If only buttons were bigger
Please make the buttons on the app bigger. I always end up pressing the wrong button because they are too small and bunched up together. Is there a metronome here?
Musically however the app is excellent and I highly recommend it.
Musically however the app is excellent and I highly recommend it.
I don’t recommend
I have all the session band apps, but I don't recommend this one, the musicians who perform are good, but not perfect and their compositions need to be fixed and this app doesn't allow it, the worst part is, with this latest update they have increased the price . I don't recommend it.
Can really recommend …
Quartet 1 was recommended to me and, having tried it out for a couple of weeks now, I can really recommend this app to anyone who wants to improve their playing of the jazz classics or for live work. There are a whopping 150 standards in this app, so plenty to choose from! As a pianist, I like the playlist function, this will be useful for grouping certain songs together depending on the venue/audience/mood. A few of my favourites aren’t in this app, but hopefully they will be in a future release. Quartet 2?
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From a seasoned player - this is a ripoff
Cons overweight the Pros:
1. No control of number of loops - as is, the samples are just that: very short samples
2. Tempo is modified by continuously tapping a + or - !
3. No means to modify chord progression
4. Zero help (but we're gonna)
5. Interface is lacking access to the simplest tasks expected by an average user - what a disappointment
Pros:
Nice sounding samples
You can change key
You can change tempo (if you have carpal tunnel)
1. No control of number of loops - as is, the samples are just that: very short samples
2. Tempo is modified by continuously tapping a + or - !
3. No means to modify chord progression
4. Zero help (but we're gonna)
5. Interface is lacking access to the simplest tasks expected by an average user - what a disappointment
Pros:
Nice sounding samples
You can change key
You can change tempo (if you have carpal tunnel)
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Not for creative juices.
Sounds good though. As a songwriter/producer this is not what I expected. Would be great if the session band apps the same GUI.
Great app!
As with all of the SessionBand apps, great content and very user friendly. I highly recommend this app as well as all the others. A true benefit to all practicing musicians.
Not even worth $3.99
Have all the session band volumes. Love them , was looking forward to Jazz300 and I find it useless. They other volumes were 10 times better. Too many limitations. No mixing, no chord choices set song lengths that will not loop properly can only mute one instrument at a time! Don’t know who this was designed for ? Should go back to original concept!
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Superb!
Great app. Very user-friendly with clear display, intuitive controls and very high-quality playback. Would highly recommend!
No good.
I have all collection of SessionBand they’re great! However, this one is not good. You buy the app just to listen to the songs and know the library, at least the only reason that I find. If you want to play along muting some instruments, because this is the purpose of play along anyway. You have to pay more £0.99 per song to have ability to export the tracks to a DAW to do so. This is a trap! The app should be free, if you like the record, you buy the tracks, easy as that will be more faer. The records are amazing with great musicians. But the conception of the app is not good. Try iPlay Jazz instead with just 26 tunes, but believe, it is amazing.
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Disappointing, sorry.
Admittedly, this app will be more useful when specific instruments can be removed, but there are several apps in IOS that create much more interesting backing tracks. To say these tracks are bland is an understatement. What makes the Session Band apps so great is the ability to create musical ideas, and then superimpose those ideas across a variety of feels- including writing out standards with chord substitutes , muting different instruments and control over drum tracks and fills. The newer “soul Jazz Funk” apps are amazing. In fact, I’ve purchased every single Session band app this company has put out over many years. My assumption (based on a quick read through) was these fine musicians were now creating entire professional backing tracks, when, in fact, they’re the same loops used in the Session Band apps- resulting in repetitive and boring comps to a relatively small amount of tunes compared to iReal and MTHP. The 99 cents surcharge Per Song to then export these bland tracks in WAV form to a DAW is rather cheeky as well. I respect this company, and I’ve supported them for years, but I wish I hadn’t spent the 15 bucks on this one.
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So many thoughts!
