blogSay Hello to Capo
Since late 2008, I have been working on my ideal tool for learning music by ear. I called it Capo because it’s an essential part of a guitarist’s tool set—just like a real capo.
I’m about to start the Capo beta program very shortly, and I plan to launch Capo 1.0 not long after that. I have been using Capo regularly—learning songs for my guitar lessons—and I feel that it’s ready to go out the door. I’m excited to finally share it with the world.
So, head over to the Capo website at http://capoapp.com and sign up for the beta!
Michael Critz
Over a year ago
I really love the design of capoapp.com! Great job, guys. I plan on checking out Capo merely based on your sense of style.
chris
Over a year ago
And yet, my out-of-date blog style didn’t turn you away? It must be real nice there! ;)
Devin
Over a year ago
You guys should make an audio editing program. I would love to use this software to cut, alter tempo, and export to MP3.
Schmidt
Over a year ago
Just followed links over from daringfireball.net, which I read religiously despite being a Windows user at home.
So who do we have to bribe to get an app like this for Windows?
chris
Over a year ago
You just have to bribe your local Mac dealer, and I’m sure they’ll let you walk out with a nice Mac to run it on. ;)
I don’t do Windows coding, sorry. I worked with Windows for far too long in my life, and life’s too short to give it any more of my time.
chris
Over a year ago
@Devin, You might like Fission, by Rogue Amoeba.
Matt Swann
Over a year ago
Chris, this is great! I’ve been using Quicktime to snip out guitar solos and slow them down to help me learn — this will save me a lot of time.
Have you considered writing a companion iPhone app? I often practice guitar while listening to the real song via headphones in one ear… helps me get the rhythm down and it keeps my wife from going insane when I repeat the same solo part over and over.
Michael Moncur
Over a year ago
Just bought Capo and it’s great!
One thing I wish for: a “move to beginning of song” button. The Rewind button takes a while, and clicking on exactly 0:00 in the wave display is hard.
I did just find the keystroke, and that works great, but a button would be nice.
Also, more speed choices would be nice – another (much uglier) program I use can be set to in-between speeds like 60%, which is very nice when I’m trying to gradually increase my playing speed.
Anyway, Nice work!
chris
Over a year ago
@Matt I’d like to try and get something on the iPhone, but Apple likes to taunt me with exciting-sounding API features that aren’t actually useful. :/
chris
Over a year ago
@Michael for now there’s only the keystroke and menu item. We’ll see if we can figure something out for the existing button scheme that might work (maybe a double-click).
Michael Moncur
Over a year ago
Awesome. Also, while I’m making feature requests…
It would be great if there was a “lead in” option. I.e. a 1 or 2-second countdown before the song starts playing. I always miss the first note because I’m moving my hand from the spacebar to the guitar…
amitos
Over a year ago
Hmmm…. sounds cool but very very expensive… sorry :-/
chris
Over a year ago
@Michael That’s a great idea! I don’t often use Capo to play along as much as I use it to figure out the notes (I’ve been kinda busy writing the app, you know!) but I can totally see the need for this.
Unfortunately, though, this is basically impossible with no knowledge of the song’s BPM. :/
I’ll think of something…
Stacy C
Over a year ago
I just played around with the trial, and this is brilliant. I’m buying it now.
Stacy
chris
Over a year ago
@Stacy Thanks so much!
Michael Moncur
Over a year ago
@chris – Yeah, a BPM-synced 1-measure lead-in with a metronome click would be awesome, but I’d settle for an on-screen countdown in seconds.
I tend to use tablature (or my teacher) to figure out the notes, and use apps like Capo to practice playing. (That’s why in-between speeds would be nice, because I could gradually bump up the speed as I practice.)
Stacy C
Over a year ago
Beautiful interface Chris, really nicely done. I have iTunes open on one screen and Capo on the other, drag a song from iTunes into Capo, and go. It even pulls over the artwork from iTunes. Great work. My inner guitar geek is pleased.
chris
Over a year ago
@Stacy I’m glad you are enjoying it so thoroughly! Thanks for reporting back!
Victor Nystad
Over a year ago
Bloody brilliant! I’m rehearsing for a musical right now, and have used Garageband for transposing. Capo seems so much easier to use! Transposing sections individually would be great for a future release! We’ve got kids in different ages singing, so we’ve had to transpose each section differently.
Alex
Over a year ago
Where’s the iphone version ?
Mark
Over a year ago
It’d be nice to have a simple interface for entering notes.. as to what the notes are in the song as you figure them out. Whether is was just text input, tabs or actual notation, I’d find a feature like that helpful.
John
Over a year ago
Hi, I tried it and it’s very cool. As said before, it lacks a 1/2/3/4 start count (just to put your hand on the guitar again !). And the price is a bit too high for a young student ;-) Dispite this I will perhaps buy it, I just want to be sure I get all the updates for free after that