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
That phantom power thing is interesting, I've never come accross that before. I guess I need to do some more reading before I take the risk.
My nervousness now is that I have already been connecting to the esi direct from the ipad using the adapter, so far so good, but...
The closing apps thing is an good tip, cheers. Out of interest, have you tried putting the synth in question on a different midi channel in the back ground? If it was the same as the GarageBand piano, that could be why it was sounding.
I don't know if you are a Focusrite rep, "Anne", but none of the claims you have made are currently working for me. I have tried connecting two different class compliant keyboards straight to the itrack dock, nothing. I have tried an iconnectivity Mio, with both of these keyboards, nothing. I have tried connecting everything before turning on the dock, turning on the dock first, turning the keyboards on before turning on the dock, turning them on afterwards, trying to mess with all of the settings in audiobus, loopy, beatmaker, korg gadget, starting apps before and after turning everything on, NOTHIIIIING. So frustrated. What gives?
Sorry I didn't mean for that to sound so condescending, I'm just frustrated! ;_;
@Synthesize_Her said:
I think at the point where you've tried so many different configurations with no result, it remains to be said that the machine is not quite up to scratch. We live in the world of plug and play where I have 2 mpk minis, lpd8 and behringer uca222 soundcard all connected through the cck working perfectly. This shouldn't be happening with equipment like this.
I love my Focusrite iTrack Dock. Super clean mic preamps. My only problem is that I am trying to connect an older Yamaha DGX-505 to the Dock. The keyboard has a usb midi connector, no dins. When I connect the keyboard DIRECTLY to my iPad Air via an Apple USB to lightning connector, all my audio and music apps work perfectly with the keyboard. When I route midi through the iTrack Dock, I get nothing. I tried the Novation trick and it didn't work either. I have contacted Focusrite and their tech is very friendly and helpful. It seems to me that if they just ran midi info straight through everything would be fine, but somehow the Dock modifies it and it doesn't work with many keyboards.
My next step, per the tech, is to find a midi controller that is on their list of known working midi controllers just to verify that my Dock's midi port is functioning at all. Once that is done, and the port works, their engineering team seems eager to go the next step to solve the issue.....so at this point, even though my problem is frustrating, Focusrite has a GREAT attitude and is willing to work with me, something that is rare in today's corporate world. I live in a small mountain town in New Mexico, so it may take awhile for me to find someone local that is willing to spend 15 minutes with me to check operation of my Dock's midi port.
For now, if I want to lay down a track with my keyboard in an iPad DAW, I have to undock it, record the track, then plug the iPad back into the dock to continue. Not an ideal situation but it will work for the time being.
In September 2014 I finally gave up on any support from Focusrite. They seem helpful, but the bottom line is that they refuse to address the midi issue. At least they are eloquent liars!
Are you a Focusrite rep @anne? You have 15 posts, all in this thread.
We appreciate having company reps here but most of us like to know up front.
Hello, am I the only one to have problems of loosing connection with the dock ? (Sorry for my poor english..).for me i can not use it for live performances yet ...
Well, I'm now on my third dock and none of them have worked with my class-compliant Arturia Minilab. The dock powers the keyboard just fine (the pads light up!), it just won't do anything MIDI-related. Annoying, but I've pretty much given up now and will have to lay down synth tracks separately or use the on-screen keyboard in synth apps. (The second dock had a power issue and had to be returned. The first was returned as it was assumed the USB port had an issue - Doug from the Soundtestroom has never had any keyboard problems, so he must have the holy grail of iTrack Docks!)
It's worth noting that the guitar and mic inputs are excellent, so the dock was still a good buy, although it would be nice to have 2 dedicated instrument ports for guitars as my girlfriend plays too and the dock currently only allows for one guitar at a time to be affected by an app such as Bias or Tonestack. Would be great to be able to select a channel for each in Audiobus, but without a dedicated second instrument input, the apps do nothing for the second guitar. Unless I'm doing something wrong!
Corsair, does yours work for a few minutes and then lose power with a clicking sound? Does the connection then drop? This sounds similar to my second dock, which was replaced. This shouldn't happen.
@syrupcore said:
I'd have a few things to say but can't put it into words without being politically incorrect.
@Michael_R_Grant to record two guitars simultaneously create two AB lanes. Select the system Audio for input. The circled i allows you to pick the channel. On the iTrack plug one guitar into the instrument in and the other into the channel 2 audio in Jack which works just fine for a guitar with a little extra boost from the pre-amp.
