Casio has released two new apps, as part of their new Cordana line. These apps are designed to analyze your iTunes music and help you write chord charts. You can then play along with some sampled instruments. The descriptions on iTunes for these apps was hastily Englishified, still including Japanese punctuation and formatting weirdness, so it is a bit hard to read. I believe the difference is the free Tap app just let's you play along, while the paid Viewer lets you edit and save the resulting chord charts.

Chordana iTunes Description:

(Features mentioned in both Tap & Viewer.)

Casio original technology analyzes the chords in your audio files.By tapping the instrument pad along with a song, you can experience a virtual performance with the analyzed chords.

You can also play the results of the chord analysis on the instrument pad to check the outcomes. You can then edit the chords yourself as you listen to the actual sounds and write even more accurate chord chart. This is so much quicker and easier than trying to figure out the chords just by listening to them.

The Technology Behind Chordana

The Chordana series apps use original Casio technology to analyze audio files. The apps achieve unprecedented success in extracting natural chords from the time changes and the distribution of frequency components included in audio waveforms, while also taking into account the characteristics of the harmonies, melodies and rhythm instruments included in the song.

Customize your own tempo, key and vocal balance

By using the app to import an audio file into your iPad or iPhone, you can modify the tempo or key of the song. You can also adjust the balance between vocals and accompaniment, which is useful for transcription. If you change the key, the chords in the chord display pane are also converted automatically, so transposition is simple.

Operating requirements

iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, iPhone5S, iPhone5C
iPod Touch (5th generation)
iPad2, iPad (3rd generation), iPad (4th generation), iPad Mini
iOS 6.0 or later required.

Buy Chordana Tap on iTunes: Free

Buy Chordana Viewer on iTunes: $9.99

There are a lot of videos on the Casio Japan YouTube channel, which seem to alternate between English and Japanese interfaces.

This video from Digital DJ Tips has made me take back half the things I said about Junglator. When I was playing with it, I was using Apple's EarPods, and I had a hard time hearing what I was actually doing under to the seemingly heavy pre-produced loops. I listened to this video on my monitors, and it was much clearer as to what he was actually adding to the performance. And that addition is awesome! You can read Digital DJ Tips review here.

Buy Junglator on iTunes: $0.99 (iPhone)

Rhythm Pad and Rhythm Studio, no relation, are on sale today! If you haven't picked up Rhythm Studio before, this is a great opportunity to do so! Thanks to reader Adrian for this early morning news.

Buy Rhythm Studio on iTunes: $0.99 (On Sale, from $4.99)

Buy Rhythm Pad on iTunes: Free (On Sale, from $2.99)

Spinal Vein K did an excellent and inspirational cover of the Mission Impossible theme, despite being quadriplegic!

Buy GarageBand on iTunes: Freemium

MIDIMorphosis got a little update today to improve compatibility with some audio interfaces that do guitar inputs backwards.

Along with this update, Secret Base Design hinted on Twitter that they're, "Getting close to finishing the other thing too..." That other thing is awesome and I can't wait to talk about it. It is one of those brilliant, "I can't believe no one thought of this before," ideas.

What's new in MIDImorphosis v1.8:

Added a control button on the main screen to allow selection of the left or right channel for stereo audio inputs. The Focusrite iTrack Solo places the guitar input on the right channel; most other interfaces that support stereo audio have the guitar input on the left channel. Toggle the channel button to switch from left to right.

For iOS 7, make sure that MIDImorphosis has permission to access audio input; if you experience no signal input to the app, open the Settings app, and then check Privacy/Microphone -- MIDImorphosis will need to be enabled.

Buy MIDImorphosis on iTunes: $4.99