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
love that layout. can you share layouts with morph. if so I’d love to try your out. that looks perfect
I was really tempted to get this but started to question my motivation. I’ve been on the search for a perfect drum controller for ages. McMillen’s bop pad seemed to tick all the boxes but the unit I had would have serious midi inconsistencies also confirmed by some others. So far an Epad driving impaktor was the closest I got to feeling like I was playing a real/physical instrument.
Looking at SM I want to believe that it is the controller I’m after but when I look at people playing it in videos I don’t see physicality but rather fiddly moves to get to communicate with the software. For Comfortable percussive playing it would either need to be mounted on a stand or somehow lodged between ones legs. I don’t know, I hope these lines communicate the frustration I’m feeling.
My experience with silicone keyboards Is limited to qunexus and it was horrible. I ended up with aching finger muscles every time I tried to play chords and then modulate via aftertouch. That’s another story though.
I believe that this could very well be the solution for many and the possibility of having several overlays makes it super flexible. At this price there’s a lot in there but...I’m personally barking up the wrong tree.
@supadom I think your concerns are well founded if you are looking for one controller to rule them all. I find the BP is flawless for playing percussion samples (you and I have confirmed challenges with pitched patches, synthesis, etc) so I only use it for percussion samples. The morph does pitched percussive stuff very well for me. The surface is good for bouncing my fingers off. I use the piano and 4x4 grid overlays and enjoy them both. Here's how I set it up for live use:
me too, although I’m happy with the normal keyboard layout so far, lots of new possibilities. I also have the Thunder layout which I expect to learn this winter. Maybe Sensel will release more prefabricated layouts next year.
Nice! Looks very much like a stand I was using it when I still had it. Unfortunately mine gave me pain with rapid fire note on messages totally unsuitable for stage use. This was even with simple presets with no pressure or radius active. This makes me be more and more convinced that I ended up with some early version or simply a defective unit. Might get it again one day, this time new, from a shop with a return policy.
Judging from the wall sockets I'm guessing you're in the US. I don't know why I had you down as a Londoner!
@supadom yessir, I'm in the US so not a Londoner!
@eross Here’s a link to that 3 octave layout, Sensel map file and SVG on Dropbox:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/omcb5eajtqct8yj/AABGjGdDmpRZcURBzJ_uUlJYa?dl=0
I like to use the CC buttons along the top right side for Group The Loop bindings, then feed NS2 into GTL for live jamming and looping.
cool
thanks
@eross I’m working on adding an XY pad to that one and swapping the knobs for sliders.
What are people's favorite overlays. I am thinking this would be useful in spite of the firmware bug that some experience with the top part of the overlay.
I was thinking Buchla Thunder and creator (blank) overlay. What about the others? Is the texture of the keyboard useful?
The Innovator's overlay (design overlay) is interesting but somewhat disappointing. To begin with, it only stores one configuration at a time. So, while you can print out your own layouts and slide them under the overlay, to change the overlay function you have to hook up to a PC or Mac and download it to the device. If it could store multiple presets and switch between them like the Thunder overlay can it would be more useful.
The overlay itself is pretty opaque, which means anything you print out to place under it is more hard to see than I'd like. It does do a pretty good job of holding what you print out in place though. What you end up with though isn't much of an improvement over, say, a custom layout in Midi Designer Pro directly on the iPad (except that you do have velocity sensitivity). I just don't see as all that useful for myself really, after actually trying it for some things.
(BTW, you can make custom control surfaces without the Innovator's overlay. The Morph with no overlay lets you define custom control areas. If you can affix some visual indicators to the surface itself, you can still make a layout. That might be a good way to experiment to see if it's worthwhile.)
The piano keyboard is OK. The texture is helpful. It does require an far too firm a touch for my taste, and doesn't have any built-in way to set a response curve. Bluetooth can't reliably handle MPE, so you either need to disable the MPE or hook up by USB. For that reason I end up using my NanoKEY Studio more often than this unless I want MPE and don't mind hooking up.
The Music Production overlay is pretty good with some customization. The contours of the controls on this one are excellent. Your fingers just naturally slot into the depressions in the control shapes. It's responsive and feels natural. Pads ... well, there OK I guess - nothing to get excited about though. I recommend this one.
I've heard nothing but praise for the Video Editing overlay. People rave about it with Luma Fusion. I wish I'd gotten this one.
Don't bother with the QWERTY overlay. It's useless. The on-screen keyboard has to be visible on the iOS device when it's in use, and key response is kinda sucky. I returned that one.
I have the drum pad overlay but haven't used it for anything. Works, and supposedly can have lower latency, is about all I can say about it.
IMO the best picks (in order) are: Thunder, Music Production, Keyboard (because MPE), Video Editing.
Thanks @wim
@wim and others: can you confirm that without the innovators overlay, you can still make and use custom morph layouts?
What does one give up by not having the overlay?
According to the manual, yes, but I haven't actually tried. I will do so later this morning and report back. http://guide.sensel.com/designer/#no-overlay.
What you give up is visual feedback of where the controls you've laid out are, unless you find some way of affixing a design. It's just a blank area. Unless you have some clever way of getting a printed design to stick to the surface and to be easy to remove when you don't want it, without the overlay it could be difficult.
The advantage with he innovator's overlay is you have something that you can slip printed designs underneath and they are held in place by the weight of the overlay. They're protected from wear. The overlay has a nice rubbery/smooth texture as opposed to, say a piece of paper stuck to the surface. I noted the disadvantages above.
Gimme an hour or so and I'll actually try it out with a few designs.
Thanks for checking.
If you switch overlays when not connected to desktop, does it automatically know which overlay is on the device or do you have to reconnect to switch?
Hi @espiegel123 - I tried loading a custom layout without having the innovator's overlay on the device. It works as it says it should.
When you switch overlays it knows which one is there without needing to hook up to the desktop. However, with the exception of the Thunder overlay, only one configuration of each layout is stored. So, for instance, if you had more than one setup with different controls assigned to the Music Production overlay's controls, you would have to hook up to the computer and download when you wanted to change between setups for that particular layout. Or, if you wanted to switch between different Innovator designs.
I should note that some things you would expect to be there, are not. Things like being able to change channel for an overlay like the keyboard on the fly, or being able to switch between MPE and non MPE on the keyboard, require hooking up to a computer.
I hope that makes sense.
Thanks. That makes sense. If you don't have the innovator's overlay, will the morph automatically switch to your custom overlay if none of the other known overlays are on the device?
I imagine that for some customization (like MPE to non-MPE keyboard), I might be able to right some Mozaic or Streambyter code to map MPE into something compatible with standard MIDI?
Yes.
I did something along those lines. It seems to work, but I never got much feedback on it, so could have issues I didn't find: https://patchstorage.com/mpe-multiplexer/. (BTW, tested on the Morph, the only MPE hardware I have.)