ThumbJam

What it does

A sampled instrument app played from a touch surface that can be locked to a scale, with a long list running from Asian and Indian scales through jazz, and chord shapes colour coded on screen. The instruments cover strings, brass, woodwind, keys, guitars, basses, mallets, mellotron, drum kits and synths, grouped in categories with favourites and defaults, and the ones not installed up front are pulled in from a download samples page that also carries loops. Each instrument lists its own expression axes, so pitch bend, vibrato, volume, tilt and shake vary by sound.

In the demo

Jade works the library instrument by instrument on an iPad with an Apple Pencil and an M-Audio Keystation, plays the drum kits in from her electronic kit over MIDI, and reacts as she goes, warmer on the upright bass, cello and brass than on the saxes and harmonica. She ends by recording a part into GarageBand through Inter-App Audio.

Worth knowing

It is not an AUv3 plugin, so a DAW reaches it through Inter-App Audio or MIDI. The episode stays on the instruments, leaving the loops, the create an instrument page and the MIDI preferences largely untouched.