Open Beta -- Sidecar MIDI Controller, now with AUv3 action!

Gravitas

@espiegel123 said:

@Gravitas said:

@SecretBaseDesign said:

@janpieter said:

Sorry, a little off thread, but I was wondering whether you still are seeing something in visual synth. I think it still leaves behind a lot of other visual/music apps in what it can do..

It's on the maybe-someday pile right now. I think it's a really fun concept, but the potential market for it is fairly small, and it'll be really hard to explain the app well enough that people "get" it. Video folks, coupled with those who actually use and understand MIDI -- not a big audience.

I would disagree.
I think the interest in Imaginando's Visual Synth has shown otherwise.

Visual Synth has potential.

Do we know that the interest is significant? I’d be cautious about extrapolating too much from AB forum. Sometimes apps get a lot of discussion here but don’t generate enough sales to have compensated the developer for their time, sadly.

I've seen interest via other platforms as well.
AB Forum focuses on short term sales and interest.

From a personal perspective I'm looking at visual tools
that will last hence why I also mentioned VS Synth.

Musicians these days have to be all in one.
Video editor, film maker, content provider as well as being a skilled musician.
On the one hand seeing so many multi instrumentalists is amazing
but on the other hand we are hindered by out dated thinking.

Being able to trigger visuals using midi simplifies
adding visual content for both live and video post production.
It's obvious.

I will also add that there is a dearth of visual apps that are designed for musicians.

There's Fractal Bits, VS Synth and Visual Synth.
Yamaha's Vis Performer app got taken down and
the rest are music visualisers such as Staella.

I did come across quite a few workable ideas for visuals
including using vector synthesis but the average user isn't going to sit there
with an oscilloscope to learn how to draw a rotating tesseract using oscillators.

Load up a video clip or several, add midi markers either using midi notes or cc's,
sequence it and we have interesting visuals that are in time.

The rest is the UI.

ipadbeatmaking

@ipadbeatmaking said:
@SecretBaseDesign how does sidecar use the ‘shift’ button? Do I need to set that up? It currently doesn’t change anything for me

U hold shift and it makes the keys go up and octave while u hold it. That’s pretty cool. Anyway to cycle octave +- with a specific key?

espiegel123

@Gravitas : I could have expressed myself better. It is hard to gauge from this and other forums whether the level of passive interest (what people say they'd like to have) will translate to actual sales and how that compares to the time required to implement, support and market an app. A lot of people express an interest in software that they won't actually pay enough for to provide enough to a developer to actually compensate them reasonably for their time.

We often underestimate the time required to create and support these things and overestimate how many people will pay for them.

I'd love for there to be more tools for create visualization and I know also that realtime video creation software can be pretty time-intensive.

Tones4Christ

So awesome! Totally forgot about this awesome app! It’s actually what i was wishing for since i need an app that can trigger Pads so when I lead worship at church i can send midi message to the app via midi foot controller to trigger a pad! I hope this is possible! Especially via Bluetooth. Still waiting for my foot controller; can’t wait! ❤️🙏👍🏼☝️🎸

Gravitas

@espiegel123 said:
@Gravitas : I could have expressed myself better.

Myself also.

It is hard to gauge from this and other forums whether the level of passive interest (what people say they'd like to have) will translate to actual sales and how that compares to the time required to implement, support and market an app.

Agreed.
The thing is though at some point someone has to take the risk.
For things like groovebox's, synths and effects the iOS platform
is awash with amazing apps but when it comes to the visuals?
It's sadly lacking.

A lot of people express an interest in software that they won't actually pay enough for to provide enough to a developer to actually compensate them reasonably for their time.

Again agreed.
Lot's of hot air and no purchase.

We often underestimate the time required to create and support these things and overestimate how many people will pay for them.

I don't underestimate the time it needs.
I wrote my first "symphony" 7 years ago and it's still not ready for release.

I'd love for there to be more tools for create visualization and I know also that realtime video creation software can be pretty time-intensive.

Exactly.
They are definitely time consuming.

VS Synth opened up the visual side of things for iOS though Visual Synth was there first.

