F.A.Q. - Frequently Asked Questions

What models of iPhone and iPod touch does PatternMusic support?

PatternMusic will run on any iPhone or iPod touch model. They must be running iPhone OS 3.0 or later. PatternMusic also runs on the iPad in iPhone emulation. 

PatternMusic MXXIV runs as a native, full-screen iPad app.

I can't get PatternMusic to make any sounds. What can I do?

1. •Check the Ring/Silent switch on the side of your iPhone. PatternMusic uses the shared audio environment of the iPhone and "obeys" the Ring/Silent switch.  (Note some other sound apps on the iPhone are not controlled by the Ring/Silent switch.)
   

2. •Check the device volume.
   

3. •Do other things on your iPhone/iPod make sounds? Check the Settings app Sound settings. Check your iPod music library. (Note iPod music doesn't "obey" the Ring/Silent Switch whereas PatternMusic does.) Do other apps make sounds?
   

4. •Try restarting your iPhone/iPod touch. Hold down the Sleep switch on the top of the device for about 10 seconds. Then slide the "Power Off" switch. Restart your device by holding the Sleep switch.
   

5. •Try using headphones or earbuds.
   

When I play along with my iPod Music Library the iPod music is too loud. Can I change this?

First make sure your instruments are at full volume. Drag them to the top of the Song Stage. Also some instruments are perceived as louder than others. We’ve tried to balance them out for the most part, but there are psychoacoustic factors involved. So you may get better results if you choose a brighter, louder instrument for jamming along with your tunes.

But the bottom line is that PatternMusic doesn't have control over the relative loudness of the iPod Music playback. The only volume control available affects the entire device so it affects PatternMusic too.

The iPhone/iPod has a setting called "Sound Check" (in the Settings app, iPod/Music control) that is supposed to even out the volume level of the songs on your iPod. You may find that setting reduces the level of the iPod music thus making it easier to hear your PatternMusic noodling.

Also iTunes has a Volume Adjustment Option for each song in your music library. You can use that to reduce the loudness of a specific song or songs. Then re-sync those songs onto your iPhone/iPod.

(We have asked Apple to address this issue in the software developers toolkit.)

When I play my song the instrument doesn't play even though there are notes in the instrument's pattern. What’s wrong?

Check the volume level of the instrument on the Song Stage. If the instrument is located at the bottom of the screen by the Playback Controls it will be muted.

Also check the Instrument Start Point and Looping settings. Your instrument may not yet have started or may have already finished. Of course, make sure you restart your song or instrument with the “jump to start of song” and “jump to start of instrument part” buttons on the Playback Controls.

Lastly, check the "Solo" option on the Playback Controls. Solo will mute all but the currently selected instrument. Tap Solo again to turn it off ("Solo" with a slash through it).

PatternMusic just returns to the iPhone/iPod home screen every time I start up.  What’s going on?

It may be that the last song file you were working on somehow got corrupted. You can turn on the "Start in Song List" option in the Settings app. This will force PatternMusic to start in the Song List and not automatically load your song.

1. •Run the iPhone/iPod Settings app
   

2. •Scroll down to PatternMusic and select it.
   

3. •Turn "Start in Song List" to ON.
   

4. •Exit the Settings app.
   

5. •Launch PatternMusic. Choose a different song and make sure things are working OK.
   

6. •(You can turn OFF the "Start in Song List" option to return to normal behavior of automatically restoring your last session.)
   

When I try to enter notes in the Pattern Editor I sometimes accidentally set the wrong note or I set multiple notes. What can I do?

When we developed PatternMusic we worked very hard to make note entry as fluid and intuitive as possible. But there are still some situations that can sometimes cause frustration for some users. In anticipation of these situations we built in a number of methods to allow you to fine-tune the note entry process.

There are a few things you can try.

1. ✴Try the Large Boxes mode in the editor. This makes the note boxes 50% larger, thus it’s easier to accurately hit the note you want. To use Large Boxes just touch the Timeline at the bottom of the Editor to display the Playback Controls. At the left side of the Playback Controls is the Box Size button (it has a tiny grid on it). The Box Size toggles between large and small note boxes. The setting is “sticky” and will remain in effect until you change it again.
   

