Song Learning App Capo 3 for Mac Updated With Touch Bar Support

[MacRumors]

Popular music app Capo 3 received a major update today, adding Touch Bar support for the 2016 MacBook Pro and other new features that are designed to improve the overall user experience.

For those unfamiliar with Capo 3, it is a music app that can detect the chords in any song, allowing users to isolate specific sounds and vocals to play along with.

On 2016 MacBook Pro models, the Touch Bar can be used to scrub through songs and quickly access playback controls like volume, pause, and more. A waveform scrubber displays the waveform of the song and the locations of regions that have been added by the user.

"The Touch Bar support in Capo 3.5 was fun to build, but it's even more fun to use," says Chris Liscio, SuperMegaUltraGroovy founder and chief developer. "It's great to jump instantly to a point in the song, and if you have regions placed then you can identify them in the waveform overview by color. It's also helpful to have the audible feedback while scrubbing, so you can hear whether you're in the right spot."

Along with Touch Bar support, there's a new Song Views option, which allows users to choose between a new Practice view and a Tabbing view with the Spectrogram display. New view customization options are available, allowing the tablature display and automatically detected chords to be disabled.

Transcription Playhead, a new playback mode that makes it easier to listen to individual notes has been added, and there's an improved scrubbing feature, also for better identifying individual notes.

"I spent a week in the summer prototyping a new effect that would allow users to 'freeze time' so that they could hold a note still to help identify it by ear. I attached it to Capo's scrubbing feature--just to see whether it worked--and I couldn't stop playing with it. Since then, I've used it to pick apart some truly difficult solos in the Tabbing view faster than ever before."

Capo can be downloaded from the Mac App Store for $29.99 through the holidays. A free trial is also available from the Capo website. [Direct Link]

Article Link: Song Learning App Capo 3 for Mac Updated With Touch Bar Support

 

[Michaelgtrusa]

I'm glad dev are supporting the TB.

 

[naeS1Sean]

I love Capo...except it not being able to work with Apple Music. I understand it, but its a pain.

 

[JJayguy23]

I'm glad dev are supporting the TB.

Me too Michael, me too.

 

[miknos]

Can I use it in the shower?

 

[IJ Reilly]

Is this app really worth $30? If you only want to create a chord chart for a song, is some other solution more cost-effective?

 

[musique]

I only learned of this software reading Macrumors today. It seems as though $30 is not a lot of money for it. It’s kind of sad for software developers of relatively small, vertical market software that we’ve come to expect apps to be very inexpensive. And that a price of $30 is questioned.

As I said, I don’t know the software at all. But years ago I used to work for music publishers basically doing much of what this app's marketing material says it does. I’d get an “album” (usually just before it was released) and then sit at a desk with headphones creating basically an enhanced lead sheet, writing down the melody, the chords, the bass line, and any other important features of the arrangement. Once I had this, I’d create the piano-vocal sheet music that would be published so that those with several years of lessons who wanted to play along with the songs could do so. (If things were in keys with more than 4 sharps or flats, as I recall, I’d take them up or down a half-step.)

I know that $30 is not small change, but those with good ears should be able to just write down what they hear. For those with less talented ears, $30 doesn’t seem like a lot of money if this app can do what it says it can.

 

[IJ Reilly]

I'm not questioning the value for an avid musician, only for the more occasional use I was describing. Online tools such as Chordify can make the chord charts for free, so I am wondering if a casual duffer such as myself could gain much by investing in this software. The answer I suppose is to download the demo version.

 

[musique]

I'm not questioning the value for an avid musician, only for the more occasional use I was describing. Online tools such as Chordify can make the chord charts for free, so I am wondering if a casual duffer such as myself could gain much by investing in this software. The answer I suppose is to download the demo version.

Valid point. Using one's ears was the only way to figure out the song "back in the day."

I suppose that Capo should get some kudos for releasing a TB-enabled app not long after the TB was introduced. I just don't know how these kinds of developers (i.e., vertical market ones) can make money on apps that are relatively inexpensive. I'm glad that they are able to do so and I wish them luck. Our array of app options is richer for them.

 

[liscio]

I'm not questioning the value for an avid musician, only for the more occasional use I was describing. Online tools such as Chordify can make the chord charts for free, so I am wondering if a casual duffer such as myself could gain much by investing in this software. The answer I suppose is to download the demo version.

Warning: I'm the developer of Capo, so take everything I say with a grain of salt!

First off, definitely download and use the demo. There's a lot more to Capo than just "detecting the chords"—that's just one of very many features of the product.

We have often referred to Capo as a tool for "Reverse Engineering Rock 'n' Roll" because that succinctly captures the depth of functionality that we offer. If you want to *really* dig in and figure out what notes are being sounded in the song, Capo will help you drill down and do just that. But it also gives you a high-level "guess" of the chords, or just acts as a powerful song-slowing and transposition tool.

