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Steel Guitar & iFretless Bass - Daveypoo, The Mobile Music Minstrel
In this new video I'm exploring a couple apps with specific screen-based interfaces - Steel Guitar by Yonac and iFretless Bass by Blue Mangoo!
Comments
This is an excellent video, Dave. I love Steel Guitar as well, and I have an entire set of presets based on an insanely detailed list of Sonic Youth tunings.
But I can't figure out how to connect this to any other sequencers. It has midi, but I have never been able to make it connect with anything. Any luck? Ever try?
@ExAsperis99 I have not been able to connect it with a sequencer or any MIDI controller - I just don't think Steel Guitar is designed to work that way, so I'm ok with it. Besides, it would kinda kill the whole "giant-whammy-bar/slip-and-slide" aspect of playing slide anyway.
Holy shit - you have Sonic Youth tunings for Steel Guitar?!?!?!? Can you share them?!?!?! Do you have the tuning to Dirty Boots? Or My Friend Goo? You REALLY got me thinking with that one.....
I recall SG has some midi in control built in to emulate the foot and knee levers of a pedal steel guitar but no way to send midi note in to trigger the SG sounds.
Yeah, the point is the slide. But it HAS midi. Would be interested to see some cool sounds from this emerge in AUM/Atom.
And here's the SY tunings, which are OBSESSIVE.
Enjoy.
http://www.sonicyouth.com/mustang/tab/tuning.html
@ExAsperis99 Thanks for the link - you've just wasted the rest of my day.....
Yep, that’s what I recall. Steel Guitar is designed to only be a playing surface, not receive midi notes.
These two apps are both incredibly playable on screen. I like iFretless for sending MIDI to synths, works well with velocity, pitch bends, etc
I really love i fretless bass.
Maybe the app i’ve used the most.
It's pretty cool to be able to inhabit "Tuff Gnarl" on your iPad.
The fretless bass sounds are really nice. I've got some other video ideas for this app as well
Can we beg Yonac to allow MIDI input for Steel Guitar? If It accepted MPE MIDI it would sell bigly.
If you mention that in your video that's great. It's sound is the best sample of a plucked string for me.
I should spent more time learning it's screen interface I guess.
This I agree with 100%. And as I mention in the video - playing the screen didn't grab me initially but I got used to it. It's worth it as frankly it's the best way to have this thing behave like a slide guitar.
But yes - MPE would be interesting.... I feel like this is the forgotten step-child of Yonac apps. Not quite as known or loved as ToneStack, but definitely built from the same DNA.
Galileo Organ(s), Magellan, Kauldron, KASPAR... they have a really good sound engine (DNA), I think. I have everything they make since they offered everything at 75% off on Balck Friday. I just loaded the cart up.
Yeah, I've got their full roster as well. I like the emulators (ToneStack, Steel Guitar, Galileo) over their synths, but they do put out quality stuff. I think the synths get a bad rap, but that's only because there are so many OUTSTANDING synths on iOS that the Yonac ones, which are merely solid (to me) but not exceptional, get overlooked.
@Daveypoo Great video on 2 very cool apps. I'm sure MANY people here have got Steel Guitar and have barely touched it. Your video will definitely get a bunch of us doing just that. Thanks for the reminder of how cool it actually is.
I've also changed to the left-hand version for the same reason as yourself.. and to boot, I find it easier to control the slide bar vibrato.. Volume fades (mostly fade ins) are also an important part of steel guitar playing.. you can connect the volume control to the slide bar in the preferences panel.. a little strange to control volume + slide position at the same time BUT doable. Maybe there's a way to connect a foot volume control pedal.. haven't looked or tried yet.. Picked up the Whole Enchilada bundle in yesterday's sale and it has renewed my curiosity in this app. The sale + your video were VERY coincidental.
Let’s gig Hawaii.
Guys, you remember my writings about controlling any app over BlueTooth and accessibility switch control?
