Fiddlewax Pro – a music sketchpad for iPad and MIDI controller – has been updated to be more intuitive for players, more expressive for songwriters and more capable for experts.

Here’s what’s new in Fiddlewax Pro 2.0:

• Directly record audio to create custom instruments.
• Import SoundFont files (.sf2) to use with instruments.
• Import audio files (.m4a, .wav, .mp3, etc.) as samples.
• Adjust sample parameters (gain, offset, attack, & release).
• Updated Audiobus and added remote play/pause.
• Improved circular loop indication.
• Updated user interface and simplified info overlay.
• Expert MIDI mode (adjust volume of each channel).
• Muted chord automation for advanced users.

Here’s the official video intro to version 2.0:

More Expressive for Songwriters

The size and range of all playable areas of Fiddlewax Pro have been fine-tuned to give you full control over notes and velocities as you create music.

According to the developer, the sizing of each key takes into account the precision of your hands’ fine motor skills, which are capable of making adjustments much smaller than you might expect. With this in mind, the space between keys is minimized (for quick transitions) and the total playable keys on-screen are maximized (for greater tonal range).

Beyond playing, you can also record sessions with or without microphone audio to add vocals as you compose. Adjust tempo and pitch beyond common values to explore interesting textures and add in filter and reverb effects to simulate different acoustic environments.

Fiddlewax Pro now also enables you to load entire general MIDI SoundFonts (.sf2 files) to replace Fiddlewax’s default instrument sounds with your own bank of presets — mapped to drum kits, instruments, or both.

You can also replace an instrument with any audio file (.m4a, .mp3, .wav, etc.) or microphone recording. Your custom sample is then mapped to the keyboard for pitched performance and also gives you full control over attack, release, gain, and offset parameters.

More Intuitive For Players

Fiddlewax Pro has been designed to help musicians focus on what they’re playing, while also indicating how notes are related. Press a note and all other similar notes light up. Play multiple notes and see realtime feedback labelling the chord that was formed. Press a push-button chord and see the corresponding notes highlight in the keyboard.

Loop indication has also been improved to leverage ‘preattentive processing’ (read: intuitively simple) in a circular format. This enables you to be peripherally aware of each loop’s state and more easily keep things in sync.

The redesigned info overlay helps you quickly figure out what each part of the instrument does, allows for advanced settings, and links to the Fiddlewax Pro Guide Book when you’re looking to dig in and learn about a feature in greater depth.

More Capable For Experts

Many expert users requested additional control over MIDI and Audiobus to integrate Fiddlewax Pro with their existing workflows. These features are hidden by default, but contextually turn on as you enable more advanced options.

To simplify advanced mapping configurations, Fiddlewax Pro now shows MIDI output channels beside each instrument when MIDI output is enabled. MIDI also works seamlessly with local iOS apps, WiFi, and Bluetooth so you can just turn it on and start playing.

Additionally, expert MIDI mode can be enabled from the Advanced Settings to give direct control over the volume of each MIDI channel. Want that bass line to be a bit louder? Just press on the instrument’s icon and slide upward to increase its volume.

Integration with Audiobus has a few new tricks up its sleeve, too. State saving is now included to give Audiobus experts more control over their process and easily recall configurations. You can also quickly start and stop loops from outside Fiddlewax Pro when connected via Audiobus using the remote play / pause trigger.

Fiddlewax Pro 2.0 is available now in the App Store for US $19.99.

If you’ve used Fiddlewax Pro, leave a comment and share your thoughts on it!