Tin Pan and Tin Pan Rhythm

Tin Pan was an iOS music-making project by game developer Gil Carmel. Its released app, Tin Pan Rhythm, was a "song prototyping" tool built around chord progressions and acoustic instruments.

From GDC Next demo to App Store

Date	What happened
Nov 2014	Tin Pan is demoed in the MIX Showcase at GDC Next. Pocket Gamer describes it as an upcoming iOS app sitting between toy-like music games and professional workstations, and reports a planned launch on iPhone and iPad in March 2015.¹
18–19 May 2015	Tin Pan Rhythm is out on the App Store for $2.99, covered by The Gadgeteer and Synthtopia.^2,3

How it worked

According to the coverage, you built a chord progression first and then "arranged the band" in real time, switching between piano, guitar and percussion styles by dragging and dropping chords.^2,3 The GDC Next demo used sliders, switches, drag-and-drop notes and interactive chords, and the developer planned a 30 to 40 minute "guided jamming" introduction that unlocked the interface step by step.¹

Finished loops could be recorded and shared, exported as MP3 or sent to SoundCloud, and the app worked with Audiobus, Inter-App Audio, Dropbox, AudioCopy and AudioShare.^2,3 Synthtopia quotes Carmel saying he aimed it at the "musical middle class": people who love music but maybe only strum a guitar now and then.³

Where it was mentioned

Besides the news coverage, the Musical U podcast listed the Tin Pan Rhythm app among the resources for its episode with piano teacher Leila Viss, next to a primer on the I, IV, V and vi chords.⁴ That pairing explains the app's idea well: most popular songs can be sketched from a handful of chords. Our chord basics page covers that ground.

Why "Tin Pan"?

Pocket Gamer read the name as evoking both a child banging on pots and pans and New York's Tin Pan Alley songwriting district.¹ The history of that district is on its own page.

Sources