RiffDex Help

Getting started

The first time you open RiffDex, a short setup asks which instrument you play and which tunings you use. You can add a few songs you already know straight away, or skip that and add them later. Everything you set up can be changed in Settings.

RiffDex has four tabs:

• Play picks up where you left off, suggests something to play, and shows more songs in the tuning you’re already in, including songs that work with a capo. At the end are a few ideas: songs in your tuning that you haven’t added yet.
• My riffs is your whole repertoire, grouped by tuning and searchable.
• Tabs is where you write your own tab and hear it played.
• Settings has your instruments, tunings, language and backups.

The tuning-fork button at the top opens the tuner from anywhere.

Your songs

Add a song

Tap +, type the title and choose the instrument, number of strings, tuning and capo. With Song suggestions on, RiffDex looks the title up in Apple’s music catalogue and offers matches that fill in the artist. Tap Add & next to add several songs in a row.

Add the details when you need them

Open a song to break it into sections (intro, verse, solo and so on), set a target tempo, rate how well you know each part, and keep notes and a learning link. Use a custom tuning by choosing Custom and entering your string notes, and save it in Settings to reuse it.

Listen, tabs and lessons

Paste a link to the song itself, from Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, SoundCloud or anywhere else, and it opens in that app. You can also save links to tabs, a tutorial and a backing track. With no link saved, RiffDex searches for them for the song’s own instrument, so a banjo song finds banjo tabs and lessons, and a ukulele song finds chord sheets and play-alongs.

Versions of a song

Play a song more than one way? Save another version, for example acoustic with a capo, and each version keeps its own tuning, progress and links.

Quick changes

In My riffs, press and hold a song, or tap its ⋯ button, to change its progress, tuning or capo, make it a favourite, edit it or delete it.

Deleted a song by mistake?

A deleted song waits in Recently deleted in My riffs for 30 days. Tap Restore to put it back where it was, with its sections, notes and tab.

Tabs

Write a tab

On the Tabs tab, tap Make a tab, or open a song and tap Make a tab under Tab. Put notes in by typing a fret or tapping the neck, and add techniques such as hammer-ons, pull-offs, slides, bends and vibrato. Each note sounds as it goes in, and tapping a note plays it again.

Hear it

Tap ▶ to play the tab at its tempo, with each note lighting up as it sounds. View tab shows the finished tab, with Play and auto-scroll. In the tab maker, More › Note sounds turns the note sounds off, and More › Sound chooses an acoustic or electric sound for guitar and bass.

Open a tab file

Open a song, then under Tab tap Open a file and choose a Guitar Pro file (Guitar Pro 3 to 8) or a MusicXML file. RiffDex reads it on your device, asks which part you want when there are several, and shows what it read before you view it. You can then edit it in the tab maker.

RiffDex keeps one tab on your device: making or opening another replaces it. Your tab isn’t included in backups.

Tunings

Tap a tuning to see it in full: the tuning on a song’s page, the ⓘ beside a tuning in My riffs (grouped by tuning), or Change › About this tuning on Play. It shows each string’s note, which strings to retune from the tuning you’re in and by how much, your songs in that tuning, and example songs played in it, each with its source. For a custom tuning, type the notes with octave numbers (for example D2 A2 D3 G3 A3 D4) to see how to retune each string. Where a change needs different strings, such as a ukulele’s high G to low G, it says so instead. Tap Add to put an example in your repertoire with its tuning, capo and source filled in; tap its arrow to open the source on the original website.

Play suggests a few of these examples in your tuning, starting with artists you already play. Tap × on one you don’t want and it won’t be suggested again.

Practice and metronome

Start practising from a song, either the whole song or one section. The session timer runs while you play, and the metronome is built in: set the tempo and time signature and tap to start or stop it.

When you finish, tap End & save. A quick review asks how it felt and what to work on next time, and RiffDex shows that note when you come back to the song. Your practice history is kept with each song.

Turn on Keep screen awake in Settings so the display stays on during a session.

Tuner

The tuner covers 6, 7 and 8-string guitar, baritone guitar, 4, 5 and 6-string bass, 4, 5 and 6-string banjo, ukulele and mandolin. Tap the tuning at the top to change instrument and tuning.

• Auto follows whichever string you play in the chosen tuning, and lights it up.
• Tap a peg to tune just that string. Tap it again to go back to Auto.
• Chromatic shows the nearest note, whatever you play.
• Tap Display to choose the needle or the strobe, and the peg layout that matches your instrument, for example 3 + 3 or 6-in-line.

The needle shows how far off you are in cents. Tune until it sits in the centre and the note lights up, then let the string ring.

The strobe shows the same reading as moving bands: they drift left when you’re flat and right when you’re sharp, slow down as you get close, and stop when you’re spot on. It makes the last cent or two easy to see. With Reduce Motion turned on, the bands stay still and arrows show which way they would drift.

The tuner works offline. It listens only while it’s running and never records or uploads sound.

Tips for a clean reading

• Remove your capo, pluck one string and mute the others.
• Move a little closer to your phone or iPad for quiet notes.
• For bass, use a clean tone and let the string ring. An unplugged electric bass may be too quiet for the microphone.
• On mandolin, each peg tunes a pair of strings. Pluck one string at a time.

Settings

• Language: English, Spanish or French.
• Instrument profiles: each instrument you play, with its strings and usual tuning.
• Saved tunings: your own custom tunings, ready to reuse.
• Keep screen awake, Haptics and Confirm song deletion.
• Song suggestions: turn the Apple catalogue lookup on or off. When it’s off, nothing is sent and you type songs in yourself.
• Your data: export, import and reset.
• Open-source software: the licence and source code of alphaTab, which RiffDex uses to read tab files.

RiffDex works in portrait and landscape on iPad, with the same library and tools as on iPhone.

Backups and moving to a new device

Your repertoire is saved on your device, not in an online account, so keep a backup.

1. Go to Settings › Your data › Export backup and save the file somewhere safe, such as Files, iCloud Drive or email to yourself.
2. On the new device, install RiffDex and choose Import backup, then pick the file.

Importing replaces the library on that device rather than merging, so export first if it already has songs you want to keep. Backup files are not encrypted; only share them with people you trust.

A backup holds your library, notes, practice history and settings. It doesn’t include your tab or the songs in Recently deleted.

Reset RiffDex permanently deletes your library, settings, tab and Recently deleted songs from the app. Export a backup first.

Troubleshooting

Contact and bug reports

Questions, ideas or a problem? Email

ashtonnik@me.com

To report a bug, use Settings › Share a bug report. It fills in your RiffDex and system versions for you and never attaches your songs or notes. Tell us what happened, what you expected, and the steps to make it happen again.

Read how RiffDex handles your information in the Privacy Policy.