Tutorial
Demonstrations

 

1. How to change your sounds

Vinyl Dreams works intuitively. Simply tap a sound to hear what it sounds like. Drag the sound to the circle in order to add it to your song, and you’re done! If you’d like the same audio at other points in the song, drag it again and the sound will automatically copy to the next space that you drop it on to.

 

If you have time, you can view our short video demonstrations:

How to work with sounds

  • Tap to play a sound

  • Drag and drop the sound on to your circle

 

2. Volume/The Mixer

The volumes pane/mixer is where you control the individual loudness of each instrument in your song. Tap the “Volumes” button to reveal the mixer, where you will have access to all 8 of your instruments, as well as the full band (controls the volume of all instruments at once with one fader). If you record any vocals, this is where you can change the volume of those tracks as well.

 

3. Looping the current circle

When working on your music, you may find that you’d like to focus on only one circle. Pressing the “Loop” button will cause the app to not leave this circle, and repeat it once it reaches the end.

 

4. The Song Menu

How do you change the tempo or key of your song? How can you edit the fadeout at the end of your track? Tapping on the “Song” button will open up the “Song” menu, which allows you to use sliders to change these.

 

5. Creating a simple song

You can easily create a simple song using only 2 chords! By finding two phrases that sound good together, we can loop our main phrase (the CALL) to create the main part of our song, while using our secondary phrase (the RESPONSE) to “turn around” back into the beginning of the loop.

 

6. Record Mode

To record your voice or an instrument, go to the Record Page by clicking the Record button on the top menu bar (represented by a microphone). Pressing the red circular button in the big circle will start your recording. If you want to hear yourself, press the Self Monitor button, located on the right side of the bottom menu bar. Make sure to wear headphones if you’re using the microphone. Allowing the microphone to listen to it’s own signal through the device’s speakers could cause a feedback loop*.

 

*Feedback Loops are caused by a microphone picking up it’s own signal when listening back on speakers. To avoid a feedback loop wear headphones while monitoring (listening) to yourself. Feedback Loops cause a loud and high pitched noise. If a Feedback Loop has started, you can either plug in a pair of headphones, turn the self monitoring button off, or lower your devices volume to stop it.

(Feedback loops are usually a concern if recording your voice, since you will be using a microphone. If you’re recording an instrument like a guitar or bass, you shouldn’t have anything to worry about.)

7. The Metronome

A metronome is just a counter that clicks every quarter note (1 beat). It helps musicians keep time while practicing, and can be used in a recording scenario to make sure all the different parts of a musical piece are “in time” with each other.

 

8. Recording a 2nd Track

You can record separate layers of sound into your song allowing you to create more complicated musical ideas. These are known as “Tracks”. You can use the “Track” button (labeled with ‘1’) to switch between these layers. To find the Track button, go to the Record Mode page, and swipe to the right on the bottom menu bar. Click the “Track” button to toggle it over to Track 2. Another layer should open up below your arrangement. Use this toggle to switch back and forth between your tracks. (If the track button says “1”, then you are on track 1, and if it says “2”, then you are currently on track 2.)

 

9. Using FX

You can apply different FX to your tracks to make them more interesting. Try experimenting with different combinations. Both tracks also have a Mixing Style selection to further enhance the sound of your recording. Choose between a subtle Clean, or our more complex settings like Lush or Radio.