Geo Synthesizer as midi controller

rickwaugh

I love Geo Shred, and the interface makes perfect sense to me. It's easier to use than a keyboard, (I'm a guitar player). But it doesn't do midi, at least at this point. How is Geo Synthesizer as a midi controller? I'd love be able to drive SampleTank, Thumbjam and Auria Pro from it. And I happen to have a bit of cash in iTunes gift cards at this point in time

richardyot

It's very similar to Geo Shred, and it's been one of my favourite controller apps ever since I started using iOS a couple of years ago. I definitely recommend it.

rickwaugh

Thanks, @richardyot.

rickwaugh

That's too bad.

Ral

@rickwaugh Geo as midi controller is great, but now it needs of an update.
(After Christmas, J. Rudess said).
You can drive Sample Thank but you
must set the PitchBend Range to 2 in Geo.
Unfortunately, when you slide of one tone, the sound has an annoying snap! For ThumbJam, we are waiting for an update. But you can drive it with some problem, sometimes.

wigglelights

Luv both Geo apps - but iFretless apps do transmit velocity of sorts. Trick is matching transmitted bend range to the receiving synth, but works very well for me.

[Deleted User]

@rickwaugh Geo Synth as a MIDI controller works very well in my experience and it's ability to do voice per channel MIDI output works very well for synths that support it such as WaveGenerator and the NOISE 5D app by ROLI which allows you to take full advantage of the vibrato, pitch bend and snapping capabilities in Geo Synth. As has been pointed out, you do need to match the MIDI bend range in Geo Synth and the app you're controlling it with in their respective settings.

rickwaugh

Not sure how you would do that with Auria Pro.

oceansinspace

I rock it hardcore going into analog synths and its perfect! Also abelton loves it. Not sure about crazy midi stuff but for basic its perfect.

sonosaurus

@Ral said:
@rickwaugh Geo as midi controller is great, but now it needs of an update.
(After Christmas, J. Rudess said).
You can drive Sample Thank but you
must set the PitchBend Range to 2 in Geo.
Unfortunately, when you slide of one tone, the sound has an annoying snap! For ThumbJam, we are waiting for an update. But you can drive it with some problem, sometimes.

Just so I'm clear, is there a known unresolved issue between Geo and ThumbJam?

Ral

https://forum.audiob.us/discussion/9672/waiting-for-the-next-update-of-thumbjam#latest

Matt_Fletcher_2000

@richardyot said:
It's very similar to Geo Shred, and it's been one of my favourite controller apps ever since I started using iOS a couple of years ago. I definitely recommend it.

Hi Richard - or anyone else.

Do you know what the midi CC option in geo synth does? You seem to be able to select a single midi cc value - but I'm not sure what/when it gets sent... (If you know what I mean).

I'm thinking I could get experimental and set up multiple gadgets on different channels with the same patch and send poly channel pitch bend stuff.

richardyot

@Matt_Fletcher_2000 sorry, I don't really delve deep enough into MIDI to be able to answer that question, someone with greater knowledge than me will have to answer

Matt_Fletcher_2000

@richardyot said:
@Matt_Fletcher_2000 sorry, I don't really delve deep enough into MIDI to be able to answer that question, someone with greater knowledge than me will have to answer

Thanks Richard. Actually I figured it out myself. One single cc is controlled by the Y axis of your finger on each note. So you can make that to any cc in Gadget.

I've also worked out how to do per note polychannel pitch bend / modulation into Gadget. It's pretty cool.

I created 4 instances of Lexington with the same patch - on midi channels 1-4.

Then set Geo-Synth to cycle through the 4 channels on each note. This means each note can have its own filter (for example) modulation and pitch bend independent of the others.

It's a bit like per note aftertouch.

I've got some great, rich sounding stuff like this. And Gadget (even on my iPhone 6) seems to hold up ok to this.

richardyot

Ha - completely over my head! I just like to play the thing, never bothered to get the spanners out and look under the hood

Matt_Fletcher_2000

@richardyot said:
Ha - completely over my head! I just like to play the thing, never bothered to get the spanners out and look under the hood

I'm just a massive midi geek.

sonosaurus

@Matt_Fletcher_2000 said:

@richardyot said:
Ha - completely over my head! I just like to play the thing, never bothered to get the spanners out and look under the hood

I'm just a massive midi geek.

Cool, you can use that trick with ThumbJam as the controller too, if you want to

pichi

I've used it on several tracks as a midi controller. Very easy to do fluid runs on it. Excellent if you are a guitarist. No other app can compete.

Matt_Fletcher_2000

@sonosaurus said:

@Matt_Fletcher_2000 said:

@richardyot said:
Ha - completely over my head! I just like to play the thing, never bothered to get the spanners out and look under the hood

I'm just a massive midi geek.