I like the idea of this app, and the interface is executed beautifully. I’m a piano player...so I definitely needs the promised update to allow the muting of individual tracks. This is really essential to making the app useful, so I am hoping this won’t be an additional expense, as the app is already fairly pricey.
When I say it’s pricey, I am coming from the standpoint of many of us who already own many of the individual session band apps (which will more or less already replicate most all of these tracks).
The advantage of this app is having a large collection of songs across all styles that are quickly accessible.
The standout feature is being able to loop any section and then turn off the loop in real-time continuing to an ending. This feature would be a fantastic addition to the session band apps. It’s technically possible but you have to be able to tap a tiny moving arrow to accomplish it.
I think the loop feature should be on by default as in the other apps. Also if you could save your loop points per song that would be awesome. I would say that selecting loop points is a bit tricky (at least on an iPhone). As it stands I would need to do this on the fly plus remember where I need my loop. Please let me save these or have the app keep my changes!
My main gripe is that I am getting glitches with the audio on loops...even when looping full choruses. Need to address this asap!
My other nitpick would be song selection but I understand these recordings are probably the same ones used to make the Session Band apps. Also I’d like to know ‘sounds like’ for all the songs not just the standards.
Dream 10 star update (which I’d happily pay for) if you could somehow add your own SessionBand creations to be available on this app!
All in all an exciting prospect in the evolution of backing tracks. Passionate user, excuse the insanely long review!
When I say it’s pricey, I am coming from the standpoint of many of us who already own many of the individual session band apps (which will more or less already replicate most all of these tracks).
The advantage of this app is having a large collection of songs across all styles that are quickly accessible.
The standout feature is being able to loop any section and then turn off the loop in real-time continuing to an ending. This feature would be a fantastic addition to the session band apps. It’s technically possible but you have to be able to tap a tiny moving arrow to accomplish it.
I think the loop feature should be on by default as in the other apps. Also if you could save your loop points per song that would be awesome. I would say that selecting loop points is a bit tricky (at least on an iPhone). As it stands I would need to do this on the fly plus remember where I need my loop. Please let me save these or have the app keep my changes!
My main gripe is that I am getting glitches with the audio on loops...even when looping full choruses. Need to address this asap!
My other nitpick would be song selection but I understand these recordings are probably the same ones used to make the Session Band apps. Also I’d like to know ‘sounds like’ for all the songs not just the standards.
Dream 10 star update (which I’d happily pay for) if you could somehow add your own SessionBand creations to be available on this app!
All in all an exciting prospect in the evolution of backing tracks. Passionate user, excuse the insanely long review!
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Disappointing!
Currently I have all the session band apps and use them for both practice and teaching everyday. It wasn’t clear to me that you can’t edit chords like the other Session Band apps, my mistake I guess for taking it for granted that this would be similar. It’s not, and it’s nowhere near as useful to me anyway. I’d like to see the chords made editable, to create your own set of chords and to be able to apply different styles to your own chord progression.
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Disappointed
I thought this might be the app where session band amalgamate all their styles from their previous apps (which are excellent) and enable the user to finally swap around the styles from the previous apps between different tunes. Oh no. It’s far simpler and less interesting. If you love the previous apps I wouldn’t bother with this one.
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Another good un!
Great loops and visual appearance: nice clear and clean interface. Quantity AND quality!
Personally, I would have liked more rock/pop styles and fewer jazz tracks, as that's where my tastes lie, but you do get quite a few and quite a spread. So, well done again lads!
PS I'm going to reiterate my request for a Piano 2 app, with separate left and right hands! Please and pretty please!
Personally, I would have liked more rock/pop styles and fewer jazz tracks, as that's where my tastes lie, but you do get quite a few and quite a spread. So, well done again lads!
PS I'm going to reiterate my request for a Piano 2 app, with separate left and right hands! Please and pretty please!
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Love it…few issues so far.
