GuitarCapo+ video review (of sorts)

I’ve written about GuitarCapo+ before and it sure has advanced since then. Now it’s not only an amazing virtual instrument, but it’s a priceless educational tool for guitarists both young and old. I’m also pleased to say that the developer of this app is welcoming of constructive criticism. As a fan of the app it’s encouraging to see your suggestions are listened to and implemented (if sensible).

I have some crazy ideas from time to time.

One of the improvements this app has gone through is the ability to slow down the strum speed while playing the virtual guitar. If you’ve ever wanted to compose a simple arpeggio based acoustic track, this app quite possibly does all of the hard work for you. You can play up or down the strings by clicking the top or bottom three strings when in chord mode (or dynamically by simply finger picking like you would on a standard guitar).

More recent changes include:

• 12 string mode
• GUI upgrade
• Custom chord builder
• Play Forever (PF) mode
• Improved MIDI connectivity that is beyond my limited understanding.

Much of the MIDI features mean little to me. I’m a simple man and I love using GuitarCapo+ as a composing/learning tool. For example the chord charts continue to teach me chords I’ve never tried before. Who knew there were chords other than barre chords?!

What I do understand though, is awesome. And the official video run-through of GuitarCapo+ 3.0 is awesome. Especially if you like Metallica as much as I do. Watch. You’ll see what I mean.

I’ve watched that a few times in the last few weeks. It continues to blow me away. Before seeing that video I’d already been messing with the app and its slowed down strum speeds to create arpeggios that I could then take to my real-world guitar. I could also apply effects including the 12 string feature in GuitarCapo+ to make the song come to life. 

Something I really like is the new Play Forever mode (it’s the PF button in the app). If you select that button, slow the strum speed down and use the chord buttons the app will play a perfect arpeggio track for you as you select the different chords to change to and from. Very handy little song writing tool.

One thing I’ll point out before closing this article is how easy it is to record with GuitarCapo+. That’s because you can run GuitarCapo+ as an input device in Audiobus. It’s dead easy to do and allows you to apply effects to everything you’re playing before recording to your favourite Digital Audio Workstation (DAW).

There you have it. GuitarCapo+ is better and in my opinion, is the best iOS virtual guitar there is … for free.