Getting Started

Before you get started, you'll need to install Caxixi on your phone.

Prerequisites
To run Caxixi, you will need the following:
  • A Samsung Omnia (SGH-i900 or SCH-i910) or Omnia II (GT-i8000) phone.
  • Windows 6.1 or 6.5 Professional
Installation
To install Caxixi:
  1. Download the caxixi.wm6.armv4i.CAB or CaxixiO2.1.1.CAB file to your PC.
  2. Transfer the CAB file to your phone. You can do this in several ways:
    1. Copy the CAB file to a memory card in your PC, then move the memory card to your phone and make a copy the file.
    2. connect your phone to your PC with a data cable, and copy the CAB file using ActiveSync.
    3. Download the file directly to your phone using Internet Explorer Mobile or another mobile web browser.
  3. On your phone, open File Explorer and navigate to the location of the CAB file.
  4. Tap the CAB file and follow the prompts from the installer.
The Caxixi installer will also install .NET Compact Framework 3.5 and the Samsung Windows Mobile SDK runtime if they are not already present on your phone.

Starting Caxixi
To start Caxixi on the Omnia, go to Programs > Caxixi and tap the Caxixi icon. On the Omnia II, go to Start > Caxixi and tap the Caxixi icon. When you start Caxixi, you will begin at the Home screen.
The first time you start Caxixi on the Omnia II, you will begin at the Update screen, where you can turn on automatic updates. If you have enabled automatic updates, Caxixi will periodically check if a new version of the software is available.

The Caxixi User Interface

The Caxixi user interface enables you to play an instrument, configure its sounds, and record your playing.

Playing Sounds
To play sounds, shake your phone in any of five directions: top, bottom, left, right, or down.
By default, the Caxixi application is configured to use the "Caxixi" preset. This plays Caxixi sounds when you shake the phone in the top or bottom directions.

Home Screen
The Home screen is the main area you'll see as you play Caxixi. It contains five pads, one for each direction in which you can shake your phone to produce sounds. Each pad contains an icon of the sound mapped to that direction. In addition to shaking your phone, you can also play a sound by tapping each of the pads on the screen.

Navigation Panel
The navigation panel is always at the bottom of the Caxixi screen. It has an icon for each screen in the application: Home, Instrument, Studio, and Settings.
To navigate to other screens, tap the icons in the navigation panel.

Status Bar
The Status Bar is always at the top of the Caxixi screen. It contains icons for the following settings:
  • Help - Tap to get context-sensitive help explaining the items on the current screen.
  • Vibrate - Displays if haptics vibration is enabled/disabled.
  • Play - Displays if a song is currently playing.
  • X - Tap to exit the application.
Instrument Screen
The Instrument screen enables you to assign new sounds to each shake direction, switch between several preconfigured or custom presets, and save your own presets.
The Instrument screen contains the following items:
  • Each of the five pads contains an icon displaying the sound mapped to that shake direction. Tap a pad to open the Sound Selection screen and map a sound to that direction.
  • The Load button loads a preconfigured or previously saved set of sounds.
  • The Save button saves your own custom preset. If you manually change any of the five sounds (as opposed to loading a preset), you can later save the five sounds and mappings by tapping this button.
  • The Random button randomly selects sounds for each shake direction.
Manually Changing Sounds
To change the sounds mapped to each shake direction:
  1. On the Instrument screen, tap one of the five pads, which each correspond to a shake direction. This will open the Sound Selection screen, displaying all possible sounds.
  2. Tap one of the sounds, or tap None to assign no sound to that shake direction. Tap the arrow buttons to scroll through all available sounds.
  3. Tap Close to confirm your change.
Tip: You can shake your phone and play the currently assigned sounds from the Instrument screen without returning to the Home screen first. This makes it faster to change and try several different sound combinations.

Selecting Instrument Presets
A preset is group of up to five different instrument sounds, mapped to the five directions in which you can shake your phone to produce sound. A sound is a single tone, note, or noise produced by an instrument. There are several presets available; you can also create your own from any combination of sounds assigned to different directions.
Note that while a Caxixi preset can contain sounds from one physical instrument (such as a bongos preset with high and low bongo sounds), you can also have a preset that creates a "virtual" instrument with sounds from several different physical instruments. For example, you can create a preset that combines drum and cymbal sounds.

Loading Presets
To change the mapped sounds to those stored in a preset:
  1. On the Instrument screen, tap the Load button.
  2. Tap one of the presets to map that set of sounds to the corresponding shake directions. Tap the arrow buttons to scroll through all available presets.
  3. Tap Close to confirm your change.
Note: When you select a new preset, you will lose any changes you have made on the Instrument screen.

Saving Presets
To save your own presets:
  1. Manually change the sounds on any of the five pads, as described above in "Manually Changing Sounds".
  2. On the Instrument screen, tap the Save button.
  3. Tap one of the preset buttons.
  4. Enter a name for your preset. If you enter the name of an existing preset, it will be overwritten.
  5. Tap Save.
Creating Random Presets
To create a preset with five random sounds, tap the Random button on the Instrument screen.