@TedBPhx said:
Thanks, I'll see if that allows both guitars to be 'affected' by guitar tone apps.
Hi
I'm new here, and found this thread by searching on Google regarding the problems I have connecting the AKAI MPK mini mkII to the Focusrite iTrack Dock. I bought the unit specially for using it with the iTrack, but failed to make them "speak" to each other. The keyboard gets powered by the iTrack, but no iOS app does recognize the unit. I've tried with a wide range of apps from Arturia iSEM, to Animoog, Sunrizer and Cubasis - just to mention a few.
Before returning the MPK mini, I decided to connect it with the Camera Connection Kit, and strange thing is: With the CCK it works flawlessly. So it doesn't seem to be a fault with the keyboard - but rather with the Focusrite unit.
I just wanted to share this information. I'm still not sure wether to return the iTrack as this may be solved in a Firmware update or some other fix...
@anne must have gone on her yearly vacation to a desert island with no internet.
Thank you very much Michael, I have exactly the problem you describe at the end of the post : I will replace the dock .
hi there, i just wanted to Mention, that i had also Problems with the akai mpk mini mk2, now I returned the unit and got instead the "m-audio axiom air mini 32" and it works perfectly with every app and the focusrite itrack dock, very happy about it!!!
Update on AKAI MPK mini mkII.
The good news: It now works the way it is supposed to do.
The bad news: I can't really tell what made it happen.
The story: As I really wanted this setup to work and wanted to make 100% sure that a replacement keyboard worked, I took the iTrack to a local dealer in Oslo to try different keyboards. First we tried another AKAI MPK mini mkII, and that didn't work either. Than we switched the iTrack with a unit they had for demonstration, and that didn't work either. We then tried the Axiom Air 32 on both my iTrack and the one from the Shop with no success. After that we connected a M-Audio Oxygen 25 and that actually worked on the iTrack that was in the Shop. So we connected it to my iTrack unit, and it worked there also.
All the test were done using the Sunrizer App.
Now comes the weird part. After we got the M-Audio Oxygen 25 to work with both units we tried the other keyboards, and they turned out to work fine all of a sudden.
The guy in the shop and I were buffled, and tried to analyze what has happened, but no theory really was really convincing.
If this had happen 200 years ago one may attribute this to supernatural causes... ;-)
Got my iTrack Dock yesterday. Was disappointed within minutes of turning it on that none of my MIDI controllers which are Class Compliant wouldn't work. This morning I read this forum and tried the method start either Launchpad or Launch Key app. I followed the directions and used Launchpad. It worked and I had MIDI for about a half hour and took a break and came back and my iPad 4 had gone to lock mode and now it will not do MIDI anymore no matter what I try. I also have a Line 6 Express which works perfectly with the iTrack Dock but I need keys for keyboards.
The unit itself is fantastic and sounds great. I'm currently planning on returning it though because this MIDI business has kicked it to the curb for me. I am not well off enough to go buy yet another MIDI keyboard or another usb MIDI interface, or anything else. Thinking I should have stuck with Alesis. The Dock 1 worked perfect for all it's alleged flaws. There's gotta be something more to it than this Class Compliant only none sense with the iTrack Dock? Again my keyboards are CC and work that way with several other devices.
Focusrite shoulda been on the ball with the USB port before it's release. Sorry not trying to be mean but this tech has developed long enough and I trust their experience in the field to have been better at building it in. To their credit there's 100's of MIDI devices they have to think about or hopefully test. Interesting how the bulk of the controllers supported on the list are Novations. I had to point that out. But I do like Novation gear. Just fix it please :-(
The iTrack Dock works with the M-Audio Axiom Air 25. Did not expect it to. Thought for sure I'd be returning it to GC
I definitely wish I hadn't bought this thing now. It hardly works and when it does it doesn't sound very good compared to my Apogee Jam.
I think the Dock should be recalled over the misrepresentation of its USB MIDI compatibilty feature, but further to that I have one of these defective units which pretty frequently drops the connection with the iPad. Focusrite's Australian distributor wants me to pay for shipping to them for repair, which is supposed to be free under the terms of the warranty. They haven't given a proper indication of how long it would take to get back to me either.
