A Creativity card turns a photo of a real instrument (a drum, a flute, a shaker) into something children can play by touch. You bring two things: a photo of the instrument with the background removed, and a short recording for each spot a finger can strike. PAC Manager handles the rest.

Set up the instrument

  1. Open your card from the Culture Library. Fill in title and description as usual.
  2. Under Instrument, tap one of the instrument_category pills: drum, woodwind, or shaker.
  3. Press Cover / scene to attach the picture shown on the card's tile.
  4. Press Playable photo (transparent PNG) and choose the cut-out photo of the instrument itself. A small preview appears with its size so you can confirm it looks right.
  5. Pick an accent_color. Tap the little square swatch to open the color picker. This color outlines the playable areas.
  6. Slide sample_gain_db if the whole instrument plays too quiet or too loud. It runs from −24 dB to +24 dB; leave it at 0 dB to start.

The playable photo must be a PNG with a see-through background: just the instrument, nothing behind it. Every touch area you draw is measured against this exact picture, so attach it before you draw anything.

Draw where fingers can play

  1. At the top of the editor, press Open zone canvas. Your instrument photo fills the screen with a small toolbar on the left.
  2. Choose a drawing tool: the circle for round spots like a drum head, the square for rectangular areas, or the five-sided shape for anything irregular.
  3. With the circle or square tool, press on the photo and drag: the shape grows as you drag, and lets go where you release. With the many-sided tool, click each corner in turn (up to 12), then press Close.
  4. To move a zone, switch to the arrow tool, then drag the zone to its new spot.
  5. The panel on the right lists every zone. Tap one to highlight it, press the play button to hear its sound, or press the trash button to remove it.
  6. Press Save + Compile when the zones sit where they should, then Back to return to the editor.

Give each zone its sound

Back in the editor, each zone appears as its own panel under Touch points. (You can also press Zone there to add one by hand, but drawing on the canvas is easier.)

  1. Give the zone a short name in label (a11y). This is what a screen reader speaks aloud. Leave id (stable API) as it is.
  2. Press Sample and choose a recording. PAC Manager converts it automatically: it trims silence, evens out the volume, and shows a small waveform (click the waveform to scrub, and the play button beside the file name to listen).
  3. If the recording is a pitched note, pick it under base_note: tap a letter pill (C through B), then an octave pill below it. Tap the dash pill to clear it for unpitched sounds like a drum hit.
  4. Slide transpose to raise or lower the pitch, up to 12 steps either way.
  5. If two zones should never sound together (like an open and closed hi-hat), type the same word into choke_group on both.
  6. For a sound that should keep ringing while a finger stays down, turn on Sustain (loops while held, requires WAV), then attach the recording again through Sample (loop-clean WAV) so it converts the right way.

Keep struck sounds under 3 seconds. If a recording runs longer, a warning appears under the waveform. Trim it and attach it again.

What the device shows

On the device, the child sees your instrument photo floating on the screen, ready to play. Touching a zone plays its sound instantly, tinted feedback appears in your accent color, and sustained zones sing for as long as the finger stays. What you drew on the canvas is exactly what their fingers find.