Overview

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Welcome to PianoStudio, featuring a unique and truly playable interface designed specifically for the iPhone. PianoStudio lets you compose and perform complex songs that would be impossible to play on other apps that limit you to impossibly small keyboards with limited ranges. By placing individual notes, entire chords, and even complete musical phrases onto a set of buttons that you can order and play, you can write and perform real piano music with chord progressions, "two-handed" patterns, and melodies in Allegro, all right on your iPhone or iPod touch. You can use PianoStudio to explore musical ideas, learn songs, write your own tunes, and even play along with your iTunes music.

The Parts of PianoStudio

PianoStudio has the following sections:

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1. The Main Screen is where you play music by tapping a set of buttons that are configured with notes, chords, and short phrases. This set of buttons forms a "song." Each song may use up to 5 banks of buttons, with each bank configured to use one of ten possible button layouts containing from 8 to 40 buttons.

The five buttons in the middle of top row of the Main Screen are used to select the active bank, which is highlighted in orange. The button at the upper left of the screen is the Menu button. Press and hold it to reveal the main menu, which slides in from the right side. Press and hold the button at the upper right of the screen to reveal the Recorder menu, which slides in from the left.

Just below the top row of buttons is the status bar. It displays the song name, Recorder position (in bars and beats), volume level, hold/sustain status, and editing hints.

Below the status bar, and taking up most of the display, are the Note and Phrase Buttons. Note buttons have rounded corners and play a set of notes when touched. Phrase buttons have angled corners and play a short phrase when touched. Both types of buttons are highlighted in orange when played, and in yellow when they're selected in Edit mode. The appearance, or "Style," of each button can be changed to provide a custom text label, arrows, and a background color.

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2. The Editors, including the Bank Editor, the Note Editor, the Phrase Editor, and the Style Editor. You access these editors by holding the menu button in the upper-left corner of the Main screen and selecting Editor from the slide out menu on the right. An editor will appear for the most recently tapped button. Tap a different button to reveal its editor.

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With the Bank Editor, you can change the name, button layout, default button color, and more for each of the five banks in a song. With the other editors you can define the musical attributes of each button in your song including notes, chords, or phrases. You can also change their appearance, or "Style," adding text labels, a custom color (including "invisible"), and even pointers to the buttons to help you organize your song. The most powerful is the Phrase Editor (shown) where you can define the pitch, timing, length, and volume of a series of notes.

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3. The Songs screen, also accessed from the main menu, is where you can select each of your saved songs from a scrollable list by just tapping on its name. You can copy, delete, reorder, and add comments to songs, as well as create new songs.

4. Settings are accessed from the main menu, and consists of a screen with four tabs along the bottom:

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• General: for changing the song's name, sound, or default button color
• Volume & Sustain: How a button's volume and sustain are controlled. Lots more about this in the Settings chapter.
• Record: Manage settings related to your recordings.
• Global: Settings that always affect PianoStudio's operation. Note: Settings in all other tabs are set, used, and saved on a per-song basis.

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5. The Recorder is accessed by holding the upper right button on the main screen. The Recorder menu lets you record and play a performance. You can do this in multiple passes to create complex performances. The Recorder has a metronome built in, adjustable tempo, and controls that let you navigate through your recording, undo the most recent recording pass (for "oops" prevention), or completely erase the recording.

The rest of this help documentation describes all the parts of PianoStudio in detail ... how to configure it, how to play it, and how to use each screen and every feature.

While many people will figure out the basics of using PianoStudio quickly without reading all of this information, there are a few shortcuts and buried tricks that are not obvious in the interface. These are described in detail throughout the help documentation and we encourage you at least give each chapter a quick look. The Tips & Tricks chapter contains a few of the most important bits and might be worth a look even if you don't read any other chapter.

We hope you enjoy making great music with PianoStudio!