Studio Screen
The Studio screen enables you to record your playing. You can also arrange a backing loop with five tracks of different sounds, and listen to this loop as you practice, or mix it with your recording to form your own songs. You can save and load your completed songs, or export them to WAV files.
The Studio screen contains the following items:
  • Backing tracks - The five bars at the top of the screen represent the backing tracks that you can arrange and play in a loop. These tracks are composed by tapping the individual notes.
  • Track instrument - The icon to the left of each track displays the selected instrument for that track. If you tap an instrument icon, a context menu appears with three actions:
    • Select a sound for the track.
    • Mute or unmute the track.
    • Clear all notes from the track.
  • Tempo - The number of beats per minute selected for all tracks.
  • Beats The number of beats in a measure. This changes the length of the backing tracks.
  • Metronome - Select this and tap Start to play metronome clicks. Metronome clicks are not added to your final song.
  • Loop - Select this and tap Start to play the backing tracks.
  • Start/Stop - Starts or stops the metronome or backing loop if they are selected.
  • Record - Starts recording a song. If you have already recorded a song, you will be prompted to save it first.
  • Play - Plays the current song.
  • Stop - Stops recording or playing and returns to the start of the song.
  • Save - Saves the current song to your phone, in the form of a .CAX file that can be shared with other users of the Caxixi application.
  • Load - Loads a .CAX file that was saved by Caxixi.
  • Export - Renders the current song to a WAV file, suitable for play on other phones and computers.
Composing Backing Tracks
There are five backing tracks, in which you can compose rhythms to loop with your recorded track, or play as you practice. Backing tracks are composed by filling in boxes that represent the notes in the track. Backing tracks are a fixed length (changeable with the Beats setting), which is repeated as you record your own track.

Note: Backing tracks must be arranged before you record your song. Once you have recorded a song, changes to the backing tracks, their assigned instruments, the tempo, or the beat will not have any effect on playback.

To compose a backing track:
  1. Select a tempo in the Tempo list to set the number of beats per minute in the track.
  2. Select a value from the Beats list to set the number of notes in a measure.
  3. Tap the instrument icon to the left of any of the backing tracks.
  4. Tap a sound.
  5. Tap any of the frames within a track to mark the notes you want to play. You can also tap a selected frame to clear it.
Playing Backing Tracks and the Metronome
You can play backing tracks, metronome clicks, or both, while you practice playing. To play backing tracks/metronome:
  1. Tap Metronome, Loop, or both.
  2. Tap Start.
  3. To stop play, tap Stop.
If you have not recorded a song, you can modify the backing tracks and their instrument selections.

Recording a Song
To record a song:
  1. Select a tempo in the Tempo list to set the number of beats per minute in the track.
  2. Select a value from the Beats list to set the number of notes in a measure.
  3. If you want backing tracks to play behind your own playing, compose the backing tracks as described above, and tap the Loop button.
  4. If you want to listen to a metronome while you play, tap the Metronome button. (The metronome will play, but will not be added to your recording.)
  5. Tap Record.
  6. Tap Stop to end your recording.
Playing a Song
Tap Play to play your song. Tap Stop to stop playback and return to the beginning of your song.

Loading and Saving Songs
When you save a song, it saves the note and instrument changes as simple note data, which is more compact than audio waveforms, but is only usable by the Caxixi application. To save a song:
  1. Record a song, as described above.
  2. Tap Save.
  3. Enter a name for the file.
  4. Tap Save.
Your CAX file is saved in Install Folder > Caxixi > User > Cax, where Install Folder is My Device > Program Files by default.
To load a song:
  1. Tap Load.
  2. Tap the Caxixi file you wish to load.
  3. Tap Done.
Note: when you load a new recording, any changes made to the current recording will be lost.

Exporting Songs
You can also save your song as a WAV file. This renders the note data in your song into an audio waveform file that can then be played in other applications, such as Windows Media Player. You can use this feature to email your song to others that don't have the Caxixi application, and they can play it on their PC or media player. You can also use the WAV file as a ringtone or event notification on your phone. To export your song:
  1. Record a song, as described above.
  2. Tap Export.
  3. Enter a name for the file.
  4. Tap Save.
Your WAV file is saved in Install Folder > Caxixi > User > Wav, where Install Folder is My Device > Program Files by default.
To create a ringtone from your song on your Omnia:
  1. Export your song as described above.
  2. Copy the WAV file to the My Ringtones folder.
  3. In Windows Mobile, go to Settings > Personal > Sounds & Notifications.
  4. Tap the Notifications tab.
  5. Select an event from the Event list, such as Phone: Incoming call.
  6. Select the name of your WAV file in the Ring Tone list.
Settings Screen
The settings screen enables you to change miscellaneous preferences in Caxixi. You can change the following settings:
  • Handedness - When right-handed players play Caxixi, the left shake gesture is more natural to the user than the right shake gesture. By default, instrument presets are configured to favor the right-handed player and use more left shake gestures. Selecting Left-handed will reverse these mappings in the presets, to favor left-handed players.
  • Sensitivity - Calibrates the amount of movement needed to make a sound. This can be adjusted for any range from low to high for top/bottom, left/right, and down gestures.
  • Vibration - Enables haptics force feedback during instrument shakes. Enable this setting to "feel" the instruments as you play them. Disable this to conserve battery life.
  • Auto-trim - When this is enabled, incomplete measures are trimmed from your recording. For example, if your backing track is eight seconds long, and you record ten seconds of playing with auto-trim recording selected, the last two seconds of your playing are discarded. If you recorded the same song with auto-trim recording cleared, it would keep all 10 seconds of playing.
  • Update – Opens the Update screen, which can be used to check for and download updates to Caxixi. (Omnia II only.)