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.
Lightning to USB adapter: I'm confused
Please move this if it's not appropriate here: I have an iPad Air 1g (latest OS) with an official Apple Lightning USB adapter (the newer one with two ports). If I use the adapter plugging the iPad to the Mac USB port, my Mac (running High Sierra) doesn't see the iPad, yet it charges it and the iPad receives MIDI signals just fine from my MIDI interface (through the second port). If I plug the iPad directly to the Mac, the Mac sees it. WTF? I have restarted both devices, no update available, what can I try? The adapter doesn't seem to be broken, it shows also in the iPad Settings > General menu, and if it was broken it would not pass power from the computer to the iPad, nor pass USB MIDI data from the other port. I'm puzzled. Thank you for your help.
Comments
the lightning to USB 3 adapter is designed that way: The USB port is for MIDI/ Audio/ photos. The lightning port is charging only.
If you want to connect to a Mac, you cannot use the lightning to USB 3 adapter.
I think of it this way:
USB (Universal Serial Bus) always has a master (controller or "host) device and only 1.
The Mac is always a master on a USB scheme.
The iPad can become a master with the USB Camera Kit Adapter for MIDI controllers and sound modules.
I'm not positive but I suspect there's a small chip in the CCK adapter that implements some critical USB host functions that the Lightning port does provide.
The Lightning port comes up as a USB Slave.
Without a CCK connector/adapter it is a USB "slave" that easily connects into Macs with a Lightning cable.
In this connection scheme the iPad/Iphones can be IDAM MIDI modules for Apps like Logic and GarageBand, etc. Devices for the Mac OC DAW's.
There's some similar Master/Slave gotchas that come up with MIDI networks. Most DAW's can be the MIDI Master and most hardware devices are designed to be slaves. A few complex keyboards also have some master features for sequencing and recording.
Just because things can be connected doesn't mean they have software and "chips" to make them work like you might expect. I'm gonna Google CCK device to see if anyone have cracked one open and posted pictures.
Thank you for your answers. Basically I was trying to connect the iPad to the Mac (in order to use it as Aggregate Device) and to an iConnectivity mio10 Midi Interface. I guess I will have to rethink this plan then.
I think when you have the iPad connected to Mac as an aggregate audio device, you should also be able to set up the MIDI connection over the same cable (standard lightning to USB cable). So iPad only needs to be connected to Mac, and Mac is connected to mio10. The Mac can be the host for the MIDI and the audio.
That might work, even though it means the Mac would need to be always on. One of the cool features of the mio10 is that you can use it for 'DAWless' purposes. Thank you for your feedback though, much appreciated :-)
Be forewarned, aggregate devices on the Mac sometimes exhibit a fair amount of latency.