Unlocking Melodic Ideas with iReal Pro - A Musician's Perspective

As a musician, I've always been drawn to melodic ideas that spark creativity and inspire new compositions. One tool that has become an indispensable part of my daily practice is iReal Pro, a powerful app for generating chord progressions and improvisational ideas on the fly.

For me, the magic of iReal Pro lies in its ability to select almost at random tunes that look ripe for chord subs and rearranging them into something new. I find myself most days in a practise room with an upright piano and an iPhone wirelessly linked to a wide screen and a pair of monitors, improvising along with iReal Pro.

As a musician with access to a university music department, I've had the opportunity to work with top-notch equipment and software. My setup includes Pro Tools, Ableton, Sonar, Waves and other plugin processors, Spectrasonics and NI soft instruments, etc. Despite being old school in many ways – I listen almost exclusively to vinyl recordings – I also love modern music technology and its democratizing effect on the process of recording your own music.

For me, iReal Pro is a game-changer when it comes to generating ideas and sparking creativity. While you can use it on any Android device or iPhone, I think it works best on an iPad. The larger screen real estate makes it easier to navigate the app's features and experiment with different chord progressions and improvisations.

That being said, iReal Pro is not without its limitations. The direct sound from the app itself is workable but pretty vanilla, and for high-quality output, I export the MIDI data and use my high-quality Native Instruments samples. Additionally, sound quality on any mobile device will be fairly low – at least from a hi-fi standpoint.

In terms of devices, I've used iReal Pro on both my Google Nexus tablet and Mac, with small differences between the two platforms. The app works seamlessly on Android and iOS as well as OSX.

Overall, iReal Pro has become an essential tool in my daily practice routine. Whether you're a professional musician or just starting out, this app is definitely worth checking out for its ability to generate melodic ideas and spark creativity.

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