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.
New low cost MPE midi keyboard - "Keith McMillen K-Board C"
Not sure if it's been mentioned already but Keith McMillen just launched a revision of its K board with the addition of MPE. At this price it's gonna be hard to resist. Not crazy about the design though.
https://www.keithmcmillen.com/products/k-board/
Comments
Crazy.. Thanks for posting
keithmcmillen.com has left the internet...
?
not here.
I have the k-board and it's my favorite controller to play. It also has an iOS parameter editor which works great. This seems to just be a re-release in new colors from the manual and design.
It's interesting they added MPE to the lower cost version of the Qunexus. That means the more expensive one only has the sequencer and arp over the K-Board now I think.
So how does the expression work, is it your horizontal position on the key, or really the tilt of the key, or is it surface area like with the microfreak (i guess not?) or pressure?
Hmm I might have to get one. My USB hub doesn’t have a C input except for charging though. I assume a little USB C-to-A adapter will do the trick.
I miss the headphone jack so much. Would be so nice to be able to just plug this in and throw headphones on like back in the olden days.
You basically rock each key forward and backward to trigger the expression, like a bunch of teeter totters but without a clearly defined middle point. It’s expressive and you can change the sensitivity if you want.
Other than the USB-C and colored plastic, what is different from the previous K-Board? I have two and I think they're just great, but they've always had MPE, so maybe I'm missing something.
Does a colored housing and USB-C upgrade justify the extra $20? The old ones were $99 - maybe just inflation?
or just get a usb C to A cable?
Unfortunately the unit I already have (6 years) is too well built. It will probably last my entire lifetime. If they included a sequencer though . . . .
Hmm, a refurbished black one is only $79.
Don’t get the black, the rubber coating gets super sticky and nasty after awhile. Known issue, it’s why all the newer ones are a harder plastic. And bright colors sadly.
Easter colors…
Interesting - I've not had that experience with either of mine and I've taken them literally all over the world. That being said, I HAVE had that happen with other items and it is thoroughly annoying, so I feel you if that's been your experience.
Been interested in this for a while. Might have to snatch it up.
So MPE isnt a new addition?
Not unless there's some functionality they added that I'm not aware of - my 1st gen K-Boards are both MPE.
Thanks for the black tip, was about to order one as early xmas present to myself. Guess I’ll go aqua baybee
A $20 inflation isn’t much when compared to the INSANE synth price jumps of the last couple years.
That "Galaxy" color is black but without the rubber coating, right?
Edit: eh it's gray-ish apparently, still subdued enough for my taste
Honestly, I'd pay $20 to change my K-board's color and get usb-C
I'm avoiding any further K. McMillen products. I have a BopPad, and it started falling apart pretty quickly after only a few uses. Also, they never created an app for it, as promised in their Kickstarter, so any edits have to be done on a desktop, which makes it dopey for use in an iOS setup.
Hmph!
Just got my aqua K-Board. It’s so cute! However, don’t use the iOS app with it. It tries to revert the firmware from 1.1 to 1.0, and when it does, it always crashes. So I had mine bricked immediately until I sought out a friend’s laptop. I don’t understand why you can’t turn on MPE functionality in the app, and some of the tilt and bend settings are a little wonky. And with MPE on, I’m not getting any glide in Animoog. Maybe I need to tweak it some more, but right now it’s getting returned. But man it’s so cute!
Yes, the iOS app for K-Board is obsolete. Last updated 7 years ago.
You need an editor v1.2.1 which is only available on Windows or MacOS
K-Board Editor and Firmware Changelog
Editor 1.2.1, Firmware 1.1.0 (2022-10-06)
New Features:
Fixes:
This got me curious, how is glide/horizontal movement supposed to work with the K-Board and QuNexus? Do they implement release velocity as well?
This is what I’m trying to figure out right now by diving into videos. At this point I’m not sure if it has horizontal pressure?? And I cant get the vertical tilt to do much on any cc setting. And the pitch bend pad is totally unreliable. Gonna read up before I chunk it because I love the compactness and maybe I’m being stupid, but right now it’s not what it advertises.
Hm, from the (outdated) online documentation, I'd bet that it doesn't implement horizontal movement or tilt at all and one would either use the pitchbend pad (not polyphonic) or tilt remapped to horizontal (kinda weird for pitch)
Yeah I’m sending this back. It’s a piece of junk and my bend key is broken. I “think” I got the Windows software to put it in MPE mode, because it made it get very glitchy all of a sudden. The tilt function can’t be used as a mod wheel either since the default position is halfway, and it’s nearly impossible to tilt it down to off, even with the sensitivity at 100z.
Really should’ve known better for the price, but so many people have touted these that I thought it could be an exception. Bleh. Now the hassle or reboxing and shipping.