Each Song that you create in PianoStudio has its own group of Settings. You reach the Settings screen by holding the Main Menu button in the upper left corner of the Main screen and selecting "Settings" from the menu on the right.

The "Cancel," "Help," and "Done" buttons at the top of the screen can be used at any time. Cancel exits the Settings screen taking you back to where you started without saving any Settings changes you may have made. The Done button saves your changes and closes the Settings screen. The Help button brings up this Help screen.

Four tabs along the bottom of the screen separate the settings into related groups: General, Volume & Sustain, Record, and Global. Each group's settings are described below.

General Settings

The General tab of the Settings screen lets you change the currently loaded song's name, sound, and default button color.

Name

The first control on the Settings screen is the Name field. Tap on the song name to open a keyboard to edit the name. You can touch and hold a finger on the name to see a magnified view of the letters under your finger. This is useful for placing the cursor within words or editing specific characters. Press "Done" at the lower-right corner to save the name and return to the Settings screen.

Instrument

The next control lets you select from 3 different piano instrument sounds. When you tap to select a new instrument, its high-quality sounds are loaded and a short phrase is played so you can quickly get an idea of the selected instrument's sound.

Default Button Color

By default, a new song's buttons are all displayed with a dark grey color. Using the Button Styles Editor, you can change the color of any button, or make it invisible. If you do not explicitly assign a color to a button, then it takes on the default color assigned in the Bank Button Editor. And if you do not explicitly assign a default button color to that bank of buttons, then a button takes on the color assigned here.

Tap the colored button and a dark, translucent overlay appears with all the available button colors shown on it. Tap any of them to assign the new default button color for this song. The color shown as a red "X" is used to make buttons "invisible." Invisible buttons can still be selected when editing, and can be assigned a new color in the Button Styles Editor.

Volume & Sustain Settings

You can use the iPhone's tilt detection to dynamically control the Volume and Hold/Sustain functions of PianoStudio.

Volume

Volume has 3 options, Fixed, H-Tilt (Horizontal, or side-to-side tilt), or V-Tilt (Vertical, or front-to-back tilt). In Fixed mode the position of the iPhone has no affect on Piano's volume at all. Selecting either of the tilt modes allows you to control the volume of the keyboard, note and chord buttons by tilting the iPhone in one direction or the other.

The "Volume" indicator in upper-left corner of the Main screen will give you continuous feedback as you play. As the volume is increased the word "VOLUME" will turn orange from left to right.

Hold/Sustain

These controls are so important that their operation is described on their own Help page. Go to that page for details on how Hold and Sustain affect your song's performance.

The Hold/Sustain control simply lets you switch between Hold operation and Sustain operation.

Whichever you select, the next four segment buttons determine how Hold or Sustain are controlled. The options are:

• Off (always off)
• H-Tilt (horizontal tilt controlled)
• V-Tilt (vertical tilt controlled)
• On (always on)

Record Settings

The settings on this tab have particular importance when recording a song and editing phrases.

Beats Per Bar

Every PianoStudio song has a fixed number of "Beats Per Bar" associated with it. This setting affects the time counter on the Status Bar (which displays "bars : beats"), the metronome (which is louder on the first beat of every bar), and the number of beats in every bar of a phrase. Be aware that this setting can also be changed from the Phrase Editor, but it is the same global setting being accessed here.

Tempo

The Tempo slider affects the overall tempo for the current song. This includes any Phrases that you have created. (More on Phrases can be found in the Phrase Buttons chapter.) As you adjust the slider, the number of Beats Per Minute is shown above the slider in numerical form. The Play button on the right side above the slider can be used to hear the tempo (with the metronome's woodblock sounds) while it is being adjusted.

Global Settings

Unlike the other tabs in the Settings screen, the settings in the Global tab apply to PianoStudio in general, not just to the currently-loaded song.

Keyboard Scroll Direction

Both the Note Button Editor and the Live Keyboard Layout include one octave piano keyboards with a scroll strip below them. You drag a finger across the scroll strip to adjust which piano keys are visible. As your finger moves to the left or right, the keyboard slides. But which way? This control lets you decide.

If "With Finger" is selected here, then the keyboard slides to the left when you move your finger to the left, letting you reach higher piano notes. It is like your finger is physically dragging the keyboard left or right. This is the default behavior.

If "Opposite Finger" is selected, the keyboard slides to the right when you move your finger to the left, reaching lower piano notes. In this mode, the scroll strip works just like the scroll bars of a text editor or web browser.

No matter which setting you prefer, there is always a small view of all 88 keys visible, with the current octave highlighted, in the Note Button Editor which shows you where you are and which notes are part of the Note Button. That, along with the numbered "C" notes, help you stay oriented with your keyboard, knowing which notes are currently visible.

Volume Display Format

In the Phrase Editor, you can adjust a phrase note's volume by holding one finger on the note to select it, and then putting another finger on the screen and moving it up and down. When the note is selected, and the volume adjusted, the note's volume is displayed at the top of the screen in orange. Part of that display is a number showing its volume. That number is either in percent, ranging from 1 to 100, or is shown using MIDI volume numbers, from 1 to 127, as determined by this control.

Animate Button Playback

When you make a recording with PianoStudio's Recorder, all the details of your performance are captured, including the button presses, slides, and releases. During Playback, you will hear what you recorded, and with "Animate Button Playback" enabled, you can also see which buttons were pressed and released in the performance. Each button press will be displayed as a blue dot on the associated button. More on this feature can be found in the Recording chapter.

Set Tilt

The Set Tilt button is used to set the horizontal and vertical tilt midpoints. Right after you tap it, the screen briefly flashes in orange. Tilt sensing in PianoStudio can be used to adjust Volume dynamically, or to turn Hold or Sustain on and off. Tilt is used in your song as defined on the Settings screen's "Volume & Sustain" tab. The details of Hold and Sustain operation are described in their own chapter.

System Volume

This slider controls the loudness of all the sounds coming out of your iPhone or iPod touch. When you do not have this Settings tab open, you can still control the system volume using the volume up/down buttons on the side of your device (or, if you have a first generation iPod touch, by double-clicking the Home button and adjusting the on-screen volume control).