Two big ones this time: BackingBand now speaks Simplified Chinese, and it finally feels at home on iPad. Made for iPad • Play in portrait or landscape, or next to other apps in Split View and Stage Manager • Chord charts grow with the screen, big enough to read from the music stand • Settings, Library and Song settings sit in a clean centered column instead of stretching edge to edge • Rotate or resize while the band plays: the chart keeps the bar you're on in view Simplified Chinese • The whole app is now available in Simplified Chinese • Pick your language in Settings: System, English or 简体中文 • Chord symbols, style names and section names keep the familiar English notation

This is the big one. Everything since 2.6.17 lands at once: a play screen built for playing, a band whose whole style you can swap mid-song, and charts that finally sound right in all 12 keys. Swap the band's style, mid-song • Tap the style on the play screen and pick another one — Swing to Bossa Nova, Slow Blues to Neo Soul • You hear the new band the moment you tap it, even while it's playing. Keep it, or cancel and land exactly where you were • 37 styles across jazz, blues, rock, pop, funk, soul, latin and reggae A play screen you can drive with one hand • New bottom toolbar — library, display settings, play, mixer, one tap each • Tempo and key sit behind the pill that shows them: see the value, change it in the same place • Chart display options open right over the chart and redraw it live — jazz symbols, colour or mono, bars per row, degree labels • "+ New" starts a chart from the play screen or the library, and asks before it drops unsaved work Every key sounds like it should • Power chords ring all three voices in every key, instead of thinning out to two • Bass and guitar hold their register through a transpose rather than dropping notes off the bottom • Drum grooves keep their feel when you change key • Slash chords keep their bass note through a key change More room to work • The free library now holds 5 charts, up from 1 Plus solid sheets, aligned controls, and a round of polish across the app. BackingBand is free to play — every chart, every style, unlimited. Pro is a one-time unlock for all 12 keys, the full chord palette, unlimited saves and every time signature. Thanks for playing along — got a request? We're listening.

Jazz now plays a real acoustic upright bass Every jazz style, not just some. Walking lines finally sit where they belong. The bass follows split-chord bars When one bar holds two chords, the bass now plays the chord actually sounding under each note instead of staying on the first one. Most audible in blues and jazz walking lines. Chord symbols read correctly Diminished triads now voice as diminished 7ths, and 9sus4 reads as a suspended dominant. Comping instruments stay in their register The arrangement no longer lifts a comping part out of the range it should play in. Jazz demos rebuilt from real lead sheets Naima is now the Ab AABA version, and a few demo charts were replaced.

Backing Buddy is now BackingBand — new name, and the biggest update yet. Bring your own songs • Import from iReal Pro — paste an irealb:// link and the chart is yours, playlists included • Every iReal jazz feel keeps its feel: swing, even 8ths, ballad, second line, Afro 12/8 A bigger, better band • Eleven jazz standards join the library, plus ten new styles — 36 in all • A real swing kit, a warmer upright bass, a Brass Section, and real guitar samples in place of the old synth tone • Swap any instrument's voice from the mixer, with reverb saved per song Charts that read like a lead sheet • iReal-style chord typography, and bars that hold more than one chord • Your call on jazz chord symbols, chord colour, and bars per row Fixed • The style you pick is the style you get — Soul Jazz used to generate Swing • Jumping to a bar no longer swallows the note on the downbeat • Smoother faders, cleaner voicings, and a long list of tone and timing fixes across every genre Thanks for playing along — got a request? We're listening.

This is our biggest sound update yet. We rebuilt the audio engine from the ground up and gave every style a real arrangement — so your backing band feels less like a loop and more like players in the room. A band that sounds real • Rebuilt audio engine — tighter timing, cleaner mix, and lower latency so the band responds the moment you hit play. • Smarter feel — grooves sit in the pocket, velocities breathe, and endings actually land on the ONE instead of drifting off. • Better voicings and comping across jazz, blues, funk, and Latin — closer to how a real player would lay it down. Every style got a real arrangement • Intros that set it up, choruses that build, and outros that finish the song — not just a chord loop on repeat. • New and reworked styles including smooth blues, boogie-rock, neo-soul, bossa nova, samba, and Latin jazz. • Fresh demo songs to explore each style, from "Neon Sunday" to "Copacabana Dusk" and "Havana Highball." Play and follow along • A segmented per-beat playhead so you can see exactly where you are, beat by beat. • The Library remembers your genre filter between visits. • Cleaner song info on the lock screen and now-playing controls. Plus a round of fixes to chart editing and playback. Thanks for playing — we can't wait to hear what you make.

This update is all about control and tone — you can now shape the whole band, and it sounds a lot more like a real one. Mix your band • Add or remove any instrument, per song — build the exact lineup you want • Mute instruments section by section — drop the piano in the verse, bring it back for the solo • Adjust per-instrument volume live, while it plays — no stopping A fuller, more real rhythm section • Hammond organ joins soul & blues as a reverb-soaked fifth voice • Warmer upright/acoustic bass for jazz • Rhodes electric piano as a comping option • Genre-matched guitar tones, plus new organ & Rhodes comping patterns Cleaner and faster to drive • "Song settings" puts Tempo, Key & Mixer one tap away • Filter the curated library by genre with swipe chips — Jazz, Blues, Pop, Rock, Funk, Soul/R&B, Reggae, Latin • Lead-sheet markers show which sections you've customized Plus blues feel fixes and a round of polish across the app. Thanks for playing along — got a request? We're listening.

This release makes the band sound more like a real band. • The band starts and ends together — proper intros, fills between sections, and real endings instead of abrupt cut-offs. • Grooves that breathe — the rhythm section pulls back in the verses and lifts into the choruses, and the comping answers in the gaps instead of running the same bar. • Refined genre feels — a more authentic Brazilian samba (no more Cuban detour at the peak) and a lusher, 9th-colored neo-soul Rhodes. • A refreshed song library to jam over. • Stability and polish throughout. Thanks for playing along — keep the feedback coming.

- Chart Editor — edit chords, bars, and sections right on the lead sheet - Count-In — visual + audible count before playback - A-B Loop — loop any section for focused practice - Quick Tempo & Key — adjust without leaving the play screen - Better Sound — upgraded drums, bass, piano & guitar with humanized feel - More Charts — new Blues, Pop, K-Pop, J-Pop built-ins - Light & Dark Mode