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.
Loopy hd and blue board
I'm contemplating getting an iPad mini running a second instance of loopy. I'd be running my iPad Air with impaktor/loopy and some synths in parallel. My question is: is IK Multimedia Blueboard capable of running with loopy hd in the background or is it only confined to the foreground app like most qwerty keyboards are?
Comments
It says on ik's blueboard page
Features:
Bluetooth MIDI pedalboard (10m/32.8' range)
4 backlit assignable foot switches
2 1/4" inputs for assignable expression pedals or switches
Can send Bank Change, MIDI Program Changes and MIDI Control Changes
BlueBoard iOS app runs in background on mobile device or Mac, and translates Bluetooth messages to MIDI
Runs on standard AAA batteries
Small enough to fit in a laptop bag
http://www.ikmultimedia.com/products/irigblueboard/
I am also thinking about getting one, anybody knows if the switches can be changed to 'touch' mode? Or they just work as 'latch' ?
Cheers. I've read that but I'd rather hear it from someone who's actually using it. Just in case
I'm not too bothered about momentary, I have akai mpk mini's pads all set to latch and that works well with loopy.
Yeah! I was thinking about momentary to be able to spare one of those pedals to be a sustain, or to do tap tempo
My Blueboard runs loopy great... if you add other apps into the mix it controls them ALL. The one way to get around this is to reload an IK app and not register Blueboard with that app yet... say SampleTank. Otherwise it will run them all. There are some threads over on midi bridge soapbox that discuss using blueboard in various and unique ways. Basically the Blueboard can do quite a bit, about every week I discover some way of using it for more. IDK if it serves every individual purpose, it's getting to the point where some are just to picky and want it to wipe for them after the toilet. That's not meant particularly at anyone in this thread.... just the world of iOS in general
You have blue board @ShawnLeonhardt? Is it awesome? I want to buy but thought I was in a small crowd.
Brilliant, thanks @ShawnLeonhardt. I was going to wait for the positive grid pg-4 which looks a bit more solid but it is not on the market yet.
@boone51 it seems like there's more of us than any of us can imagine but only the bravest will ever do ipad looping on stage in front of larger crowds. I think the potential is huge but 'screen time' has to be drastically reduced and controllers like that are gold. I can only hope there will be more of different ones to buy. Looping hasn't been this exciting in years. Like, when I first realised that Thumbjam can loop different loop lengths I was blown away. I don't think that has been possible in hardware looping pedals?
Anyway, good times!
The BlueBoard has made my life easier in a few basic ways;
Just setting 4 presets for Loopy makes it a better app. So instead of hitting loopy with fingers and grabbing guitar in right spot I just foottap and countdown. Sometimes it has to be tapped twice, like to clear. Really that may sound basic but it just makes loopy easier to use.
It's great when doing demos. If you give lessons or do shows you can wow a crowd by just switching presets with your feet.
Of course it takes the place of a pedalboard. Yes it is still young and controls all apps, but like I mentioned keeping it simple helps avoids this. I use to have to stop recording for a solo and pedal change. Makes my finished piece more real.
Most of all... When I record a piece of app or game music or a kids song on my mac or iPhone, I need to find the right sound. I use keyboard, midi guitar, or theremin, to record the midi and then I set my BlueBoard to scan randomly and I can just sit back and loop the song while I search for the right sound. This may sound very basic but it has saved my eyes and back and allowed me to make some great music.
I look for apps or computers programs that increase my ideas or workflow and my BlueBoard does that.
Of course as mentioned people are using it with midibridge in awesome ways like firing off notes. Takes some programming in midibridge though.
I'm using the BlueBoard live, as I make music to accompany a dance group. I've kept the switching very simple for now: 1st button is "next", 2nd is "previous", 3rd is "selected loop off", 4th is "all loops off". And yes it does work with Loopy in the background.
@supadom Loopy has a pretty active forum. You'll get more answers there.
@syrupcore said:
That's what I thought until I posted a couple of discussions with no replies at all. I posted a notification this avo at 4.30 about ab2 news and so far no one has replied. I know, possibly a wrong forum but even strict loopy users should be in some way affected by today's news? Anyhow, I've got my answer
Can confirm.
@Sebastian said:
Cheers @Sebastian I don't think I've congratulated you about today's ios marvel so.??CONGRATS and big thanks for making music so much easier!
Bluetooth keyboard binding ONLY function for the foreground app. I don't have a blue board but I don't see why it would be any different.
It may be different @b0bert0 if it uses different bluetooth protocol.
This is what @SecretBaseDesign wrote about it in a relevant thread not long ago':
'To follow up a bit (after a month and a half of digging through Bluetooth in Xcode/iOS7)….
There's Bluetooth 2.1, which is what most QWERTY keyboards, mice, and other stuff like that support. It looks like Apple is locking down on access to Bluetooth 2.1; there are some API back-doors available, but would likely bring the app ban hammer. I was hoping to get access to a QWERTY keyboard while running in the background, but it looks like that won't happen. All of the Apple devices support Bluetooth 2.1.
