Jupiter XM & iPad: Tipps, Options, Q&A

astral_body

I got myself an Jupiter XM for X-Mas as an companion for my iPad. Lucky me
Special reason: I like to make music anywhere. Keeps me creative -> Both devices are portable.

iPad and Jupiter XM are great as stand alone portable music plattforms.
However in a team they are an great couple

Benefits of an Jupiter XM regarding mobile music making:

• Battery driven (optional; I use 8 black enelope AA)
• small size & low weight
• Bluetooth (!)
• Build in Speakers (usable)

-> You can take the the Jupiter XM to your living room and start jamming around.
No cables, no setup. Switch on and go in an instant. No headphone or powersupply required. Great standalone synth.

However the stepsquencer of the Jupiter XM is really limited. How to fix this?
I use my iPad connected with bluetooth -> No cables or camera connection kit required here.
Look mom: No cables!

The Jupiter XM uses 5 (!) different MIDI-channels via Bluettoth.
1. for recording MIDI
2. for playing MIDI

You can use **xequence 2 **(or Cubasis 2 for exmaple) to record all 5 tracks comming from the Jupiter XM on 5 seperate tracks.

And than you can do all kinds of nice stuff:

1. You can record the MIDI of the iarpegiator of the XM into your DAW/sequencer.
   For example: you can record an drum pattern from the XM into your sequencer and change/edit it. And the play back the altered MIDI with the XM
2. You can record the drums and bass Tracks from the XM in the first take.
   Now you can loop drum and bass on the sequencer and jam the lead along. If you like the lead you can record just this track into your DAW/sequencer.

etc.

astral_body

Tipp for Bluetooth pairing:

Use the FREE Korg BLE-MIDI App on the iPAD

As with my Korg Bluetooth MIDI controllers you need to reconnect Bluetooth of the XM after you turned the iPad of.
The BLE-MIDI app recognises the Jupiter XM and reconnects it with just a click

---

Hint: For your first installation you need to use the Bluetooth setup in the options of ios.
You need the app only for reconnecting (like the KORG Bluetooth controlers)

astral_body

First impressions:

The Jupiter XM is really a nice complete, portable package.
The main reason to get it was to have a "portable, self containing instrument".

Background:
As much as I love the iPad: I personaly like to play on hardware keyboard (controlers).
Therfore for my iPad pro 2018 I need a bluetooth keyboard (like the 49 air from KORG), a set of headphone (wired) and a damned adapter USB-C (no headphone jack on iPadPro 2018 ).
However I looked for an "all in one" synth which I can combine with my iPAD. But which works stand alone, too (e.g. with keyboad, speakers, batteries AND connectivty). This is the main reason for picking up the Jupiter XM.

Back to the Jupiter XM:
+Sounds are great. They have the vintage character. See here:
+It really has many features. However it requires a learning curve.
+ Layering snyth allows you to create fat and complex sounds.
+ Polyphonie is great (depends on engine: up 256 voices; 32 voices for Jupiters. You can stack 4 (!) Jupiter8 with 8 Voices. (4x8=32) This is fatness)
+ Many nice presets: Pads, Drums (808, 909, CR-78, etc.), bass, classic sound in the XV.
o Piano: I like the ravencraft on the iPad more than the RD-Piano-Engine of the Jupiter XM. The RD is okay; maybe good. The ravencraft is great.
o There are so many features. Some of them are hidden menus. You need to do some menu-diving. The menus are long (which is good: many features and bad: lots of scrolling/searching)
o The keyboard is nice. It has 37 key, because of the device size -> well balanced trade of for my use case.

Overall I am enjoying the Jupiter XM. It is a well rounded package and the trade of are well balanced.

knewspeak

@astral_body are you still having fun with the Jupiter Xm, sounds great, can you process many CC’s via Bluetooth midi.

blipson

@astral_body said:

• Build in Speakers (usable)

-> You can take the the Jupiter XM to your living room and start jamming around.
No cables, no setup. Switch on and go in an instant. No headphone or power supply required. Great standalone synth.

yeah, I love that it has usable speakers. I kind of like the action, too. Anything smaller than standard size keys is usually no fun at all to play, but the Xm's keys are just large enough.

astral_body

@knewspeak said:
@astral_body are you still having fun with the Jupiter Xm, sounds great,

Yes. I still like the Jupiter-XM very much. It really sounds very good and is very flexible AND portable.
I use it as my swiss army synth as it can littery do almost every vintage-like sound in good quality.

I use it 50% of the time with battery in my living room or in the garden for jamming (e.g. with ipad for sequence some tracks). The speaker are a good addition, because I can sit in my living without headset (I need to wear a headset in the office for skype calls. The speaker are good enough for jamming; but they are no studio monitors).

@astral_body can you process many CC’s via Bluetooth midi.

I do not know as I use it different ;-) Sorry.

Actually when jamming (with sequencing some parts by e.g an ipad) I mainly sequence notes (not CC). During "jamming" I loop maybe 8 bars for like 4 tracks of the Jupiter and then I try different melodies in the 5 th track

CC tweaking will happen latter in my "process" (when all device are connect using USB-hub and plugged in on my desk).

1. Part of process: Creative part

• Jamming and sequencing track after track in a Loop to "create" melody, Chords, Bassline & Drums.
• This is done often on "battery" and wireless (e.g. with ipad & Jupiter using bluetooth)
• If I have enough sketches and parts I move on to part 2.
• I ignore fine tuning in this step and focus on "rough" composition
• I try to keep myself away from tweaking to much in this stage as it "ruins" my "creative flow" (e.g. if you start tweaking sound on the Jupiter XM you can spend all day as it is very, very flexible and complex).

2. Part of the process: Finishing part

• For the final tweaking arranging, recording & mixing I move to my desk and plug everything in.
• In this stage i use a usb hub.
• The fine tuning (e.g. recording CC) will take at the desk with usb. I mostly use usb in this stage, because I have HW synth without bluetooth at my desk (like the Model D or the OB-6).
• The mixing, recording, mastering etc. will be done on the iPad

Bonus tipp: You can use midi designer pro 2 on ipad to do sound design for Jupiter XM https://apps.apple.com/de/app/midi-designer-pro-2/id492291712

If I would create a "masterpiece" (did not happen to me; but I am patient) I would use a Mac/PC to take advantage of the Multitrack audio-interface build into the Jupiter XM. You can get stemms of all tracks seperate in high quality without using a seperat audio interface

donvito

The audio interface part of the xm... Does it work with the ipad as well?

enc

Are there multiple audio outputs on the xm?

astral_body

For PC there is a digital output for the various tracks. You can "record" direct into your DAW using XM <-> USB <-> PC
However a special driver for the PC is needed.

-> On the iPad there is no driver.
You can use an Audiointerface to record the stereo output. XM <-> analog Stereo <-> Audio Interface <-> USB <-> iPad

Multiple outputs only if you are using USB on PC. There is just a Stereo out on the Device

enc

@astral_body said:
For PC there is a digital output for the various tracks. You can "record" direct into your DAW using XM <-> USB <-> PC
However a special driver for the PC is needed.

-> On the iPad there is no driver.
You can use an Audiointerface to record the stereo output. XM <-> analog Stereo <-> Audio Interface <-> USB <-> iPad

Multiple outputs only if you are using USB on PC. There is just a Stereo out on the Device

ahh ok, thanks

jblock

@astral_body You still using this setup?