I've only seen one person using Visual Synth and that was
@seonnthaproducer and he used it to great effect for one of his YouTube videos.

SecretBaseDesign

@Gravitas said:

@espiegel123 said:
@Gravitas : I could have expressed myself better.

Myself also.

It is hard to gauge from this and other forums whether the level of passive interest (what people say they'd like to have) will translate to actual sales and how that compares to the time required to implement, support and market an app.

Agreed.
The thing is though at some point someone has to take the risk.
For things like groovebox's, synths and effects the iOS platform
is awash with amazing apps but when it comes to the visuals?
It's sadly lacking.

A lot of people express an interest in software that they won't actually pay enough for to provide enough to a developer to actually compensate them reasonably for their time.

Again agreed.
Lot's of hot air and no purchase.

We often underestimate the time required to create and support these things and overestimate how many people will pay for them.

I don't underestimate the time it needs.
I wrote my first "symphony" 7 years ago and it's still not ready for release.

I'd love for there to be more tools for create visualization and I know also that realtime video creation software can be pretty time-intensive.

Exactly.
They are definitely time consuming.

VS Synth opened up the visual side of things for iOS though Visual Synth was there first.

I've only seen one person using Visual Synth and that was
@seonnthaproducer and he used it to great effect for one of his YouTube videos.

I hadn't seen the @seonnthaproducer video before -- yup, that's sort of what I was thinking the app would get used for. I'll probably move the Visual Synth update towards the front burner, and get something done. There's a lot that can be done without a ton of development time, and I can roll it out to the world and see if it goes a little further.

Gravitas

@SecretBaseDesign said:
@Gravitas said:

@espiegel123 said:
@Gravitas : I could have expressed myself better.

Myself also.

It is hard to gauge from this and other forums whether the level of passive interest (what people say they'd like to have) will translate to actual sales and how that compares to the time required to implement, support and market an app.

Agreed.
The thing is though at some point someone has to take the risk.
For things like groovebox's, synths and effects the iOS platform
is awash with amazing apps but when it comes to the visuals?
It's sadly lacking.

A lot of people express an interest in software that they won't actually pay enough for to provide enough to a developer to actually compensate them reasonably for their time.

Again agreed.
Lot's of hot air and no purchase.

We often underestimate the time required to create and support these things and overestimate how many people will pay for them.

I don't underestimate the time it needs.
I wrote my first "symphony" 7 years ago and it's still not ready for release.

I'd love for there to be more tools for create visualization and I know also that realtime video creation software can be pretty time-intensive.

Exactly.
They are definitely time consuming.

VS Synth opened up the visual side of things for iOS though Visual Synth was there first.

I've only seen one person using Visual Synth and that was
@seonnthaproducer and he used it to great effect for one of his YouTube videos.

I hadn't seen the @seonnthaproducer video before -- yup, that's sort of what I was thinking the app would get used for. I'll probably move the Visual Synth update towards the front burner, and get something done. There's a lot that can be done without a ton of development time, and I can roll it out to the world and see if it goes a little further.

That's wonderful news.

[Deleted User]

@Gravitas said:

@SecretBaseDesign said:
@Gravitas said:

@espiegel123 said:
@Gravitas : I could have expressed myself better.

Myself also.

It is hard to gauge from this and other forums whether the level of passive interest (what people say they'd like to have) will translate to actual sales and how that compares to the time required to implement, support and market an app.

Agreed.
The thing is though at some point someone has to take the risk.
For things like groovebox's, synths and effects the iOS platform
is awash with amazing apps but when it comes to the visuals?
It's sadly lacking.

A lot of people express an interest in software that they won't actually pay enough for to provide enough to a developer to actually compensate them reasonably for their time.

Again agreed.
Lot's of hot air and no purchase.

We often underestimate the time required to create and support these things and overestimate how many people will pay for them.

I don't underestimate the time it needs.
I wrote my first "symphony" 7 years ago and it's still not ready for release.

I'd love for there to be more tools for create visualization and I know also that realtime video creation software can be pretty time-intensive.

Exactly.
They are definitely time consuming.

VS Synth opened up the visual side of things for iOS though Visual Synth was there first.

