If you are into iOS music making, you may have heard of a hot new feature called virtual MIDI -- it allows polychord to play compatible synthesizers and drum machines running on the same iPad. In this demo, we use polychord to play Sunrizer.

This video is a quick overview of polychord's core-feature: writing a simple chord progression. Hit the chord circles on the left, strum the chord with the keys on the right.

A quick rundown of different sounds you can achieve with polychord's synthesizers. We're using the strum keys and making changes to the envelope, wave, cutoff & resonance, tremolo, and more.

If you're new to synthesizers, here's a quick explanation of the Envelope, which controls the 'shape' of the sound:

(A)ttack = how long the sound takes to reach full volume.
(D)ecay = how long the sound takes to reach its sustain volume
(S)ustain = how loud the sound remains when a key is held down
(R)elase = how long the sound takes to go silent after a key has been released.

Introduction to the Arpeggiator showing the different sounds and effects you can get by changing the wave, octave, cutoff & resonance, envelope and time signature.

If this is your first look at polychord, you'll notice that the arpeggiator notes follow the chord circles you press on the left. (Auto Accompany must be switched on to hear the arpeggiator, and you must turn its volume up.)

You may want to listen to this with headphones or really bass-responsive speakers, because at the end we demonstrate how the arpeggiator can be used to make some really low end tones and bass lines.

By default, the chord circles play chords, and they set the strum keys to the same chord (so you can strum the notes, play them individually, etc).

You can also choose from a wide selection of scales for the strum keys. If set to a scale, the strum keys no longer follow the chord circles. When set to a scale, the strum keys stay in whatever 'key' you have chosen (from the row of keys above the chord circles, under major & minor).

In this video we start with simple chords, then switch to scales for the strum-keys, change 'key', and finally go back to chords.

With auto-accompany switched on, polychord's bass and drums follow along to the chords you play. In this video, we adjust the bass envelope -- giving it a shorter, more percussive release -- and we play a simple chord progression.

The volume mixer lets you turn the different auto-accompany instruments up or down (the arpeggiator, for instance, is turned down by default).

With polychord 2, you can share with SoundCloud!

Simply hit the record button, and polychord will immediately begin recording in real time. When you're finished, either hit the stop button or the record button and you'll be prompted to title and save your song.

Click the sharing button, select 'share with soundCloud', describe the song, choose if you want to post to twitter and facebook, and click 'upload'. After the track bounces and uploads (takes a couple of minutes), it will appear on your soundCloud account.

Polychord is also a MIDI controller! Here's a demo showing how you can play over your WiFi network using core MIDI and control Logic (the same technique can be used with Garageband, Ableton, and any number of MIDI compatible Digital Audio Workstations).

This video illustrates the quick steps you need to take. For a complete tutorial, see: polychordapp.com/​midi.html

One interesting detail in this video is how we set up logic so that it receives polychord's MIDI on separate channels, automatically routing the signals to the different instruments.