Sheet music
An iOS device can help you locate, store,
and organize thousands of pages of sheet music, display them on a music stand,
and turn pages for you so you don’t have to take your hands off your
instrument. Music Binder ($1.99) is a simple song-sheet organizer mat supports
PDF files, automatically indexes your song tides, and matches song tide and
author names to corresponding audio files in your iTunes library.
An
iOS device can help you locate, store, and organize thousands of pages of sheet
music
Scorecerer for die iPad (Deskew
Technologies, $19.99) lets you import and organize scans in a variety of
formats (JPG, PDF, TIFF, etc.), then straighten the graphic, remove the border,
and annotate and highlight passages. Page turns are fast and can be done
manually by touching die screen or via MIDI over Bluetooth. You can even
rearrange pages and program page repeats.
Guitarists who need pro-level flexibility
in playback and display capabilities of MusicXML-format files should check out
SeeScore (dolphin-com.co.uk, $16.99). Features include auto-scroll
(which follows tempo and dynamic changes), a metronome during playback, and
sampled piano accompaniment. SeeScore Lite, which is essentially a demo version
with limited functionality, is available for free.
If you want a music organizer with
rehearsal and editing functionality, check out iReal b ($7.99). Once you import
chord charts from your favorite web format, you can edit and transpose them,
and later export the charts as audio, MIDI, or a file (including XML). The app
even supports number-system notation. Practice features include audio-based
accompaniments in several styles and the ability to loop a section of music.
If
you want a music organizer with rehearsal and editing functionality, check out
iReal b
Guitarists with an iPad who want to compose
or transcribe should check out Notion (notionmusic.com, $9.99), a
full-featured notation and tablature app. Like most computer-based notation
programs, Notion includes an onscreen piano keyboard for entering notes and an
extensive sound-sample library so you can hear your work played back with real
instruments. Guitarists will appreciate the virtual 24- fret fingerboard for
note entry (with a user selectable number of strings), chord library, and
articulations (hammer-ons, pull-offs, bends, etc.). The app lets you add
lyrics, import and export common file types, and it supports MIDI and file
sharing.
Notion Music also offers Progression
($4.99) for iPad, an app designed for creating and editing tab charts. It has a
virtual 24- fret interface, includes standard notation, has an audio mixer with
effects, supports Guitar Pro files, and include online search functionality that
links directly to sites such as Ultimate-Guitar.com. It’s a no-nonsense product
for the student or pro.
Fans of Ultimate-Guitar.com should download
Ultimate Guitar Tabs ($2.99). IF you want to do more than find songs, the
developer also offers Guitar Tools ($3.99), which includes a metronome,
chromatic tuner, and chord library, and Tab Pro ($3.99), which can provide
multitrack accompaniment witJi looping and tempo-change options.
Education and instruction
Young
beginners will enjoy Wildchords for iPad, an interactive game for learning how
to play guitar
Education apps for the guitar are
plentiful. Young beginners will enjoy Wildchords (ovelin.com, $9.99) for
iPad, an interactive game for learning how to play guitar. It covers tuning,
chords, and songs, which you’ll use to hypnotize and capture animals in order
to move up to the next level. Additional scenes are available for purchase.
Fret Surfer Guitar Trainer (Jason Neufeld,
free) provides games that help you learn the notes on each fret and string in
user-selected tunings (standard, DADGAD, open G, etc.). Southpaws will
appreciate the app’s left-handed mode.
Displaying tablature, chord charts, and an
interactive fingerboard, LickByNeck (lickbyneck.com, free) is a series
of virtual instructional songbooks mat covers a wide variety of styles,
including Fingerstyle, Ted Greene Guitar, Asian Solo Guitar, World Solo Guitar,
and others. You get a limited number of downloadable songs per day, but the
interface lets you adjust the tempo or step through each measure to examine
specific fingering. A higher-level app for learning and woodshedding is
Songsterr Guitar Tabs (songster.com, $19.99), which has its own site of
quality – controlled guitar tabs. The app includes a chromatic tuner,
selectable count-in options, loop points, and half speed playback.
Recording apps
Whether you use an external mie or audio
interface, you’ll want an app that makes it easy to record high-quality audio
files. Let’s start with Audiofile Engineering’s FiRe 2 Field Recorder (audiofile-engineering.com,
$5.99), an easy-to-use, 16-bit, 48 kHz stereo recorder with a waveform display
and overdub capabilities. Its pro-level editor includes markers and regions,
Bezier fades, normalization, and DC offset removal. Notably, the app can add
high-quality input processing, licensed from iZotope, and it shares files via
iTunes and Dropbox.
Whether
you use an external mie or audio interface, you’ll want an app that makes it
easy to record high-quality audio files
Tascam PCM Recorder (free) is simpler to
use, capture stereo WAV files, and accepts input from the built-in mie or a
device input plugged in to the connector dock. Features include input metering,
a limiter, a low cut filter, EQ, and SoundCloud integration. For multitrack
recording, Tascam has re-created its cassette multi-tracker for the iPad with
Portastudio ($2.99). Like the original, each track offers basic high and low EQ
controls and panning, which you use when mixing down to a stereo file.
Sonoma Wire Works FouiTrack ($4.99) is a
feature rich four-track recorder that lets you bounce tracks to get higher
track counts. The app creates CDquality files and includes a metronome, effects
(including TaylorEQ, which is optimized for Taylor guitars that include the
company’s Expression System electronics), file import, and Wi-Fi
synchronization with your computer DAW. If you have an iPad and want an
eight-track recorder with similar features you should check out Sonoma’s
outstanding StudioTrack ($9.99) app.
If you want a pro-level DAW for your iDevice,
you have two choices. Harmonicdog’s MultiTrack DAW ($9.99) records up to eight
tracks at a time (on the iPad; two tracks on the iPhone) with file resolutions
up to 24-bit/96 kHz. The app is expandable to 24 tracks and it imports a
variety of file types, offers dynamics and time-based effects, provides
multiple undo/redo levels, and supports, iTunes file sharing, Wi-Fi, and
SoundCloud. Best of all, MultiTrack DAW works with a wide variety of USB
interfaces.
WaveMachine Auria (auriaapp.com;
$49.99) for the iPad does just about everything a computer-based DAW can do. It
offers an astounding 48 channels of playback and can record 24 tracks
simultaneously when you use a USB interface and the Apple Camera Connection
Kit. It supports files up to 24-bit, 96 kHz and runs VST effects (some of which
are In-App Purchases). Multi-track recording on the iPad doesn’t get any better
than this!