I've only seen one person using Visual Synth and that was
@seonnthaproducer and he used it to great effect for one of his YouTube videos.

I hadn't seen the @seonnthaproducer video before -- yup, that's sort of what I was thinking the app would get used for. I'll probably move the Visual Synth update towards the front burner, and get something done. There's a lot that can be done without a ton of development time, and I can roll it out to the world and see if it goes a little further.

That's wonderful news.

Oh yes!

edit: a quick visual synth thingie from 2 days ago..

Skyblazer

@SecretBaseDesign said:

@Skyblazer said:
I can't get the AU to detect keystrokes, maybe I'm doing something wrong. But "Trigger a Note" works as intended. The standalone works great, except the / key has an issue with polyphony.

Which AU host? This is something that I'm tinkering with, and trying to figure out what the rules are. None of this is documented very well, or if it is, I have not found it -- so I'm sort of poking around, to see what works.

For AUM, it seems like the most-recently-opened plug-in interface has priority -- so try closing the Sidecar interface, and then re-opening it. Interacting with the UI (for example, the trigger-the-note button) also seems to change focus in some instances.

@audiblevideo
AFAIK, there's no way to get a keystroke without having focus -- so no way for my AUv3 to do that. In theory, the host might have a way to catch the keystroke, and use that to bring up a particular AU interface. With AUM, it's set up for MIDI events to do that, but if Kymatica adds the option to have a QWERTY key do that, then it could work.

I'm fiddling with the AUM MIDI learn right now, and it seems like keyboard focus is away from the plug-in while the MIDI Learn dialog/slide-over is active. I'm also getting a crash while messing with this stuff; have to dive in and see what that's about.

I'm using AUM, and I did try tapping everything in the AU window, especially "trigger note". I did try closing and re-opening the AU window, re-loading the plugin, and re-installing the plugin.

2017 iPad Pro, 10.5 inch, running iOS 13.7.

Haven't seen a crash yet. I did get a bunch of stuck notes, when recording my first magic keyboard improvisation. Feels like it happened because I was playing a bunch of notes, but...maybe I tapped away from the window for a moment. I don't remember. I wasn't stress testing it for note data, but I was playing a lot of notes. Haven't tried mashing the keys yet.

And btw, thanks for making this. Feels nice to have access to a tactile keyboard without a USB dongle.

wim

@Tones4Christ said:
So awesome! Totally forgot about this awesome app! It’s actually what i was wishing for since i need an app that can trigger Pads so when I lead worship at church i can send midi message to the app via midi foot controller to trigger a pad! I hope this is possible! Especially via Bluetooth. Still waiting for my foot controller; can’t wait! ❤️🙏👍🏼☝️🎸

You won't need Sidecar for that. This is designed for sending MIDI from a typing keyboard. Your foot pedal will already send MIDI and you should be able to set it up to do anything you need without this app.

Tones4Christ

Thanks Wim, I’m still trying to learn all these things! Such a blessing you’re here. 👍🏼

@wim said:

@Tones4Christ said:
So awesome! Totally forgot about this awesome app! It’s actually what i was wishing for since i need an app that can trigger Pads so when I lead worship at church i can send midi message to the app via midi foot controller to trigger a pad! I hope this is possible! Especially via Bluetooth. Still waiting for my foot controller; can’t wait! ❤️🙏👍🏼☝️🎸

You won't need Sidecar for that. This is designed for sending MIDI from a typing keyboard. Your foot pedal will already send MIDI and you should be able to set it up to do anything you need without this app.

SecretBaseDesign

@Skyblazer said:

@SecretBaseDesign said:

@Skyblazer said:
I can't get the AU to detect keystrokes, maybe I'm doing something wrong. But "Trigger a Note" works as intended. The standalone works great, except the / key has an issue with polyphony.

Which AU host? This is something that I'm tinkering with, and trying to figure out what the rules are. None of this is documented very well, or if it is, I have not found it -- so I'm sort of poking around, to see what works.

For AUM, it seems like the most-recently-opened plug-in interface has priority -- so try closing the Sidecar interface, and then re-opening it. Interacting with the UI (for example, the trigger-the-note button) also seems to change focus in some instances.

