Some Advice For An Alchemy Pro Newbie/iOS

[IraR]

Hello, boys and girls.

I just bought an ION Piano Apprentice keyboard, and played around with Garage Band through my iPad for awhile. GB is very limited in the sounds I want, so I downloaded Alchemy and was so impressed that within 10 minutes, I downloaded Pro.

Do you remember those one-man bands at carnivals, the guy who smashed the symbols between his knees, blew a kazoo, and played ukelele? Well, believe it or not, I'm rigging my keyboard with electromechanical actuators, where I'll be able to hit notes on connected pedals/switches with my FEET, while playing my guitar.

I'm therefore interested in replicating interesting melody sounds, but more conventional ones, like violin, bells, piano, woodwinds, etc. So I'm in the process right now of going through all of my sounds and taking notes on which ones will work for me.

Is there a manual for Alchemy Pro mobile? Although I'm not really interested in doing any recording now, I would still like to understand the basics--and this metronome thing is driving me crazy when I first start recording. Also, can you recommend an additional expansion pack of sounds that you think will work for me, that has additional instruments like maybe banjo, clarinet, other woodwinds, etc.?

Thanks for your help! And as my questions arise, I'll post them all HERE so as not to clog up the forum with too many threads.

--Ira