PowerPlay5 vs ToneShaper

This app is a unique MIDI controller, and fun to play, but there are three concepts to understand first. Concept 1 - POWER CHORDS - There is a musical chord, called a power chord, usually associated with guitar playing. Think of yourself as a guitar player on stage, but instead of holding a guitar you're moving around while holding an iPhone. Concept 2 - MIDI CONTROLLER - PowerPlay5 is a midi controller app. It doesn't create any sound on its own. Instead it tells another app which notes to play. The other app (a synthesizer app) then creates the sound of the chord being played. Concept 3 - THE SETUP - Usually you will open the synthesizer app first, choose a sound, and then make sure "Background Audio" is on. After that, open PowerPlay5 and start playing. (Note that some synthesizer apps also require a MIDI bridge app. See the instructions at the support website for more information.) This app is interesting because you play chords by aiming the iPhone in different directions while tapping with your thumb on the screen. It's almost like a form of choreography. Learning what direction to aim the phone to get the chord you want next is part of the fun of playing. The best way to understand where all the chords are is to look at the instructions pdf found at the support website.

Create cycles with tone shapes of smoothly varying frequency by plotting frequency at specific times. Tap the library button to pick from a selection of sample tone shapes to get started. Tap in the plot view to add points with coordinates (frequency, time). Drag to move points, but limited by the neighbors time. Alternatively, drag in the draw tab to add points, then apply them to set the points in the plot view. Adjust the frequency range slider to limit the bandwidth. Adjust the duration slider to specify the cycle period. Finally, in the export view you can save the audio to a WAV file with a chosen number of cycles. The duration of the audio is limited by the maximum duration, which therefore also limits the number of cycles in the audio file.