This would add playability of the pitch slider in Steel Guitar, at least from a BlueTooth ASCII keyboard!!!
@royor I hadn't thought of volume... I should hook up a volume pedal...
But yes - The timing was great with the sale, and the app is HIGHLY underrated. Hell, just used it on another track last night!
Too bad we don’t have enough strings in steel guitar to emulate this one:
http://guitarz.blogspot.com/2009/10/steve-albinis-16-string-guitar.html
Thank you for the link! Not only Sonic Youth tunings are obsessive any kind of alternate tunings are. One of the major problem being keeping track of them...
So cool... The Blueboard has a port for an expression pedal that I have never tested.
I should be able to map the expression pedal to the AUM volume for the Steel Guitar Track
and use the buttons for the Slide Guitar style note bending.
Don't expect results in days... I just add these ideas to my list which is quite long.
Don't have a Blueboard YET.. BUT if your idea about the expression pedal for volume control actually did work + the buttons for bending.. Well, Hello Blueboard!
Please keep us posted when it turns up on your long list..
How is the Blueboard? I've heard the buttons feel and respond kinda mushy - any truth to that?
Yes. Button s are shite but you adapt. I hate cables... Too Expensive to replace every month due to cat mischief so I stop using USB on the floor.
Hmmm - I've got my eyes out for sneering similar but with better buttons. AirTurn has something, but I've not seen any real review a that give me an idea of his or is in the real world...
I probably overstated the buttons lack of quality. I like a haptic feedback like you get from a good
metal toggle switch like on the TC Electronics Ditto X Looper. These buttons are soft and have no click
point: like stepping on a marshmallow. But you get used to them fast and they do have LED's so they can be seen in low light. The BlueBoard has 3 Modes: Program Change, CC or MIDI Note. Using the external ports you can add extra buttons or expression pedals so critical buttons could be better quality switches.
For $100 I couldn't find anything better in a Bluetooth option. Using Yamaha MIDI to Bluetooth adapters
might make another MIDI Pedal work but I also really wanted a device that operates on batteries (again cats eats DC power converters in my house). So, battery operated/bluetooth for under $100 is a small category of options. The Yamaha bluetooth/midi adapters cost $70 as I recall. I have some for an older
MIDI controller.
Let me know if you check out the Airturn. I saw similar complaints about it's switches as I recall in reviews.
This is the one I'm looking at - it's $69 on Amazon: https://www.airturn.com/products/airturn-bt200s-2-controller
I like your description of the buttons on the Ditto X - metal switches with no click. That's what I'm looking for - I'd like something I can use primarily as a kick drum trigger (among other things) so the feel is key, and there's nowhere I can try these things.
Haven't seen any "real" reviews of the AirTurn (i.e. "Hey, I use this on my recordings/gigs and here's how it holds up to abuse, etc.) so yeah, holding off for now....
Great to see that AirTurn has come out with bluetooth pedals with standard metal footswitches. I had not seen those before but I like the looks of the 4 button green one. Looks like there are lots of “I use this all the time” reviews on the airturn website @Daveypoo
Only 2 ports and no expansion ports for $34.50 per switch.
BlueBoard has 4 ports for $25 each and 2 expansion slots that can take 2 more ~$25 devices.
They make a 4 pedal model now that looks good at $129. I could find uses with 24 buttons without much trouble in AUM after loading many Apps like Tone Stack or MIDI Guitar or Loopy HD or just AUv3 apps and FX'es that can be changed with CC Parameter changes. I'm close to buying a second BlueBoard if I was
a gigging musician.
But if you only want kick triggers 2 ports might be OK. It was made to handle page forward and back
for sheet music.
NOTE: BlueBoard requires an IK MultiMedia account to install on IOS. The Program Change mode uses
an App too. The CC and MIDI Note modes work without apps and just need to have a valid Bluetooth connection in settings. Making you register with IK MultiMedia will stop some from going forward. I have a lot of the products and have used support and gotten products replaced so I was OK with this extra step.