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.
How to connect all the things without them exploding? (Reloop Mixtour, Akai mk2 mini, Launchpad RGB
Hello,
I'm trying to find some solutions or ideas for how I can rig all this stuff up without it conflicting and going crazy.
The Mixtour has some midi buttons but is also an audio interface, and the launchpad and akai are just midi controllers.
Could I plug everything into a powered hub, then into the CCK, then into my iPad and have it work okay?
Alternately, could I use something like the retronyms wej to plug in the two controllers, then connect the interface through the CCK, or alternately use another iDevice with the controllers plugged in and mitimttr to send the midi signals to the main iPad, with the interface plugged in. (The BTLE stuff works pretty well, midimittr between my iphone and ipad seems flawless).
Anyone got any suggestions as to how to do this? Having some kind of BTLE in the mix would be ideal so as to minimize the amount of wires. Does the fact that one of them is an audio interface create any special issues?
Thanks!
Comments
Yep. Should work fine. Things get tricky when there are multiple USB audio interfaces but multiple USB MIDI interfaces generally 'just work' with a powered hub.
And what is the cheapest working midi interface? Do those cheap usb-midi cables work at all?
I have one and it works, but only when used with a powered hub, it doesn't work if connected directly to the cck
It dose about £3 on ebay
Has anyone tried anything like the Retornyms Wej?
The flashy lightshow and all that doesn't excite me much (I have my own visuals for live shows and I don't want color schemes clashing) but it seems to be the best overall solution to pipe btle midi into my main system, then use the cck for the interface. Other stuff I've seen is pretty expensive (~100) for a btle dongle deal like the puc.
I was skeptical about midi over bt but I used midimittr to use my ipad to control my iphone and it was very good. I think BT in general has gotten better - when playing with stuff in my 2014 corolla there is a detectable lag but with a new model pair of bt headphones (or in my friends new car) there isn't a lag I can detect when, for example, pressing a button in iMaschine and hearing a sound.
In the corolla, it's pretty significant to the point where it's not usable (I master for car stereos, it's a Houston thing) and I have to plug it in with a cable to get anything done.
I have some raspberry pi's and adurinos (I have no idea how to use an adurino, there were just some unos lying around at work that nobody wanted) but implementation of bt and midi are pretty sketchy on them. Given the price and form factor of the alternatives to the wej, this seems to make sense as a thing to get. Minimizing the amount of cables, adapters, etc is a big deal to me
Anyone got any thoughts, suggestions for gear, or easy ideas for implementation? I like to keep my gear load so it fits in one of those carry on airport wheely bags and can set up and break down asap. It's double important because I bring 2 full size and 2 pico projectors as well - a few less tangled complications mean a lot to me.
There is a relatively recent extension to BT that reduces latency to around 40 msecs. Guess Your Corolla's chipset is too old.
@dwarman Good to see (read?) you!
I bit the bullet and got a wej. Haven't even had a chance to check it out yet, but the build is a flexible silicon which makes it wobbly but grippy.
The AC adapter is a huge powerbrick thing that you'd associate with a laptop. They aren't kidding about the LED's - they look like adafruit neopixels, and judging by the light I've seen those put out, some kind of diffusion will probably be a good idea.
USB input only so I'm guessing unless you have a class complaint MIDI usb device you're probably out of luck.
With only 2 ports, if you use a lot of devices and/or keep your rig in a steady location, this is probably unnecessary.
If you're gigging though and want to keep your loadout tight, this is still cheaper than getting some puc+ and I have zero concerns about build quality or durability.
I am going to rig this thing up tonight with the akai abd launchpad, and then plug the interface directly into my device with a cck. Fight test results to come.
How are you liking Wej now that you've had a few months to use it? We'd love to know what you think. - Taylor
Taylor,
After SOME TIME (sorry for the delayed response!) I think the Wej is quite good. I haven't really messed with the lights and such, but as a core piece of kit it's treated me well.
I find that the bluetooth le connection was much more reliable than the korg microkey air (although subsequent ios/gadget/whatever upgrades have made the korg solid) throughout the period of having both products.
The build quality is solid and with the whole thing being a giant rubber wedge (wej?) on the outside I am not concerned about equipment damage because it's literally super solid.
My one and only quibble with it is that the input voltage and polarity is not marked anywhere on the device - adapters tend to blend all togheter and as such I'm a "always check before you plug" kind of guy. If it's in the literature somewhere, I'm going to write it on there somehow! (if it isn't, please tell me what it is!)
No reservations about it and I'm probably about to recommend it on another thread here!
Glad to hear! Here is the Wej power supply with the most important parts highlighted. I definitely recommend you label your power supply. It is 5 volt 5 amp.
-Eric