record midi (from controller apps) + sound (from library apps) into cubasis

ipadmussic

Hi folks,
Just joined this amazing forum today. Please help me out with my situation..

I want to play Changeling sequencer or any midi controller app using sounds from library apps like iSymphonic / sampletank and record the midi & audio into cubasis.
Is this possible using audiobus? i googled, but couldn't find answer.

Thanks in advance for any help :-)

Will

Welcome to the forum. And yep.

1. Setup an AudioBus chain with iSymphonic pointed at Cubasis. Cubasis will make an audio track for it automagically.
2. Also setup an additional MIDI track in cubasis.
3. For that new MIDI track, either point Changeling at Cubasis or tell Cubasis to listen for Changling on its own port.
4. Either point Changeling at iSymphonic or tell iSymphonic to listen for Changling on its own port.
5. Record arm both tracks in cubasis
6. Profit

3 and 4 are very similar. You're telling both Cubasis (the MIDI recorder) and iSymphonic (the MIDI listener) to listen to MIDI events from changling. I'm not sure if Cubasis supports MIDI Thru off the top of my head. If it does, you can have cubasis both record the MIDI to a track and send the MIDI received there on to another destination (iSymphonic in this case).

There are probably other ways to achieve the same ends but the above orta work.

JohnnyGoodyear

@ipadmussic Welcome indeed, and pay it forward, as they say....

ipadmussic

Thanks @syrupcore & @JohnnyGoodyear for the warm welcome

I followed your steps, but couldn't get Changeling to work, i guess may be because it does not support Audiobus.

I tried the same setup using NaviChord (instead of Changeling) and was able to record. Will play around with this to see if I can achieve what i want to do. Thanks a lot!!

It is unfortunate that Changeling is abandoned, because i feel it was the most innovative midi controller (back in its time) in ios for the following purpose which i use mainly.

1. Lock in a scale
2. Play the chords available for that particular scale in many variations, voicings, patterns etc.
3. Play the notes for that scale (in the backdrop of chords)

Will

Sorry, not familiar with Changling so I've no specific help. Since it's just sending MIDI, Audiobus should have nothing to do with it. If you can get it to send MIDI to iSymphonic it should also be able to send MIDI to Cubasis. As for the Changling features you described, you might check out Chordion. A local hero.

ipadmussic

Well the midi implementation for Changeling is very bad, i mean it was a midi controller, so the MIDI out feature should have exposed all the config parameters, but instead it only provides a button for "Midi On/Off".

Yes, without cubasis i can play iSymphonic from Changeling, but when i follow your steps, after recording, there is no midi data in cuabsis.

I have all the apps (Chord related) - Chordion, PolyChord, NaviChord, SoundPrism, but none can even come close to Changeling (atleast for me who don't know music theory / chords /scales etc). You could change scales/keys on the fly with one hand while the other hand plays chords from the new scale without interruption. Playing iSymphonic using Changeling takes me to heaven :-)

I just hope some developer re-uses the idea from Changeling and comes up with a midi controller similar to that, will pay any price for that one :-).

Actually there was another app called "enChord" from Avantegarde ..it was spectacular and totally different concept, but i had issues using it with virtual midi. Need to re-visit that one. oops sorry for the long post!

ccs2

@ipadmussic ... in 'output settings' tap the 'midi' knob in changeling, and in the cubasis midi track's 'routing' select 'virtual midi' as input source.

Changeling is very interesting, only it's lacking background audio mode.

Therefore, if you want to write the loops from changeling into cubasis,
create an empty midi track with 'no instrument' and 'virtual midi' in, arm and record.
(In case you have a loop running in changeling, it can stay in background and still transmit, but if you want to play changeling from an outside midi source, say from the internal midi keyboard of cubasis - you need to create another empty midi track, with 'no midi' input and 'virtual midi' for output, and select 'cubasis' as midisource in changeling. Now at this point changeling must be in the foreground to receive incoming midi notes.)

Practically two midi tracks are needed in cubasis to sum it up: one for recording changeling's outgoing midi loops, and one where you can send notes into changeling, but only if you have changeling in the foreground ...

ipadmussic

@ipadmussic said:
Well the midi implementation for Changeling is very bad, i mean it was a midi controller, so the MIDI out feature should have exposed all the config parameters, but instead it only provides a button for "Midi On/Off".

Let me retract the above statement, truth is i never bothered to look into the midi input settings of Changeling. I guess the dev must have implemented lot of things and since i did not use it does not mean they are bad.
From what i see in the app web page, this could be used from an external midi keyboard (physical) to lock the keys to a particular scale and play, if this is true it is awesome!

ipadmussic

@ccs2 said:
@ipadmussic ... in 'output settings' tap the 'midi' knob in changeling, and in the cubasis midi track's 'routing' select 'virtual midi' as input source.

Changeling is very interesting, only it's lacking background audio mode.

Therefore, if you want to write the loops from changeling into cubasis,
create an empty midi track with 'no instrument' and 'virtual midi' in, arm and record.
(In case you have a loop running in changeling, it can stay in background and still transmit, but if you want to play changeling from an outside midi source, say from the internal midi keyboard of cubasis - you need to create another empty midi track, with 'no midi' input and 'virtual midi' for output, and select 'cubasis' as midisource in changeling. Now at this point changeling must be in the foreground to receive incoming midi notes.)

Practically two midi tracks are needed in cubasis to sum it up: one for recording changeling's outgoing midi loops, and one where you can send notes into changeling, but only if you have changeling in the foreground ...

Thanks @ccs2 , i was able to record from Changeling to cubasis finally. It was bit tricky, but your steps worked. I was doing it same before but with audiobus and it did not work.

BiancaNeve

Chordion doesn't have changelings features.

What changeling does is clever, it's all relative, you record a chord sequence where each note is 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 etc then you can change the key and or the mode and it will automatically transpose the chords into the new key and mode. You can also change chord voicings to play triads or sevenths etc

Then you can arpegiate the chords choose whether it will do soft transitions between chords or jumpy ones (chord inversions automated for beginners)

And a whole bunch of other stuff

The closest other app I can think of to it is midi mind. But that only works with an external keyboard.

ipadmussic

Agree with you @BiancaNeve totally. I couldn't believe why it did not became popular (only one youtube video i guess), may be all/most ios musicians are well versed in theory with perfect piano skills.
It is an innovative concept geared towards classical/orchestral music.

Some improvements I like to see with this kind of concept is

1. provide all available scales
2. user configurable scales (like in thumbjam/ animoog) - this would be a kicker feature, as we could create very unique chords from unusual scales (indian / arabian / chineese etc)
3. provide two keyboard layouts - one to play chords other for notes (locked to that scale). This reminds me of another app called "Melody music maker" which had similar feature.

BiancaNeve

I would have liked it if had had a way to sync recording to an external sequencer or a way to edit recorded sequences.
Still it's never going to happen ho hum.