I love the thought of being able to multi-track audio right to my iPad, and I like your idea of using the iPad as a middle man to get those tracks back out to a mixer, but… why not just eliminate the middleman?
What I’d really love is an Overbridge USB “hub” that you plugin to your Elektron device, and all it did was provide multiple outs - at least enough to separate out common elements like Kick, Hats, and a couple of Melodic parts.
I don’t need a full blown Overbridge Mixer (Tonverk?) device, though that would be awesome. Just make it really easy to get at least a couple more discreet outs on OB capable devices without requiring anything but a USB dongle.
If I understand your comment correctly, you are talking about dev priorities. This comment makes sense, but I don’t think there is much balance now anyhow where where one update is for Rytm, another for Syntakt, another for Digitakt / Digitone II etc. I think Elektron themselves have said that they focus on one thing at a time. I would also prefer that one thing at a time to be an update to instruments as the priority.
Overbridge is technically a broader product because it is part of all devices minus Octatrack, but you could make the argument that iPad is not necessarily broadly used by all Elektron owners so not everyone will want it.
I think the answer there depends on whether or not Overbridge development is separate to hardware development. Maybe @ThomasJ can shed light if that development would use the same resources or if Overbridge has its own dedicated team.
They are just demoing multitrack streaming here but if it had the full experience I could see a lot of people using Drambo morphing with iPad the same way Octatrack scenes are used. People really want that DJ style control and I am also one of those people (but a separate discussion is how the performance would be of Drambo morphing 10, 20, 30 or however many MIDI CCs with high resolution - because it could very well be pushing MIDI bandwidth and bottlenecking somewhere).
iOS always treats the input and output devices as different devices.
its just that most audio cards do both…and the last device connected wins…and they basically all input and ooutput interfaces…and other apps dont really put in the option like logic does (and im sure they are using a couple secret API’s to make it work better than anyone)
but if you have say a motu m4 connected to the ipad, and then you connect one of those sonos usb line in dongles,all the motu outputs will remain and all the motu inputs will be removed and replaced by the sonos dongle.
(thats all in a brief nutshell of an example)
the worlds smallest 2x2 for an ipad would be:
– the apple usb c 3.5mm headphone jack dongle
– and the sonos 3.5mm line in adapter
If it kept development time down, I’d gladly accept all channels streaming audio over usb and no plugin.
I use OB regularly and don’t care for the plugin at all, all I do is use the mixer, because of the ableton limitation, as well as boost the volume, which I think should be doable entirely from my DTII.
Perhaps there’s a middle ground in dev time by fobbing off the plugin, it seems like a big waste to me but maybe some people use it?
Just a thought. Might reduce concern that this addition would detract from other areas dev wise.
Despite being a very low tech music guy (I stay away from Ableton these days, have used Overbridge exactly one time, and record into a small PCM recorder), this is intriguing. I’ve been tempted by the iPad music production “ecosystem” before, as there are so many options available. I also understand the concerns of Overbridge potentially drawing resources away from instrument development. Well, I’m certain a great deal of people would find something like this useful and fun in their music production, so I’d be happy for all of them if it comes out. And it might even make me flirt with the idea of buying an Apple product again.
I really don’t get this sentiment. Why do we have to balance out enthusiasm like this? If they listened to the balanced out enthusiasm then we wouldn’t have Elektron products.
Like, I have no care personally for Rytm, but I’m still happy when the users get an update
I dont see OB2 dev on iPadOS taking much dev resources from the hardware devices. OB2 dev team is probably its own department at Elektron to begin with. I’m guessing the way macOS and iPadOS are maturing, there will soon be a point in time where anything you can get running on one will also work on the other. DriverKit might end up maturing to a point where all a dev needs to do is to create a driver once, and it will then work on both macOS and iPadOS. If that happens, dev resources required to tackle both for OB2 (basic use) will be neglible.
The biggest appeal for me personally with this will be the option of using iPad + small interface (like the ESI Gigaport eX) to give me 8 individual outputs to any OB2 enabled Elektron box. But I’m sure there are a bunch of iPad musicians out there who would build complex setups around this, I am sure about that.
I too am from the older schools. I run reel to reels and shit. But I think “why not both” is the best way forward - Ideally you want both individual outs (at least 2 stereo outs per device please!) and OB2 BOTH. The future is Hybrid (ITB + OTB)
Lol, never imagined I’d get a chance to relive the “actually Overbridge is a waste of dev resources and ‘we’ don’t want it” wars from around 2014-15. Nostalgia or PTSD, who’s to say.
Anyway, I would definitely find this useful, ideally with the same plugin/app experience as the desktop version.
Can anyone who knows Overbridge enlighten me: In the manual, is the leftmost column a list of every individual track you can get out with, in this case, the Digitone II? (Nevermind the Syntakt typo.)
Does this mean that each external in gets an individual track through OB? Also individual tracks on DT2 and DN2 are stereo, but mono on Syntakt?
Im just running the OB drivers to get an aggregate device with my soundcard for my DN2 and it works really well. Not using midi in my DAW at all. DN2 clocks syncs, sequences all my hardware, and rhe record tonDAW. My previous interactions with OB were not positive but this one has been amazing. 24 tracks of audio is nuts, and it just works.
Totally can see benefit of using ipad instead if compatibility with AUM or Logic was decent. Being able to record and then arrange my tracks on an ipad when i travel to work would save me bringing a laptop.
Would love this. I know it’s pretty niche at this stage, but if they’re doubling down I’d also to see SDS transfers coming back as well for the times it’s useful to send samples this way to older boxes. Still haven’t found anything that comes close to C6 for this.
I just asked @ThomasJ about the plugin side of Overbridge for iPad. My understanding is at the moment they’re focusing on the driver side of it as that’s what is really important. It sounds like they’ll probably release Ob4iP without the full plugin to control the device parameters initially. The app you’ve seen in the photos isn’t really necessary, it’s the driver into the audio system that’s key.
The Elektron team at Superbooth have been awesome to chat with this last few days. I’m feeling really positive about this getting launched.
