Choice of iPad?

Ok, but if I take @William_WiLD’s suggestion, I have no choice but using the headphone output to connect the audio into a different device if I also want to use the midi connection at the same time.

I think he explained also … at least to one of my questions … that the iconnect Midi4+ provides “Audio Pass Through technology” too. My understanding is that we can have the midi and the audio on one USB bus, which can be routed to and used by idfferent USB-Audio connections.

IMO it seems not to be the best choice, to use a midi-only interface on the iPad Lightening interface and a pro-audio-interface like a RME and plug in the headphone-out of the iPad to it’s inputs. I can’t imagine that the received audio quality will match the investment for the pro-audio-interface.

May I ask you, what setup you are planning and what you want to achieve with it?

If I wanted to use the sound of iPad in a DAW on my PC the Midi4+ would be an option, that’s true. However I intend to send the iPad audio to OT. In this case I could only use its headphone output.

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that is what I’m asking myself too. The iconnect midi is great for the DAW. But OT?

Then you might need a class compliant interface with both, midi and audio.

Depending on your budget you find many different interfaces on the list of @William_WiLD starting at prices from short obove 100 EUR up to expensive gear, providing good quality audio inputs/outpus and midi. It just depends, how your setup shall be :wink:

BTW there is also to consider, to think about a setup including a small audio mixer. Allen & Heath, Mackie, or Soundcraft come to my mind. Even small mixers come with aux busses, or some send busses and those support a quite flexible audio routing without the need of a computer.

And if the quality is acceptable, there are those iPad specific interfaces with audio and midi from IK or iConnectivity too.

We have got a lot of options today :wink:

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you may want to look at


and below…
I explained how I use the ipad and a steinberg audio interface… There might be some information for you…

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Might consider in this case the Roland Duo Capture EX :
https://www.roland.com/us/products/duo-capture_ex/

Sometimes you need to get 2 options like Midi4+ for Studio (because it’s the only one to give you all the real power of routing signals midi and audio, like using your iPad app as a FX Bus Processing)
AND
another solution for nomadism music, what’s cool about the Roland Duo Capture EX is it’s battery powered, have Midi in-out, phantom power, Hi-Z instruments switch, operate at 24bits 44.1 or 48 and and direct monitor Mono and Stereo Switch.

I use that one when outside or in a place where i work with a minimal config like Octatrack + iPad
Don’t forget to buy rechargeable batteries and a charger :wink:

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Thanks! I’ll check it.
I have an old Focusrite 2i4, I want to give it a try first with the new powered Camera adapter cable.

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I think the Korg plugKEY fills this niche beautifully:

I just can’t any info on bit/sample rate aside from “studio quality”.

EDIT: up to 24/48


no audio in?

Nope. I was addressing the people looking for something other than the headphone out but also MIDI sequencing.

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For people wondering about IPad audio pass through on an ICM4+, here’s how it works…

Din and usb midi hosting aside, the ICM4+ can connect 3 computer devices Mac/pc/iOS through 3 special ports.
The device is seen as an audio interface by all 3 devices. If connecting a computer and an IPad for example, the IPads outputs will be seen by the computer as inputs, the computer will have outputs that the IPad sees as inputs. Using software on either device that allows input/output selection, a DAW for example, you can freely route digital audio between the devices.

This allows digital audio to be routed but the ICM4+ has no audio outputs so how do we hear it?
By using a computer with an audio interface you combine the ICM4+ with the interface as an aggregate device. This combines the in/outs of both units to be seen as one audio interface by the computer, on a Mac this is called an aggregate device, for PC there’s another name…
Now since your computer sees the in/out of the ICM4+ and the interface as one, in whatever software your using, let’s say a DAW, you’d set the input of the track to be the digital outs from the IPad, and the outputs to be the analog outs from the interface…
You can go a lot further with the audio routing too, like passing it though multiple devices as fx units and back to your analog outs, for example…

Once you set this up its not as bad as it sounds, just leave the aggregate as the audio device in the DAW, and from then on when you power everything up and open the DAW it’s all set up.
You do need to power up everything though, as you need the computer and interface going to hear the IPad.
The device will work standalone for midi though without having to change anything, so if you just simply power it and a couple midi devices up, it will route them as you last configured it.

This is all separate from the usb host port which is used strictly for class compliant usb midi devices and does not pass audio, but using a hub it can connect 8 midi devices…

Theres also an audio routing matrix in the config software which allows you to further customize which in/out each device sees from the other, and also you can change bit depth and sample rate at the exchange of more or less tracks…

There’s a bunch more stuff this box does too, but I’ll leave it here for now…

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You can even combine overbridge/ICM4+/interface as an aggregate and do things like send your guitar from your interface through guitar rig on computer then into the Rytms analog filters (gated by rytms sequencer synced by midi) and then over to a touch screen IPad effect then back out you interface outs, all of it clocked by an Octatrack and we haven’t even said what it’s doing… :slight_smile:

Of course the further out you go the more latency compensation you have to reckon with, but still…

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In the meantime I bought a Lightning USB 3 adapter, and the Focusrite 2i4 worked perfectly with the iPad. However the power cable needs to be plugged in. This also charges the iPad, too. I’m not sure how unhealthy is this for the iPad battery in long term however.

IPads hit %100 battery on their meters before they actually are full to capacity.
iOS does some battery management and allows the battery to drain slightly and then recharge once in awhile while the meter will always show %100. Same for Macs but there you can see the meter go from 100 to 95 and back up again, at least on Mavericks…
It’s still a good idea to let the IPad drain once in awhile, but you’ll be fine…

My Air from Dec 2013 still gets over 10 hours of battery, and I’ve had it connected to an Iconnect and being powered while at %100 for countless hours…

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That sounds promising. Thanks.

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Thinking of adding an ipad (android type of fella here).

Is it still the rule of thumb that the ipad 2 mini, 64bit and above are adequate?

It’s to run music apps synths drum machines etc., and not for general ipad use.

Ipad 2 mini is on the elder side of the family imo.

I would calculate a budget and get the most recent possible. Just be sure it’s 64 bit.

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Just 64-bit. The other rule of thumb is to check this to help plan when to buy - especially which products are listed under do not buy right now:

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I second that opinion. I had an iPad Air 2 that was a little sluggish with Moog Model15 at times. I changed it for the last iteration (the iPad non-pro that handles Apple Pencil) and everything is much smoother. And it’s not too costly.

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