Here's a quick look at the tabbing feature, for example:

Once you have a sense of *what* to play in a given song, then Capo gives you the tools to practice along with the recording so you can develop your skills on the instrument.

We have users ranging from "casual duffers" like yourself all the way up to Grammy-winning musicians: http://capoapp.com/testimonials. It's a useful tool for users at any level, and it will continue to pay you back as you use it more and more.

 

[JamesPDX]

Sometimes, the chords given are simply wrong. But perhaps the complexity of the music makes all the difference, hence the less stellar reviews on Capo's page on the Apple's App Store. I'm hopeful that it will improve. I'd love for the software to be able to accurately transcribe my own music, then I could tell you exactly how accurate it is and where it strays.

A great feat would be the correct transcription of orchestral music. Even a Chopin nocturne would be most impressive.

 

[ChrisH3677]

I'm glad dev are supporting the TB.

Yes. I use Touché to emulate the Touchbar on my 2012 MBP and love it.

Capo is also a fave app, and great to see it getting TB support.

 

[liscio]

Sometimes, the chords given are simply wrong. But perhaps the complexity of the music makes all the difference, hence the less stellar reviews on Capo's page on the Apple's App Store. I'm hopeful that it will improve. I'd love for the software to be able to accurately transcribe my own music, then I could tell you exactly how accurate it is and where it strays.

A great feat would be the correct transcription of orchestral music. Even a Chopin nocturne would be most impressive.

Capo's chord detection accuracy is quite good in practice. Unfortunately it can be a little "too good" for some folks, which gets us into some (undeserved) hot water at times.

For example, a popular song may be known to have a C chord played by the main rhythm guitar, but Capo will spit out a CMaj7. Many users will cry foul, saying "Capo doesn't show the right chords!" Unfortunately, they'd be wrong in a lot of cases because a keyboard, or a vocalist, might be sounding a B which nudges the overall chord produced by the song to a CMaj7.

But here's where Capo is great—you can identify those differences and easily correct them. Double-click that CMaj7, switch it to a C, and hit the 'Change All' button. Now you've corrected Capo's chords to reflect what is played by the guitarist, and it took you all of 5 seconds.

Anyway, if you care to read a little more about the nuts & bolts of Capo's chord detection, I have a blog post from when I introduced the Chord Intelligence engine back in July 2014. It was a huge project to get it all going, especially in a form that could also run on a mobile device!

 

[IJ Reilly]

We have users ranging from "casual duffers" like yourself all the way up to Grammy-winning musicians: http://capoapp.com/testimonials. It's a useful tool for users at any level, and it will continue to pay you back as you use it more and more.

Thanks for the answer to my question. I see you support chord tabs for the ukulele, the instrument I play, allegedly.

While I'm at it, I have another question or so: Can a tablature be exported for sharing, printing or otherwise including in other documents? I am constantly adding to my personal songbook, so that would be more than useful. And what about lyrics, do you have a way of adding them?

(Forgive me if this was easily answerable by downloading the demo, which I plan to do.)

 

[liscio]

Thanks for the answer to my question. I see you support chord tabs for the ukulele, the instrument I play, allegedly.

While I'm at it, I have another question or so: Can a tablature be exported for sharing, printing or otherwise including in other documents? I am constantly adding to my personal songbook, so that would be more than useful. And what about lyrics, do you have a way of adding them?

(Forgive me if this was easily answerable by downloading the demo, which I plan to do.)

No printing, lyrics, or PDF/charting export…yet. There are a number of reasons that Capo hasn't gained these features, unfortunately. I hope to add these missing features in the future, but each is a very large project on its own—projects that I am (very) slowly chipping away at.

But there's *some* good news. Capo can export your note and chord entries in MIDI format so you can load them into a package that does notation/chords/etc layout.

 

[IJ Reilly]

No printing, lyrics, or PDF/charting export…yet. There are a number of reasons that Capo hasn't gained these features, unfortunately. I hope to add these missing features in the future, but each is a very large project on its own—projects that I am (very) slowly chipping away at.

But there's *some* good news. Capo can export your note and chord entries in MIDI format so you can load them into a package that does notation/chords/etc layout.

Ah, okay. Not the end of the world exactly, but sitting in front of my Mac to play is not something I normally do. What are the limitations on the demo version?

 

[liscio]

Ah, okay. Not the end of the world exactly, but sitting in front of my Mac to play is not something I normally do. What are the limitations on the demo version?

We *do* have an iOS version as well! (Just without the tabbing features.)

The demo is quite permissive, but we block certain exports, and add noise to the audio stream after 5 minutes of audio pass through the system. In practice, that gives you much more than 5 minutes of usage.