User Guide / Chop School

Chop School

Chop School is a set of hands-on lessons inside the app. A pointing hand shows you exactly where to tap, and each step moves on as soon as you do it.

Starting Chop School

Open the Chop menu and tap Chop School.
Chop School always starts on a fresh, empty project. If you have unsaved changes, choose SAVE, DISCARD or CANCEL.
Tap START on a module.

Your progress is saved. Come back later and tap RESUME to pick up at the next unfinished lesson, or REPLAY to go again. RESET clears a module's progress and badge.

BEGINNER: Make your first beat

Animation coming

A Chop School step in progress: the pointing hand and pulsing beacon on a pad, the caption in the top pill, and the BACK / SKIP / EXIT pills.

chop-school-step.mp4

Lesson 1: Load Your Kit

Load three free drum synths onto pads 1 to 3: Kick-E-Mart (kick), Snare Trap (snare) and Mad Hatter (hi-hat), and play each one.

Lesson 2: Record a Beat

Set the tempo, turn on the metronome, practice along with the click, then arm REC, press START and record your drums.

Lesson 3: Add a Synth

Load ChopSynth on pad 4, choose a preset, and overdub a melody with OVDUB. Then load ChopSynth again on bank B, pick a bass preset and overdub a bassline.

Finish the module to earn the BEGINNER badge.

Coming soon

INTERMEDIATE: chop samples, edit and arrange.
ADVANCED: resampling, effects and the mix.

How lessons work

A hand and a pulsing circle point at what to tap. The instructions show at the top of the screen.
Most steps move on by themselves when you do the action. Some show a NEXT ▸ button.
Everything except the target is dimmed on most steps.
Corner buttons: ◂ BACK (previous step), SKIP (skip this step), EXIT (leave the lesson).

Quick Tour

The Quick Tour is a shorter guided walk through the basics. Start it from Settings > TUTORIAL > QUICK TOUR > START.

It shows you how to:

Load a synth on a pad.
Resize the pads with the drag handle.
Flip through the PAD tab's pages and open the piano roll.
Use KEYBOARD pad mode.
Change the tempo by dragging and long-pressing the BPM, and use undo.
Find the project folders and colors in Settings.
Open the metronome settings and change the click volume.

Tips

Use headphones during lessons so the metronome is clear.
After the Beginner module, save your beat from Chop School as your first project.