This video is what happens when you eat an Angry Who-Roast Beast Omelette and then have the next day off from school. You play in your sandbox and create using technology. Ok, Ok…. maybe this… More
AudioKit Digital D1 Synth
Special price thru Nov. 1!!!!! Act now because this synth is amazing sounding! We have some pretty special synth apps already on iOS but this one…. wow!
AudioKit Digital D1 Synth – Current intro price is $4.99. Will be going up to $14.99 and it will fully worth THAT price too but get it NOW! make sure you know the requirements though. It will not run on some of the older iPads. Download their free synth to check your iPads capability AND to get an amazing synth for free!
The free AudioKit SynthOne – Free!
There are several demos online to take a listen to. Here are a couple links.
From the developer – Matthew Fletcher
From one of the Sound developers – Red Sky Lullaby
Technology and Teaching BlogPost on StageRight’s Blog
Lot’s of good information over at the StageRight website – I am pleased to lend my thoughts on a few things technology and teaching oriented…..
Playing in the SandBox of Sound
Playing in the sandbox of amazing sounds we have available…. Model15, Noise, GeoShred, Cubasis, Earhoof
Dark, heavy ambient wanderings on the first sticky snowfall of the fall.
(Use headphones man!)
Recording on iOS – Top Five Ways To Get the job done
Being a music teacher we should always be looking for ways to record our musical ensembles. With todays technology we carry with us in our pockets this is a much easier task than it was 8-10 years ago.
Here are some apps to get you going….
Ok – lets start with the obvious. Well it might not be so obvious. Voice memos has been long neglected on iPhone and not even available on iPad until iOS12. Now the app has a much fresher look and lives on both devices. It’s free, it is there and it works for those quick and easy jobs. Things like recording one person auditions. It allows you to record the audio, and the then trim it. Then you can share it in the expected variety of place via the share button built into iOS. Another bonus is that the recordings can be synced between your two devices if you so wish.
Voice Record Pro – Free with In App Purchases To remove ads.
The second app that is quick easy and cheap is Voice Record Pro. Again, for simple recordings that you simply want to record, trim up and share. The share methods are plentiful and not hidden away in the share button menu. They are right in front of you. The interface is getting a bit aged but is functional.
Want to do multi track recordings but still keep it simple? Here is one of the long standing apps that works on iPad and iPhone alike. Super solid and super easy.
This is the first of what we would call an app actually designed to record music. Obviously you can record music with the first two apps but now we have moved into the actual music apps…. now we add multi-track recording (up to 24 tracks), metronome, tempo settings, ability to punch in and out, EQ, Compressor and the ability to tie in other music apps for more effects and to record instrument apps like Ravenscroft Piano.
Ferrite Recording Studio – Free with In App Purchases
If you are doing podcasting then this is the app for you! On the podcast iPad Pro’s the Ferrite developer, Cannis, talks with host Tim about his app.
Ferrite takes all the work out of PodCasting…. well OK, maybe not. But it does make many things much easier! Things like ducking, striping silence and all that fun stuff. Ferrite makes those things even easier than if I was to do it on my laptop in LogicProX!
Even though it is made with PodCasting in mind Ferrite is a multitrack reacording studio that works super well for the musician.
Cubasis – $20-$25 if on sale $50 Normal – WELL WORTH THE PRICE
If you really want to get serious about making music on an iPad though then these last two apps are where it’s at.
I fondly remember drooling over the latest hardware multitrack recorders in the late 80’s and during the 90’s. Knowing full well I could not convince my wife to sell our children and our extra kidneys in order to afford one of those fancy things. (wait… is it kidneys or livers we have an extra of? – good thing I’m not a doctor)
Fast forward to iPads and now the cost is really not that much of a stretch to call an impulse purchase.
Auria and Cubasis have it all. (well as close as we are going to get – I think the only thing I am waiting for is the ability to have multiple time signatures in Cubasis)
Multitrack, Audio Units, InterAppAudio, Plug-ins galore and sound rivaling that of a professional sound studio. Wait… are those still around? Why?
Auria Pro – Music Production Studio – $20-$25 if on sale $50 Normal – WELL WORTH THE PRICE
Taking Photos of Photos (or posters)
Have a poster hanging on the wall inside of a reflective glass enclosure that you would like a photo of?
Have old family photos that have been sitting in a box in your grandmas basement that you would like to digitize?
There’s an app for that….
The one I REALLY like is Google’s PhotoScan because it actually takes four pictures and mergers them into one to help get rid of things you don’t want in the final – things like reflections and imperfections like a curled edges. Plus it straightens the edges so you don’t have to get so perfect with trying to make it square (or rectangular)
Another one I am trying is the sister app to ScanBot – It’s called PhotoScanner Pro:Scan Albums but on your phone it sows up as Unfade.
Of course you COULD try just simply snapping a photo with your phone camera.
Compare the three results below…..
Gestrument Pro – Performing on iOS with alternative interfaces
If you have followed this blog at all for any length of time you will know that one of the quests I’ve been on is using iOS to perform in ways never before possible.
PerplexOn has access and has posted a wonderful video of him jamming out by the fire! This is the video that convinced me to pre-order.
https://mobile.twitter.com/PerplexOn/status/1043936739142881281
The developers, Jesper Nordin and leading iOS developer Jonatan Liljedahl (Kymatica), are amazing musicians and outstanding developers. So I am holding high hopes for a very useful alternative that will allow for some interesting music making. I am not holding my breath for an instrument that is one of those “pick-it-up and understand it now” sort of instruments.
