what software apps do you use (for mando)?

[DaveGinNJ]

What apps do you find helpful for playing or practice

Me
1. Strum Machine – plays background to bluegrass songs that you can play along to. Very simple to use and has tons of songs. Allows you to change key, tempo, and allows Auto-speedup. Great practice tool I use almost every day.
2. TuneFox – teaches you bluegrass tunes by advancing you from a simple version of the tune at low-speed to the full tune using both Tab and backing tracks. To me, this is a fun way to learn new tunes and make practicing more fun
3. Amazing Slow Downer/AnyTune Pro – Both of these allow you to slow a song while maintaining the same pitch. Which helps you learn songs by ear. I use ASD on my PC and it works OK, but recently started using Anytune Pro on my iPad and it is cheaper and has more features. For example, it provides a graphical representation of the music which makes it easier to create loops. It also can play direct from an iTunes library.

What else is out there?

[Steve Mead]

I use "Ireal pro" and "transcribe!" (You need the exclamation point if you google it). Both recommended to me by Joe K. Walsh as his students use them at Berkley.

[Steve Mead]

Also Magnus just had a cool video on Mandolin Secrets on using a looper for practise.

[Bill McCall]

I use Band in a Box, IReal Pro and GarageBand (for recording my practice). IReal sounds much better through a Bluetooth speaker than phone or tablet.

Jack Tuttle has over 150 BIAB charts on his website, free download.

[JeffD]

I have used a number of tuning apps. I don't prefer them to the clip on tuners, but I use them in a pinch. I have messed around with the Amazing Slow Downer, but found ultimately it was no easier and more fiddly than how I have been learning tunes all these years.

[JerseyPicker]

I use Tabledit (paid tabbing software), Tux Guitar (free tabbing software; not as good as Tabledit but its free and compatible with GuitarPro5 files, which a lot of guitarists use), and Chordify.net ('play along' to any Youtube video; it will calculate the chords with decent accuracy).

How do you like TuneFox? I just went to their website and really like the premise, but I already pay 15 a month for so many things, its hard to justify yet another subscription. I miss the days of just buying software and owning it. Good for TablEdit for keeping this "old fashioned" pay model.

[DaveGinNJ]

I use Tabledit (paid tabbing software), Tux Guitar (free tabbing software; not as good as Tabledit but its free and compatible with GuitarPro5 files, which a lot of guitarists use), and Chordify.net ('play along' to any Youtube video; it will calculate the chords with decent accuracy).

How do you like TuneFox? I just went to their website and really like the premise, but I already pay 15 a month for so many things, its hard to justify yet another subscription. I miss the days of just buying software and owning it. Good for TablEdit for keeping this "old fashioned" pay model.

I really like Tunefox. For me it’s a fun way to learn new tunes. You can pick from a couple of hundred songs, many of which have easy, intermediate and advanced versions. The program starts you out with a simplified version of the song at low speed. You decide when to “step up” to more notes and higher tempos. It gives you tab and highlights the note(s) to be played. You play with a backup band and it will also play the mando parts so you know how its supposed to sound. Its also has tools to help you memorize the song. I am ok with it for $15 a month, but I understand that there are lots of great sites for $10-15 a month and that all adds up

[BrianWilliam]

Drumgenius because I prefer drum machines to metronomes

[Kevin Winn]

Mandolin Companion is my "cheat sheet" for leads in any key https://apps.apple.com/us/app/mandol...on/id458349872

ClearTune is a great tuner for when you aren't in a situation that calls for a clip-on https://apps.apple.com/us/app/cleartune/id286799607

Free Bluegrass Backing tracks is a great site that lets you speed up/down, loop and add/subtract accompanying instruments http://www.fbbts.com/Home.html

Drone Tool site comes in handy for trying out leads in a specific key https://www.dronetonetool.com/

[Dave Hanson]

am I unusual I don't use any ?

Dave H

[thesecretmandolinist]

guitar gravitas ( set a custom tuning for mando) and tempo + metronome

[mikerofone]

1) iReal for play along tracks

2) Not an app, but Matt Hutchinson's Bluegrass Jam Along podcast for playing along with bluegrass tunes, being able to go back and forth between melody/lead and rhythm. It's It's like having someone to play with when you don't have someone to play with.

3) Transcribe for slowing tunes down without changing the pitch.

4) Not an app but a website: Flatpick Apprentice. Has acoustic guitar backing tracks for a ton of fiddle tunes with multiple tempo options for each.

5) a +1 for the Bluegrass Backing Tracks site already mentioned.

6) Yamaha Chord Tracker. Allows you to open an mp3 file and it will show you the chords of the song.

[foldedpath]

Audacity for trimming heads and tails from multi-tune sound files, isolating the tune I want to work on. Also for slowing down if needed. Also for capturing audio from a YouTube clip.

Reaper for more advanced audio recording and editing, plugins etc.

Exact Audio Copy for ripping CD's.

Mp3tag for editing MP3 metadata.

LAME Mp3 encoder for use within the audio editors.

Foobar2000 for streaming tunes from our home media server for practice. Or just for listening to our huge music library at home as the main playback app.

MuseScore notation software for importing tunes in ABC format from thesession.org and converting to sheet music. Used for adjusting tunes to the setting played in local Irish/Scottish pub sessions. Also for printing sheet music for learning a new tune together with my fiddler Significant Other, so we're starting from the same reference point before we get off the sheet music.

All of these are free except for Reaper.

[Simon DS]

mandolintab.net

[afhusband]

Modacity is a nice app to log your practice.

[bigskygirl]

Strum Machine - really good to play along with, easy to share chord charts with another user
iRealPro - I like the different styles - playing BigMon over a reggae beat is pretty fun, easy to share chord charts with anyone (pdf option)
AudioStretch - I use this mostly to slow down videos
Amazing Slow Downer - ‘nuff said
MetroTimer - good loud no frills metronome
ForScore - don’t use this much since I’ve moved away from paper and playing/learning mostly by ear now
GuitarToolKit - has many functions but by far the best for me is the chord finder, I can either ask it to show me a chord or select the frets and it’ll tell me the chord, it supports many different instruments and many different tunings
iTunes - play along or just listen
Vidami pedal - loop and slow down videos on YT, great for working on tunes, supporting more and more websites lately - wish it would work with QuickTime Player