[RWP] ot: garage band on the IPhone

[colin McDonald]

this comes compliments of Danny Noonan, Sidney Australia:
it's only an intro, but gives a really good idea of the power of garage band 
on the IPhone using voice over.
------

-----
Well, I've been spending some time slowly working stuff out in the app and 
am finally starting to get somewhere. I started looking round with a lot of 
swiping and learnt a lot but obviously, the true usefulness of the app is 
when you start doing some serious screen mapping.  Once I found where the 
menu pops up after double tapping on an item/track and how to drag items 
round, extend drum patterns etc, I started to think there may be some decent 
product we can do in garage band after all. I wasn't sure for a while 
because some things even when changed, ie, bar length of a stretched drum 
item didn't update so I thought I hadn't done it correctly to go press play 
and find it actually did work. Now, it's much easier. J

I'll first give a partial layout of the main screen & then describe what 
things do further on. Sorry but this will be a little eclectic.


Firstly, with the iPhone in landscape mode with the home button on the left 
side, starting at the top left of the screen directly under the top 
edge/bezzle we have a section with 2 buttons/tabs. The "menu" button & to it's 
right a toggling tab button which cycles between "Perform" and "track" 
screens.

Then in the middle section of this "for a better term, menu bar>, we have 
the "rewind" button which is actually a jump to start and when an your 
recording or playing, it turns into a stop button.

Next is the "play" button which acts as stop as well when your playing

And finally in the middle section, we have the "record" button. Self 
explanetry if you ask me. <grin>



Finally, we come to the third section in our menu bar. It feels like a 
continuation but visually, it's separated even though the gap is the same 
size and you can 1 finger swipe to it.

First is the "Jam Session" button You can sync up with up to 3 other iOS 
garage band devices and all play together. No idea how gimicky this is..

Next is another toggle tab. This one cycles between "Loops" on the "Track" 
screen & instrument settings on the "Perform"  screen.

Last is the "Settings" tab.



So, in both the "Perform" and "Track" screens you have  "Menu", 
 "rewind/stop", "play", "record", "Jam sessions" and  "settings"

And in "Track you  have "Loop" or in "Perform" you have "Instrument 
 Settings".



Now for a little breakdown of what each section does.



The "Menu" button  opens a window to select either

"my songs" which takes you to all the projects your working on where you can 
rearrange, delete, make folders to organise or create new projects. This is 
also where you can import tracks and is where you first turn up in the app 
before selecting a project.

Here you can also select "Instruments"  where  you can select instrument 
types and then specific instruments such as different basses, guitars, 
piano, keys organ etc.



The perform tab is where you both play the instrument and can select scale 
and or single note or chord. In instrument settings you can also edit 
peramitors like sustain and arpegiate/chord for keyboard, synth editing 
wheels, chord or note for guitar, & bass, solo or group for strings etc. .



In the track tab you can add tracks, move tracks up & down rows, move items 
between tracks and forward or backward along the time line. You can also 
drag to trim or with a drum patern you've selected or made you can even 
stretch it out longer so if you change from an 8 bar intro to a 12, no 
problem. Double tap the right handle and pull it along an extra 4 bars. You 
can also edit virtual instruments moving, removing, and generally working 
with keys etc to fix mistakes make fine changes and things of that nature. I 
have had a quick look but that isn't big on my ajenda as of yet. I do think 
it's at least minimally usable how ever.

In the song tab which is under "settings", you can set count in, click 
on/off, sound for the click track as well as tempo.

In the track tab you can set mute, solo, volume, pan, echo, revirb, 
quantisation, transposition, and master effects. Now these will probably 
change a bit from instrument to instrument. I'm sure a synth is different to 
drums, organ                  , guitar, sampeler etc as they have specific 
functions but you get the idea. It's nice that you can change a track and 
then in any track settings go straight to the master to easily see how the 
change sounds overall and be able to alter the master quickly. And just this 
second I found in the top left of the screen the track forward & track back 
buttons so you can move through tracks from within the settings tab. So glad 
it isn't a go back a screen, select another track and go back in or 
something.

In the master settings you have echo & reverb with a bunch of choices. I don't 
know if there are addon fx packs, if you can pay for extra functionality or 
anything but it's only a phone I guess. <grin>



That'll be all for now but when I get time I'll give a description of screen 
layout in regard to track editing, touch instruments, edit menu etc. Feel 
free to contact me off list, on twitter at

@MoreThanDanny

Or how ever if your having trouble with anything. Yes, I know this is very 
rushed. The app is only just starting to start to take shape in my head but 
I'm quite confident we can do quite a lot. Waight until I dewscribe dropping 
loops onto track grids or actually making up drum patterns by dragging drums 
onto a grid, moving them left or right for less or more complex and up or 
down for louder or softer. Really cool. Great drum machine for Vips for 
sure!.