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.
Comments
@jrjulius I just got me an LPK25 wireless. Can you tell me how you use this thru Audiobus? I have several 'synth' apps but can figure out how to link the BT and Audiobus together. Thanks.
(20 min later: ... i think i got it fig'd out, do feel free however to share how you use your LPK though)
I've been using the Nanokey Studio for a year now with no issues at all.
BT audio is usually compressed in order to allow for "high quality" audio over a link with fairly limited bandwidth. Compression always means more latency.
MIDI works well enough with usable latency (mostly). The only two BT MIDI "Plug-ins" are MD-BT01 from Yamaha (thin but long and sticking out of the port quite a bit) and the Quicco mi.1 (thicker but only sticks out maybe 15mm. Which one to choose might mostly depend on the Midi gadget you plan to connect it to.
On the Arturia Keystep for example, the Quiccos are a great match and barely noticeable.
I'm powering it from a small USB power bank (2800mAh) attached to the back and get a cable-free portable mini keyboard that runs for about 20 hours.
I wish the mi.1 was available in Canada
That was my first choice due to the size, which is an issue for me as my keyboard is mobile.
Have you tried contacting the US vendors on ebay?
I bet one of them would also deliver to Canada.
I may look into that in future
Bluetooth audio it’s a disaster.
Bluetooth Midi worked nice with my Nanokey/Nanokontrol Studio combo.
Am I the only one who can't understand why we can't yet have MFI-compliant BT LE in Windows 10 that will talk to Apple IOS devices? I understand about MFI compliance and such, and how BT LE itself is only available for Windows if you have a Bluetooth 4.0 driver. But it sure feels like another Apple VS. Microsoft war. If not, why can't a Windows developer get MFI compliance? I can see some definite advantages (obviously) of being able to include your Windows DAW in a BT LE mix. FWIW, I've seen lots of references to the "secretive nature" of the Apple MFI program.
I am in Japan (Where the company that makes the mi.1 is located). I can probably source one for you. I also think Amazon Japan ships overseas now, so that might be an option. PM me if interested.
Wireless MIDI has almost unnoticeable latency on both Korg Air and Akai keyboards. Talking about the audio over BT, if you wanna use it for live keyboard play, use devices which accept (or enabled with) an APTX type of BT. I use these [ https://goo.gl/5Xwo2V ] for a couple of years, and I am happy with minimal latency on audio. There are many other TX/RX devices APTX enabled these days.
Also, for Windows 10 (latest udate) the tandem of the MIDIBerry [ https://goo.gl/bddtaw ] and loopMIDI [ https://goo.gl/TpzgJk ] apps works just fine to play MIDI over BT.
I have a Korg microkey, several Blueboards and one of the Yamaha interfaces. I play love with four iPads several times a week and have used this rig for over 18 months. Generally it's pretty good but the issues I've come across are as follows;
1, as someone mentioned earlier in this thread. If MIDI gets busy, latency goes out the window. I generally experience this is I'm playing a busy piano part or organ glissando where the latency can unexpectedly jump up to half a second or more. This is completely unacceptable from a performance point of view so I am starting to run the keyboards hard-wired rather than Bluetooth. That said, controller signals aren't normally so time critical so the Blueboarda are fine.
2, The Yamaha Bluetooth adaptor requires a full midi implementation of the 5pin DIN connector and some manufacturers have decided not to implement the +5V pin which means the adapter can't get power. For me that rules out using the device on two separate pieces of gear.
3, I had a problem where the Korg Microkeys would intermittently drop the connection. The worst part of this is that I would have to restart some apps (such as midiflow) after reconnection. Eventually I tracked the problem down to a loose Bluetooth card inside the Microkey. Even after fixing it, it will still drop connection at least once a week when playing live (I am pretty rough on the gear while playing rockabillly etc).
Issues number 1 and 2 above mean that, for me anyway, Bluetooth midi is simply unworkable live for the keyboards (because of my busy playing style and occasional disconnections). That said, for things like controller signals etc, it is perfect and decreases setup times significantly. Also, for home studio use etc it simply can't be beaten......
Not sure if you are aware, or if this helps, but there is a USB model as well
https://usa.yamaha.com/products/musical_instruments/pianos/accessories/ud-bt01/index.html
I believe that. On stage it is best to do all connections with wires, even if it means more interfaces, cables, etc.
I'm a long-time MD-BT01/EWI4000s user and, as probably all have confirmed, it works well (being monophonic, even in live situations). For me the new thing I tried today was BT from one device to the other, in this case from an iPhone 6 to an iPad Pro 2018. It's the first time I own more than one modern device with BT 4, and it's a great experience (also with this AirDrop function which I can finally use, to transfer patches and drum patterns).
The iPP2018 has the USB-C port, and so I attached my CCK/USB 2 keyboard to the iPhone and sent MIDI to the iPP2018. Latency is there, but low. I did not measure it exactly, but I guess it is not more than 10ms. On the iPP2018 (running Model 15) I decreased buffer size from 256 to 128, too. Which results in a natural, fluid playing experience (audio latency + BT latency still acceptable, probably below 15ms).
Next month I am expecting the Sensel Morph, with the keyboard layout and the Buchla layout. I'm confident that it will work well with Bluetooth and my iDevices. It is the first time I'm using BT for MIDI (except the MD-BT01 which I used since it came out), and I think it is a good alternative to Wifi MIDI and wired MIDI (in a controlled area like in the studio). It is also the first time I'm using the Apollo app, although it is no more or not often necessary I guess. Many apps are able to receive and send BT MIDI by themselves.
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