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.
iOS editor / librarian for Korg Volca FM
Purchased a Volca FM yesterday and, while it is clearly easier to program than my old DXs, there's still a hell of a lot of menu diving & cryptic LED display parameter names to get into the deeper parts of the synth.....so I'm wondering if there's an iPad editor that somebody here would thoroughly recommend.
Patch Base looks the best, from my initial searches. There's also a template for Lemur, but it looks ugly and cluttered, and I don't think it doubles as a librarian for dumping DX7 sysex files like PB does. Also, I read mention of a template somebody had made for TB MIDI Stuff, yet can't actually find it anywhere.
Are there any other candidates I've not happened upon yet?
Comments
FYI Cuckoo shows off using Patch Base here
Looks cool & I'm considering getting it, but for the moment I've just been using Dexed on the desktop, or programming direct, it is kind of fiddly, but you can actually work quite quick when you get some familiarity with it.
P.S. The Volca FM is a lovely little box of blips, I love it.
I have Dexed, and it's great....but I've long grown tired of using computer-based editors for my hardware synths. Might as well just be using plugins...and the mouse-clicking....
Yeah, I was originally made aware of Patch Base from that Cuckoo vid. It does seem like the best option, really.
I was a little underwhelmed when trying it in-store. Decided to buy it anyway and unlock its potential. It certainly is an amazing little box for the money.
I've been live looping it into Ableton to build up layers on the fly, it's great fun.
Planning on trying it with Blocks Wave too, though I don't think it's going to be as seamless...
Bit disappointed to see (from Cuckoo's video) that editing the deeper parameters cause a slight pause in playback, possibly due to them using sysex instead of CCs. Kind of undermines the app's selling point of being able to tweak on-the-fly.
i have been syncing my Novation Circuit with Blocs Wave using Link to Midi, works awesome. So productive!
Was disappointed by that as well. Was wondering if it's because the VFM has an underpowered CPU or if it's because the sysex dumps are too large (sending the whole patch for each change maybe?) or if it's simply the nature of the beast.
Is that easy to set up? I've been manually syncing the Circuit with Blocs
Yes quite easy! I have a Roland Duo Capture I plug into my iPad that I use for receiving audio from the Circuit and sending the midi sync to the Circuit via Link to Midi. https://alexandernaut.com/linktomidi/
Here's the DX7 sysex editor for TB MIDI Stuff.
Never occurred to me that DX7 editors would work the same. Of course, I've just been struck by the realisation that there's no bi-directional feedback (for obvious reasons), so I may skip the idea & stick with digging out my MacBook & Dexed anyway.
Hmm....does this require the Missing Link hardware? Seems people can't get it to work without it.
The Missing Link is built into TB Midi Stuff it's covered here on page 8 of their manual.
I don't know if this would work for you, but if you already had TB MIDI Stuff or someone else had it and an FM Volca, it seems like it'd be worth a try to see if it worked or perhaps asking the developer of TB MIDI Stuff if it'd work for the Volca FM. The Missing Link is definitely send only in TB MIDI Stuff according to their manual and the Volca FM doesn't send out MIDI so bidirectional isn't an option.
Actually started to like the idea of Lemur for this. It's horrifically ugly, and I've no idea how easy it is to build custom controllers with, but there's a solid legacy behind it. And, if I can also use it to edit my microKorg, Wavestation, Octatrack & Blofeld again, that's a huge bonus. It might also mean I'm more inclined to grab some notoriously finick synths, such as the Miniak / Micron, Mopho or Tetra. Of course, I'll avoid if Liine have abandoned the app, so that needs looking into...
The Lemur patch seems like it should be workable since it was specifically modified to work with the Volca FM which only uses bulk Sysex dumps rather than interactive Sysex according to the patch creator. The Lemur app was last updated in December of last year and still works well. It will still work with the original iPad, how many app developers can say that about their offering?
Thanks for the thread! My Volca FM will be arriving soon (hopefully - on backorder) and I was looking at Patch Base as a possible way to work with it.
I actually have the Retrokits RK-002 cable that adds velocity ready to go. Just need the darn Volca!
Holy crap that video is 1 hour and 27 minutes? That's great - I'll have to sort through all of that when I have time.
@syrupcore - You mentioned there is a delay when switching parameters. Do you just mean a lag time between the input on the iPad and the reflected change on the Volca FM? I'm not a live player so I could live with that, as long as you can save the changes you make as presets/patches and play them back.
So Lemur's still working well? Good to know it's possibly not been abandoned.
@StormJH1 There's a pause in the Volca's audio when changing a parameter from an iOS editor as the FM only accepts sysex dumps from the external controller. It basically updates the entire patch in real time, rather than just the parameter being changed. It doesn't lose its timing, merely goes silent for less than a second. You can hear it happening in Cuckoo's video.
Sigh...bought Lemur and, no, the Volca FM template does not work properly. It always - no matter what parameter you tweak - sends a random patch sysex dump. Looks like I'll have to learn the editor and make one myself. Got to get my £19's worth out of it...
Modstep has this template - and there's one for Liine:
https://liine.net/en/community/user-library/view/656/
Gbbj> @Ocsprey said:
That's the Lemur template I have. It doesn't work
Also, Mostep's mapping is only for the CCs, all of the controls for which are immediately available on the FM. I'm looking to edit the deeper parameters.
Anyone know if it's possible to strip out the velocity from note on messages and re-route to the CC for the velocity on the VFM, with any of the Midi control apps?
Check out the Midiflow app.
Yes thanks, thought it may be possible via Midiflow or MidiBridge was wondering if anyone had tried, I'm really going to get a VolcaFM, but the lack of velocity was a silly omission IMO.
Looking at MidiFlow does look you could do Controller Change - remap incoming note velocity to CC 41. I don't know MidiFlow well enough tho - maybe someone will chime in.
I'm sure you can with Midiflow, not tried it yet though. Another more expensive way is to buy the retrokits midi cable https://www.retrokits.com/rk002/
@knewspeak You will need to get Midiflow and the controller remapping IAP to map the incoming note velocity to another CC, in the screenshot the note velocity is remapped to CC16. You could remap it to whatever CC you wanted.
Thanks @Ocsprey, @InfoCheck, yes MidiFlow certainly looks like it could do it, @Carnbot, that cable is an inventive solution perhaps worth getting in the long run.
www> @knewspeak said:
I have done this in Ableton, so I know it works in principle, but I haven't tried any of the iPad apps yet.