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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.
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MIDI guitar controller
Does anyone have any good experience with guitar midi controllers on iOS? If yes, what would be the best (most reliable, frequently updated etc) app for that? I would like to be able to midi control variety of 3rd party synths and stuff with my guitar. Any ideas?
Much appreciated!
Comments
I’ve only used Guitarism or ChordUp for strumming into SampleTank, GeoShred or other synths.
Audio to midi is not reliable and has lag. This is an technical issue impossible to over with. You need midi mics to get ok results, and even most of midi mics wont satisfy everyone(and you still need to adjust your playing style). What you really need to get good results is to have sensors for every string under every fret. This kind of monsters cost A LOT.
There are ofc small differences between apps(i dont remember which one was the best since i got a midi pickup to my guitar quite a while ago), but audio to midi is not reliable at all in general and you can forget playing many strings at the same time. Or well some app might get small chords right sometimes..
Here's a free one:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/jam-synth/id732618765?mt=8
Personally I think MIDI Guitar is pretty good: very responsive and picks up every note when I play, with no noticeable latency. It might not work for shredding, but for any normal melodic lead playing it's perfect. It's good fun to use your guitar to play a synth or a sampled instrument such as a trumpet.
It can also do chords, but I think it only picks up 3 notes, anyway I've never used it for that.
there's lots of settings you can alter to fit your playing style, and it can transpose on the fly (great for bass lines) but it's pretty expensive by iOS standards though (you need the IAP).
+1 for MidiGuitar
+1 for Midi Guitar (+IAPs)
Thanks guys, will check it
are you asking about hardware controllers?
+1 midi guitar
I wonder if this one is any good: Zivix Jamstik+
Midi Guitar2 to be more precise. And yes it sounds incredible for slower riffing and chords, shredding is out but with delays involve both in app and say through your favorite amp sim you can do incredible things with it. Fun to play animoog on my stratocaster.
Midi guitar seems to do the best with polyphonic stuff out of the stuff I tried. MIDImorphosis might be good as well. I have not tried it, but the developer is quite capable judging from InfiniteLooper, which I have used.
It's a bit of a holy grail, but if you want to use an existing guitar, Midi Guitar is good enough to surprise you; MIDImorphosis doesn't work as well for me, but is worth checking out.
Hardware controllers tend to be brilliant at tapping and fairly terrible at picking and strumming. The YouRock Gen2 isn't awful, particularly at its price, but is much better as a tapping instrument, in part because of its very slack and fake strings. The Jamstik+ feels great but again is much better at tapping than picking/strumming, and is limited both by the 5-fret fingerboard and the form factor, which I find very difficult to hold, with or without a strap.
The Artiphon Instrument1 is an absolutely brilliant piece of kit and would be my desert island hardware of choice, but again it's far better as a tapping instrument; the weird rubber triggers that do the job of strings are impossible to play with pick or nails, and don't respond in ways that experienced guitarists will find easy to adapt to, though some manage the transition well. Its killer features are MPE-compliant velocity and pressure sensitivity (GeoShred sounds fantastic through it), and an insane level of customisability that sooner or later turns it into a bizarre bespoke instrument that only you know how to play. (I tune the first six frets down an octave and the next six up one to get a 4-octave, two-handed tap guitar on six strings and 12 frets. Unfortunately you look like a complete nork playing it, as the hands barely move.)
MidiGuitar2 is the best if you want to use your own guitar. You can play a chord and it will track all notes of the chord as separate midi notes. It's like the smell kind of magic as Melodyne's Note DNA.
I used to have a YouRock Gen2. Sold it when I moved countries, but it was ok as a midi input device. It's not like playing guitar though. It's more like playing a soft touch keyboard in fretboard layout.
Got a Jamstik + last week and really like it for midi controller. Picking and strumming are much better than the YouRock.
It's still not exactly like playing guitar and you need to adjust your playing. Midi is basically just on/off messages, so nuances in normal guitar playing like your pick hand, palm muting or muting with your fret hand don't work or just create weird midi notes.
But, as a guitarist who can't play piano very well, I can get a melody or chords down much easier with the Jamstik than a midi keyboard or onscreen piano.
Geoshred is good for solos, but not chords.
Guitarism always feels a little stiff or awkward for strumming and arpeggios for me. I get much better timing using the Jamstik.
Also, the Jamstik works better hard-wired with a USB cable to my laptop. I can set the latency on that to 64 samples. With iOS, it has more latency, even over usb. I think 128 is the lowest latency I can set. In most as.
Another really cool thing about MIDI Guitar: it can do pitch bends, as well as hammer-ons and pulls-offs, so you can get guitar style phrasing with a synth. Or try it with a sampled sax - it's great fun (sax phrasing is quite similar to guitar in some ways).
Olivier Malhomme has made 2 (out of a planned 3) videos showing Midi Guitar 2, and those videos are making the rounds in FB iPad Musician group at the moment.
and
No, iOS controllers.
Yeah, that Sounds about right. I tried these apps, but it’s going all over the place. I hear four notes in succession instead of one.
Cheers will check that tomorrow
Seems to me that the consensus is built around midi guitar.
Wow I’m blown away!! So basically any cheap guitar will do?
Heh, well, I only have expensive guitars so can't test (and I'm pretty sure Oliviers guitar is anything but cheap), but I'm guessing it is all about quality of signal (so good microphones in the guitar) and that you have it tuned in something that is easily translatable to midi. I know that I have to consider my playing a bit with my 7-string guitar for example. Also, when using it with Midi Guitar 2 I avoid having it tuned down further (I normally run it one half-step down). But in theory, any guitar that provides a signal should do, yeah.
Was thinking for portability but at home I use my strat. But then I would use my pedals; but the idea of this app is to play the synths I guess. Does it ever go on sale?
As the app is "free" to try I never get any notifications on IAP sales, and I purchased it quite some time ago, so don't know if they run specials/sales actually. Quickly scanning their FB page I can't see anything about sales, only about raving reviews and demo videos (so I could dig out more demos in case you're not on FB).
They also have a web site here: http://www.jamorigin.com
Oh wow, thanks for reminding me how much fun midi Guitar2 is to jam on!
Yeah please I don’t have FB.
Did you get it on sale?
So the $9.99 IAP is to record midi but using only internal sounds?
And the $19.99 IAP is to send midi to other apps?
MidiGuitar2 is great, i think its a bit faster/better tracking on the mac/pc then the iOS version , but the iOS version is certainly very usable. The mac/pc version comes with MidiBass as well, it seemed to track pretty well down to a low G (didnt' work below an E).
I have a Artiphon as well, but am debating selling it - its more of a consumer level product then a pro instrument, but it can be hella fun playing with an iPad, and great for frantic guitar solos, but less so when trying to play something specific.
GeoShred works really well as well as a tap guitar, but obv you have to look while you play, you can't do it by feel. great for leads, not so much for chords.
Yup, you need both IAPs.
Worth it, Midi Guitar 2 is great for my needs (not the fastest player in the world).