Brendan Power
364 posts
Jul 11, 2013
2:26 PM
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My Android phone (Galaxy Tab 1) battery died recently and it coincided with interest in playing live gigs with live looping from a smartphone or tablet. Apple leads by a long way in the latency stakes so I bought an iPad Mini and am exploring the music apps.
A big attractor was Loopy, probably the most advanced multi-track looper around. It isn't available on Android because of its inferior latency.
Of course the effects & amp emulators are all designed for guitar. Jamup seems the best but I''m struggling to get a good sound from the pedals and patches. Has anyone got some suggestions for good app & pedal choices for harp?
Thanks, Brendan
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528hemi
378 posts
Jul 11, 2013
3:02 PM
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Check out amplitube
528hemi
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Pistolcat
421 posts
Jul 11, 2013
3:09 PM
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Hi Brendan! I can't say anything about loopers. Sorry :/. As for virtual amplifiers, I use a app called ampkit. I think that it is quite nice. I use the designated hardware from peavey 'ampkitlink' but people use different hardware, like apogee, and say that it is good. There's also a new 'ampkitlink HD' that is supposed to be good (although expensive). You can check out my YT (linked below) if you want to hear how it sounds. I use a sm57 on the older ones and a hotter bullettype on my newest.
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Pistolkatt - Pistolkatts youtube
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Reed Triller
144 posts
Jul 11, 2013
3:27 PM
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- Garage Band(Love it for harp)- It even works with using the tiny mic on my earbuds. I put them in and the mic pics it up and I hear myself virtual amped.
-Clear tune. For tuning and such. Seems very accurate. I checked it against a couple harps that were just tuned with a strobe.
- Ear training. For those who want to learn better how to tell notes and chords by hearing them.
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"Bend it like Ricci" - Me
Last Edited by Reed Triller on Jul 11, 2013 3:29 PM
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tookatooka
3382 posts
Jul 11, 2013
3:57 PM
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Hi Brendan, just found out tonight you will be playing 5 minutes away from where I live on Saturday afternoon at the Spellbound Festival in Edmonton. Unfortunately I won't be able to make your gig due to prior arrangements. I really wish I'd known earlier I would have loved to have seen you play live. What a complete bummer. Good luck, I hope it goes well. Hopefully I'll catch you another time.
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Martic
18 posts
Jul 11, 2013
4:45 PM
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A few weeks ago I played as a sideman with a great guitar player from my country, who is a huge fan of Ronnie Earl, so we played songs like San Ho Zay, Narcolepsy and You Gave Me Nothin' But The Blues. A friend of mine borrowed me the I-Stomp, loaded with an octave/harmonist pedal, so I could play the hammond parts. I must say this little pedal is AWESOME! You plug your Apple device, run the application, load the effect you want, unplug the device and the effect is saved into the pedal's internal memory. I used it for two gigs and it sounded f*cking awesome! I loved that little pedal. Google it Brendan, it has a lot of features.
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Greg Heumann
2256 posts
Jul 11, 2013
6:11 PM
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A simple but cool app I got recently is called LiveBPM. It listens to music and tells you the number of beats per minute. In other words it is not a metronome, but answers "what speed is that?". That alone is cool, but what I really like is that it plots a graph of the speed of the tune over time. If you've ever struggled with creeping tempo, and your bass player blames the drummer, and the drummer blames the guitar player, , etc - now you can PROVE that your rhythm section did indeed speed up or slow down. Good bands can easily hold a tempo within a few beats per minute. Sloppy bands tend to wander 10 BPM or more.
***************************************************
/Greg
BlowsMeAway Productions
See my Customer Mics album on Facebook
BlueState - my band
Bluestate on iTunes
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Brendan Power
365 posts
Jul 11, 2013
7:41 PM
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Thanks for the suggestions. I have Amplitude and Ampkit - what are the best pedals in those apps (or any other) to give a good amplified harp tone?
The best I've found so far is Jamup's Tube Driver, but it's still not fantastic. Also still to find a really good virtual pitch shifter.
The Digitech iStomp range looks great, but it seems you have to buy the external pedal to use them. I want to play everything in my iPad Mini, just mount it to a mic stand and choose effects by tapping the screen.
It seems there is a gap in the market for one of the harmonica FX makers to tap into.
I'm finding the switch-over interesting. Apple is great in many ways but the keyboard is crap compared to Android. No predictive text!
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Greg Heumann
2260 posts
Jul 11, 2013
9:09 PM
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No predictive text? Au contraire - Apple just does it differently. As you complete a word (that you've typo'd) you will usually see a little pop-up over the word in blue, with an "x" at the right end. All you have to do is touch the space key and the word will be auto-corrected to the word in blue. If that is NOT what you want, tap the "x" to accept the word as-is.
