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.
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Process MIDI via LK
Hi everybody 
I'm currently on my quest looking for my "perfect" MIDI sequencer/piano-roll on iOS. Thinking of Atom2, Xequence, LK, Helium.
Atm am testing Imaginando LK for filtering/processing the CC messages from the MIDI keyboard (an Oxygen49) and play a synth; but I can't seem to get LK work with such a simple use case.
I've:
- loaded Audiobus
- added my controller as new MIDI Input
- then add a Synth as target Output
Sounds fine.
I then
- load LK as a MIDI Effect
...and nothing plays anymore.
Seems like it is receiving no input by default...
... nor it is outputting by default (I tried adding manually & playing notes in the piano-roll but the synth is still not played).
The Oxygen is correctly sending messages; but none gets into or comes out of LK, when I monitor via MidiSpy.
I'd like to setup even more complex routings, use LK as MIDI processor so that I can sequence notes & for changing the scale and assigning it to all the blank notes of my MIDI controller (I'm too lazy for trying to manually avoid the non-in-scale notes).
Unfortunately I can't setup even the basic setup.
Of course I AM doing something wrong.
But what?
Comments
I've never used LK as a MIDI effect. Why don't you load it 'in it's own lane'/as a MIDI node and then point your controller to it in a different lane?
... to spare lanes and keep the setup minimal without having to do too much routing for just a single instance of LK? Did I mention I'm that lazy? 😅
However doesn't seem to work even like that.
Even if I simply add an LK midi-input to Audiobus and midi-output as the synth, doesn't play (either if I tap notes in LK or if I draw a sequence to play) 🤷♂️ .
@Pictor , it's a weird situation. I can't remerber the last time I've launched Audiobus, but I've just tried to :
Sounds fine.
I then
... and… STILL sounds fine
Mmmh.. are you sure you aren't receiving the MIDI from the global omni channel?
Because otherwise, if I understand midi correctly, the signal from KB-1 reaches the synth anyway, although messages get monitored also from LK.
I've been trying with iTuttle as synth (it's free). Via direct MIDI it works (standalone or via autobus routing).
To be sure that the MIDI is arriving only from Audiobus (and not straight from the midi controller), in iTuttle I disabled the MIDI Port linked to Ogyxen49, used Omni as input-channel, and left enabled only input from Audiobus3.
But even though in Audiobus the routing goes from the MIDI keyboard into iTuttle, I can't hear anything.
Ok, figured out. I was using iTuttle app as destination.
That worked fine with the MIDI controller directly, but to get the output notes playing in the LK piano roll one should choose the MIDI destination from the System tab and choose "iTuttle IN" among the VIRTUAL MIDI devices.
That way the notes are received by iTuttle either statically from LK's piano-roll and from LK routing the controller signal. But still achieving to avoid to getting the control signal directly.
And so, finally after the tech issues, I've managed to test what I actually wanted:
see if LK would be able to remap the configured scale/octave and spread it onto (only) the white midi controller keys, avoiding/skipping the keys that are out of scale.
Or I am missing something, or doesn't look like it supports that....
A pity given that free apps like Sequencism do it almost right, although they just mute the out-of-scale notes.
I guess I'll have to keep searching for the right sequencer/piano-roll....
You're pushing the MIDI test too far for me !
… I'm a REAL "MIDIot" 
I've just (re)tried again to :
I press play in Audiobus and it sounds fine.
Then :
That's all I can say
Why in the world would you want to use LK as a MIDI processor?
LK is a fantastic clip based sequencer but not a MIDI processor covering what you've described.
Perhaps to use it as a sequencer with, after setting every up, a very clear vision of what (controller) goes where (synth) 🤔
Exactly 🙂
LK almost has it all. It’s a great Ableton-style clip sequencer, combined with a good piano roll and chorder.
It’s all I’m missing in one, a great software for focusing on scaffolding compositions!
And it could become the central environment for my workflow either
Atom 2 is (really) good only at the first point. It’s my other hot candidate for composing.
IMHW, the scaling of the keyboard for easy playing is an important requirement I want to set up and stop thinking about.
The alternative, I would like to avoid, is to setup some solution external to LK, a (paid?) app only for remapping the scales.
It would be yet another “layer” in the production toolchain; and I suppose it would be hard to make it interoperable well with LK own system of applying scales, ending with potentially compromising the use of its piano roll.
LK is so close to it!! 😬
Mmh maybe the difference depends on what midi your synth listens to; supposedly the channel 1 only from the direct midi input. While iTuttle can choose different midi sources, not only change the channel.
Otherwise… I’m not sure of my understanding of midi messages broadcasting; I’d say that even when LK is not armed your synth would still receive all messages on channel 1 anyway (coming from your midi controller sending in that channel).
🤷♂️ But thanks for trying 🙃
A significant part of your problem is caused by trying to use an IAA synth app (the free iTuttle). iTuttle listens to the Audiobus virtual MIDI output port, so you need to connect to iTuttle via that port (in the System menu). Alternatively, you can launch iTuttle from Audiobus, by adding it as a MIDI output; then it will connect gracefully. But if you launch iTuttle stand-alone, you have to use the Audiobus virtual port, as you described earlier. This has nothing to do with LK.
If you select AUv3 apps, things are much simpler.
Yes i was launching iTuttle from Audiobus, but didn’t pay attention to what mode it used, I’m still not much confident with what IAA implies differently from AUv3, especially regarding midi routing.
But yeah the solution was to choose iTuttle as Virtual Midi destination rather than touring to the instance of the app loaded in AU3. I didn’t know there were shades in how routing is done for midi devices or for iaa.
But yes you are right, it wasn’ta problem of LK
AUv3 apps receive MIDI from the host, and send MIDI to the host via internal connections. They are essentially wrapped by the host. IAA apps are much more like cooperating processes, communicating over whatever ports are available.
Aaaaah! That explains iTuttle behaviour!
Thank you for making it clear!
It's a relevant detail to keep in mind, given I'm going down the rabbit hole with MIDI routing 😁 and few times it was hard to reason on what was going on inside Audiobus.