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A way for iOS keyboard to send MIDI?
Whether it be through the use of a dedicated app, a feature baked into one of the many iOS midi utility apps, or even by way of something more complicated like mozaic scripting or beyond.
Is there ANY way to use the iOS keyboard to send midi messages? Or more specifically a physical keyboard on iOS. Would really love to be able to play notes on my iPad with the magic keyboard. This feature is built into desktop DAWs like FL studio and Ableton but I can’t find anything like it here.
And if it doesn’t exit now, could it EVER exist? Or this a situation of Apple restricting something somewhere in the coding pipeline that essentially makes it an impossible never gonna happen type thing?
🙏🏻✌🏻
Comments
@j0gie Drambo has this, added in version 1.30. So you can use it in Drambo, or host an AUv3 in Drambo and send the MIDI to it. I believe there may be one or two other implementations as well.
Only a few iOS music apps have support for typing keyboards. It was problematic up until not too long ago because there was no indication of key-up from the typing keyboard, so apps had no way of knowing how long you held down a note. That's changed now, but typing keyboard support isn't a high priority for most yet.
There's no app that I know of that can act as a relay. An AUv3 that could do that would be a nifty idea for some developer to put out. Adding in an XY pad and magic pad support would be even better.
There's a really old app called SideCar that can sort of do this, but it's really not very practical as you have to have it running in slide-over mode all the time.
The thread title is a little confusing. When people read keyboard here, they think MIDI piano style keyboard first. "Typing keyboard" would probably get more appropriate attention and maybe better answers.
Last time I went down this rabbit hole side car was indeed the only thing i scrounged up which seemed to fit the bill. But The price and more importantly the age of it put me off big time.
I’m sorry, I wasn’t sure how best to word it. But Google seems to agree with you on my verbiage for this because it was really hard to dig up that sidecar thing hah.
Ah sick!!! Is it just a globally enabled thing or is it a specific module you have to add?
Thanks
AUM should add keyboard support for mapping, it would be very handy.
Not a module. It's just available as an input. See this discussion. Note that it's only in Drambo stand-alone.
Edit: Tried this and it just works (for me). No setup required, maybe because my KB is paired with the iPad. Plays 2 8va, from C1 to C3 (middle C), chromatic using 4 keyboard rows. Appears in Drambo as normal MIDI input. Can also send the MIDI notes to the Drambo virtual port. I was able to connect that port to an external instrument (not AUv3), but it only plays when Drambo is foreground. Tried enabling the track Always, and Background Audio, but still no dice. There may be a trick I'm not aware of. Maybe Drambo in Slide Over?
The biggest limitation is that iOS only directs input from a QWERTY keyboard to the one specific app in the foreground. If you are viewing Home Screen then inputs only go to iOS system.
If Drambo is running in the background, it won’t receive keystroke inputs.
An app like sidecar helps, because it converts keystrokes to standard virtual midi that can be directed to any app. but the sidecar app must be visible in slide over view.
Yes “Typing Keyboard” would be less confussing
ouch. That’s a BIG limitation then. what i was afraid of
Yeah. I think that's fundamental with iOS. Realized that after my reply. But if you use Drambo stand-alone as AUv3 host, it's still frontmost, even when the AU GUI is open.
This guy was developing one that looked super promising (slide over support, arpeggiator) but seems not to be taking beta requests any more
https://zestprod.com/community/qwerty-midi-app-news/beta-1-is-open/
The other big elephant in the room is latency. If you are using BT in and out, fogetaboutit. Even if you use only BT in the latency has to be as good as a BT midi controller. Only real hope would be a usb QWERTY keyboard and wired audio out to amp.
It works with Dvorak too. And the notes are still in the correct order, so I suspect it’ll work with almost any layout.
There is no noticeable latency from Bluetooth keyboards. Try using one to tap in a letter to a notes app in time with a metronome or a drumbeat or whatever played in aum, works absolutely fine. Bluetooth audio latency is slow but is not relevant to this discussion.
Back in the days on desktop I had the DAW Orion that could be played with the QWERTY keyboard. I got to say it's a really unpleasant way to play music.
I would prefer a onscreen keyboard by a long shot.
True lol...especially good dedicated onscreen keyboards like Xequence Keys and Velocity Keyboard.
Wait, there’s another Dvorak user here? I assumed I was the only one 😉
👍 Between typing for a living and playing guitar, Dvorak seemed prudent to reduce my RSI risk.
Pretty much same reasons here, but I haven't picked up my guitars in a long time. I blame iPad & Bitwig.
Would actually be super useful in AUM for adjusting parameters for song presets and stuff like that?
Like if you could use certain keys as shortcuts to change a bunch of CC values… I know you can already do that pretty easily with midi controllers but it would free up a lot of controls and be a lot to just be able to use a usb keyboard right in AUM