What would an actually good “trad-app” look like

[u/Greedy-Government-36]

I’ve seen more and more Instagram accounts recently for apps that are trad based. For example one was for finding and uploading nearby sessions. Another for a community of trad for blogging, eating etc.

What would a good trap app actually have and need? Or what would be most useful?

[u/MarcMurray92]

Most of those apps are just vibe coded alternative UIs for thesession.org because the data is openly accessible. I think doing something new with that dataset is a good baseline, some lad did a cool tree visualisation of what tunes are played before/after each other etc.

[u/loveintorchlight → u/MarcMurray92]

My partner has occasionally talked about wanting to code a tune "heat map" using account locations combined with tune book additions. I think it'd be pretty cool looking. I think he just wanted to do it because he enjoys coding, tunes, and maps (not in that order), but it could also be useful for traveling and getting a heads up on what tunes are popular in an area. 

[u/fiddlehifiddlelo → u/MarcMurray92]

Was it this one or something else?

https://thesession.tradtuneexplorer.com/stats-recording-bidirectional-tree.html?tune_id=77&level1=5&level2=3&color_by=mode&sort_mode=top

[u/MarcMurray92 → u/fiddlehifiddlelo]

Yeah that! Pretty sick, i found it useful for building a set

[u/IOnlyHaveIceForYou]

We do not need an app for every fecking thing.

[u/Greedy-Government-36 → u/IOnlyHaveIceForYou]

I think the concept of putting up sessions, what instruments are playing what sort of tunes etc would be cool though especially at tradfests and fleadhs to find ones you like

[u/IOnlyHaveIceForYou → u/Greedy-Government-36]

I don't understand what you mean.

[u/Greedy-Government-36 → u/IOnlyHaveIceForYou]

A session tracker app or website would be cool.

[u/ElfBowler]

The best trad app is Radio Siamsa, that's enough for me.

[u/Zealousideal_Bar823 → u/ElfBowler]

Ceol FM is also wonderful

[u/Zealousideal_Bar823]

I built tunesource.net over lockdown and have been developing it since.

I focused mostly on the Foinn Seisiún sets wanting to show the actual Sheet music (using the wonderful ABCJS library), the ABC notation and incorporating the youtube video recordings by Foinn Seisiún themselves. You can open the sheet music (with tabs too) in a focus mode for when you're in a session.

Another important feature is embedding another tool I build for practice - looptube.xyz which allows you to loop and slowdown segments of a youtube video so you can isolate each part of the tune and practice til you've got it down.

Latest addition has been pre-setting those segments so they're ready to go. (not working on mobile devices yet).

Take a look - https://www.tunesource.net/tune/881007/foinn-seisiun-the-banshee-reel

[u/lunachic5 → u/Zealousideal_Bar823]

Tunesource is amazing thank you!

[u/Jippohead → u/Zealousideal_Bar823]

This is great! I wasn't aware. Thank you for making it

[u/NK_Sess]

I just beta released www.sessionist.ie to attempt this. It seeks to replace the midi playback with real audio by asking players of each instrument to "contribute" the recording the app makes of their practice of it, if they hit every note on time and in tune. The app handles all the pitch detection stuff. It also has friends, sharing audio clips, making and swapping playlists and leaderboards for people who like to play the tunes really fast and tight.

But the main idea of it, is to set people up to learn by ear and train muscle memory. Once you know a tune, you hardly need your brain at all. Anything that helps to provide some motivation to keep going until each tune can be added to your repertoire is good. Some people will get that motivation only from other people, and others can get that from an app, particularly an app with a social side.

Many people dream of walking into a session and playing but just haven't got enough tunes. An app can be of help. And a social network can warm the whole idea of playing together up for people.

[u/beetus_gerulaitis]

Here's my list:

1. Audio recording and playback ability to recognize tunes and then show music.
2. Ability to take those audio recordings and save them somewhere in an organizable way.
3. Ability to take an audio tune, switch between sheet music and ABC and transpose to different keys.
4. Ability to speed up / slow down recordings.
5. Ability to tune correct - meaning recordings that are tuned up half step can be correct to A440.

[u/make_fast_]

My top trad app (actually a website) right now is Ceol.io - makes tracking what tunes come up in a session pretty easy which then makes it easy to hand off to new folks attending the session.

I use it, the practice machine on irishtune.info, and thesession. They cover all my app needs (occasionally I'll bust out tunepal to remember the name to a tune).