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***************************************************
/Greg
BlowsMeAway Productions
See my Customer Mics album on Facebook
BlueState - my band
Bluestate on iTunes
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Reed Triller
146 posts
Jul 11, 2013
11:12 PM
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Another one you might check into is DJ Player. The logo is big fat letters"DJ".I think it can loop.
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"Bend it like Ricci" - Me
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Gipsy
18 posts
Jul 11, 2013
11:37 PM
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Thanks for this thread. I've been struggling with the less is more feeling for a while, and I hope to get some good ideas here.
I use the amazing slow downer app to slow down pieces I'm learning, but also to store playlist backing tracks. It has a pitch shift function. It also has a loop facility but this is more for learning than performance.
For recording I use Hokusai. It's the only one I've found that let's you import backing tracks directly from your iPad music library. It has a full multitrack facility, and rudimentary editing effects such as reverb.
I don't perform except at home for the dog, but I love the concept of carrying most everything in one small electronic goody.
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Gipsy
19 posts
Jul 12, 2013
12:11 AM
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By the way. How do peeps input to the iPad/iPhone? I'm currently using the Irig gizmo. It has an xlr input and outputs to a 3.5 mm jack for the iPad. The unit has a headphone socket which gives a line out, and also phantom power albeit via a battery. For simple recording and practice I just ordinary apple ear buds with the built in microphone. Not ideal but it works.
I'd be very interested to learn how other peeps do it.
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Stevelegh
807 posts
Jul 12, 2013
2:02 AM
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Hi Brendan,
I believe Reggie Watts uses Everyday Looper on his iPhone.
Last Edited by Stevelegh on Jul 12, 2013 2:02 AM
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Brendan Power
366 posts
Jul 12, 2013
2:37 AM
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There are lots of good apps for looping, slowing down, recording etc, as folks have mentioned. But the one I haven't found yet is a pedal that gives a good warm, fat amplified harp tone. Something akin to the sound you get from the Kinder anti-feedback, or some of the Lone Wolf pedals: usable emulations of a traditional amped harp tone. The guitar pedals on various apps I've tried so far don't do it.
I'm sure it's possible: they seem to be able to emulate everything else. I downloaded the Jamup version of the Boss OC2 Octaver and it glitches just like the original. Uncanny!
I'm using an Ultimate 58 through the iRig interface - works fine.
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Pistolcat
422 posts
Jul 12, 2013
3:13 AM
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I use the peavey ampkitlink. It too has phantom power. It connects to the mic/headphone jack and has an ordinary instrument jack and a headphone line out, google for pics and specs. It works well except for one thing: the headphone jack in it has gone way crappy and cuts out. I have heard this is a common fault.
@brendan- for the ampkit pedals and gear I think the "amp" is the most important piece. I use mostly 'the vintage Brit' amp. I use the 'eq-monster' pedal and 'echology'pedal for reverb. For overdrive/distortion pedal I think the free 'elevenizer' is Quito allright, although I sometimes use the more subtle 'the juicer'.
On my latest YT, "we need to talk", I use a setup with 'noise gate' 'eq-monster' and 'echology' with the 'vintage Brit' amp. Please click link below feel free to skip ahead thirty seconds to avoid my singing :).
'The octapuss' is cool too...
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Pistolkatt - Pistolkatts youtube
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Brendan Power
367 posts
Jul 12, 2013
4:54 AM
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Thanks Pistolcat, that's a good tip, and I can hear it's working for your setup on the video. Thanks, I'll follow up and come back later. BP
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jim
1451 posts
Jul 12, 2013
5:29 AM
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our "Jukemaster"
iStrobosoft
Capo
Nota
PlayByEar
Chordbot
ChordBank (to understand what your guitar player is playing)
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Free Harp Learning Center
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Pistolcat
423 posts
Jul 12, 2013
6:31 AM
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One thing with the ampkit: the mic you are using makes a HUGE difference (not surprisingly, eh?). You can change input and output gain by tapping the meters in the lower right corners when you are in a preset image. I guess you have to crank it some with a sm58, I sure do with my sm57...
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Pistolkatt - Pistolkatts youtube
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HarpNinja
3380 posts
Jul 12, 2013
6:47 AM
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LOOPY HD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It is perfect for what you want to do...I would HIGHLY recommend using a midi controller live, though. The options are VERY impressive and it is the best looper in the market, IMHO.
While the rig can get expensive really quickly, adding just the iRig and a Midi Controller is cheaper than a Boomerang III and you get way more options and flexibility...like having several separate loops synced.
For example, you can have three loops of separate lengths controlled independently!
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Mantra Customized Harmonicas
My Website
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