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.
Akai EIE vs ? (looking for as much midi as possible)
I'm seeing all sorts of love for the Akai EIE on these boards. And I'm especially impressed by the 3 USB ports in addition to DIN connections. Are there any other contenders? I'm more interested in MIDI flexibility than audio inputs...
Comments
Do you absolutely need MIDI ports, or would USB ports do the job for ya? If USB works, you can get any audio interface, and run that and any other MIDI devices via-USB into a powered hub that's class compliant, run the hub into an Apple CCK, and into the iOS device. I do this with a Focusrite Scarlett 2i4, and it works great.
If you need classic MIDI ports, the Focusrite has MIDI in/out ports and you could run a MIDI hub with that. Or there's the Griffin MIDIConnect 4+ that's just come out. That's received a lot of attention here.
EIE is USBv1. I don't know if this matters in general use but, as I understand it, everything connected to the EIE will be forced to use USBv1 speed, even if they're USBv2 devices.
just a question to someone who have the EIE PRO for ipad usecases:
Did it charge the ipad too?
can you use more then 2 i/o channels (all4ins/outs??)
can you direct plug in and use 3 device (controller/keyboards/pads) or more with a passive hub?
THX!
@obiwahnkentobi said:
No
Yes, but you can't mix 1/4" inputs and XLR inputs within each pair. Still, you could have two XLR devices and two 1/4", or four of either. You can't have three 1/4" and one XLR.
It has three USB ports, so you can use three midi controllers without a hub. I haven't tried using more than three, so I'm not sure if a hub would work with that.
I thought the EIE Pro was not class compliant, only the older EIE.
You're right...I missed where Pro was specified. Good catch @Zymos.
Since the EIE (only 16bit/44.1 btw - I would stick to 24bit) is not MFi and does not charge the iOS device, there are no benefits to having the USB ports on the back of the unit compared to just using an external hub except for the convenience of not having a separate component and I suppose different powering options.
Since devices like the Steinberg UR44 and some RME devices work with their dedicated mixer app when connected via usb (most devices require MFi to run the dedicated mixer app like the Apogee stuff), if you combine that with an external hub that really gives you the most options.
Until someone makes an audio I/O device that is MFi that has a usb port that accepts a usb hub, then there will always be some limitations. The iconnectivity audio4+ is the closest, but not sure how good the mixer app will be, sound quality, etc.
@Ringleader said:
Food for thought, thanks...
So an alternative scenario would simply be to attach a powered hub to my CCK, and then any audio interface / midi devices to the hub?
Not any audio/MIDI interface- they have to be class compliant.
Ok, so I've basically got my system going with existing gear via the hub. Thanks, saved me $200!
One question though. I'm using an Alesis MultiMix 4 as my audio interface, but can't seem to send iPad audio back to the iPad. I can record a mic or other external input into the iPad via the MultiMix, but even though the MultiMix is receiving iPad audio, I can't route it back through to apps like Loopy or Samplr. I guess I should do all that via AudioBus? Or am I confused about something?