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Please help me get Xequence and bs-16i on the bus
Hi all,
I have been using InterApp audio in GarageBand to record tracks played on bs-16i with both the virtual and a controller keyboard. I would like to get rid of GarageBand which I like but it’s almost 2 gig in size and I only use it for sequencing.
I open bs-16i and Xequence then Audiobus 3, choose midi and set bs-16i for the sender and Xequence for the receiver. It seems to record but I hear no sound on playback and also can’t hear while recording unless I also set bs-16i for input and speaker for output on the audio tab of Audiobus.
What am I doing wrong?
Thanks in advance for any tips, I have been googling and trying things for the past week and it’s driving me crazy.
Ken
Comments
Thank you for your comment. If I open AB and set Xequence as the sender and bs-16i for the receiver, it does not seem to record.
Here is what I’m trying to do,
Play bs-16i either with the on screen virtual keyboard or a hardware midi controller keyboard and send the midi data to Xequence to record it and be able to have Xequence play it back thru bs-16i or as audio or something. Is this possible?
Hardware/software,
iPhone 8 Plus
IRig Keys io 49
M-audio bx5 monitors
Audiobus 3
Bs-16i
Xequence
I also have the Roland sound canvas app and was able to play it fine with Audiobus and bs-16i but have not figured out the sequence stuff.
If anyone is using sf2 I highly recommend the “nice Steinways” and the “nice instruments extended” from the Soundfonts4u site. They really sound awesome.
Thanks again,
Ken
Ken,
When I use those SoundFonts in BS-16i the latency between controller notes and piano sounds is several seconds. Are you able to get "realtime" performance use out of BS-16i? Maybe I have something misconfigured.
My current joy is using the SoundFonts in Audio Evolution Mobile Studio which allows you to add SoundFonts and it's a MIDI record/playback DAW so you only need this App for what you are doing. It also has a piano roll editor to fix the occassional wrong note in the MIDI stream.
It has many more DAW features you may not be using (or care about) like Loop playback. A lot of high quality FX for mixing down your music to a final stereo iTunes or Wave format up to 24-bit.
It costs $7 and the best FX are only $2 each and they rival the Auria Pro FabFilter $30 FX for sound quality and extra controls.
I really tried to get the Xequence and BS-16i combo to work but gave up due to the latency I mentioned and I have a new 2018 iPad with 2GB of RAM so it's not hardware that's the problem.
I thought Cubasis or Auria Pro were my only options and only Auria Pro lets me add SF2's.
AEMS runs on the iphone too.
It is actually much easier just using Xequence as the central MIDI In and Thru hub, and not Audiobus (cries a tear for poor Audiobus
)
(This won't let you use BS-16i's internal keyboard for recording to Xequence, but trust me, after using Xequence's controller, you won't want to, at all
)
(of course, you can add Xequence to as many MIDI lanes as you like, and as long as you add an instrument and arranger track in Xequence for each of those lanes, you can control any of those instruments transparently with your external controller keyboard OR Xequence's keyboard by just selecting (tapping on) the corresponding arranger track. More details in the manual!)
Audiobus should really only be used for establishing the output connections to sound generators, not to controller hardware.
@tja thanks for your support and help with Xequence for other users here, I appreciate it greatly. It's also interesting to see the different ways that the new AB integration gets used. With so many possible combinations now, it's hard to always find the best way. I'll probably add a manual chapter "Configuring an external controller" that outlines the (IMO) most efficient way to do this (as mentioned above).
Although it kinda is already in the manual, it just needs a few additions for Audiobus:
http://seven.systems/xequence/manual/#midi-in
Yes. My first Xequence MIDI efforts involved pulling Orachestral MIDI's into Xequence and then pointing tracks at various sound sources like RavensCroft 275 Piano, iSymphonic Strings. I quickly ran out of resources and realized these big monolithic apps consumed a lot of resources.
No I was will to stay in the MIDI world and just pick sound targets. I tried BS-16i to have smaller foot print instruments.
The latency was so bad I gave up. I assumed BS-16i was only useful for batch runs of the MIDI file and not adding an additional live stream of MIDI events.
I just pointed the Xequence tracks at apps.
Never used AB since Xequence let's me assign sound apps to MIDI tracks.
I get aweful latency in BS-16i and wnoder if I have something set wrong in the settings. I could not see anything that helped.
When you pick an App as a target in Xequence is that using IAA or AU. It's been a while and I quit after a day or 2.
Never tried AUM in the pudding.
I fell back to using DAW's that can play sound apps and SF2 instruments. I'm excited by the MIDI behavior of AEMS. I recall asking you to add Bank Switching so I could set up the right selections in iSymphonic. I started testing iSymphonic using a MIDI Controller and realized it didn't perform Bank Switching or
Set-ups of large numbers of MIDI Channels assignments according to the suggested MSB LSB numbers that App provides. I just thought the whole MIDI world of Bank Select is broken. I started to test MIDIfire to make StreamByter scripts to do the job.
I moved onto a new project with another app purchase and let it go.
As of today loading a standard MIDI into AEMS and using that as a quick setup for an orchestra is the low effort path to me making new film music pieces. The SF2 sounds are adequate and very stable in AEMS. AudioLayer offers me a path to using those same instruments in a standalone AU instance to reduce RAM bloat and not have to build my own large SF2's using Polyphone.
So, I'm making progress and could start making some music soon. I also took a detour though Notion and Symphony Pro which also support SF2 soundfonts but have terrible live recording behaviors and just a ton of application bugs.
AEMS has 20 years of MIDI DAW development behind it from Amiga and Android sales. Getting it stable with AU/IAA and adding MPE support would make it a killer IOS DAW.
I bought the Orchestra Bundle Pack for $12 and it's OK. So, I went looking for the best available SF2 Orchestras (Sonatina, SSO, Aegean, etc) and added those into AEMS so I have a lot of flutes, oboes, strings, etc while I wait for the AU/IAA issues to get addressed. But with SF2's I'm good to go. Adding the ToneBoosters Reverb makes a lot of poor instruments sound so much better... smoothing out the robotic effect of a naked MIDI instrument that needs a lot of work.
The best site for Salamander is here:
https://sites.google.com/site/soundfonts4u/
I'll try to test this when I can next week. And the end of my IOS investigation I find I'm basically seeking a Tascam Portastudio with a built-in soundmodule. But you can't tell what I'll be doing in 6 months... I could do a reset and start practicing fingerpicking guitar again.
My original intent with IOS was to have a portable device for dropping into Open Mic's without a lot of equipment. I have yet to even go to an open mic since I got App frenzy. At least it's cheaper than buying guitar stomp boxes or new Digital Stage Pianos.
Maybe I'll do some composing like @LinearLineMan without the incredible piano chops which would make MIDI editing very important to fix note and timing errors in my playing.