2. (Note: when you use Large Boxes fewer notes can be displayed on screen, so you may have to scroll the Timeline left-right or the piano keys up-down to see other notes.)
   

3. ✴If you are inadvertently setting two notes when you only want to set one try changing the Editor to use Single-Touch rather than the default Multi-Touch.  This setting is in the iPhone/iPod Settings app.
   

4. •Run the iPhone/iPod Settings app
   

5. •Scroll down to PatternMusic and select it.
   

6. •Turn "Single-Touch Editor" to ON.
   

1. ✴If you are finding that notes get set too easily as you touch the Editor note grid you can reduce the "Note Editor Sensitivity".  This setting is in the iPhone/iPod Settings app.
   

2. •Run the iPhone/iPod Settings app
   

3. •Scroll down to PatternMusic and select it.
   

4. •Change the "Note Editor Sensitivity" to LOW. (The default is MEDIUM).
   

I changed the Scale for my song, but now I can't see or edit some of the notes in the Pattern Editor. What happened?

The Song Scale setting acts as a sort of filter of which notes are available in the Pattern Editor. For example, the "Major (Ionian)" scale in C only displays the piano "white keys". The missing notes are not gone. They are just not currently displayed. You can always see all of the notes by setting the Scale back to "All notes/Chromatic".

(PatternMusic will display a small "hint" rectangle between note boxes to indicate that a note has been set there, but that it is not visible in the current Scale.)

It is important to remember that the current Scale setting affects the entire song.

I can't see some of the notes in the Instrument Note Pattern. What happened?

They are probably not in the range of notes that are currently visible on-screen. Try scrolling the piano keys up and down to display other parts of the note range. Or try scrolling the Timeline left and right to display other parts of the pattern length.

Also see "I changed the Scale…" above.

(PatternMusic will display small "hint" rectangles on the edges of the Editor grid to indicate that more notes have been set but are currently scrolled off-screen.)

How can I export my PatternMusic songs to iTunes, to GarageBand etc?

PatternMusic is a self-contained music creation environment.

This solution may sound impertinent at first, but the most reliable method we've found to record music from PatternMusic is to use a stereo mini cable and record directly to a computer or portable recorder. It's actually pretty easy to do.  A simple cable from RadioShack and QuickTime Player, GarageBand, or Windows’ Sound Recorder on your computer will do the trick.

As for a built-in software-based export solution, we have a rule at PatternMusic that if we're going to add a feature it has to work well for everyone who uses our software.  Unfortunately, we have yet to find a song export solution that works simply and reliably for everyone.  But rest assured we are still working on the problem, and if we find something good we'll definitely add it.

Why doesn't PatternMusic do blank? Will PatternMusic be adding blank in a future update?

PatternMusic is a feature-rich app. But there are many, many ideas and utilities in the world of music creation software, and we couldn't put everything everyone wanted in the app.  We have tried to put what we think are the most important things in PatternMusic, and we think we have done a pretty good job striking a balance between features, accessibility, utility and creating something that we could build in a finite amount of time.

At PatternMusic we've made it a rule that every feature has to work well, and it has to be usable by ordinary people.

We welcome your suggestions for new features in PatternMusic. Your feedback is extremely valuable to us. Tell us what you like. Tell us what you don’t like. But before you request a feature, we ask a simple favor: please ask yourself, "Can I see myself ever actually using that feature?"  If it's something you've seen in other programs ask yourself, "Do I ever really use that feature?" If the answers to these questions are "Yes" then fire away. Send us your suggestion. We don't make any promises, but at least this way we know we're getting feedback based on your real needs not just someone else's product spec sheet. - Thank you for your consideration.

What happens if I get three-of-a-kind song icons when PatternMusic launches?

It means you will be prodigious with your song writing! Of course, PatternMusic will help you be prodigious with your song writing all the same.