BTS for KATANA-AIR

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This is specifically about the app. When I got the Katana Air I was excited about the sound of the amp. Then I opened the app and thought it looked like it was put together ten years ago. There is a lot in the app but it doesn’t automatically rotate when opened on an iPad making it clumsy to use. What developer would have released something this poor, non-auto rotating app disappeared a decade ago. I naturally though this was a beta version of the app, but that was a year ago. Time to release a new version that: Auto connects to the amp when it is launched and the amp is on and in range; auto rotates with your device so that you can easily navigate the complicated options on one screen; looks like an app created for the second decade of the 21st century; has an auto convert feature that reads all Katana pre-sets, not just ones created for the smaller user base of air users; and finally, the app is rated generously rated at 2.7, your customers are sending a clear message. Is anybody listening?

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I got this amp/app to make it super easy to practice. I practice over backing tracks in the app iReal pro. Everything works for playing with the track wirelessly, but it’s difficult to record. I’d like to be able to record my guitar and backing track on my phone so I can review my playing/improvisation as I practice. I don’t want to hook the amps line out to a computer because it defeats the purpose of a convenient small practice amp. I can’t use apples voice memo app without the Bluetooth backing track stopping playing from the amp and coming out of the phone. It would be nice is the app contained a feature that would allow you to record both the guitar and the backing track for practice purposes. Update: the amp makes a clicking sound kinda like interference but at a lower frequency than normal. Very distracting when I’m trying to practice.

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The amp sounds great but this review is for the app and I find it very confusing to edit the effects. It’s not intuitive at all and that maybe because you can assign 3 effects to one slot and cycle through them. That also makes the amp not the best choice for “live sessions in the living room”. That again is a property of the amp, not the app. I also wish I wouldn’t have connect the app via Bluetooth every time I pick up the guitar. It goes against the feature of “just pick it up and play”. I also have not found a decent manual for the app. There is one but it doesn’t explain how to use the app in a “best practice” matter. It tells you what the buttons are for.

I love my Katana Air and the app is pretty good too, but I’d love to see a couple enhancements to make managing and creating sounds a lot easier. First, I’d like to be able to edit a sound from the library and save that sound directly to a library liveset. Being able to only edit presets on the Katana and juggle them around in the app is time consuming and bothersome. Also, it would be nice to be able to “push” the current state of the panel preset to a library liveset. Again, juggling presets back and forth just to create a new sound and keep the current Katana liveset is irksome.

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It’s just clumsy. These days an app by a company like Roland, for a wireless battery operated Bluetooth blah, blah, yada, yada, amp should be much more intuitive and dependable. It’s fine. Don’t get me wrong. Controls the amp, great way to store new amp presets and download others but comes up short in a few ways. Biggest complaint, you have to connect to the amp through a series of clumsy and redundant drop down menus every time you want to use the app. That means if you’re having fun playing, you have to stop having fun and get connected. You have to do that for the guitar, but if you are using the katana as a speaker, it will automatically connect to the phone it’s paired with. It also loses connection sometimes. I think these issues should be resolved through an update by now. The app is cool, a great idea, but if the app worked dependably, it could be so amazing. It kills inspiration to wait for a Bluetooth connection you’re making for the 50th time, and you just want to play guitar. Where are the updates to this app? Get it sorted please!