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Colossus Piano iCathedral Organ iSymphonic Orchestra

Getting Started

The following instructions are intended for users who are using the iCathedral App for the first time. It provides an introduction how to use the App and an overview of the most important features.

Launching the App

After you purchased and downloaded iCathedral from the App Store, you can launch the App by tapping on the iCathedral icon on your iOS desktop.

If you want to control the iCathedral App with an external MIDI keyboard, then please first connect the external MIDI keyboard to your iPad before starting the iCathedral App.

Select a Preset

iCathedral provides a choice of pre-edited presets. A preset consists of a combination of different stops. The first of them, named "Accompagnato 1" will be active immediately after you will have opened the App.

  1. Tap on the "Preset" combo box, a large list with preset names will unfold.
  2. Scroll the list up and down by dragging ("swipe") your finger vertically on the list. Finally tap on an item from this list to select the respective preset.
  3. Now the selected preset will be active. In this example you have selected "Accompagnato 2"

All pre-edited presets are composed of combinations of different stops. These stops have different characters. Some of them are suitable for the descant zone, others for the bass zone and still others for the complete key range. As we don't know whether you have already divided your keyboard into different zones and which zone will control which MIDI channel, all stops are set in default to "Omni MIDI channels", which means "All MIDI channels". But reproducing a bass stop in the descant zone or a descant stop in the bass zone sounds suboptimal. Therefore you should soonest divide your keyboard at least in a bass zone and in a descant zone and assign each zone a different MIDI channel, e.g. MIDI channel 1 for the bass zone and MIDI channel 2 for the descant zone. In case you don't know how to handle this, please read the user manual of your keyboard. Subsequently modify the presets as described at Assigning different MIDI channels to a preset .

On-Screen Keyboard

For quick tests, or while being on the road with no real MIDI keyboard around, you can use iCathedral's on-screen virtual keyboard. It provides the full range of 88 keys of a regular piano keyboard. Simply tap on its keys to trigger notes on the currently selected preset.

The keys on the keyboard will also lit up when notes are triggered by MIDI on the currently selected preset. So you may also use the on-screen keyboard as pure visual indication to control whether your external MIDI keyboard (or MIDI song) is configured correctly for triggering notes on the currently selected preset.

  1. Place two fingers next to each other in the middle of the approximately 1cm thick strip above the keyboard.
  2. Enlarge the keyboard: Drag your fingers away from each other to increase the size of the keyboard (by a so-called "pinch-zoom") on your screen to the desired dimension.
  3. Shrink the keyboard: Place again two fingers on the left and the right of the approximately 1cm thick strip above the keyboard. Then drag these fingers towards each other to decrease the size of the keyboard (by "pinch-zoom") to the desired dimension.

The on-screen keyboard is designed as a multi-touch controller, so that you may place several fingers onto the keyboard simultaniously for example to trigger and hold chords. But such scale and scroll operations will only work when you first place your finger(s) at the dedicated approximately 1cm thick area above the keyboard to start the scale or scroll operation. It will not work when you initially place your finger(s) directly on the keyboard, because that will simply trigger notes instead. Once the scale or scroll operation started, the precise position of your finger(s) is irrelevant.

Assigning different MIDI channels to a preset

As mentioned above it is recommended to split the key range of your keyboard into at least two zones, each zone controlling a different MIDI channel. In case you don't know how to handle this please refer to the manual of your keybard. How to assign the different stops will be explained on the example of the default "Accompagnato 2" preset. So please open this preset. Subsequently tap on the "MIDI" button, shown on the left.

The MIDI mapping windows opens. The three active stops of "Accompagnato 2" are shown in white. These are the stops "Flute 1", an 8' (eight foot) stop, "Octave", a 4' (four foot) stop and "subbass gedackt", a 16' (sixteen foot) stop. The 8' stop could and should be used for the complete key range, the 4' stop only for the descant zone and the 16' foot stop only for the bass zone. We assume that you have assigned MIDI channel 1 to the bass zone and MIDI channel 2 to the descant zone of your keyboard. Now handle the new MIDI channel mapping as shown below.

  1. Tap on the entry "Omni" on the right of "Octave". A list of all 16 MIDI channels, added by the Omni assignment will unfold. If necessary scroll this list up and down by dragging ("swipe") your finger vertically on the list.
  2. Now tap on the entry "MIDI Ch. 2" on this list.
  3. As a result of this action the entry "MIDI Ch. 2" will be assigned to "Octave"
  4. Assign "MIDI channel 1" to "Subbass gedackt" in the same way. Against this don't change the "Omni" assignment of "Flute 1", so that the final result will be as shown above.

The arrow button will lead you back to the main window.

Safe a modified preset

Safe the modified preset as shown below:

Change Volume

It may happen that on the first start of iCathedral the overall volume will be too quiet or too loud. There exist 3 different tools to correct this:

Document Updated:  2018-04-04  |  Author:  Werner Mohrlok, Christian Schoenebeck