@audiblevideo
AFAIK, there's no way to get a keystroke without having focus -- so no way for my AUv3 to do that. In theory, the host might have a way to catch the keystroke, and use that to bring up a particular AU interface. With AUM, it's set up for MIDI events to do that, but if Kymatica adds the option to have a QWERTY key do that, then it could work.

I'm fiddling with the AUM MIDI learn right now, and it seems like keyboard focus is away from the plug-in while the MIDI Learn dialog/slide-over is active. I'm also getting a crash while messing with this stuff; have to dive in and see what that's about.

I'm using AUM, and I did try tapping everything in the AU window, especially "trigger note". I did try closing and re-opening the AU window, re-loading the plugin, and re-installing the plugin.

2017 iPad Pro, 10.5 inch, running iOS 13.7.

Haven't seen a crash yet. I did get a bunch of stuck notes, when recording my first magic keyboard improvisation. Feels like it happened because I was playing a bunch of notes, but...maybe I tapped away from the window for a moment. I don't remember. I wasn't stress testing it for note data, but I was playing a lot of notes. Haven't tried mashing the keys yet.

And btw, thanks for making this. Feels nice to have access to a tactile keyboard without a USB dongle.

Did you route the MIDI using the AUM MIDI routing? After installing the plug, switch over to the AUM routing grid, and toggle on the link between Sidecar and where-ever you need the MIDI to go. The trigger-MIDI-button should work without fail (and if it doesn't work, something much more complex is going on).

If the AUv3 is seeing keystrokes, you should see the channel selection change when you tap the QWERTY row. If not -- try closing all the other plug-in windows.

Gravitas

@janpieter said:

edit: a quick visual synth thingie from 2 days ago..

That's really cool.

Skyblazer

@SecretBaseDesign said:

@Skyblazer said:

@SecretBaseDesign said:

@Skyblazer said:
I can't get the AU to detect keystrokes, maybe I'm doing something wrong. But "Trigger a Note" works as intended. The standalone works great, except the / key has an issue with polyphony.

Which AU host? This is something that I'm tinkering with, and trying to figure out what the rules are. None of this is documented very well, or if it is, I have not found it -- so I'm sort of poking around, to see what works.

For AUM, it seems like the most-recently-opened plug-in interface has priority -- so try closing the Sidecar interface, and then re-opening it. Interacting with the UI (for example, the trigger-the-note button) also seems to change focus in some instances.

@audiblevideo
AFAIK, there's no way to get a keystroke without having focus -- so no way for my AUv3 to do that. In theory, the host might have a way to catch the keystroke, and use that to bring up a particular AU interface. With AUM, it's set up for MIDI events to do that, but if Kymatica adds the option to have a QWERTY key do that, then it could work.

I'm fiddling with the AUM MIDI learn right now, and it seems like keyboard focus is away from the plug-in while the MIDI Learn dialog/slide-over is active. I'm also getting a crash while messing with this stuff; have to dive in and see what that's about.

I'm using AUM, and I did try tapping everything in the AU window, especially "trigger note". I did try closing and re-opening the AU window, re-loading the plugin, and re-installing the plugin.

2017 iPad Pro, 10.5 inch, running iOS 13.7.

Haven't seen a crash yet. I did get a bunch of stuck notes, when recording my first magic keyboard improvisation. Feels like it happened because I was playing a bunch of notes, but...maybe I tapped away from the window for a moment. I don't remember. I wasn't stress testing it for note data, but I was playing a lot of notes. Haven't tried mashing the keys yet.

And btw, thanks for making this. Feels nice to have access to a tactile keyboard without a USB dongle.

Did you route the MIDI using the AUM MIDI routing? After installing the plug, switch over to the AUM routing grid, and toggle on the link between Sidecar and where-ever you need the MIDI to go. The trigger-MIDI-button should work without fail (and if it doesn't work, something much more complex is going on).

If the AUv3 is seeing keystrokes, you should see the channel selection change when you tap the QWERTY row. If not -- try closing all the other plug-in windows.

