Audiobus: Use your music apps together.
What is Audiobus? — Audiobus is an award-winning music app for iPhone and iPad which lets you use your other music apps together. Chain effects on your favourite synth, run the output of apps or Audio Units into an app like GarageBand or Loopy, or select a different audio interface output for each app. Route MIDI between apps — drive a synth from a MIDI sequencer, or add an arpeggiator to your MIDI keyboard — or sync with your external MIDI gear. And control your entire setup from a MIDI controller.
Download on the App StoreAudiobus is the app that makes the rest of your setup better.
'Fingertip Midi' Just Out
For iphone:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/fingertip-midi-virtual-piano/id916217855?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo=2
$1.99 / £1.49
And for iPad
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/fingertip-midi-hd-virtual/id919677319?mt=8
$5.99 / £3.99
Midi controller for playing fluid chords and melodies in key and per chord.
I quite like Fingertip Maestro for easy, fluid playing so i've been waiting for this Midi Out version.
Think i'll buy and try.
Comments
D'oh! Man, this absolute BINGE of new apps just came out of nowhere. I really did not think there was that much new stuff on the way.
Not a big fan of the separate iPhone/iPad versions, however. Might just buy it on iPhone for the time being to see how it works. I guess "red" MIDI controllers cost more than "blue" ones
The Fingertip Maestro and other apps looked interesting, but were too specialized. This could be useful. I have an iPad2, which doesn't have Bluetooth LE, but this looks to work over WiFi. I would anticipate a lot of lag, however.
One thing I'm not clear on: it seems to have a metronome, which is actually pretty damn cool for a MIDI controller. But it also claims to have "quantization". Isn't it a live MIDI controller? So if my timing is off, how does it adjust that on the fly?
Looks pretty nifty. Cheers, Matt. Here is a short demo with some playing tips from the dev:
Morris will be a happy bunny )
thanks Mark and good luck with the app.
It does a similar type of thing (not the same) - slimmed down - to FiddleWax Pro which came out yesterday. I feel a little sorry for these devs having to go head to head within a few days, when nothing else like this has really been on the market until now.
I think they both look like great products - really helpful for aiding playing...
With Fingertip Maestro (which is basically this app but only with internal sounds) I've found switching on the note/chord names for each row and then following a set chord progression (i.e. playing the rows according to your chord progression) gives you more structure and ensures you play in your given key. That might be a bit of a boring way to use it though... i dunno, i'm learning...
I'm gonna buy and try out later.
In terms of quantising, Fingertip Maestro seemed to have it's own internal clock and would automatically quantise on the fly to 8ths (I think). So it you were a little later it wouldn't play the note until the next 8th. It therefore encouraged a playing style of playing a bit early - if you see what I mean.
@Matt_Fletcher_2000 said:
This is our concern, Dude.
Haha. Yes, my point was exactly that if you missed the note a little late, it would quantize "wrong" and send it to the next note. Most MIDI editors that quantize will bring a note back in time if it's close to a beat that was just passed. But, whatever, it's an optional feature, perhaps it will work better than I imagine it would.
Yep, in Fingertip Maestro (so I assume this is the same) it's as you say... Play slightly late and it will quantise wrong. Play slightly early and it will quantise correctly.
instapurchase
Just tried on iphone 5. Playing patch in Animoog.
All good...
During the beta each note was "held" for around 3-4 seconds. This works with pianos and plucked sounds, but not really at all with other types of sounds. I mentioned this and suggested having a mode where each note simply was held for as long as you actually held it, and another mode with pre-set note lengths , but dunno if it was heard or not.
The quantize, just download the free fingertip maestro to see how that works (yea it skips to the next note if missed, but not a big dealio in app like this I'd say).
I do like Fingertip Maestro, but I have to say this kind of annoys me as one of the early supporters.
I paid for the original app due to the developer stating that MIDI would be added in a future update. Then the app was turned into a free app permanently, and now (after quite a wait) there is a new paid app with the promised MIDI functionality.
Of course I believe that developers should be compensated for their work, I just wish I had recieved what I thought I was paying for.
Bought the iPhone one. It's pretty cool. Very reminiscent of SoundPrism, which never really connected with me. In fact, I struggle with a lot of the "Hey, I'm making music, but I don't know why!" apps.
But it's pretty well done and gives you enough information that you could use it as a creative/inspirational tool and apply actual theory on top of things you discover almost by random.
