Tutorial
Manage Voices
With version 4, a new way of managing voices has been introduced — more flexible and powerful.
Let’s explain how it works.
For this tutorial we are using the Android version of the app, which is almost identical to the iOS version and can therefore be useful for Apple users as well.
Go to the voice management page by tapping the icon showing a person speaking, located at the bottom of the home screen.
Once on this page, you will find several areas.
The one at the top has 4 icons: one to import voices, one to export them, one to edit them (rename or delete), and one to close the window.
Just below, there is a row with various icons (8 to be precise) representing the different parts of the Rosary: Introduction, 1st Mystery, 2nd Mystery, and so on.
Below this row there is a menu with the various mysteries of the Rosary. In fact, you can choose different combinations of voices for each mystery of the Rosary.
Further down there is a list of voices, which includes the default ones, the Witnesses voices you have downloaded, and the ones you have created yourself.
Finally, at the bottom there is a menu containing all the «complete» voices (i.e., those with all parts recorded), which can be selected as the fallback voice to be used in case the chosen voice is missing any part.
Let’s now see how to assign the various voices to the mystery of the Rosary you wish to pray.
First, you need to select the mystery you want to configure from the menu just below the row showing the Rosary parts. Let’s choose the Joyful Mysteries.
Then tap on the part to which you want to assign a particular voice — the 1st Mystery, for example. It will start blinking. At this point, tap on the voice in the list below that you wish to apply to that part. As you can see, Chiara Lubich’s image has appeared next to the 1st Joyful Mystery.
Repeat the same process for all the parts you wish to change. As you can see, each mystery is independent and you can configure the various mysteries with different combinations of voices. 2nd Mystery — Benedict XVI, then moving on to the Luminous Mysteries: 1st Mystery — John Paul II, and so on.
If you wish to recite the entire mystery — all 8 parts — using a single voice, there is a shortcut. Double-tapping on any of the Rosary part icons will cause all parts to start blinking, and tapping on a voice in the list will apply it to the entire mystery. Let’s try it with the Sorrowful Mysteries — you can see they are all blinking — and we apply Chiara Lubich.
You can then proceed in the same way to configure the other mysteries, selecting them from the dedicated menu and assigning the desired voices to the various parts of the Rosary, as explained above.
You can also choose the default fallback voice, which will be used in case the voice selected for a mystery is missing some parts. Tapping the menu at the bottom shows only the «complete» voices — those that have all parts recorded (since they need to substitute any missing parts, they must have all of them) — and you can choose which one you want as the replacement voice when a part is missing.
Happy praying.
Create new voice
In this tutorial we will show how to record a new voice using the new Rosarium Pro Wizard. This tutorial was made using an Android smartphone, but it can also be useful for those with an iOS smartphone or iPad (Apple), as the workflow is very similar.
First of all, you need to access the Wizard page by tapping the button on the home screen with the double red circle.
Once inside the wizard, you have two options: create a new voice or edit an existing one. To create a new voice, simply type the name you want and proceed by tapping the «Start creating a voice» button. To edit a voice, open the menu, choose the voice you want to modify, and then tap the «Edit voice» button.
Let’s go ahead and create a new voice. We enter the name we want and tap the «Start creating a new voice» button.
By doing so, we will enter the recording section where we can record the various parts of the Rosary.
As you can see, this section displays the voice name at the top, followed by the part of the Rosary to be recorded, the REC button to start recording, the Play button to listen back to the recording before saving it and check whether it meets our expectations, and finally the two buttons «Delete» and «Save», which allow us to delete an already saved file or save the current recording.
Below are the navigation arrows to move forward to another part of the Rosary to record, or backward. For faster navigation, there is also the option to use the menu located between the two arrows, which allows you to jump directly to the part you are interested in without going through the previous ones. You can also navigate from one part to another simply by swiping.
Before showing how to make recordings, it is worth noting that the app is smart and will automatically trim the recording with the correct silence lengths and optimize the volume. Therefore, after pressing the REC button, it is recommended to wait a few seconds before starting to speak. The same applies at the end — before pressing the Stop button (which appears after pressing REC), it is advisable to wait a few seconds. It goes without saying that the quieter the environment, the better the recording and audio optimization will be.
