What Feelism does
Your sound goes in, the band answers, and the mix comes back in your headphones. Add tunes from Forum.
Feelism is more than an app that plays a backing track. It listens to you. The piano, bass, and drums inside it play back and forth with you. This page explains that idea first. The connection steps are in Connect your PC and audio interface.
What you get at the start is mostly practice forms, such as blues. That is not the whole library. Import a pack from Forum and more tunes show up in Find a tune. You can also bring in a chart file from your computer (Your own charts).
How Feelism works
- When your sound reaches Feelism, the band responds
- Your sound and the band are mixed, and that mix comes back to your headphones
- Use ASIO for the input, so the delay stays small. Direct Monitor on the interface, by itself, does not feed Feelism
When your sound comes in, the band responds
Feelism responds only when your sound reaches the app. On the screen this is In.
The path is:
- You play
- The sound goes through a mic or a cable into the input of an audio interface (the gear that takes an instrument into the computer and sends sound out to headphones)
- From there it reaches the computer, and Feelism hears it
- Piano, bass, and drums change their backing and their fills to match how you play
Near the top right of the screen, short bars and numbers read In · Return · Out. If In moves, your sound has reached Feelism. If it stays still, the band cannot hear you.
Your sound and the band come back together in the headphones
Inside Feelism, your sound is mixed with the band. That mix returns to the headphones. On the screen this is Self-mix. It starts on.
Two things come back:
- Your sound … the live sound from the mic or the line. Feelism does not add a sample of your instrument on top
- The band … piano, bass, and drums inside Feelism
Plug the headphones into the audio interface’s output, not into the jack on the computer. The returning sound makes one trip through the computer, so it is a little late. If that delay bothers you, see Self-mix and delay.
Use ASIO for the input
When you send sound into the computer, pick the path with less delay. Open Devices in Settings (top right) and set Driver to ASIO. Picking an output whose name ends with ASIO does the same thing. ASIO is the low-delay path that comes with the interface. It stays much tighter than the shared speaker setting on the computer.
Hearing warning (important) — Switching the driver or the output can make a sudden very loud sound. Take the headphones off first, or lower Gain. See the top of Connect your PC and audio interface.
The audio interface may have a switch labeled Direct Monitor, Monitor, or Mix. That switch sends the incoming sound straight to the headphones inside the interface. It never goes through the computer, so the delay is almost nothing. Direct Monitor by itself is not an input to Feelism. The input is the same sound reaching Feelism through ASIO. If the cable is plugged in, the sound still reaches Feelism even while the interface is also returning it. The band responds when In is moving.
Hearing yourself at once, and giving Feelism something to listen to, are two different jobs.
- ASIO … the sound reaches Feelism on the computer. That is the input
- Direct Monitor … the interface returns the sound to the headphones by itself. That path is not the input
You can use Direct Monitor when you want to hear yourself with almost no delay. The band still needs the same sound to reach Feelism through ASIO. A closer comparison is in Self-mix and delay. If both are on, and Self-mix is on too, you hear yourself twice, with two different delays (You hear yourself twice).
Next
Once the idea is clear, check install and playback in Your first session. When you connect an instrument, go on to Connect your PC and audio interface.