Steel Guitar (Free)
Version 1.1
REVIEW – “Play a realistic steel guitar right on your iPhone!”
This app is truly fun and unique because it allows you to play a steel guitar right on your iphone. Everything about the way this app was put together is great and Steel Guitar even offers a number of different options to make sure your music sounds just the way you want it.
When I first opened this app I had never played a steel guitar before. I have played and even own my own electric guitar but I have never played anything like this before. I was able to play around and use it just like a real guitar and then I got into playing with the different options which is where things really started to get interesting.
There are so many options that you can truly customize this app to look and sound exactly like it was made for you. You can even choose how wide the frets are, how far apart the strings are and how big the area is for you to strum. Once you have things looking the way you want then you can start deciding how you want it to sound.
This app gives you the choice between four different instruments namely Lap Steel, Eight-String Console or either of the traditional Nashville or Texas setups. This gives you a wide range and a number of different instruments to play around with and learn about for yourself. You can then change the tunings and a number of different settings to make sure that it plays and sounds the way you want.
Now what is even cooler is that this app uses the accelerometer to allow you to activate different pedals and then to bend the strings. If you want to hear the tunings you will need to play the steel guitar on the table.
What I love about this app is that it gives you so many different options and that is makes a relatively unknown instrument widely accessible. It is a great way to learn about and experience an instrument like this without having to buy one.
This is a great app for anyone that loves music and even more so for anyone that loves the steel guitar.
If this sounds like an app that you would enjoy then move fast because it is only going to be free for a limited time, and I highly recommend that you grab it while you can.
-Stephanie S.
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Developer – Yonac Software
URL: http://www.yonac.com/
DEVELOPER NOTES
*** OK…we received an unexpected number of emails asking for Steel Guitar to be free again, and some of them were really well argued. So, for a very brief time, we’re putting it out at %100 off, thanks to popular demand. Enjoy and check out Mandolin (or PitchBot, to tune…for your real guitar) if you like stringy instrument thingies like this ***
★ version 1.1 now features the option to choose between two modes of slide playing, according to your preference ★
Twang, crunch, bend, slide, swell, whomp, clamp.
Meet the gorgeous sound of chrome-pressing-against-nickel: here, in all its sweaty glory, is the very first steel ever made for your iPhone and iPod Touch: Steel Guitar.
We call it “Steel Guitar” advisedly: it’s comprised of the four instruments that defined a good deal of Rock, Blues and Country. In it, you can select among the Lap Steel, Eight-String Console or either of the traditional Nashville or Texas setups. You can use it as a plain slide guitar (turn on the six-string “Lap” mode, and turn off the accelerometer), or use the full ten-string monster along with configurable “pedals” (actually, the axes of the accelerometer). Slide, pick, dip device to bend. Wire up the volume pedal and swell. Have fun. Slide along with Webb Pierce, Elmo’ James or Allman Bro’s…you pick the style, we provide the sound. To boot, we opine that it’s far easier to play than any other app-guitars out there. You be the judge.
Here are a few tips. By default, we set it to launch on the Nashville setting, so don’t be daunted seeing ten strings on the screen. Also by default, we kept the accelerometer active: so hold your phone flat to hear the tuning: dip it away from you, towards or to the left or right to activate various “pedals” to bend certain strings. You can go straight to the “Accel” menu under settings to eye the hook-up, modify it or turn it off. It’s up to you. To play your first I-IV lick, hit strings 3-4-5 (numbered from the thinnest string) on open and give a quick flick to the phone to the right and facing towards you.
Volume pedal is not active in the launch-default setting, to prevent confusion. If you cannot hear a sound in certain tunings or instruments, make sure that the phone isn’t dipped to the left (with the pickup on your right), as that’s where we wired all volume swells by default.
Made prolly (and if so, proudly) in a smokey old N’Orleans sin-house.
Specs:
✔ Slide guitar emulator with “pedal” bending and multiple instruments
✔ 4 instruments:
✔ Lap Steel (6-String)
✔ Eight-String
✔ Nashville (10-String with E9 tuning)
✔ Texas (10-String with C6 tuning)
✔ 4 different tones per instrument:
✔ Clean
✔ Tweed
✔ Tolex
✔ Brit
✔ Two slide modes: normal and pro:
✔ Use “normal” mode to auto slide from note to note
✔ Use “pro” mode to manipulate the slide bar completely manually
✔ “Handy-Pandy” fretboard scrolling: just hit and hold the button and slide the fretboard
✔ Built-in common tunings and/or pedal-hookups for each instrument
✔ User can alter the tuning of individual strings (while plucking to test)
✔ Volume/pitch bend pedals hooked up with 4 axes of the iPhone/iPod Touch Accelerometer
✔ User can alter factory copedent on easy-to-use matrix display
✔ Adjustable accelerometer sensitivity
✔ Accel on/off switch (useful if you don’t want the pedals, and just want to play slide guitar)
✔ Adjustable fret width, pickup height and string spacing
✔ Volume swell feature (by default, hooked up to the left-dip of device in tunings where it’s active; but user can assign to any direction)
✔ Our very own retro-nut echo/reverb algorithm
✔ Chorus/Vibrato effect
✔ Master Volume
✔ Compatible for iPod play along (launch iPod, select and play song, exit, launch Steel Guitar to accompany)
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© 2009, StephanieS. All rights reserved.