“ One ought, every day at least, to hear
a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and, if it were possible,
to speak a few reasonable words. ”
– Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Happy New Year!
The
most popular gift in the UK was the tablet. In the run up to Christmas, Apple
reckoned that every 50 seconds an iPad was purchased online or in the store. Kindles, Samsung and even the
Tesco Hudl were flying off the shelves at similar rates. If Santa left an iPad
under your tree, I’m recommending two apps. One is a utility app, the other a
music app.
“What’s the cost?” I hear you say, “I bet it is expensive!” Well,
you will be wrong. Documents is free. Like Apple offering the iLife suite free.
If you bought a new iPad after 1 September, 2013, you can get Pages, Numbers,
Keynote, GarageBand, iPhoto, iMovie and iBooks for free and use them in the cloud with
your Apple ID in your iPad, iPhone and your Mac. Not to mention Mail and
Calendar.
The
music app is a chord-based sequencer with an intriguing twist. Gone are cheesy
synths, synthesized drums. SessionBand
is world’s only chord based audio loop app. Recorded by London’s top session
musicians, each volume as packed with musical fine touches. SessionBand comes
in six “flavours” SessionBand Blues - Volume 1,
SessionBand Rock - Volume 1,
SessionBand
Jazz - Volumes 1 & 2,
SessionBand Acoustic Guitar - Volume , and1
SessionBand
Piano - Volume 1.
The interface is simple. I’m going to load up a demo
song “The Girl Form Brazil” from the Jazz Volume 1 app. You can write your own
changes as well. You tap on the “Play” button. You will probably want to hook
up external speakers to your iPad. Fifteen styles in each volume, ranging from
Ballad, 12/8, Slow Swing to Bossa Nove, Fast Latin, Up Swing and Afro Jazz. Volume 2 the palate gets extended to Slow
Funk, Poinciana, ECM, all the way to Reggae, Boogaloo, 5/4 and 7/4!
Tap the “Write” an you enter into a mode where you tap on the end of the
bar and insert chord by tapping on the keys of a piano. Repeated tapping make the chords advance through
the options. Pinch two fingers to shorten the chord or expand to make the chord
longer. Elapsed time, fill, ends are all there for your asking. Transpose for
the whole song – not pitch-shifted but the whole loop is substituted.
Tap the “Mixer” and the five-track mixer is brought forward offering
individual volumes for the bass, drums, piano, lead instrument and metronome.
You can record with or without automation. Go back to the main screen, tap
“REC” to arm, tap “1,2,3” for lead-in bar, tap “Play” and you are recording.
Press “Export” to save. Press it again and choose “Export” and choose from
“Live Recordings” or “SessionBand Tracks”.
You are presented with AudioCopy, Email. AudioCopy is for GaragBand or
other synthesizers who support AudioBus files. Email gives you and option of
Audio Only, SB File and Both.
“What’s the cost?” I hear you say, “I bet it is expensive!” Yes, Virgina,
it costs, but it not expensive. It’s available for iPhone £1.49 - £5.99 and
iPad £1.99 - £5.99. SessionBand Jazz as £5.99 per volume, but there’s a massive
16,000 loops to play with. SessionBand Blues is £2.49. Warning from SessionBand – don’t buy if your
device is older than an iPad 2 or and iPhone 4S.
I guess it’s time for closing. Documents, by Readdle for organization and
SessionBand for music. That’s a fine
start to the year. See you next time!
SessionBand http://www.sessionbandapp.com
Documents http://readdle.com/products/documents/