Let’s now record a part of the Rosary. Here we have the first part of the Our Father. Tap Record, wait 2–3 seconds, and start speaking. Once finished, wait 2–3 seconds and tap Stop.
As you can see on the button below — the one used to replay the recording just made — a processing phase begins, the duration of which depends on the length of the recorded passage. Once optimization is complete, you can tap the button below the REC button to listen to the recording just made. If you are not satisfied, you can make a new recording by following the steps shown above. If you are satisfied, you need to save it by tapping the Save button — at this point, a green bookmark will appear in the upper left corner, indicating that this part has been saved (be careful not to forget to save the track). You will notice that the bookmark contains a button with a PLAY symbol. Tapping this button allows you to listen to the saved track.
If after saving the track you decide to delete it, you can do so by tapping the «Delete» button.
This is the simple process required to record a part of the Rosary. Of course, the same steps must be followed for all other parts as well.
To navigate to the next part, you can tap the right arrow (as mentioned, swiping also works). To go back to the previous part, tap the left arrow (swiping works here too). To quickly jump to a part that is not immediately next to your current position, you can use the menu located between the arrows. It contains all the parts of the Rosary, allowing you to move quickly from one part to another.
Finally, let’s talk about the image associated with the voice. Voices can now have an image, which will then be displayed in the voice manager, making it more intuitive to use. To associate an image, go to the last part of the Rosary.
From the quick menu, go to the last section of the voice, which allows you to set an image.
To load a new image, tap «Load Image» and the Photos app will open showing your saved images. If your images are saved elsewhere — for Android, in Google Drive for example — simply tap the three dots in the upper right corner and from there you can navigate to wherever you need.
Once the image is loaded, you can use the crop button to adjust and optimize it. When satisfied, tap «Save image» — it will then appear in the avatar at the top left. From this moment, the image is associated with the voice and will also appear in the voice manager. Let’s go and check.
If you want to delete it, simply tap the «Delete» button.
As you can see, creating new voices is very simple — in just about 15 minutes, you can have a complete Rosary recorded in your own voice, or in the voice of a loved one or friend.
Happy praying.
How to Manage Background Music
In this tutorial we will see how to manage the background audio that can accompany the recitation of the Rosary. This tutorial was made on an Android device, which has a slightly different interface compared to an iOS device (iPhone or iPad — Apple), but the logic is very similar and we are confident it will be helpful for iOS users as well.
First of all, compared to the previous version, the background audio on/off toggle has been moved directly to the Home screen, onto the button with the musical wave icon, located in the top row of buttons, in the centre (where the count of Hail Marys being prayed used to appear). Tapping this button allows you to enable or disable the background audio. Let’s try it… audio enabled, tap again — audio disabled.
The audio management, on the other hand, has a dedicated screen that can be reached from the Settings screen on Android by tapping the «Manage background audio» button, while on iOS (Apple) by tapping the icon representing a list (three horizontal lines) placed next to the name of the selected track. Tapping this button takes you to the screen where you can manage the audio.
Let’s go through the various parts of this screen. At the top there is a row with 4 icons. The first allows you to exit this screen and return to the settings screen (let’s do that…), the second icon allows you to import new audio tracks, the third icon toggles between «playlist» mode and «single track loop» mode, and the last one switches to «edit» mode, allowing you to rename or delete tracks.
Below this first row of icons there is a menu with the various mysteries (let’s take a look…), which allows you to select the mystery you want to configure with different tracks. In fact, each mystery can have a different playlist of musical tracks — but we will see in practice what this means. This is a very powerful feature that allows you to vary the background music across the different mysteries, so you can have music that helps you pray the Sorrowful Mysteries more deeply, and music better suited to the Glorious Mysteries, and so on.
Below that is the list of available musical tracks, which — as we will see — can be enabled or disabled, renamed, have their volume adjusted, reordered (changing the listening order), or deleted.
