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.
Comments
@cinebient same review here as @dwarman. Pretty incredible for the price. On the negative column is that not only can you not rename the presets but you also can not copy a preset. So if you just want another preset with a few tweaks, can't do it—even via the software editor.
@syrupcore: Thank you. I think i can live with it. It sounds very good. I order one tomorrow or monday. Komplete Elements is a nice extra. Especially the orchestrial stuff. For this price the package is a steal
I also don't like that there is only a tiny indication on the screen to let you know if you're in the A bank or the B bank of a preset. Minor niggle really but niggles add up.
Have you looked into the nektar line yet? More money (panorama anyway) but since you're doing a lot of desktop work you might want to look into them. Pretty incredible.
Do the Nektars play nice with iOS?
After you mentioned it, yes
But i think it's a bit too expensive for me. A aftertouch keyboard with 49 keys (which i want) cost nearly 2X the price then. I can get the Samson Graphite 49 for 130€ which is hard to find in this category. Not that i'm a good player now, so for a beginner it should be a cheap device if i through it into the wall when hitting to much wrong notes 
Actually you can copy via the editor. Save, change patch, then Load.
Yes, iPad Air via CCK powers it fine. No number on for how long (I keep screen brightness at 25%), but has lasted loner than my noodling energy.
The Graphite or Nektar?
Sorry, the Graphite.
Indeed, the Nektar P4 (which has similar options) cost a lot more.Then the black keys are to high that you could hit them when reaching a button behind them etc. But the most downside. You need 2 USB cable. One for connecting and one (propreitary) for power. Samson Graphite hands down for me. Order it now
@dwarman said:
What?? Awesome. I'll give that a shot, thank you. Thought when I tried that it overwrote the original patch(as if the patch number were saved within the preset file).
Damn, why we have no samsons here locally? Bought mpk 2nd generation.
For anyone looking for a very affordable full size 49 key midi controller that does all the basic things I would highly recommend the Acorn Masterkey.
@Cinebient @dwarman @Tritonman2: still happy with your Carbon after those few months?
I'm considering a 49 keys too and for now it is probably between this one or a second hand MPK49. How is the feel of the keyboard like?
Yes, good question. Would like to hear recent feedback also...
Mine is a Graphite, not a Carbon - has all the knobby bits too. I don't beat on it that hard. Feel is OK, about par for the price.
For real feel when I want that I turn to my A80, but that is not at all portable. For manageable Aftertouch the DX7 keyboard does pretty well.
Main complaint: not yet found a way to make it not send a Program Change when you change presets.
Secondary: The last little bit of travel requires more force and is used to send Channel Aftertouch, but it is a switch and only sends one (configurable) value. So I leave that set to 0 and don't use it.
if you've got the bread, spring for the AKAI MPK249. very nice feeling semi-weighted keys, 16 amazing drum pads and 8 apiece assignable faders and infinity knobs.
I know this is an ongoing dialogue (as it should be with upgrades, price changes etc etc), but hard -at my wife's pricepoint- to look further than Nektar Impact LX49 right now. 159 US on Amazon and people seem to like it. Seems to be in the place between the entry level and the loads more money...
I have my eye on the impact lx to. But haven't found out if all the knobs and sliders works with cubasis and/or autia out of the box?!
I was thinking of the impact Lx49 too, by wonder if the iPad will fit nicely on the screen area. Currently it sits perfectly over the screen area of the church's MOXF6.
I've recently boxed up my Graphite 49. it's headed for Criagslist. It's a good controller and great for the scratch. The 'always send a program change' thing is a bummer. No way to 'save as' and no way to rename presets was also a bummer. My least favorite thing was lack of good/clear/bright/no-thinking feedback about which bank you were currently using (each preset has an A and a B bank, doubling the amount of sliders/buttons/knobs)—it's a very small on-screen indication vs, say, leaving the bank button lit. Don't make me think. Or squint. I quite like the keybed itself and the sheer number of controls, particularly with the banking, is really impressive.
Anyway, boxed because I found a used Novation X-Station 49. The X-station is the only controller I know of that is set up for synthesizers, specifically, instead of the 'banks of 8 are totally musical, right?' convention started by Mackie. It helps with muscle memory which helps me feel like I'm playing an instrument when playing soft synths — the filter is here, the osc section there, the envelopes are over here... always. Of course, it doesn't perfectly align with all soft synths but so far, the main bits I want to control in iPad synths have a logical and pre-labeled home on the x-station. Bonus: has a nice blank spot for the iPad and there's a 3 osc VA synth and an arpeggiator built in.
It seems sort of silly that there aren't more MIDI keyboard controllers designed specifically for controlling synthesizers seeing as that's what most of us do with them! Hope some one else goes for it. The novation has been out of production for a long long time.