How to use IsoBox

Short guides to each part of the app. Every screen in the app also has a ? button with help.

Getting your music in

Open Files ▸ On My iPhone ▸ IsoBox and copy your Artist folders in. AirDrop, iCloud Drive or a USB drive all work. On a Mac, connect the phone and drag folders onto it in Finder.
Or use the Import menu in the Library tab: pick files, or import songs by Artist or Album from your Music library (the album cover comes across too).
To share songs with another phone running IsoBox, use Settings ▸ Send/Receive Music on both.

IsoBox only reads songs you own. Songs that are streaming-only in the Music app can’t be imported.

Browse Artists, then Albums, then Songs. Search finds songs by title, album or artist. Swipe left on a song to delete it from IsoBox’s own folder (songs in another folder or disk are never deleted).
Tap a song to open Now Playing: album art, scrubber and controls. Playback carries on in the background and from the lock screen.
The Lyrics button opens the practice page, where most of the tools live.

Speed slows a song down or speeds it up without changing the pitch, and transposes it in semitones and cents.
Loop A and Loop B mark a section; Loop On repeats it. Loop points are remembered per song.
Practice saves loop, speed and key as presets, and the speed trainer raises the speed a little on every pass until you reach your target.

Speed and key apply only to the song you set them on.

On the Lyrics page tap Parts (or ••• ▸ Remove Vocals…). The song is split on your phone into drums, bass, vocals, guitar, piano and other. It takes several minutes and the screen must stay on.
When it finishes you see the part sliders. Turn one to 0% to sing or play it yourself. The Backing track and options dropdown holds the rest.
Original / Backing on the Lyrics page switches between the full song and your mix of parts.

Vocals are rarely removed perfectly, so you may hear faint traces.

Open the lyrics editor and paste lyrics, scan a printed sheet with the camera, or import a .lrc or .txt file. Tidy Text cleans up pasted lyrics.
Press Start Tapping, play the song and tap each line as it is sung. Leave part-way and IsoBox offers to carry on later.
Auto-Time lines the lyrics up with the song for you, using the isolated vocals when the song has been split. It runs on your phone.
Hide timings lets you edit just the words; Delete Lyrics removes them after asking. Closing with unsaved changes asks whether to save.

Open ••• ▸ Detect Chords by Listening and tap Find Chords Automatically. It takes about half a minute.
Optionally type the chords you know the song uses, tick Also find the bass notes, and choose how short a chord can be before it is dropped.
Chords appear over the lyrics, and as one scrolling line you can drag. The chord that is sounding is highlighted.
Edit Detected Chords lists every chord with its time: change one, nudge it, delete it, or play from it.

Detected chords are a good guess, not a certainty. Check them by ear.

Tap the microphone button on the Lyrics page, choose where to start, press Record and sing or play. A count-in plays first.
Use headphones so the song is not picked up by the microphone. Speed must be 100% while recording.
Your recording becomes another part, so you can balance it with the others.

Mix as Audio saves the song as you hear it now (parts at their volumes, plus your recording). Parts (Stems) saves each part as its own file, in a zip if you like.
Lyrics & Chords makes a sheet you can print or share; Timed Lyrics (.lrc) saves synced lyrics for other players.
Choose AAC (small) or Apple Lossless / WAV (larger).

Settings ▸ Backup & Restore saves your songs, playlists, lyrics, chords, parts, recordings and settings into one .isobackup file you keep, for example in iCloud Drive.
To restore, choose the file; the app restarts and puts everything back. Backups are never sent anywhere unless you share them.

Make a backup before reinstalling the app or moving to a new phone.