The quantization does work - but it's a little nicer for sliding your finger around to come up with something creative, and having the quantize feature put it into tempo. As mentioned above, it isn't the type of quantization where you are rhythmically pressing notes with a preordained idea of where you want things to be. I was enjoying playing around with the app. Is this yet another MIDI controller that omits AudioBus? I understand why they do it (namely, that it doesn't make sound), but since you have to be on the controller's screen, the mini-controls are what allow you to stop and start recordings, etc.
I can control apps that are in my audiobus input slot right?
Hey,
We are a few days away from finishing the update for MIDI.
Would anyone be interested in test driving all the new features. We got audiobus, not length hold, variable length, velocity, and a few more things...
Any feedback would be much appreciated.
please email: [email protected] if you are interested. Just throw MIDI Beta in subject.
Cheers,
FTM
Hey Guys,
Just wanted to let you all know Fingertip MIDI update is in the store. iPad right now, iPhone on the way, just waiting on apple.
ipad - https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/fingertip-midi-hd-virtual/id919677319?ls=1&mt=8
We added a bunch of stuff, more to come. Please send feedback as always and thank you all for the help.
Our team is growing and we promise to bring more features faster.
Cheers,
The Fingertip Maestro
My next buy !!!
Keep at it Mister Fingertip....
Thank you The Fingertip Maestro.
Nice update
Can I ask if there is a way to control when the tempo/metronome/quantisation starts?
Often I'll want to start this in time with another app that's playing a loop (eg drums or chords).
I don't think I can even start the other app in time with FTM because the metronome can't be heard when the app is in the background.
Hope that makes some sense!
It would be really great if you could edit which notes could be played? Maybe an advanced mode where you long hold on the note and can change it to a different midi note? This would make it more useful for me.
Quantizitation synch with other apps (drum apps namely). Would be nice and awesome. I don't think quatizitation is a real word but you hopefully know what I'm saying.
When you say "free mode" or "note hold" does that mean the key will stay pressed down even if not touching it anymore? Sort of like in something like Soundprism Pro how keys stay pressed when in hold mode.
@Paulyboy69 said:
Free mode is simply a mode without any length/hold applied, the notes will hold for as long as you're holding them.
Note hold can be set ranging from a couple of bars down to 1/32 in relation to the quantization. 6 secs max with no quantization, for now at least.
The Maestro tweeted about working on the new iOS8 gesture where the amount of your finger area will dictate the velocity applied. Similar to what Orphion and at least one other app used before iOS8 with homegrown APIs. That will make playing things like pianos, guitars etc much more dynamic/less static.
I find Orphion is a bit hit a miss in this regard though. It's tricky to know what velocity/length you're gonna get as you touch it.
Maybe my figures are just weird
.
It is. A better example would be TF7 (but the touch velocity dissapeared on iOS8, after one of the updates, perhaps it's still there on iOS7 tho). But that was also a homegrown thing. Dunno how Apples own API thingys handles it all..
@ChrisG said:
Ah ok thanks.
Thank you all for the great feedback.
We are really happy to finally have the update done. (apple being really difficult with approval, iPhone is still in approval but should be ready any day. I will post as soon as its ready.)
Some of the ideas for future updates are great. We have a line of features and updates we are going adding as you can all image. But we promise, more is coming so keep the suggesting flowing.
Does any know of any app that does do velocity keys correctly? Orphion, TF7? We are really trying to make this work but the technology is still a little clunky. Any suggestions here would be much appreciated.
We are also looking at MIDI export. Would this be of any interest to you guys?
Thank again for helping us out.
Cheers,
Fingertip Maestro
I know Pier Lim had it working really well in TF7 (which also kinda works similar to Fingertip in that it also uses "cubes" on grid layout instead of a keyboard). That velocity gesture together with sliding your finger(s) for assignable modulation on the cubes really made it super expressive. But as mentioned it was added way before iOS 8 with private API, which passed undetected by Apple
. But it's gone now, at least on my iOS8 device. I can only point you to his Twitter which is @TenaciousFrog, and he also checks in here. I haven't got a clue as to how all that works since I'm not a dev. Perhaps some other dev here can chime in on this?
Orphian's velocity 'detector' still works fine, and is no longer hidden. I've even it written that it detects finger size while some (ifretless?) use the accelerometer?
@fingertipapp said:
For MIDI export: Yes really, definitely yes!
I'm still confused concerning the way the notes are setup. It seems like it should be set up in a key structure, or am I missing something?