You can play a pair of virtual maracas directly in the browser. They’re actualy detailed 3D models that you can zoom in on, and rotate around. Real recordings of two big maracas is used for each shake; no synthesizer here. Hit ’em with your computer keyboard, mouse, or even touch if you have a tablet or phone. No need to install or download anything.
You won’t find a start button. The first time you shake the maracas, they will play. When you’ve got your sound, a note appears under the instrument which says: Recorded instrument sound. If you want to view the sound credits and a quick guide, click on the question mark in the upper right-hand side of the screen.
How to Use the Virtual Maracas
All of the controls sits directly beneath the maracas. There are two separate shakers. The pads under the model is labeled Left and Right. Alternatively, you can just click either maraca on the 3D model to play it. When you do, the maraca will light up and wobble as it produces sound.
There is a different set of recorded shakes for each side. Multiple hits repeat through a few takes, so it doesn’t sound like the same shake repeated again and again at high speed. A is the Left maraca and W is the Right. You can see them on the keyboard.
There’s also a line of buttons below that each have a letter on them; this is the play together row. That has another button called Together. You click this and shake both maracas together. To do this, you then press the 1 key.
They’re sitting in a frame all by themselves on the page. Before you begin playing around with the keyboard, click into the widget first. Under the word PLAYING, you see a bar showing your last choice. On the left side of this bar is Left. Pressing the Space bar (or clicking the Play button) causes that choice to be shaken again. To stop everything, click the ■ Stop button or press the Esc key.
Also on this bar is an Expression slider, which ranges from 10 to 100. It begins at 70. The slider determines the strength of each shake.
Keep shaking button: For a solid groove. When this switch is turned on, the maraca of your choice will shake evenly by itself so that you can play along, or just listen. As long as this is on, tapping Left, Right, or Together once will change which one is shaking. Holding Space also keeps the selection shaking while it’s held down.
The Repeat speed slider goes from 1-12. By default, it’s set to 5. The higher the number, the faster it shakes.
The sound is shaped by three presets. By default it is set on natural. Soft takes out some of the brightness from the shakers and adds a touch more room. And resonant puts them in quite a large room. Each preset moves the Room slider that goes up to 50. It begins at 12. You can then change that slider as needed.
The volume slider is located in the bottom right-hand side. That begins at 80.
Three very short rhythms to practise are in the PLAY A LITTLE section of the menu. They are called: Steady hands, Cross rhythm and Little celebration. Click ▶ Listen to have one played back to you. You can adjust the tempo using the Tempo slider from 40 to 180 to speed it up or slow it down.
Next click ◇ Game mode to try playing it yourself. A guide appears that says play the green note. As you go along, the pad you should be playing turns green and the corresponding maraca lights up on the 3D model. Boxes marked PLAY NOW and NEXT show what is coming, along with the keyboard letter for each. They also indicate the keyboard letter representing the note. There’s a counter showing how well you’re doing.
As soon as you play the correct maraca game, the mode keeps going. At the end it says Complete. From here you can choose to pick out another pattern or play freely. To leave the mode just click Game mode again.
The ● Record button will capture what you’ve been playing directly from the instrument. No microphone required. When it says ■ Finish take, click the button again. Your recording will appear as a Save take link that you can use to download it.
↻ Rotate 3D: Click to rotate the virtual maracas and view their turned wooden grips. Zoom in and out by pinching or scrolling. You can still play with the maracas as you look around. To return to the starting view, use the ⌂ button. Turning Rotate 3D off does the same thing.
For beginners with the maracas, begin with A/W alternately at an even pace and slow speed. Then move onto Steady hands in Game mode at a slower speed. Once this is manageable, turn on Keep shaking and tap Left/Right to alter the groove.
