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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Audiobus is the app that makes the rest of your setup better.

iMS-20 Patch Panel, come and learn just how awesome the iMS-20 is

edited November 2014 in App Tips and Tricks

I put together a chart that details the Patch Panel of the iMS-20:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0ByWjlLzXs5mPRFBRd3c3amhneDFSUkNZREw0WjdCXzhTdFBF/view?usp=sharing

This chart was the product of:

  1. Korg having their iMS-20 manual online only
  2. Korg doing next to nothing to explain the Patch Panel in the online manual
  3. Me seeking and finding the answers to the mysterious questions surrounding the iMS-20 Patch Panel

The chart actually more or less explains it all believe it or not, even in it's simplicity. I always liked the sound I could get from the synth, but never quite knew what I was doing, so I decided to put the time in and it was well worth the reward. The iMS-20 is an absolute beast. The cherry on top of it all is that each pattern can use it's own patch, so in song mode you can string together patterns with different patches!

If you still have questions about the iMS-20 after viewing this chart I, or maybe even someone else, may be able to help.

Do yourself a favor and check out this synth if you haven't already.

Comments

  • I guess one of the reasons why Korg didn't provide much information about the patch panel is because it is not different to the one found in the original hardware. One can find plenty of information about it on the internet.

  • Here's a nice article too :-)

    http://www.askaudiomag.com/articles/unraveling-the-korg-ims-20-patch-panel

    Mind if I share your link above more widely @1P18 ?

  • @Phil999 said:

    I guess one of the reasons why Korg didn't provide much information about the patch panel is because it is not different to the one found in the original hardware. One can find plenty of information about it on the internet.

    The rest of the manual is pretty comprehensive though. Then when you get to the most complex part of the synth there's only a few sentences. It rather peculiar.

    All in all the Patch Panel is actually pretty straight forward once you realize what's going on. Hopefully this chart helps to bridge the gap for people needing it.

  • @MusicInclusive said:

    Here's a nice article too :-)

    http://www.askaudiomag.com/articles/unraveling-the-korg-ims-20-patch-panel

    Mind if I share your link above more widely @1P18 ?

    That article was one of a few that helped me understand the iMS-20 further, and no I don't mind at all if you share, that's what it's for.

  • edited November 2014

    :-) Cool. Thx.

  • Good effort @1P18 I liked the '20' from the getgo and way back when but was always pretty certain I was only scratching the surface. You're confirming that :)

  • Quick question: I've avoided buying any of the Korg apps (excluding Gadget) because to the best of my knowledge all of their apps are locked to midi channel 1, which just won't work with my rig. Is it possible to remap them in any way? If nothing else, it looks like MidiBridge should do this, but has anyone tried it yet?

  • @1P18 You are brilliant my friend and your graph is now a printed out pin-up in all of its beauty...mmm patch porn.

  • Tim Webb at Discchord done some of his earlier everyone can play videos on MS 20 and patch making.

    https://m.youtube.com/results?q=discchord&sm=3

  • @Accent said:

    Quick question: I've avoided buying any of the Korg apps (excluding Gadget) because to the best of my knowledge all of their apps are locked to midi channel 1, which just won't work with my rig. Is it possible to remap them in any way? If nothing else, it looks like MidiBridge should do this, but has anyone tried it yet?

    I'm sure I found a way of running ipoly6 and ims20 simultaneously in cubasis via audiobus and there own MIDI tracks. I'll check when I get home from work.

  • Only thing i miss in iMS-20 is the possibility to do PWM.

    I remember from my early school days when the music teacher had made an extra input jack in the hardware MS-20 so it was possible to also modulate the pulse width and it's was really, really nice :)

    iMS-20 is pure software so it would honestly be a no-brainer for Korg to add it...

  • Thanks to all of you, guys. I already knew some of them, but very useful stuff.

  • @MusicInclusive said:

    There's also a quick overview series from Marc Doty about the original MS-20 here:

    I recommend that series too. I learned all there is to know about iMS 20 patch panel watching that.

  • @Samu said:

    Only thing i miss in iMS-20 is the possibility to do PWM.

    I remember from my early school days when the music teacher had made an extra input jack in the hardware MS-20 so it was possible to also modulate the pulse width and it's was really, really nice :)

    iMS-20 is pure software so it would honestly be a no-brainer for Korg to add it...

    Nick Batt wasn't your teacher, was he? ;)

  • @xen said:

    @Accent said:

    Quick question: I've avoided buying any of the Korg apps (excluding Gadget) because to the best of my knowledge all of their apps are locked to midi channel 1, which just won't work with my rig. Is it possible to remap them in any way? If nothing else, it looks like MidiBridge should do this, but has anyone tried it yet?

