iPad Music Apps?

The Lounge General Discussion
#700

Is it correct that I need Apple’s Lightning to USB Camera Adapter to connect any usb midi keyboard?

Yes

What´s the deal with midi sync? Does Ableton Link work or is there another way to sync my ipad to Ableton?

It’s up to the app to implement support (either sync or Ableton Link), most do, though less support being the slave for straight midi. Ableton has a big list of apps with Link support https://www.ableton.com/en/link/apps/

I use AUM for routing midi, AUM & AudioShare are really useful, especially if you have external gear.

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#701

Massive Attack Fan here!
ma

:roll_eyes:

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#702

Thank you! I thought about that joke as soon as I saw it, but I wanted to save my pun points for a rainy day.

It needed to be said, though

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#703

same here and I am so cheap, I coul not resist :slight_smile:

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#704

Even though I stopped buying apps, I couldn’t resist Mazetools Soniface.
The site has a lot of tutorials for this app that will explain a lot, and it is being developed, features added etc…

Very interesting app, was/is on sale @ 10.99€.

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#705

Wow thanks, thats looks a great sonic and visual exploration app

#706

Bram Bos’ apps are great, and he’s on top of the latest IOS trends - big proponent of AU. I have Ripplemaker - the sequence generator is good fun. Phasemaker is also great - worthy of consideration for those looking for a 6-op FM app.

Just picked up Rozeta Sequencer Suite but haven’t played with it yet. Bram originally created it because his app fans were demanding the sequencer pieces of his apps be broken off into a separate app. There’s some cool new stuff in Rozeta that is not in his other apps. It might be the only AU MIDI plugin on IOS at the moment, though I thought I heard Xequence was going to be updated with AU MIDI

Currently working on a silly tune in Gadget using almost all iMonoPoly gadgets - lookng forward to digging into Rozeta afterwards.

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#707

This was the app I was thinking of - an Audio Unit MIDI host, which might be useful for recording the MIDI data from your jams with Rozeta.

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#708

A lil heads up for yall MPC live / MPC X owners out there.

Just got the new(ish) iMPC Pro 2 app from retronyms. Seems a bit buggy still (only had to abuse the perf fx on a demo song to crash it lolz), but I’m giving it the benefit of doubt. You can host AU plugins now in addition to the MPC drum programs, and you can also record audio tracks, with or without an audiointerface. You can also bounce the AU tracks down to audio.

The pro tip comes from the fact that this app actually exports Akai MPC desktop format! Ready to be opened by your standalone MPC later… So now there’s a pretty smooth way to get your iOS au plugin noodlings to your MPCs without faffing around with DA/AD conversions or extra tracking. I will be testing the MPC desktop export functionality ASAP and will report back.

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#709

I took the plunge yesterday- it was a very good decision. The interface is an absolute joy and the sonic potential of the app is incredible

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#710

I’m waiting for your tests, if I can create drumkits and programs on the app to just open them on the Live it is worth the price, I’d spend all my lunch breaks creating drum sounds and basses in Attack just to create programs for hardware usage later…

#711

Bram Bros is cool. Their Ruismaker is a real drum synth, and Ruismaker FM its crazy brother. I use it with its AU-suite of sequencers in AUM. Very versatile, the sequencers use mutations to create variations.

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#712

Sorry I haven’t checked this yet, I’ll get on it now.

If it works, you can create drum programs, however most of the more advanced functions are missing from the iMPC app, so no layers, no fx, no round robin, no LFOs… You can map a single sample to a pad, and have access to 16 x 4 pads (only 4 pad banks on the iMPC), playmodes ”gated/1shot”, amp & filter envs and that’s all… Maybe we’ll see full drum program support in iMPC 3.0?

Also, for some reason, not all of my AUs show up in iMPC… not sure why?

#713

yeah, okay, so first rudimentary test revealed the following:

  • iMPC pro 2 app indeed does create a .xpr project file that can be opened directly in standalone mode on the MPC live. Guessing the project will also work in MPC 2.0 desktop and on the MPC X standalone, but haven’t tested… But what is slightly annoying is that the ”export to MPC desktop” function is limited to only a single file, which is always overwritten by iMPC app whenever you perform a new export! The file is always called ”export to MPC.xpr” or something like that…
  • So far I tranferred this file to a USB stick via iTunes file transfer. I dunno if the cloud sync option would work as well (don’t use it myself)
  • The AU tracks do not automatically render to audio upon export. This is unfortunate and makes things a bit clunky as you have to manually bounce the AU tracks down to audio first.
  • Drum programs seem to work but functionality is limited. Pitch modulated pads (as in, chromatically retuned series of a same pad sample) all play back at the default pitch. This is a bit of a bummer, but as we have 16 levels on the MPC, its not a total showstopper. There doesn’t seem to be any restrictions in place otherwise, so you can export all your iMPC programs regardless if they are bought from the retronyms sample packs store or if you made em yourself by sampling stuff…
  • Mixer settings and fx do not carry over to the MPC. Track volume maybe did, but eqs surely didn’t

I will do more testing. I need to at least still confirm that audio tracks carry over from the app to the MPC. If that one doesn’t work I will be pretty disappointed. For now all I can confirm is that you can perform sampling and chopping with the app, and export sampled/chopped drum programs to the MPC. If someone figures out how to use cloudsync etc with this, it might be possible to make a file server that automagically syncs your exports to the standalone without messing around with itunes etc…

PS: It seems that most AUs do not remember their settings when reopening projects. Based on retronym’s previous track record with the iMPC, this is not surprising… but it is really annoying. Here’s hoping iMPC 2 will be updated with steady bugfixes and won’t be as big of a failure in the end as version 1.0

#714

Thanks!
I think I will wait a bit longer, hopefully Retronym will fix a few things, hopefully…

#715

Yeah, at this point I’d recommend waiting. I knew I’d be ”betatesting” before I bought the app, so I got what I expected :joy:

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#716

I don’t want to be negative… just cautious
but Retronym doesn’t have the best of reputations… they’re known for abandoning their apps for long periods of time - sometimes forever…
I remember well the case of Hook, an app that had promising features and quite a bit of pre-release promotion, but got completely abandoned almost right after their first release… and it was quite buggy, unstable.

can’t say the same for Beatmaker 3 - wich I got upon release just because it was cheaper, but haven’t used it much since… they keep making massive updates and adding lots of features, so… respect for that

#717

I am only interested in iMPC pro 2 because of the ”export to MPC” functionality. Until this feature becomes available in BM3, I am not interested in it. Got far too many music making environments on my iPad already, too many in fact - Beathawk, Garageband, Figure, Auria, Gadget, Cubasis, Modstep, AUM, MultitrackDAW, nanostudio, iMaschine1&2, iMPC1&2… Its not productive to have so many… As one usually needs to xfer to the DAW anyway at some point. So far only Gadget does that for me (have both iOS and the desktop version and iCloud sync between the two)

I know I took a gamble with retronyms… Heck I even bought (and later sold) an MPC elements controller once to try out iMPC v 1.0 as a ”serious MPC alternative”… needless to say it was a POS app and the controller kept having stuck pads and double triggering issues. I know too well how hopeless the situation is… but my gamble only cost me 20€ so I can live with it (bought the bundle so got a bit of a discount for already owning v 1.0).

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#718

right, having an MPC live, I can understand it - having total integration between Live and iPad must be great!

#719

It’s a great enough fantasy that I’m hoping it will became truly usable in time :wink:

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