Then there's Bluetooth 4.0/LE, which is wide-open for developers to do what they want. Bluetooth 4.0 does not connect to QWERTY keyboards, and all the old Bluetooth stuff you might already have, but new things (such as the BT-4) use it. There are Bluetooth 4.0 boards for the Arduino, and the chips are inexpensive and easy to use -- I expect to see a lot of Bluetooth 4.0 gadgets in the future. On iOS, Bluetooth 4.0 apps can run in the background; Apollo uses this to send MIDI between iOS devices and Macs.
The iPad 1 and 2, and iPhone 4 and earlier, support only Bluetooth 2.1. iPad 3 and later, and iPhone 4S and later, support both Bluetooth 2.1, and 4.0.
It's possible to have Bluetooth 2.1 and 4.0 going at the same time. For example, you might have a full-featured app that uses a standard Bluetooth 2.1 QWERTY keyboard as a controller (allowing keyboard letters to trigger MIDI notes, chords, program changes, channel changes, etc). Sequencers such as Genome, that have MIDI Learn, could be driven from the keyboard in this way. Such an app would need to run in the foreground, and might have an on-screen keyboard as well, letting you control multiple other synths and sequencers running in the background. It might have Audiobus too, just because that would be useful. While this app needs to be in the foreground, you could use Apollo and a Bluetooth 4.0 connection to hook up to another iOS device (where something else could be in the foreground). Hypothetically speaking, of course ;-).'
Sold my boss rc 3 and bought blueboard to arrive Tuesday. I'll report on how it's binding and on the construction which from the pictures doesn't inspire much confidence
Ok. Had my blueboard for about a week and really enjoying it. Wished there were more switches though! I'm looking at those inputs for expression pedals and I'm wondering what would happen if I put my sustain pedal in? I also have a latching pedal laying around. Anyone tried that?
@supadom - I don't have a sustain pedal, but if it uses a 2 contact (TS) plug then it most likely won't work.
Take a look at this http://www.strymon.net/tag/expression-pedal/
It explains the basic expression pedal. They typically use a pot or an optical sensor (like the FCB1010).
If you've got an old volume or effects pedal you could probably build one.
@Ganthofer said:
Yep, I've heard of that lead. The problem is this is for a continuous controller. I'm really after extending the number of switches as I'm wanting to control loopy and ampkit with it and I run out of switches. Well, not really, but I have to compromise (which I don't like much
). Fortunately there is that bank change function where you long-press left pedal and can move to another bank, therefore hopefully another set of midi messages. Cheers for your info Ganthofer.
@supadom did you try the sustain pedal? I would've thought you'd able to get some kind of response from it.
I'll give it a go later today and report back
Ok, just tested both: yamaha sustain pedal and a latching on-off pedal. Both send cc messages ok but I didn't quite manage to make them work with loopy. So I ended up mapping on-off switch to 'next set up' in amp kit to toggle my 3 fav presents. I set it up to both 'momentary' and 'expression' in the settings. The sustain pedal does the same thing but seems like there's more flashing when changing presets so the software is receiving more messages that it needs. Still haven't actually tried it with the guitar plugged in but I expect it will work ok. Having the extra switch allows me to map all of the blueboard switches to loopy hd's toggle mute which on first press records and consecutively toggles between mute/unmute which suits me perfectly. Yay!
After using the board for a few weeks you will be good at page switching. So extra buttons will not be as big a deal.
You will discover a lot of fun things with the board. I love to set mine up in magellan and other synths and just start playing the keyboard while switching sounds and effects. I have like 23 presets in magellan
Cool!
@supadom
What made you change your mind about waiting for the Positive Grid BT foot switch?
@TGiG said:
I'm not very good at waiting ;-)
This is sweet
@supadom cool setup! How do you find the Roland trigger running into Impaktor? It seems like a good way to go for live performance but I can't shake the fact that it doesn't have the same natural tonal variation you get playing with the mic.
@thatsRayor yeah, I've noticed that too. Are you talking about the built-in mic or a contact mic? I've noticed that a steel pan with a contact mic works better than the epad, especially on some patches. I have a cajon patch I've programmed with distinct bass and slap tones and I can't really get a good separation on the epad. The rubber playing surface feels lush on the hands though and has a very natural playing feel similar to djembe. The dynamics is a deal breaker though so I'm sticking to the pan, the epad was just for the picture
Edit: I'm loving this set up because it is completely ipad powered but I had to drop my akai mpk mini controller so no synth action here, apart from impaktor's bass synth hits.
Yeah, it's the dynamics that keeps luring me back to Impaktor. I've only tried the built-in mic (on a desk or wherever) and a Roland mesh pad, but the pan sounds like an idea. What kind of contact mic are you using? Some kind of piezo thing?
This one here. I bought it in the uk. This one is in the us I think but this is the exact piezo element I'm using.
http://www.tomtop.com/piezo-contact-microphone-pickup-for-guitar-violin-banjo-mandolin-ukulele-i196.html?aid=box&gclid=CI7-_4WI4r0CFTMetAodvxoAGA