How it works

How Con Compás works.

What each control of the app does, in the order you meet them on the screen: the clock first, then what is under it, then what is above it.

The clock

The clock shows the whole compás at a glance: every beat in its place, the accents marked, and a hand that shows where you are.

The beats sit on a ring and are counted clockwise. The last beat is at the top, and beat 1 is just to its right. Each beat has its number just outside the ring. A triangle points at the start beat, the beat the compás begins on: 12 for Bulerías, 1 for Soleá.

A mark on the ring is an accent: orange for the palmas, yellow for the cajón, and both where a clara and a bass fall together. Nothing else is marked, so a beat with only its number has no accent. Offbeats sit on the same ring, between the beats, smaller and without a number.

While the compás plays:

The hand steps from beat to beat. It never sweeps.
The number of the beat it points at turns bold, and the number in the middle of the clock shows which beat it is.
Everything you hear lights up where it sounds, sub-accents and offbeats included. Where there is no mark, that position on the ring lights for a moment: orange for the palmas, yellow for the cajón.

The clock in Con Compás playing Bulerias de Jerez, one compás from beat 12: the hand steps round the clock from beat to beat, with the accents of the palmas marked in orange and those of the cajón in yellow, each lighting and swelling as it sounds.

Play and the tempo

Under the clock you start the compás and set how fast it goes.

Tap Play and the compás starts on its start beat. While it plays, the button reads Stop. Tap it and the compás stops, and the hand goes back to where it began. If the phone's volume is too low to hear the compás, the line “Volume is low” shows above the button until you turn the volume up.

The tempo and Play in Con Compás: the tempo, 200 BPM, at the right above its slider, − and + at the slider's ends, and the Play button under them.

The tempo is in beats per minute, from 40 to 300, and sits above Play. Each compás remembers its own tempo. To change it:

Drag the slider.
Tap − or + at its ends to move one BPM at a time.
Tap the tempo itself, at the right above the slider, type the number on the number pad and tap the checkmark.

The tempo of Bulerías being typed in Con Compás: a tap on 200 BPM brings up the number pad, 1, 4 and 0 are typed, and the checkmark sets the tempo to 140 BPM; then it is typed back to 200 the same way.

A count-in gives you room before the compás begins. Set one in the settings, and Play first plays that many beats, the ones that lead up to the start beat. Bulerías with a count-in of four plays 8, 9, 10 and 11 and begins on 12. While nothing plays, the hand rests on the beat the count-in begins on, so the clock shows where Play will start.

The count-in in the settings of Con Compás, set to four beats on Bulerías: the row reads Count-in: 4 beats, with − and + beside it, and the line under it says you come in on beat 12 ready.

Jump to a beat

While the compás plays, a tap on the clock sends it to the beat you want, without stopping.

With the compás playing and the lock closed, tap a beat on the clock. The beat that is sounding plays out, and the beat you tapped comes next. The tempo does not break, and nothing in the compás changes. While the compás is stopped, a tap on the clock does nothing.

The lock

The lock is how you shape a compás: where the accents and sub-accents fall, in the palmas and in the cajón. Closed, no tap on the clock can change the compás. Open, every tap changes it.

The lock is at the left of the toolbar. Tap it: it opens and turns orange. That is edit mode, and the ring now shows every position of one voice, accent or not. VoiceOver reads the lock as Edit mode, Locked or Unlocked.

The toolbar of Con Compás: the lock, closed, and the eye at the left, the name of the compás, Bulerías, in the middle, and the gear at the right.

In edit mode, tap a beat to change it:

One tap makes it an accent.
A second tap makes it a sub-accent.
A third tap makes it silent again.

Each tap sounds the level it set, so you hear what you chose. If the voice has a subdivision, set in the settings, the offbeats between the beats are tapped the same way.

The switch above the clock, Palmas or Cajón, says which voice you are shaping. It changes what the ring shows and which voice a tap edits. It does not change what you hear: both voices keep sounding. The switch is on Palmas each time the lock opens, and it shows only while the sound is Realistic: under Tone there is only the palmas to shape.

Edit mode in Con Compás: the lock open and orange at the left of the toolbar, and under the toolbar the voice switch, Palmas and Cajón, standing on Cajón.

A compás the app ships with never changes. Open the lock on Bulerías and the app makes a copy for you, “Bulerías copy 1”. That copy is what you shape: its name is now in the toolbar, and Bulerías is still among the presets.

The compás keeps playing while you shape it, so you hear every change in its place. Tap the lock again to close it.

Bulerias de Jerez being shaped in Con Compás, a tap at a time: the lock opens and the voice switch above the clock stands on Palmas; beat 5 is tapped to an accent, a sub-accent and silent again; the switch goes to Cajón, where beat 5 is tapped to a bass, a sub-accent and silent; the switch comes back to Palmas, and the lock closes on the clock as it began.

The eye

The eye takes the clock away, so you keep the count yourself. The compás plays on, and nothing on the screen shows which beat it is.

The eye is next to the lock. Tap it and the blindfold is on: the eye is struck through in orange, and the ring, the numbers, the triangle, the hand and the number in the middle disappear. VoiceOver reads the eye as Blindfold, On or Off.

