Halo Harp™ Help

Basic Controls

To start synthesizing sound, touch any of the colored wedges within the yellow halo.
To stop synthesizing sound, double tap anywhere within the main view.

To play different chords in the same key, touch any of the 7 wedges.

To play chords softer or louder, touch or touch and drag closer or farther away, respectively, from the center of the circle.

To transpose to a new key, touch the right or left arrow buttons at the bottom of the screen.

To toggle between parallel major and minor modes, touch the Major/Minor button at the bottom of the screen. Notice that the button displays the current mode.

Advanced Controls

To access advanced controls, rotate the device either right or left to landscape orientation.

To adjust the timbre (modulation index) slide the top-most slider to the right to produce a brighter timbre or left for a darker timbre. Integers produce harmonic sounds, non-integers produce non-harmonic sounds. Double tapping near an integer will cause the slider to snap to that value. If the Halo Harp™ is set to play one note per chord (see below), bass sounds can be produced by choosing timbre less that one (0.5 and 0.25 work exceptionally well). Interesting sound effects can be produced by choosing a timbre near zero.

To adjust the decay rate of the synthesizer, slide the middle slider. Moving the slider to the left will create percussive sounds, while moving it to the right will create more sustained sounds. In the right-most position, the Halo Harp™ will sustain chords infinitely. Double tapping near either integer will cause the slider to snap to that value.

To adjust the number of notes that the Halo Harp™ plays in each chord, use the bottom slider. Halo Harp™ creates chords by stacking thirds, so the following chords types will be produced by choosing the listed values:

1. Root Only
2. Root and Third
3. Triad
4. Seventh Chord
5. Ninth Chord