Cool, you can use that trick with ThumbJam as the controller too, if you want to

Thanks @sonosaurus - I've tried with Thumbjam too.

It seems like it's not sending per note pitch bend though. Which option do I need to check to enable per note pitch bend please?

Also, I can only ever seem to get Thumbjam to send out one midi cc (that's pan cc10). Am I supposed to be able to get any other ccs out if it? From tilt, shake, x, y etc? If so could you help as to how to set this up?

I am getting cc10 to be sent on a per touch (per note) basis, however - so that's good.

I might also try with TC-Data - I believe that might send per touch ccs and pitch bend into multiple gadgets.

sonosaurus

@Matt_Fletcher_2000 said:

@sonosaurus said:

@Matt_Fletcher_2000 said:

@richardyot said:
Ha - completely over my head! I just like to play the thing, never bothered to get the spanners out and look under the hood

I'm just a massive midi geek.

Cool, you can use that trick with ThumbJam as the controller too, if you want to

Thanks @sonosaurus - I've tried with Thumbjam too.

It seems like it's not sending per note pitch bend though. Which option do I need to check to enable per note pitch bend please?

Also, I can only ever seem to get Thumbjam to send out one midi cc (that's pan cc10). Am I supposed to be able to get any other ccs out if it? From tilt, shake, x, y etc? If so could you help as to how to set this up?

I am getting cc10 to be sent on a per touch (per note) basis, however - so that's good.

I might also try with TC-Data - I believe that might send per touch ccs and pitch bend into multiple gadgets.

Yes, you need to enable Channel Per Touch in the midi output options. Every touch then gets its own channel, pitch bend included. As for the "x-axis" if the patch is configured for Pan on x-axis and Send Pan midi option is enabled it does what you've seen with Cc10. If the patch has Xaxis volume then it will send volume (CC7) and/or channel pressure per channel if those output options are enabled. Accelerometer shake and tilt affects the pitch bends when the patch is set up with that.

Ideally there would be generic CCs that could be associated to the various dimensions but that isn't there yet.

Matt_Fletcher_2000

@sonosaurus said:

@Matt_Fletcher_2000 said:

@sonosaurus said:

@Matt_Fletcher_2000 said:

@richardyot said:
Ha - completely over my head! I just like to play the thing, never bothered to get the spanners out and look under the hood

I'm just a massive midi geek.

Cool, you can use that trick with ThumbJam as the controller too, if you want to

Thanks @sonosaurus - I've tried with Thumbjam too.

It seems like it's not sending per note pitch bend though. Which option do I need to check to enable per note pitch bend please?

Also, I can only ever seem to get Thumbjam to send out one midi cc (that's pan cc10). Am I supposed to be able to get any other ccs out if it? From tilt, shake, x, y etc? If so could you help as to how to set this up?

I am getting cc10 to be sent on a per touch (per note) basis, however - so that's good.

I might also try with TC-Data - I believe that might send per touch ccs and pitch bend into multiple gadgets.

Yes, you need to enable Channel Per Touch in the midi output options. Every touch then gets its own channel, pitch bend included. As for the "x-axis" if the patch is configured for Pan on x-axis and Send Pan midi option is enabled it does what you've seen with Cc10. If the patch has Xaxis volume then it will send volume (CC7) and/or channel pressure per channel if those output options are enabled. Accelerometer shake and tilt affects the pitch bends when the patch is set up with that.

Ideally there would be generic CCs that could be associated to the various dimensions but that isn't there yet.

Hi. Ok thanks.

So can it ever send both volume(cc7) and pan(cc10)? Or is it one or the other?

Also, can I confirm that the cc is sent "per channel/per touch"? Seems like you're saying it is.

Can I also ask what actually produces channel pressure from a touch point of view? Is it sliding up the note (ie y axis) - or something else? (I couldn't seem to get it to do anything pointed at Animoog).

Jocphone

Never knew about the Channel per Touch feature @sonosaurus

Thank you, this enables so many new possibilities.

Is there a way to silence the internal sounds if using this as a midi generator? I created a sound with a really quite sample but is there a way to turn audio off altogether?

Hmtx

@Jocphone said:
Is there a way to silence the internal sounds if using this as a midi generator? I created a sound with a really quite sample but is there a way to turn audio off altogether?

Go to "sound" > "volume/iPod" then tap "instrument Mute"

Jocphone

@Hmtx said:

@Jocphone said:
Is there a way to silence the internal sounds if using this as a midi generator? I created a sound with a really quite sample but is there a way to turn audio off altogether?

Go to "sound" > "volume/iPod" then tap "instrument Mute"

Thanks @Hmtx