Mic control with AB Remote. Is it possible?

DarrenS

Hi!

I’m looking to present a radio show with my iPad. I’ve got the basics sorted; DJay2 for the music > Audiobus (where my USB mic comes into play) > IziCast to send it out to the station’s Shoutcast server. But I’m looking for a more intuitive way to control my mic.

At the moment, I have to set Audiobus as a slide over app, then hit the mute/unmute button, but that means half of DJay is obscured while it’s open. This isn’t the end of the world, but can lead to errant taps causing whatever’s loaded into deck 2 to fire off.

I just downloaded AB Remote thinking that I’d be able to use it to control the mic from my phone, but it would seem not.

Can anyone suggest a way I can get this to work?

Cheers in advance.

CracklePot

You can use this free app.
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/knob-lab/id727466234

It gives you one knob for free. I was able to load it on my iPhone 7 and connect to my iPad through BT. From there I could Midi Learn the connection to a fader on an AB channel with Mic input, and it worked as expected.

You just might want to limit the range to 0 - 85% or so, because if you use 100% range, it will push the fader all the way, past the 0db point and add a lot of gain to the output.

There are probably some other apps that do button actions that you could map to Mute instead of using the fader.

If you can’t find a button midi controller, you can actually use the same Knob Lab app to run the Mute button. Just set the Mute button to Toggle mode, and the Knob will trigger the Mute when the knob is <50%. If the knob is set >50%, the Mute button will be disengaged.

wim

You can use midi learn for the mute, then send midi from your app of choice on the iPhone over Bluetooth MIDI.

DarrenS

@CracklePot said:
You can use this free app.
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/knob-lab/id727466234

It gives you one knob for free. I was able to load it on my iPhone 7 and connect to my iPad through BT. From there I could Midi Learn the connection to a fader on an AB channel with Mic input, and it worked as expected.

You just might want to limit the range to 0 - 85% or so, because if you use 100% range, it will push the fader all the way, past the 0db point and add a lot of gain to the output.

There are probably some other apps that do button actions that you could map to Mute instead of using the fader.

If you can’t find a button midi controller, you can actually use the same Knob Lab app to run the Mute button. Just set the Mute button to Toggle mode, and the Knob will trigger the Mute when the knob is <50%. If the knob is set >50%, the Mute button will be disengaged.

This worked absolutely perfectly, thank you! The rest of the show might have been crap, but the mic fades were buttery smooth.

Now seeing that it’s only £2 to unlock the whole app, and wondering what else I could use it for...

I need to find an app that’ll effectively add a third deck to DJay, so I can fire off a music bed to talk over. That’s my next mission.

DarrenS

@CracklePot said:
You can use this free app.
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/knob-lab/id727466234

It gives you one knob for free. I was able to load it on my iPhone 7 and connect to my iPad through BT. From there I could Midi Learn the connection to a fader on an AB channel with Mic input, and it worked as expected.

You just might want to limit the range to 0 - 85% or so, because if you use 100% range, it will push the fader all the way, past the 0db point and add a lot of gain to the output.

There are probably some other apps that do button actions that you could map to Mute instead of using the fader.

If you can’t find a button midi controller, you can actually use the same Knob Lab app to run the Mute button. Just set the Mute button to Toggle mode, and the Knob will trigger the Mute when the knob is <50%. If the knob is set >50%, the Mute button will be disengaged.

Further to this, this week Knob Lab won’t talk to my iPad at all 😐

I don’t think I changed anything, but nothing I do will get my Mini to talk to my iPad, and it’s driving me mad... It was connected via a ‘Mini blu’ profile, which I saved. That profile no longer connects to anything, which suggests that the Mini isn’t connecting via Bluetooth. This is borne out by me tapping the connect button in the settings, but nothing happening.

Meanwhile, my phone works perfectly, but it’s the iPad Mini I want to do the thing on...

It’s massively irritating, because last week it worked flawlessly.

CracklePot

@DarrenS said:

@CracklePot said:
You can use this free app.
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/knob-lab/id727466234

It gives you one knob for free. I was able to load it on my iPhone 7 and connect to my iPad through BT. From there I could Midi Learn the connection to a fader on an AB channel with Mic input, and it worked as expected.

You just might want to limit the range to 0 - 85% or so, because if you use 100% range, it will push the fader all the way, past the 0db point and add a lot of gain to the output.

There are probably some other apps that do button actions that you could map to Mute instead of using the fader.

If you can’t find a button midi controller, you can actually use the same Knob Lab app to run the Mute button. Just set the Mute button to Toggle mode, and the Knob will trigger the Mute when the knob is <50%. If the knob is set >50%, the Mute button will be disengaged.

Further to this, this week Knob Lab won’t talk to my iPad at all 😐

I don’t think I changed anything, but nothing I do will get my Mini to talk to my iPad, and it’s driving me mad... It was connected via a ‘Mini blu’ profile, which I saved. That profile no longer connects to anything, which suggests that the Mini isn’t connecting via Bluetooth. This is borne out by me tapping the connect button in the settings, but nothing happening.

Meanwhile, my phone works perfectly, but it’s the iPad Mini I want to do the thing on...

It’s massively irritating, because last week it worked flawlessly.

Make sure you have WIFI enabled on both devices, as well as Bluetooth.
I think WIFI needs to be on to create the Network connection between devices, and both devices have to be connected to the same WIFI network.
Then you can use Bluetooth to Airdrop, Airplay, and Bluetooth Midi.

If you are somewhere without an available WIFI network, you can make one by turning on Personal Hotspot on your phone, then connecting the iPad mini to this WIFI network.

I hope this gets you up and running again.
If not, then I am not sure what is going on.

DarrenS

I had WiFi on and working on both devices, Bluetooth as well. Ended up emailing the devs of the app, who have offered to get me on the beta of the latest version, which they say has improved network connectivity, so we’ll see how that goes.

CracklePot

@DarrenS said:
I had WiFi on and working on both devices, Bluetooth as well. Ended up emailing the devs of the app, who have offered to get me on the beta of the latest version, which they say has improved network connectivity, so we’ll see how that goes.

Ah, sorry that it is still bugging out.
Thank you for reaching out to the Dev.
I will keep an eye out for an update for this app.