* With a MIDI keyboard connected, play live along with a 16-track accompaniment provided by one of the hundreds of existing Yamaha .sty files, with up to 12 style variations in each style file.
* With just a few clicks, convert any .mid file in a General MIDI format into a Yamaha-like style, and play along with it live, sounding just like your favorite band.
There are tons of good-quality MIDI files out there for virtually every popular song. Converting them to a MidiBand style takes about five minutes: just play the song in the app and mark the sections that you like with a press of a button.
The paid MidiBand app has many extra features compared to the free app, such as:
* Automatic recording of all your play by a built-in sequencer, with note and chord overdubbing capabilities
* Export of your play data via email in a generic MIDI song format
* Voice selection on all tracks, melody and accompaniment
* Continued play with the app in the background
* Ability to import song files in MIDI Type 1 format
* Ability to select or suppress any of the MIDI Inputs/Outputs
Besides the iPad, iPhone or iPod, the MidiBand app also requires a General MIDI-compatible piano keyboard for playing melody and changing chords, and a hardware or software synthesizer for converting MIDI into sound. Usually both requirements can be satisfied by an external music synthesizer keyboard with MIDI In/Out capabilities. If the synthesizer cannot be connected to the Pad, iPhone or iPod directly, a Mac computer with its Audio MIDI Setup OS X application may be used as an intermediary. See the support page for details.
The MidiBand app replicates and expands on the auto-accompaniment feature of common musical keyboards by playing Intro/Verse/Chorus/FillIn/Ending loops from widely available Yamaha style (.sty) files or any .mid file over a MIDI interface. It establishes a two-way CoreMIDI connection between the iPhone/iPad and your synthesizer, analyzes chords played with your left hand, and sends the styles accompaniment in the key of the chord back to the synthesizer. At the same time, the melody/voice part played with your right hand is passed unchanged through the app.