But let’s move on to a practical example.
If you want to import a musical track, simply tap the second icon at the top (for Apple users, the first one), and it opens — in my case, my Google Drive, but you can also navigate to wherever audio files are stored on your device. I am in the music folder and I select the tracks I want to import. I select the tracks I want to import… and then press the «Select» button. By doing so, I import them directly into the Rosarium Pro app, as you can see.
Now let’s look at how to configure the background music listening experience.
First, you need to select the Rosary mystery you want to configure (as mentioned, each mystery of the Rosary can now have a different configuration). Let’s select the Joyful Mysteries.
You can then enable or disable a track — if disabled, it will be skipped. Let’s try… You can also adjust the volume, as some tracks may need to be set lower so as not to distract during prayer. Let’s try… The last icon, with the handle, is used to move the track to a different position, changing the listening order. Let’s try reordering the tracks…
Furthermore, if you tap the «Edit» icon (the last one at the top on Android, the second to last on iOS/Apple), you enter edit mode, which allows you to rename musical tracks or delete them. Note that default tracks cannot be renamed or deleted — they can only be disabled if you do not wish to hear them. Let’s try renaming one… Let’s now try deleting a track…
There are also shortcuts to enter edit mode with a left swipe. A right swipe deletes tracks.
Once you have achieved the desired configuration, you will need to repeat the same steps for each mystery, which — as mentioned above — can have a different configuration. If we try the Luminous Mysteries, for example, the configuration is different, and the same applies to the other mysteries.
If you switch to single track loop mode using the icon at the top, only the track at the top of the list will be active and the others will not play. When the track ends, it will restart from the beginning. Playlist mode (which does not show the number 1 in the centre), on the other hand, plays the various tracks in sequence — only the enabled tracks will play, while the others will be skipped. When the last track ends, the playlist will start again from the first.
Happy praying.
Veamos la pantalla de las preferencias.
En esta pantalla tenemos la posibilidad de configurar varias preferencias que confirman la absoluta flexibilidad de esta aplicación.
En primer lugar, se puede configurar el modo manual que, como decíamos en el video dedicado al Inicio, nos permite separar la temporalidad de los misterios del día actual. La aplicación predeterminada muestra el misterio correspondiente al día actual, pero si configuramos el modo manual podemos elegir el misterio que queramos. En la práctica, esta función puede ser útil cuando tenemos que rezar el rosario y es pasada la medianoche y, en consecuencia, la aplicación nos mostrará el misterio del día siguiente. Poniendo el modo manual podemos elegir el misterio que queramos. O si se quiere recitar más de una serie de misterios al día, gracias a esta función podemos hacerlo.
Luego tenemos música de fondo. Al activar esta opción, la música se inserta de fondo a la voz que recita el Rosario, haciendo que la oración sea más atractiva. Hay algo de música predeterminada, pero, siguiendo la filosofía de esta aplicación, se puede importar su propia música. Para hacer esto, simplemente se abre el menú haciendo clic en el icono que muestra una lista y se hace clic en Agregar. En este punto es necesario escribir el nombre que se desea dar a la melodía que se va a importar y presionar el botón guardar. Se abrirá la aplicación de nuestro dispositivo donde se guardan nuestros archivos y aquí se podrá elegir la música que se desee escuchar. Una vez que se haya importado la melodía, aparecerá en la ventana de música y estará lista para ser utilizada. Para elegir la música que se desea escuchar, se haga clic junto a la etiqueta que muestra la música, se seleccione y se elija desde el menú que aparecerá abajo.
Otras operaciones que se pueden hacer con la música de fondo son: editar el nombre de la música, en caso de querer cambiarlo. Para hacer esto, haga clic en el elemento Editar en el menú que mencionamos anteriormente, puede eliminar una música que ya no desea mantener en la aplicación u organizar las distintas pistas de audio.
