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Apple’s “Your Verse” advertisement campaign is a huge hit. The company keeps churning out new chapters, showing of some of the amazing things the iPad has done for people of all walks of life. This time, Apple launched two Your Verse chapters at once. The first features electropop group Yaoband from China and the second spotlights the founder of Detroit bicycle group Slow Roll.
Your Verse: Striking a New Chord
Yaoband is an experimental electropop group from China that uses a variety of sounds and rhythms to create music you can dance to. The band’s founders Luke Wang and Peter Feng use the iPad and apps like iMaschine, iMPC, and Music Studio. They also use Propellerhead’s Figure to mess around with sounds, as well as MIDI Designer Pro to control their equipment and give them mobility while on stage.
“With iPad, I can take anything around me, record a sample, re-form it, and make it part of my music,” said Wang.
Video of the band shows Wang recording the sound of an erhu, the clacking of pool balls hitting each other, and the horn of a scooter bike. Wang records all manner of sounds and uses the mixing pads of iMaschine to create mini tracks for tunes. When recording music, the band uses the iPad as a remote controller to connect with a MacBook Pro. They use apps like TouchOSC and Logic Remote to access stationary technology from the sound booth without having to be right in front of their machines. When playing live, Wang considers the iPad to be the “lead instrument” of the show. He uses a variety of music apps connected to his deejay station to free himself from behind the booth.
Your Verse: Organizing a Movement
Detroit, MI is arguably the city that has been hardest hit by the U.S.’s long-lasting recession. In 2013, it became the largest city in the U.S. to file for bankruptcy. That can be a heavy weight for its residence to carry around, as it was for Jason Hall.
Hall went on a bike ride around Detroit to clear his head and realized that there was a lot more to the city than abandoned buildings and poor municipal services. “On the ground level, you see the potential that exists,” said Hall. “The city is wide open for new ideas.”
Hall decided that he wanted others to have the same eye-opening revelation that he had and asked friends to join him for a Monday night ride around the city of Detroit. A small group of 10 friends quickly grew to 30, and then 130, and then 300. At this point the even needs a name.
“Slow Roll” now uses the iPad as a sort of command center. Hall uses it for mapping, communicating, ordering merchandise for the group, and more. Slow Roll takes a different route each week and requires a lot of planning and preparation, as well as a means for getting the word out. Hall uses Apple’s stock productivity apps, like Mail and Calendar, to plan ahead. He also uses design apps, like Phoster and Prezi to create flier and presentations to show off what the Slow Roll movement is all about.
You can find photos and videos of both Your Verse chapters at Apple’s website. Check out video footage of Yaoband life, and see what Hall has done to bring hope back to the residents of Detroit.
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