Hi Krister,
I just posted answers to some of Florian's questions about ThumbJam,
which I have on my iPad. When I first answered, it was to say that
everything I tried seemed accessible, and that the app is really
impressive in terms of its ability to just let you play music. The
menus are set up to be accessed in the four corners of the screen, so
they're out of the way of playing when you're working on the iPhone
screen, and in fact, I usually leave all the controls up on the larger
iPad screen. You'll probably want to at least toggle off the key
controls along the left side of the screen before you start to play,
after you've set up your playing options the way you want -- e.g.
adjusting the spacing between notes on the screen (if you want to
mostly play chords that require your fingers to fit onto the chord
notes simultaneously), adjusting the octave range, setting whether you
have a sharp trigger as you change notes for distinct individual notes
like on a harpsichord, or whether you slide into them on the
boundaries like a trombone, changing the instrument, or the key
signature. The two menus that you routinely work from are in the top
left ("Sound") and top right ("Loop") corners. If you're only
playing, and not recording loops, then you might only use the "Sound"
menu in the top left corner. (The menus in each of the four corners
don't announce "button" after the label, but you double tap them as
though they did. Double tap the corner again to dismiss the menu if
you need to -- e.g., if you didn't choose one of the options, but just
wanted to read through the menu options. Otherwise, when you double
tap the button to show/hide the key controls, or to select another
instrument, the menu options naturally disappear when you make your
selection.)
If you're really worried about hitting a control while you're playing,
you can hide all the menus except for one in the bottom left corner.
Go to the bottom left corner "Edit" menu, double tap, and then slide
your finger up to the "Hide Menus, button" and double tap. Now when
you check the four corners there's only a single "Menu, button" in the
bottom left corner, and even when you double tap it with VoiceOver on
(or equivalently, touch or tap the corner position with VoiceOver
toggled off), all that will happen is that a screen message, "Double
tap to show menus" will appear. (Of course, you'll only be able to
read this with VoiceOver on).
Even when you turn recording on from the "Loop" menu in the top right
corner, your recording only starts when you actually touch the screen,
so there's plenty of time to toggle VoiceOver off, and start playing
when you want. The top left and right corners turn into the controls
to "Cancel record" or "Finish record", so you do want to be able to
tap the top right corner to end your recording. I don't have a
problem doing this, but if you have difficulty using the case as a
reference for where to tap, just put an elastic band around your
iPhone to mark the top edge of the active screen to guide your finger.
It might be helpful for VoiceOver users to put an audible counter or a
cue (that isn't recorded) for when you're coming up to the end of the
loop, but currently what happens when you turn recording on for a
second loop, the program waits until the end of the loop is reached
before it activates recording, even if you start playing before then.
So just toggle VoiceOver on, double tap the "Loop" menu in the top
right corner, and double tap the "Record Loop" button and toggle
VoiceOver off in enough time to wait for the end of the loop. Then
start playing again. You'll have to listen for when your loop is
going to restart to begin playing the next loop you want to record. If
you want to save individual loops to work with again, remember to
double tap the "Save Loop" button under the "Loop" menu. Then you'll
be able to load them back in and play them individually. Otherwise,
when you double tap "Save, button" under the "Loop" menu you save
things as loop sets -- multiple tracks (if that's what you recorded),
and only what's in place at the time you double tap the "Save,
button". If you don't like your last effort, double tap "Delete Last,
button". If you don't want to keep any of the current loops in your
working set, double tap "Clear Loops, button". This just clears out
your current session -- it doesn't remove any loops, loop sets, or
sessions that you've saved. They can all be retrieved from the "Load,
button". And there's also a "Session Record" button you can turn on.
HTH. I've only really checked out these features just now to answer
Florian, so if you play with this and want to post your results to
Applevis, or use any of these comments, go ahead. There are lots of
other features I haven't tried to use, so I can't really say more than
"everything I tried is accessible" at this point.
Cheers,
Esther
On Aug 31, 2010, Krister Ekstrom wrote:
Hi,
Originally i was planning to download Prizmo, since i heard it was
good and would be better, however as so often happens, i was curious
and searched for Thumb jam to see what this app was all about. By
the description it sounded to be an absolutely awesome app, it's an
app that can have loads of instruments and you can play them and
make loops and such. Of course the question of accessibility springs
to mind and my question is, is it worth investing the money in this
app? can a totally blind person use it? what can/can't i do?
I tried to look up Thumb jam on Applevis and didn't find anything,
so i ask here.
Any help appreciated.
/Krister
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