    I'm sure I found a way of running ipoly6 and ims20 simultaneously in cubasis via audiobus and there own MIDI tracks. I'll check when I get home from work.

    Please do. I don't use Cubasis, but those are the two Korg apps I'd like to have but have passed on for a while because of Korg's lack of attention to midi. If I could sequence and program them without channel limitations, I'd buy them ASAP.

  • @Accent said:

    Nick Batt wasn't your teacher, was he? ;)

    Nope...

    My fascination for PWM comes from the countless hours of listening to C64/Sid-Music with the slowly pulse-swept leads with a touch of delayed vibrato :D

  • @JohnnyGoodyear said:

    Good effort @1P18 I liked the '20' from the getgo and way back when but was always pretty certain I was only scratching the surface. You're confirming that :)

    It was a great joy putting this chart together, because I uncovered so much.

  • @Accent said:

    @xen said:

    I'm sure I found a way of running ipoly6 and ims20 simultaneously in cubasis via audiobus and there own MIDI tracks. I'll check when I get home from work.

    Please do. I don't use Cubasis, but those are the two Korg apps I'd like to have but have passed on for a while because of Korg's lack of attention to midi. If I could sequence and program them without channel limitations, I'd buy them ASAP.

    Ok. The simple answer is yes, you can get them running Cubasis. Each synth in each of the Korgs is on its own MIDI channel. So for iPoly6, Synth 1 on Ch. 1, synth 2 on Ch 2 and Drum synths 1 to 6 on channels 3 to 8. iMS-20 is the same, but only has the one synth with the six drum parts so it takes MIDI 1 to 7.

    However, in Cubasis, if you hook the korgs up as Audiobus inputs running into Cubasis in the output slots you can then do the following:

    1. Create 15 MIDI tracks in Cubasis and set them to 'No Instrument'

    2. For the first 8 tracks go to Routing in the sidebar tabs and you can select iPolysix as a MIDI input. Do this for each of the eight tracks and adjust the MIDI channels from 1 to 8 as you go. Label the tracks as well to avoid getting mixed up later.

    3. Repeat for the remaining 7 tracks where you can select iMS-20 as a MIDI routing option.

    You can now send MIDI to each synth part independently.

    However, I just tried it with a simple kick snare pattern. Kick from iP6 and Downbeat snare on iMS and there was a sync issue. The iP6 kick was about 3/32 notes behind the snare at 128bpm.

    IIRC this was why I parked this workflow a few months back. Instead I ended up using MIDI CC113 to send a start/stop message to each korg and developing song structures using their in-built pattern sequencers.

    I'm still running iOS7.1.2, Cubasis 1.8.2 and have yet to update Audiobus past 2.1.5. Both the korgs are yet to be upgraded to the iOS8 versions. So, clearly a different combination could be better or worse.

  • edited November 2014

    @Accent said:

    Quick question: I've avoided buying any of the Korg apps (excluding Gadget) because to the best of my knowledge all of their apps are locked to midi channel 1, which just won't work with my rig. Is it possible to remap them in any way?

    Could always use good old fashioned copy and paste. The iMS-20 lets you bounce by pattern or song, so if you have a sampler in your set up that might work. I'm a big fan of the tried and true audio copy and paste for iOS. Just seems like it ends up being the best way to go about it most of the time.

  • Hello!

    I've made a series of 8 videos for the MS-20 mini. All features are explained in detail. Sorry, the videos are in portuguese, as they were made for the Brazilian distributor. But it may help anyway. Hope you like it. Greetings!

    Link for video 1/8 :

  • @1P18 said:

    All in all the Patch Panel is actually pretty straight forward once you realize what's going on. Hopefully this chart helps to bridge the gap for people needing it.

    yes it's a good idea. The (original) MS-20 was one of my first synths, and I learned some of the principles about subtractive synthesis with it. To have a virtual version for not much money is a great opportunity to learn.

  • @FRibeiro interesting stuff! AND good for me non-existent Portuguese.... :)

  • edited November 2014

    Free MS-20 mini Drums sample pack over at Wave Alchemy, and it includes patch guide pdf showing drum examples.
    http://www.wavealchemy.co.uk/ms-20-mini-drums/pid154/

  • I dig ims20- but unless I am trippin it is out of tune(on my device) compared to other synths. Of course its easily fixed by tweaking the synth but its weird. And I get stuck notes when using geosynth with it. Still its amazing, cheers

  • I've got the original MS20 manuals somewhere...I'll have to dig them out and post a scan

  • They look different to the ones I've got, I think mine came with an additional book of patch examples too.

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