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.
Small Bluetooth Midi Keyboard for iPhone
Hi Team
Just wondering if there is a small (around an iPhone and a half sized) bluetooth midi keyboard for use with iPhone? I've got so many wonderful apps on my iPhone that I often only use on iPad as it's just too fiddly to try to play ideas into it. Even just for patch creation with some of the wonderful synths that are iPhone and iPad compatible so I can take them across to my iPad setup for more complex work.
TIA!
Comments
Found the Akai LPK25 Wireless which looks perfect, however it’s discontinued and can’t see any second hand units here in Australia.
Maybe an iOS compatible usb keyboard that allows the iPhone to sit on it (locked in if that makes any sense!)
Did you check Korg nanokey studio? It has unconventional keys, but works very well with iOS
Another contender could be CME xkey air
Thanks so much @branis Gee the CME looks perfect but sadly it costs way too much to get here in Australia. So weird as I’d forgotten about the Nanokey Studio. That may be the one although still a bit pricey for my use case.
My idea is to be able to use this in the little pockets of time that arise and even a little dabble in bed before sleep. Could be done with cables but it takes some flexibility and ease of use out of these scenarios.
Oh, I forgot about another korg, the microkey air. It's available from 25-61keys and people who have them seem to like the key action.
You could also look at CME WIDI master or WIDI jack, they turn any midi keyboard into a bluetooth one
Thanks so much for your input, really appreciate it. Will dig into all these options and see what looks best.
So glad you mentioned the Microkey Air as just checked Amazon and the Korg store have it at a 60% + discount ($73 AUD). Just nabbed it as it looks good (if a little wider than I would like) and the price is too good to say no to. Thanks again.
The korg Microkey air is very cool . Latency is very low thanks to the BLE protocol and the keys are very nice. I have the 25 and 37 keys
That’s so good to hear. Really looking forward to this setup for the iPhone and finally wringing some musical usefulness out of it.
Now to work out how to jerry rig something so the iPhone can sit steadily on the back of the keyboard.
that's a great price!
I have a phone/tablet holder similar to this one, it's very flexible so you can elevate your phone over the keyboard
Yeh pretty sweet deal eh! Ahh that stand looks interesting. Particularly if I could get the bottom part secured to the bottom of the keyboard. Velcro may do it.
Love it! Great little setup JM. The irig looks good from what I’ve read. The test for my casual setup will be “does it work in bed”. Which, as it happens, is a universal test for many different things in life.
I have both the 25 and 37 key versions of the iRig Keys 2 with mini keys (vs the Pro’s full size keys).
Great keyboards, nice action and the audio interface means it can work brilliantly with an iPhone.
The 25 doesn’t have mod or pitch bend wheels, and also doesn’t let you transpose. But it is tiny…
I’ve been looking at this one as well I just wish it had 2 inputs instead of 1. I could always sum a stereo to mono but it’s not ideal. How is it besides that?
For those using Bluetooth keyboards, can you use Bluetooth headphones at the same time without issue?
It works but the big issue is latency. It's no fun to play live or record with a metronome and end up with notes recorded too late if you're using Bluetooth headphones.
Apple haven't made the new iPads with musicians in their minds
Thanks for this. I assumed it wouldn’t be ideal. Hopefully good enough for sketching though. Will see once my Microkey Air arrives!
Yeah, you might be able to get used to it somewhat if you're using one of the newer low-latency BT headphones.
Another option for a low cost Bluetooth MIDI keyboard is the Midiplus AKM320BT. I picked one up on Amazon.com for less than $50 USD. This is a Bluetooth version of the AKM320 which is pretty much the lowest priced MIDI keyboard you can buy. The BT version adds Bluetooth MIDI, TRS midI out with included DIN adapter, and a switch for battery operation on two AAs or USB. The key action and velocity is not great but quite usable and it has real pitch and mod wheels. It’s also pretty compact at about 18 inches wide.
Most keyboard vendors charge a ridiculous premium for Bluetooth but it only costs an extra $10 from Midiplus. The downside is finding one - for some reason the AKM320BT is not widely available.
I've been looking for something like this, and surprised there wasn't more available. I've gotten a lot of use out of the Korg Nanostudio, but if I can find something even smaller, that would be nice.
CME WIDI products can turn almost anything into a bluetooth controller. So if you have an existing keyboard or several you can attach one of the bluetooth adapters and - viola
These look good, as does the Midiplus keyboard. Luckily I was able to pick up a new Kong Microkey2 Air for $70AUD off Amazon which I think will fit the bill nicely. Timing is everything as if I'd not written this post I probably wouldn't have looked for the Korg, but I did and managed to do it when Korg were dropping 60+% off them.
to be clear, the latency is bluetooth audio's. it isn't because bluetooth midi is happening at the same time. bluetooth audio is high latency even with wired midi.
Gotcha! Will see how it goes and if it's horrid then cabled headphones will have to be the way. This is all for super casual musical notes/sketching so hopefully the latency is bearable for such purposes.
Also bought a cheap iPhone wallet flip case which I will velcro to the top of the keyboard so the phone can stay in place and also sit up. I can see it working in my head at least