Sorry for being unclear. I was talking about the standalone version with the stuck notes, and the polyphony bug with the slash key. The AU doesn't register input from the (Apple typing) keyboard. I just load one instance into an FX slot, route it into a synth, and it's supposed to register input from the keyboard, right? That's what I'm doing, and that's not working. It does send MIDI using the Trigger Note button.

seonnthaproducer

@Gravitas said:

@SecretBaseDesign said:
@Gravitas said:

@espiegel123 said:
@Gravitas : I could have expressed myself better.

Myself also.

It is hard to gauge from this and other forums whether the level of passive interest (what people say they'd like to have) will translate to actual sales and how that compares to the time required to implement, support and market an app.

Agreed.
The thing is though at some point someone has to take the risk.
For things like groovebox's, synths and effects the iOS platform
is awash with amazing apps but when it comes to the visuals?
It's sadly lacking.

A lot of people express an interest in software that they won't actually pay enough for to provide enough to a developer to actually compensate them reasonably for their time.

Again agreed.
Lot's of hot air and no purchase.

We often underestimate the time required to create and support these things and overestimate how many people will pay for them.

I don't underestimate the time it needs.
I wrote my first "symphony" 7 years ago and it's still not ready for release.

I'd love for there to be more tools for create visualization and I know also that realtime video creation software can be pretty time-intensive.

Exactly.
They are definitely time consuming.

VS Synth opened up the visual side of things for iOS though Visual Synth was there first.

I've only seen one person using Visual Synth and that was
@seonnthaproducer and he used it to great effect for one of his YouTube videos.

I hadn't seen the @seonnthaproducer video before -- yup, that's sort of what I was thinking the app would get used for. I'll probably move the Visual Synth update towards the front burner, and get something done. There's a lot that can be done without a ton of development time, and I can roll it out to the world and see if it goes a little further.

That's wonderful news.

Thanks @Gravitas for the shoutout, and @SecretBaseDesign for making the app.

Out of curiosity, was anyone able to get Sidecar to work with Garageband? I tried adding it as an Audio Auv3, but also standalone but I wasn’t able to get it to work.

Carnbot

This is very useful
It would be nice to have a visual layout of the keyboard in the AUv3 and what maps to what.
This would make it much friendlier to use I think.

SecretBaseDesign

@seonnthaproducer said:

Thanks @Gravitas for the shoutout, and @SecretBaseDesign for making the app.

Out of curiosity, was anyone able to get Sidecar to work with Garageband? I tried adding it as an Audio Auv3, but also standalone but I wasn’t able to get it to work.

For the stand-alone Sidecar, toggle on the MIDI output for the app itself (listed as Sidecar). Garageband listens to the virtual outputs of other apps, instead of having a virtual input like every other MIDI app does. Not sure why GB does it this way.

GB doesn't allow for plug-in windows to be open while you're playing, so the AUv3 isn't going to work with it.

Kites

@SecretBaseDesign Thanks so much for updating this! I bought this years ago and will now test this in Loopy Pro- great timing!

SecretBaseDesign

Sidecar 1.7 should be rolling out of the App Store now. Next up is wrangling with the Apple Review team to get Wireless Audio through.

slaq

Thanks for explaining! Its a great app, I like the switching option! Great for live situation on stage

@SecretBaseDesign said:
Sidecar 1.7 should be rolling out of the App Store now. Next up is wrangling with the Apple Review team to get Wireless Audio through.

MisplacedDevelopment

Bought this based on the video. I was thinking the other day that it would be useful to have something even more portable than my nanokey for the couch and this does the job nicely.

jab0Oo

A question to clarify:
will sidecar make it possible to use the iPad Magic Keyboard within cubasis, to record notes in a convenient way?
Thanks

moher

Looks great!
Will this app support bluetooth keyboards?
Will it be possible to control transport buttons in Cubasis, GB or AUM with the app?

ipadbeatmaking

@jab0Oo said:
A question to clarify:
will sidecar make it possible to use the iPad Magic Keyboard within cubasis, to record notes in a convenient way?
Thanks

Yes it should be, when the app is in focus, as an au midi fx or in slideover mode