Long time SessionBand customer that loves having jazz standards included in this app. Is there any way to make a playlist and rename the songs? Looks like you can’t change the chords in this version or create your own. Wish there was a way of transferring a project made in a Session band app to this one. Otherwise, great job! Love it!
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Response from developer
Thanks so much for the review...really appreciate it and glad that you are enjoying the jazz standards and the new features. Regarding Playlists, you can create multiple playlists and each Playlist can have it's own title but we had not thought that users might want to rename the songs. We will have a think about that. You do have a 'user notes' feature on every track (near bottom of main play screen). The 'user notes' are fully searchable. So - just an idea but you can add comments/notes to any track and search on those words. Regarding changing the chord sequences. No you cannot do that like you can in our sister app series SessionBand unless you export a track as multitrack which is a $0.99 in-app purchase and arrives with you as a GarageBand project where you can remix, rework or develop any way you like. In short, Jazz300 is for play along with loads of new play along features and 326 mastered play along tracks that you can speed up/slow down and key change really smoothly. SessionBand on the other hand, is for people who want to quickly create music (in specific genres) to their OWN CHORD SEQUENCES. That's the essential difference. As a play along app, Jazz300 is a lot more sophisticated but as you say, you cannot change the sequences unless you 'upgrade' a track. As publishers, we probably need to work hard to communicate to our users the difference between the two products. Thanks again for purchasing and look out for a major update coming soon for Jazz300 which will allow you to remove any of the main instruments in any of the track mixes as you can with SessionBand.
No good for pianists
I’m a pianist. I’ve bought the session jazz apps….great you can filter out the piano. I’ve purchased this and am upset that I can’t find any way of getting rid of the piano so that I can play along and this shortcoming is not made clear in the info prior to purchase. Useless unless one can mute individual tracks! Waste of money.
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SERIOUS CONTENT!!!
I am loving the way you can speed up and slow down the audio. It's really very impressive, especially compared to Sessionband which was wobbly to say the least in this regard.
There’s a serious amount of quality content in this app and I am excited to be going through it (the search is helpful).
The chord diagrams are very slick too and should be commended.
Well done on a fantastic app.
There’s a serious amount of quality content in this app and I am excited to be going through it (the search is helpful).
The chord diagrams are very slick too and should be commended.
Well done on a fantastic app.
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So many great songs, I’m impressed!
The sheer number of songs in this app is amazing, and they all sound great! Really the crème of the crop when it comes to backing tracks. As an aspiring Jazz/Soul musician, I’m really excited to see how far I can go with my compositions using this app. Thank you so much!
Whaaat!!!!! :)
Okay…as a long time SessionBand user I was going to try to nit pick at the loss of the endless song-level repeat feature and loss of the old of built-in mixer and lack of melody charts…until I actually tried using the included new-fangled section-level repeat feature live. All nit picks were suddenly stripped away, followed by a WHAATT!? This 404A type of instant off-the-cuff jamming is SOOOO modern and DJ like that it makes this my new solo-gig go-to app for just jamming out or for serious at home chord progression woodshedding galore! Thanks for providing a 21st century vision for jazzers that are also aware of uses for the loopers and 404A type devices.
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For me - disappointing
I have all the previous Session Band apps and I rate them highly. In writing new songs it’s great to be able to quickly enter - and amend - chords and to hear the result played in different styles. I don’t think the blurb makes clear enough that this is NOT an app like that. This is simply a list of tracks (a lot to be fair) played (largely using Session Band loops and some over dubs) against pre-arranged chord charts. You cannot amend the chords. To use the sounds in your own compositions involves exporting the song (extra cost involved in exporting the tracks individually) and then cutting and pasting. Far too long winded for the results obtained - especially if you already have the Session Band apps). This app is only of use for playing along to and there are plenty of (cheaper) alternatives. Personally, I found the tracks pretty repetitive without much variation - but some will value that for playing along too. So, professional sounds but, for me, disappointing.
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