Has anyone tried this app? It sounds quite interesting from the write up (below), but seems expensive. If you've tried it please let me know what you think.
ThumbJam is a brand-new musical performance experience. You get over 30 high-quality real instruments multi-sampled exclusively for this app. Hundreds of included scales allow you to effortlessly play in any style from rock to classical, whether you are a musical novice or a seasoned professional.
-- App Star Award FINALIST --
Even if you've only played air guitar, ThumbJam lets you sound like a pro. Pick an instrument and jam -- with all the scales to choose from you'll never hit a wrong note. The high quality instrument samples will make you sound like you just skipped years of music lessons.
For the performing musician, this app is awesome for soloing on an instrument you didn't bring along. Play in any key, any style -- go from a string ensemble to a wailing guitar. ThumbJam was developed and tested by musicians to feel and sound like a real instrument.
ThumbJam makes use of tilt and shake to add vibrato, tremolo, note bends, and volume swells for more realistic and expressive results. It supports up to five simultaneous touches and up to 16 voice polyphony. Delay and lush stereo reverb add depth to the sound. Put on your headphones or plug in to your home stereo and prepare to be blown away.
Build your own loops from the ground up or import your favorites and jam from there. Layer as many loops as you want, with different instruments for each. Export your loops as audio files or Ardour DAW sessions.
Want to jam with your friends? ThumbJam lets you broadcast tempo, key, and scale to other nearby devices via Bluetooth so you can play together live.
The app includes a huge variety of scales, from western to eastern. Save your favorites for quick access. You can even import new scales in the Scala format for complete flexibility.
To expand the power of ThumbJam, new instruments will be available for download. You can also record your own samples using a built-in or attached microphone and play them instantly. Create your own presets with different settings, scales and keys based on the existing instruments.
Included instruments:
+ Cello
+ Violin
+ Upright Bass (plucked and bowed)
+ Drum set
+ Darabukka
+ Djembe
+ Electric Guitar
+ Electric Bass
+ Trumpet
+ Trombone
+ Tenor Sax
+ Flute
+ Low Whistle
+ Acoustic Guitar
+ Hammered Dulcimer
+ Mandolin
+ Bouzouki
+ Piano
+ Drawbar Organ (2 types)
+ Rhodes
+ Pipe Organ
+ Melodica
+ Scottish Smallpipes
+ Synth Strings
+ Synth Choir
+ Theremin
+ Sawtooth Waveform
+ Sine Waveform
+ Triangle Waveform
ThumJam at the app store:
15 comments:
I hope this is good because ToeJam stunk! (Sorry I couldn't resist)
wow! great looper/sampler/instrument
Woooow!!!
This is one of the most useful apps I have tried in a long time!!!
Intuitive playing surface + uses accellerator to add expression to your music, good sounds, customizable!
You can record several loops on top of eachother inside the app and mix them right there.
Definitely worth the money!!! I can see myself using this app a lot in the future.
I just took a chance on this one, and am glad I did. I perform original tunes live (mainly acoustic guitar with a looper, and vocal), but occasionally like to spice things up a bit with other instruments. I prefer organic sounding instruments rather than electronic. This app is one of the few I have found that I would consider performing with live. First off, the samples are very good, and there are lots of instrument choices (some better than others ... I especially like the cello, trombone, violin, and even the theremin). Second, its really flexible --- you can assign shake, x-y motion, etc to volume, pan, tremelo, etc, you can assign scales and range, you can assign effects (reverb, delay, etc), attack & decay on samples. Lots more. Third -- its surprisingly expressive due to how much motion can be used to affect the samples. I have only spent an hour with it, but see lots of potential. I have no buyer's remorse, even at the asking price. Very impressive for a first version.
Just tried it this afternoon. WOW. Some good samples--shaking and tilting the phone can create vibrato, tremolo, volume changes. Moving the finger or thumb on the X/Y axis create panning changes. I chose a whole tone scale, laid down a djembe beat and then layered with cello, theremin, flute, trombone, and hammered dulcimer. You can't hit a "bad" note because you only strike notes in the scale. The export via Wi-Fi produced a zip file of the tracks.
It's a 128mb download ... I'll get back to you with my opinion after I've given it a good workout. Hey ... it's less than 4 cents per mb.
I downloaded this yesterday and within just a few minutes of using this app it became my favorite music app, and I'm a music app junkie. I'm not going to go into the details but I will say that the instruments (and there are many) are about the most authentic sounding I have heard on any "machine". Don't even bother trying to decide .... if you love making music on your iPhone or iPod Touch then just get it .... you'll be happy you did.
I bought it and it is AMAZING! Best app I bought since DopplerPad... It's easily worth its price!
Wow, I think I'll have to go for this one then. Thanks all who commented, I'm off to the app store now!
I agree on the size of this app. Its huge, due to the extensive selection of excellent samples. One comment I left for the developer would be: provide the ability to offload and store sample sets on your computer. That would free up memory so that only your current fave samples would be stored on your mobile.
The more I get into the app, though, the more I like it. The developer clearly spent a lot of time thinking through the layout, functions, sample response to motion, etc. And I never knew so many scales existed ... its a musical education just playing with the scales!
agreed this is a must have perfomance app :) although crashing when trying to delete saved loops.
future features - BPM input/ metronome/ quantization options
Hi all, I'm glad you like it!
The crashing on loop/session delete bug is fixed and will be rolled out at the next update, along with some other goodies based on the feedback I've already received. As a workaround until then you can delete them using the wi-fi web interface (Prefs->Data Transfer).
This sounds unbelievable with headphones. It's hard to consider this a synthesizer because the samples are really long and malleable with the accelerometer. You can hear the bow change directions on the cello and violin if you hold a note. I could see this being commonly used for live concerts and even productions of studio albums. Easily worth ten times the price if you're serious about music.
Agreed ... I hope this evolves into more of a performance app. There are plenty of synths, loopers, and drum machines on the market. But this is the best thing I have seen for "real" sampled instrument, live performance use. The more I dig into and use it, the more I like it. Many other music apps start to bore me after hours of use; fun for awhile but only skin deep.
Well Well, this is actually by far the best app I tried. I have tried most out there. You can create your own instruments in to the app. You can shape your sound in another synth( Argon or Nlog) and then paste as a sample in the Thumbjam and make a whole new instrument. Performing is quite amazing. Have you tried it as a Midi Controller? I think that this app is priced very low, compared with other crappy apps that don't do much and cost between 10 and 20 $. I encourage you to buy this app.
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