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.
Pad Contollers
I'm looking to buy a pad controller for triggering loops and if possible variables like synth parameters (filter cutoff, etc) and volume in real time as a performance tool. Also if it could at as a MIDI drum controller would be cool.
Anyone have any recommendations? I hear Push is the best but I don't want to spend $600.
Comments
Akai lpd 8 is very good for the price
Not just pads, but I recently got this to control different aspects of the iPad.
http://www.nektartech.com/Impact-LX49
I've been eyeing up the new Launchpad Pro. Might fit your requirements. Has aftertouch which could be mapped to filter cutoff etc..
and can be a standalone controller, what push cant be
Quneo
I've got the Launchpad Mini and the Launchkey Mini. They are both useful. Provided the app you want to trigger loops from will toggle on MIDI Note ON and you can configure the app, the Launchkey is good. I've just set Diode-108 up to play the pads for example. Also, you get eight rotary knobs which are great for editing / recording MIDI controller messages. But the knobs and pads are fixed, you have to have MIDI learn on the app. The pads are fixed to Ch. 10 and the key mapping is also fixed. The knobs and keys can be set to any MIDI channel, but the knobs have fixed MIDI Controller numbers.
My advice on the Launchpad or Push is that they are both designed for Ableton Live, so a lot of the more esoteric features you see advertised only really work in that environment. The Launchpad mini works well with the Launchpad app, which is the best way to use it for clip launching that I have found. Its lower price makes it not a bad compromise. Pads are fixed to transmit note numbers on Ch. 1. But you can send velocity messages to make the pads light up in different colours, which is cool.
I recently got the Korg Taktile49. They make a 25-key version also. Before I had the Korg nanoControl and nanoPad. Way under $600.
http://www.korg.com/us/products/controllers/taktile/
keep in mind:
In regards to the Taktile49... The fact that it has a Kaoss-type x/y pad sold me. Plus, the 16 drum pads are very responsive for realtime drumming, and can be also used for triggering sequences. Enough buttons, pots and faders for me. After touch would be nice, but most MIDI controllers do not have the x/y pads; that's what really sold me.
There also the original BeatStep. 16 pads, 16 knobs, 16 presets. Very high quality and $99 new. All of these little midi pad controllers can be had for a song in your local Craigslist or used music shop.
Yeah Quneo is a good option, you can send CCs while triggering notes via pressure and things like that.
Maschine controller is another option, you can pick them up on ebay cause people upgrade, really nice tactile pads with a bunch of midi control options and dual screens, endless encoders etc.
You might be able to pick up a mikro cheaply. I'd recommend the mk2 cause it has RGB pads.
You're spot on. I have the new version of the LaunchKey keyboard and I'm using Ableton Live as my main DAW to trigger clips. I love the pads with the new RGB color feature. I just want more of them.
An 8x8 grid is appealing.
Thanks for the info. I checked into the mini and it looks great. At $99 it's a steal! The only thing is that I wish it had is RGB color and knobs. The Launchpad Pro has RGB but is missing knobs. But I think I'm going to have to make a compromise unless I get Push.
Thanks everyone for the suggestions. You guys are mentioning controllers I didn't know existed.
I didn't know you can map filter cutoff to aftertouch.
I got this akai mk2 mini and the pads and rotary's are very responsive. The mk2 also has a note repeat function and a very good arpeggiator with lots of different modes.The keys are too small, but i just felt in love with the tiny size of this "all in one" keyboard and the low price.
Quneo is great with the Ipad. Lightweight, tough, versatile. I love using it with the included iMS-20 template. With the updated firmware it is powered directly from the Ipad via the Camera Connection Kit or Lightning-USB adapter:
Throwing in the M-Audio Trigger Finger Pro. I think you can get it for like $150 now.
@mkell424, are you looking to control the a desktop application like Ableton Live; or just virtual apps within the iOS environment? Also, do you want drum pads; not just trigger pads?
Take a look at these Akai products:
http://www.akaipro.com/category/pad-controllers
Actually I want to do all of those things. Ableton, iOS, drum pads, etc.
@bsantoro Thanks for the Akai link! The APC40 is dope. It's got a 8x8 RGB grid along with sliders and knobs. It's expensive at $399 but the mini version is $99.
@Proto and @musikmachine When you say mkII you are talking about the APC20 or 40 mkII right?
Quneo with Ableton.
Launchpad Pro. Especially if you want something Push-like. In geeking out over mine. The buttons around the outside work great with Live, record, arm, sends, quantise, undo, etc. you have fader mode which is really sweet for non Abelton and it kind of replaces the physical thing. Same thing with drum and note mode. Best bang for your buck i think.
I like the akai mk2 and was looking forward to the launchpad pro myself for a long time, held off getting a push because of it because I wanted to use it with hardware synths and no computer...... the thing that bummed me out is to find out that it doesn't have a bunch of templates like the push as far as scales and stuff like that, what's your thoughts on that aspect of it BvsMV?
the thing about the akai mk2 is that the keys and the pads cannot transmit on different midi channels
@xen With the Launchpad can you split the 8x8 grid into smaller segments for launching clips? For example make 2 8x4 blocks. I can see that coming in handy in Ableton where you can have more than 8 tracks.
I use an iPad Mini with Apollo Midi over Bluetooth and Midi Designer Pro as a midicontroler for my iPad Air. I don't perform live, but it works great in my homestudio setup. And you can make all kinds of controlers you need.
That did bum me out, but since Novation open sourced the thing someone much smarter than me will probably come up with some script to do that. In the meantime you can use something like THUMBJAM in the middle to force the scale to something other than major.
@mkell424 you cannot customize the Session Launch grid, but you can zoom in and out to pick different sections of clips. For example, if you have 16 tracks, it will break it into two sections of 8 that you can quickly switch between. With the pro however, you have all those added controls all integrated into session mode.
I don't know, you might be able to do something like that with Novation's mapping software. I only have the lite version of Live and haven't done much with it yet. You can move the 8x8 positioning for projects that have more than 8 tracks / 8 rows of clips.
Mine akai mpk225 is not bad either
I didn't even think about MIDI controllers until recently, but I have two inexpensive (and very portable) ones that I like quite a bit.
The Akai MPK25 is the best all-in-one USB powered solution, in my opinion. The keys are smallish but have a good amount of spring to them, and from my (very limited) piano playing background, they feel close enough to a real piano to hit some chords or one-handed monophonic passages. The pads I actually didn't like at first, but with the right app and a low latency setup, they are actually terrific. Really benefits from being placed on a solid surface, however. You can play the keys with the device on your lap, but the pads are very sensitive and really need a uniform surface pressure below the device, and then they'll respond great.
For my laptop case, I picked up a Korg NanoKey2, which is 25 "keys" but probably half the size of the Akai MPK25. They make a pad controller too that is the same size (roughly). But I'm including the NanoKey2 here because the buttons really are as much like pads as they are like piano keys. And they have so little travel to them that I think it doubles nicely as a keyboard-based input for drums/samples (like a SoundFont/GM-mapped sample where C2 is bass drum, etc.). As a traditional keyboard, it has limitations, but works decent and is extremely thin and portable.
Akai LPD8, small and simple no fuss, if that is what you are after. Had to do the "pad hack" tho, to make the pads more responsive.
good idea, hadn't thought of putting tj in the mix