I Pad Technology in Music Education
February 2, 2014 — Paul Shimmons
Music Apps for Ipad
Using the iPad to put my digital sheet music on was my original intention when I bought the iPad1 the day it was released. I never imagined I would actually be using the iPad to create music and that it would be replacing my professional keyboards that have cost me a pretty penny (and a few dimes too!) I don’t think Steve and Apple had any idea what their little device was going to end up doing either!
The iPad inspires people to be creative, that’s the short of it! Especially with apps like iGrand Piano from IKMultimedia – and MultiTrack DAW – and Thor PolySonic Synth. I have loved playing the piano ever since about 4th grade when I asked my Mom to teach me – I really wanted to play in church. So my journey began and now I still enjoy playing piano but these days it is my keyboard in my basement instead of that old upright in the old stone church down the road from the two bedroom house we grew up in.
I am forever in search of better sounding piano sounds from keyboards, software and apps. Well I’m here to tell you that I really like the iGrand Piano app sounds that are now on my iPad! The app is on sale from January 30th until February 13th, 2014. You can get iGrand Piano and iLectric Piano for only $9.99 each on the App Store. That’s 50% off the normal price of $19.99. Already have iGrand Piano Free for iPhone or iPad? Well you can upgrade to the full version at the special $9.99 price through in-app purchase as well.
This app has been one of those that I have been eyeballing for awhile now. This app and one other piano app were the two that I had decided I would buy. Which ever one went on sale first was going to be “it”. The other app is CMP Piano and has just as awesome of piano sounds in it!
So, since iGrand went on sale and that unused iTunes card was just sitting there, I downloaded the iGrand app and anxiously waited for it to download! I had played around with the free version but couldn’t wait to get my virtual hands on the full version! iGrand gives you 8 concert quality piano sounds for your $10. There is an in-app-purchase that gives you an additional 9 world-class pianos (but that will cost you another $10) I really don’t like IAP’s but it is the reality of apps now so I will deal with it.
Like this post stated – great apps/devices inspire people. The sounds in the iGrand Piano app were fun to play and all of them sounded great! I grabbed my little QuNexus keyboard and plugged that into the iPad and just started playing. A few ideas started forming so I then fired up MultiTrack DAW and started recording. (Why not Cubasis you ask? Well, I really didn’t want any drops in sound quality that I had gotten the previous night while using that app. Using MultiTrack DAW was a bit better but even using that app I have issues – like the sound just drops out for a sec or two while recording. When playing the recording back later all the audio is there but it is a bit weird when it happens)
After laying down the piano track I then went and fired up Thor PolySonic Synth and added a pad sound and a bit of a counter-melody. Now keep in mind that I played the entire song on a little QuNexus controller, which is great for many things but I am not so sure I would list playing piano parts as one of those things! I then uploaded the song right to SoundCloud from within MultiTrack DAW. Then I remembered that I should have ran it through the Audio Mastering app that Igor has done such an amazing job with! So I saved a wav file version of the song and ran it through that app and uploaded it to SoundCloud so you can all listen to the comparison of the before and after versions! (Of course if you are reading this post too many months in the future both files may not be there any more because I will need that space for new pieces of inspiration!)
Just a word about the song – I made it for a few youth that are very special to me and are having to deal with the imperfect world we live in. Sometimes we just are at a loss for words to say but music fills that need…. In the words of Apple – this is “my verse.” Hope it touches you. I pray God let’s you know peace in the middle of this storm, through His music…
Shared by Grosse Pointe Music Academy
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