Here is their description off their website…
Gestrument Pro takes everything we loved about Gestrument and improves on its original functionality while introducing a host of new features such as multi-touch, recordable automations, advanced scale editing and our unique system of highly tweakable modular generators that define the pitches and rhythms.
With Gestrument Pro you can Play, Improvise and Compose music with deeper levels of personal expression than ever before.
To wet your appetite even more, before you go hit the pre-order button, here is a YouTube video…
Some Good Movie Sales on iTunes for Music Ed
Creating Music Where Ever You Are
So this weekend we went camping. While my wife enjoyed her time floating on her tube with her nieces in the lake, watching the little kids play on the big blow up lake toys…. I enjoyed a bit of toying around making music. It’s a ton of fun making music by the campfire sitting at the picnic table.
I used my ROLI SeaBoard Blocks and Roli’s Noise app. I am not comfortable with the whole loop based recording scene so I made myself use it.
I love the expressiveness and response you get from both the Blocks – the keyboard looking one and the new square Block. I like the touch and the feel of the little square Block but the lights need to be brighter!
Once done I had a bit of trouble figuring out how to share my creativity…. the Noise app doesn’t play well with others. No way to create a song besides tapping individual loops and “performing” the whole song live. I can not preset a sequence of the loops and then export and audio file. I could export all the loops into another app as individual recordings but I wanted one final mixdown of “The Song”. I couldn’t even use Noise in conjunction with another app to accomplish this. I ended up using the headphone out jack and my handheld recorder. That meant I had to wait until I got home to do anything else with the final recording because iOS doesn’t let you import audio from an SD card!
At home I opened the card on my laptop, imported the file, then AirDropped it back to the iPad. It felt like cheating… APPLE – you need to fix this issue!
Then I used Wizbel to dump some photos and effects on top of the audio. The photos are all from our summer trips. I wish I could put more photos in. The song is kind of long so the exporting from Wizbel takes a LONG time! In fact I typed all of this post up to here, on my iPhone while waiting for the export and it STILL was only part way done as you can see below….
In the Noise App you get a ton of different sounds that are created for the Blocks. You only get to use four per project though so that’s a bit of a bummer.
The other issue ROLI needs to fix is there is no way to edit your mistakes after recording. I KNOW the MIDI is there so how hard can it be ROLI to simply add a piano roll editor?
But… hey that fits my motto… play, create, share. Too many people worry about getting EVERY single detail right. Too clinical and too much time. I want to explore and I want to be realistic about what my students would end up doing too. Get them creating and then encourage them to share. Even if the final song is a “bit rough around the edges”.
I did discover that the Noise app is synced between your devices! So when I opened my iPhone up I had to download a sound or two before my project would open but there it was! Allowing me to work with either my iPad OR my iPhone! Nice touch ROLI!
So anyways… the final version of the song is both on my YouTube as well as on my SoundCloud. (Or it WILL BE once Wizibel gets done exporting!)
Here’s where the export process is at now….
Don’t expect to use this app in a classroom setting at the end of a class period. That should be understood for the processing of any video file though! Video takes awhile! I’m even using the first gen iPadPro 12.? Inch iPad so it’s a pretty decent processor!
So let’s talk about sharing your content…. did I mention that this entire blog post is being created and shared from my iPhone…. for free? Your students can do the same! Of course the final recording and video are NOT get hosted here on WordPress but instead I am using YouTube and SoundCloud for those items. So if you are not willing to mash up a few services then you would have to pay.
Here ya go….
SoundCloud – Rainy Lake of Dreams
YouTube Link –
Looking for a Chord Chart App?
Use OnSong – many worship leaders and groups use this.
SOOOOOO many features…. from creating your own charts, downloading charts, integration with SongSelect and Planning Center to running lights or displaying lyrics!
OnSong –
AirPlay from iOS to MacBook
Well that was an interesting thing that happened my first day back to school!
I normally have an Apple TV hooked up so I can mirror my iPad to the screen in my room. It wasn’t there today…. bummer.
My iMac from 2008 that I’ve used for 9 year in the band room as my main computer hooked up to the screen stopped working… bummer. Just shut off and won’t turn on.
So I grabbed my MacBook. On my MacBook I’ve used AirServer and Reflector in the past to mirror my iPad/iPhone to the computer and then have that show up on the screen in the classroom. I’ve purchased both apps because I think they are just wonderful. Our school network is wonky though and sometimes one works and other times the other one works. Which again led me to purchasing both apps. The cost vs the cost of an Apple TV is a tad less.
But today for some reason I hit the AirPlay icon on my iPad to see what showed up before eI had either of those two apps running and I saw my MacBook. So I selected that option and boom – my iPad showed up on my MackBook but in a totally unexpected app!
5KPlayer was the app that took my AirPlay request and hosted it! I can not even remember why in the world I downloaded 5K Player and honestly I find it extremely obnoxious because it hijacked all my movie files and has become the default app to open all movies in. I would rather use Quicktime.
But wow… if 5K Player will allow for me to AirPlay for FREE – well that’s pretty cool! oh… bonus – it will do a screen recording of your iOS device that is AirPlaying to your Mac!
I will say that actually getting the download is a trip down frustration lane as it bumps you over to cnet’s website – and the stupid MacKeeper download button is right there so be careful. Please make sure you know what you are actually downloading!