A single dot takes their place. It shows what is sounding, not where you are in the compás:

On an accent, the dot pulses whole and sends out a ripple: a thin line that lingers for a moment.
On a sub-accent, it pulses smaller and sends nothing.
On a silent position, it does nothing.

Its colour says which voice sounded: orange for the palmas, yellow for the cajón.

Con Compás playing Bulerías with the Blindfold on: the Eye struck through beside the lock, and in place of the clock one dot in the middle that pulses with every clap, an accent sending a thin ring out from it.

Tap the eye again and the clock is back at once, with the hand where the compás is. The sound does not change either way, and the tempo and Play stay where they are.

The lock and the blindfold are never on together, so you never change a level unseen. Opening the lock takes the blindfold off, and putting the blindfold on closes the lock. Choosing another compás also takes the blindfold off.

Your compases

Here you choose what to play: the palos the app ships with, and every compás you have made or been sent.

Choose a compás

The name in the middle of the toolbar is the compás on the clock. Tap it and the list of compases opens. Under Presets are the compases the app ships with, one per palo: Bulerías, Soleá, Alegrías and Tangos. Under Custom are your own. Each one shows its beats, its tempo and, if it has ever been edited, when it was last edited. Tap one and it is on the clock.

Make a new one

Tap + at the top of the list. It makes a new compás, “New compás 1”, with nothing in it yet. The new compás opens with the settings up and its name selected, so you can name it, and with the lock open, so you can tap in its accents.

The compases in Con Compás: a tap on the name in the toolbar opens the list, with Bulerías, Soleá, Alegrías and Tangos under Presets; + makes New compás 1, which opens with the settings up and its name selected; Done shows its empty clock with the lock open; and from the list, where it now stands under Custom, a tap on Bulerías puts Bulerías back on the clock.

Duplicate, rename and delete

Touch and hold a compás, or swipe it to the right, for Duplicate. The copy is named after the original, like “Alegrías copy 1”. It lands at the end of Custom and goes on the clock. A compás with nothing in it has nothing to copy, so it offers no Duplicate.

To rename a compás, open the settings and type in the field at the top. A compás needs a name, and no two can share one.

Swipe one of your own to the left, or touch and hold it, for Delete. A preset cannot be deleted, so the palos are always there.

Settings

The settings hold what does not fit on the clock: the name of the compás, how it sounds, how many beats it has and where it begins.

Tap the gear at the right of the toolbar to open Settings, with the lock open or closed. Tap Done to close them. The name is at the top.

Sound

Under Sound you choose between Realistic and Tone. Realistic is the recorded palmas and cajón. Tone plays the palmas alone: a bright tone for an accent and a low one for a sub-accent. Under Tone the cajón is neither heard nor shown; it is back when the sound is Realistic again.

Under Realistic, the slider below sets the mix between Palmas and Cajón. In the centre, both are heard as they were recorded. Move the slider towards one voice to turn the other down, all the way to silence at the end.

Beats

Under Beats you set:

How many beats the compás has, from 2 to 12.
A subdivision for each voice: how many equal parts each beat falls into, from one to four. This is what puts offbeats on the ring.
Starts on beat: the start beat.
Lower down, the count-in, from none to twelve beats.

On a compás the app ships with, changing the name, the number of beats, a subdivision or the start beat makes a copy for you, as opening the lock does, and the settings say so under Beats. You can change the tempo, the sound and the count-in on a preset itself; they make no copy.

Duplicate and Share are below, once the compás has something in it.

Vibration and appearance

Vibrate on accents makes the phone vibrate with every accent you hear, of the palmas or of the cajón, and with nothing else. The line under it says: “The phone vibrates with every accent while the app is open. Locked, or in another app, the compás plays on without it.”

Under Appearance, System follows the phone's appearance, and Light and Dark keep the app always light or always dark.

The mix, the vibration and the appearance belong to the app, not to the compás: they stay as they are whichever compás you choose.

The foot of the settings in Con Compás: under Vibration the switch Vibrate on accents with its line, and under Appearance the choice between System, Light and Dark.

Below Appearance, directly above How it works, Show the tour closes the settings and shows the tour, the four balloons a new installation opens on: one at a time over the clock, at the lock, the eye, the clock and the gear, each saying what its control does.

Share sends another guitarist a compás as a link. The link is the compás itself: its name, its beats and both voices, with the tempo, the sound and the count-in you had on it.

Share is wherever Duplicate is: in the settings, and in the list of compases when you touch and hold a compás or swipe it to the right. It opens the phone's share sheet, so the link goes out the way you choose.

Sharing a compás from Con Compás: the gear opens the settings of Bulerías, the panel is drawn up to Duplicate and Share, a tap on Share brings up the phone's share sheet with the compás named at its top, a tap above the sheet puts it away, and Done closes the settings.

On an iPhone with Con Compás, tapping the link opens the compás on the clock and keeps it at the end of Custom. Without the app, the link opens a page of this site that shows the compás on the clock. The support page says more about how a shared link opens.

Outside the app

Lock the phone, or go to another app, and the compás plays on.

While it plays, the phone shows it outside the app, in the Dynamic Island and on the lock screen: its clock, small and still, with its accents, and where there is room its tempo and its name. It stays there as long as the compás plays.