Esta última función nos permite introducir las Playlists. Por lo general, una pieza musical dura una media de 5 minutos, mientras que el Rosario dura mucho más. Para mantener la música de fondo a lo largo del rosario hay dos opciones:
⁃ O se escucha en bucle (loop) la única pista seleccionada
⁃ O se pone en modo lista de reproducción y se escuchan las canciones que hemos elegido de la música disponible en nuestra aplicación, todas una detrás de la otra, en secuencia.
Mostramos cómo cambiar del modo de bucle de una sola melodía (Loop) al modo de lista de reproducción. Como se puede ver, al lado del control deslizante de volumen hay un botón con un 1 en el medio y si hace clic en él, desaparece lo que tiene en el centro. En el primer caso se trata de la modalidad de bucle de una sola melodía, en el segundo caso estamos en modo de lista de reproducción. Ahora bien, si hemos activado el modo de lista de reproducción, las canciones presentes se reproducirán una tras otra y al final de la lista se volverá a la primera canción. Sin embargo, es posible que no desee que se reproduzcan todas las canciones, sino solo algunas. Para ello, se debe entrar en la pestaña Organizar, haciendo clic en el menú que mencionamos anteriormente en la pestaña Organizar. Como se puede observar, se abre una lista donde se pueden seleccionar las canciones que se desea escuchar y se puede cambiar el orden de reproducción arrastrando las canciones a la posición deseada. Esto da una gran flexibilidad de escucha.
La siguiente opción que encontramos en la página de preferencias es la de elegir los colores del tema del Rosario o también elegir si queremos activar el modo oscuro. Para elegir los distintos temas, simplemente se hace clic en el botón con el icono de lista y aparecerá el menú habitual en la parte inferior donde se podrá elegir el tema de color deseado.
Luego tenemos otra función que habilita una vibración cuando llegamos a ciertos puntos del Rosario. Una vibración en el primer Ave María, dos vibraciones en el quinto Ave María, tres vibraciones en el décimo Ave María. Esto puede ser útil cuando tenemos la aplicación en nuestro bolsillo y nos actualiza sobre dónde estamos en nuestra oración.
Luego existe la posibilidad de cambiar el idioma de la aplicación, tanto de los textos como del audio. Al hacer clic en el botón con el icono de lista, se abre el menú habitual y a continuación se puede elegir el idioma deseado. El cambio es inmediato y no requiere reiniciar la aplicación.
Las siguientes funciones habilitan o no la Salve Regina, las letanías,el Oh Jesús mío o el número de Ave Marías en nuestro rosario. Esto también es para garantizar la máxima flexibilidad para el usuario.
Finalmente, tenemos la posibilidad de guardar, recuperar o reinicializar los varios elementos de audio, texto e imágenes y preferencias de nuestra aplicación en caso de que se cambie de Dispositivo. De hecho, puede resultar complicado o difícil tener que recuperar voces, imágenes o música que se hayan ido guardando en nuestra aplicación a lo largo del tiempo. En algunos casos incluso puede ser imposible, pienso en la voz de una persona que ya no está con nosotros.
Con la función de guardar, se carga un archivo .zip en el Dispositivo que contiene todas nuestras voces, imágenes, música y preferencias. Después de hacer clic en el botón Guardar, puede que sea necesario esperar un tiempo para permitir que la aplicación comprima los distintos archivos. Una vez hecho esto a través de la ventana de compartir que se abre, puede elegir el lugar para guardar los archivos .zip. Dado que hay tantos servicios de memoria virtual, hemos preferido dejar la elección de tal servicio al propio usuario.
Cuando se desee restaurar el contenido, se debe hacer clic en el botón restaurar, búsquese el archivo .zip que se guardó previamente y al hacer clic en él se restaurarán todos los datos.
El último botón se refiere a la restauración inicial de las condiciones de fábrica de la aplicación. Puede ser necesario hacer esto si surgen problemas debido a la ejecución de pasos incorrectos. Por ejemplo, el archivo .zip con la copia de seguridad no debe cambiarse. Cambiarlo puede generar problemas que solo podrían resolverse restaurando la aplicación. Hay que tener en cuenta que con esta operación se perderán todos los elementos y preferencias personales y personalizados.