After some grumbling, the retailer I bought it from has kindly offered to reimburse me the shipping cost with store credit, but that's still not really 'free'. Considering I already bought with it a USB class compliant keyboard which should but doesn't work with the Dock, I feel quite burned.
The point is I don't even want it repaired any more, I just don't want it period. The iTrack Dock sucks, is what I'm saying!
I've been kind of following this thread. Would piping the non-working keyboards through a powered USB solve the problem in general?
I've tried every conceivable way to get MIDI working with my keyboards that should work. I've arranged to return this unit back to it's seller. Not impressed with the implementation of this thing. Sound quality wise I liked it and my guitars sound great through it but they should have taken care of this before it hit the stores. Just having that small list of controllers doesn't cut it and it is a deal breaker for a lot of users. I hope they can sort it out and perhaps it will be via firmware update? I'm not waiting around for it. My M-Track has always worked but makes more of a rat's nest of cables.
There's gotta be more going on or not going on with this unit for these keyboards that "should" work. For all intents and purposes they do work with everything else but the iTrack. I was able to get my Korg tAktile keyboard to work which is the only one that "should not" work but I was able to via powered USB hub and then Hub plugged into iTrack but at times it would not work including the boot up one of the Novation apps trick. If I were lucky it worked the first time booting up. The most frustrating of all was my standard class compliant USB MID in/out adapter which works in the most oldest of computers would work sometimes and then other times it wouldn't work at all.
It's midi utilization is not that great. My Keyboards work (luckily) but other things don't.
For instance, hubs don't work, USB midi cables apparently don't, My Logidy USB foot controller doesn't, My Tech21 Midi Mouse doesn't, so I can't use anything but my keyboard, which is fine as that's really all I need presently. It's pretty nice in that it's form factor is great, and it has nice controls and powers the thing
And that's really the main selling point. For some reason only a couple devices power the iPad while your using it. This is HUGE, and I can't imagine why this isn't addressed more urgently.
I absolulely HATE using an audio device and having it run out of power, and THEN not even being able to start it for about ten minutes, as these iOS devices have a lengthy waiting period before you can reboot, which just aggravates the whole thing (I'm getting upset writhing this LOL)
So i'm all over this thing until others come along with normal midi.
Another piece of gear fails to deliver as advertised. Very disappointed. Having the midi usb integration was a big factor for me. It doesn't work. Don't put out your products until they WORK. End of story. Returning my unit.
so tragic about the MIDI. I've been so impressed with the audio components on my Focusrite 2i2, I am surprised to hear about everyone's troubles with MIDI on the iTrack dock.
So I wonder how does audiohub 2x4 performs in that respect?
Just a reminder to anyone thinking of buying this piece of junk, don't do it.
Easily the most half-assed over priced piece of iOS music hardware I've bought and the product support, at least here in Australia, is completely woeful. They refuse to accept there's a problem with it despite its known MIDI issues and a screen cap I provided showing one of its numerous crap outs.
@qaratechop
Is it just the MIDI that is screwy or are you having problems with the audio? I really liked the look of this, but the problems reported have stopped me getting it.
The audio works very well, it's just the bizarre MIDI screw-ups that let it down. They seem random, too - my Arturia Minilab doesn't work on my iTrack Dock, but Doug's Minilab works on his.
That's a real shame. I've got the mini retina and the spec of the itrack dock is just what I'm looking for
I'd have to chime in that I really like the iTrack Dock. Compared with other iPad interfaces available, this one really has most of the features I need--and it sounds good.
I can confirm that indeed the Akai MPK mini MK2 does not work. I have another keyboard that works perfectly (Oxygen 25) and switched it in and out, with the same cable. The Oxygen works every time, the MPK doesn't trigger a single note, although it lights up.
I also want to point out that a previous post in this discussion has some misleading information. Saying that any USB-connected midi keyboard that is plug-and-play (i.e. no drivers) is class compliant and should work with this product is inaccurate. I have other USB-only midi controllers... they are plug-and-play with my PC and Mac AND with the iPad (through the camera connection kit) and yet are incompatible with the iTrack Dock.
While the Oxygen is working flawlessly, I do want a mini keyboard for traveling and will take back the Akai and get a Novation. Too bad as the Akai seems a much better build quality for the same price. However, I like the iTrack enough (although I wish it had DIN midi ports) that I'm not going to let this little niggle bother me. Compatible controllers ARE available--you just have to purchase the right one.