, looping, and audio production apps both iPhone related and otherwise > who could provide a better summary, and explore more than I have in direct > response to your question. Maybe one of them could play around with this app > and file an evaluation and report for Applevis. Most users are likely to use > this o an iPhone, and I don't have one, so I'm inferring the answers based on > the way this works on my iPad, and on my iPod Touch (which I actually don't > use for Thumbjam, since the iPad has a built-in Mic, but which I had to load > up in order to examine the control layout likely used for the iPhone.) I'll > just point out again that there's a "Help/News, button" available under the > "Prefs" menu in the bottom right corner that gives a user guide and contact > information that directs you to both the developer's web site: > http://thumbjam.com > and also gives the email address for support questions: > support AT thumbjam.com > The web site has forums and detailed information links, such as to their > YouTube videos. Here's a link to one called "ThumbJam Looping Demonstration" > that demonstrates looping and recording: > > http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=MAOGxLwEj3g&; > > If you spend some time playing with this app, maybe you can report back on > your findings and tips to this list. > > HTH. Cheers, > > Esther > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "MacVisionaries" group. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected]. > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en.
