Midibridge - how are you guys using it with Audiobus?

gjcyrus

Just bought MIDI bridge and like it so far, just for being able to set up things faster between apps is great as my creative flow isnt interrupted for too long when syncing up clock. Any user tips from my fellow AB addicts? Any power user tricks i should know.

thanks in advance

JMSexton

Great question and have been wondering it myself...not the easiest app to learn but seems like it could be awesome alongside Audiobus

snoopy

So many things you can do with it and loads of videos on youtube and stuff on the web, , but here is a less commonly documented thing it can help with: I use it for distributing a smoothed clock.

Decide which app you want to be master (littlemidi is a good free example) and route it into MidiBridge. Either route littlemidi to apps directly in MB or route littlemidi to MidiBridge out and choose 'midibridge' in the slave apps.

On the options page select a 50ms jitter/sync value - this adds a 50ms latency (which is fine when you are clocking not so good if live playing) but forces the clock stream to sync across all the apps as the events get sent into CoreMIDI in advance (according to the dev who helped me with this).

Result - better clocking across apps (and external devices)

Another way I use it (which is more akin to what it excels at) is to be able to create/break routings between apps on the fly in the one place rather than having to do it in each app. Like a patchbay.

Can't wait to be able to save/recall complete routings and program changes

(NB like @dwarman I'm just a satisfied customer, but think this is such a useful and underrated app that I'd like to see it get more known to the iOS music world)

gjcyrus

Thanks for littlemidi tip. Just downloaded it and will experiment with it later.

What I typically need MIDI for is for syncing up beats to live loops I've taken from other songs, then altered. So as a general example, I'd take say a Dr. Dre hip hop song, cut a loop from it, speed it up, so now it's saved as a audio file. Now, I'd like to sync it with say funk box or drum jam to add hi hats, tablas, etc.. and trying to find the most efficient way to do this.

Will

@gjcyrus loopy might fit the bill there. Wouldn't really need syncing across apps at all.

gjcyrus

@syrupcore - thanks for the tip! Yeah works great!

I'm starting to dig loopy a lot more. The key for me is having nicely edited loops before importing them in.

Will

I just make them with loopy as the recorder via audiobus. Then the loops are always perfect. Well, the loops are - not my playing.

gjcyrus

Have you had luck syncing Loopy with drumjam as slave?

It hasnt been working out and im not sure if its because drumjam has unique rhythms or if its something in the settings. funkbox works with loopy (although not midibridge for me) and so does bassline but drumjam and loopy not so smooth

yowza

@gjcyrus
I haven't used them in a while but I got great results when I used DrumJam and Loopy together. I had DJ send the clock out and Loopy receive it and they stayed synced up just fine. I may have read somewhere (here in another thread?) that it was better to use DJ as the master and slave Loopy to it. Hope that helps!

Will

Don't own DJ but if im recording loops of 4 bars or under I skip midi sync, set the tempos correctly, turn on the metronome in loopy and try to hit start at the right time! Even if it takes a few tries its easier/faster for me.

thatsRayor

@syrupcore Right on, this is how I get basic ideas from iKaossilator to Loopy quickly. Now if only we had MidiBus to make our lives even easier

snoopy

Right now, MidiBridge is the only MidiBus and if it could be made to show up in the Audiobus panels (and vice versa), which is something I have raised already then even that would go a long way to integrating MIDI and audio management.

gjcyrus

I want to love midibridge as i like the concept of it and how it should help my workflow. however, i still have to figure out how each app works with it. for example, it just did not work with funkbox and loopy. when i turned off midibridge and midi'd em directly, all was fine but man, thats a pain in the ass if i gotta do that for every single app so midibridge could possibly be just as important for me as audiobus

snoopy

MB shows all MIDI ports in the system. Things that generate MIDI are on the left side and things that can receive are on the right.

I know you might slap me for this, but you did connect Loopy and Funkbox together in MB and there was a green line going between them, right? You touch Loopy on the left and it goes green then FunkBox on the right to connect them. Touch Loopy (left) again to deselect it. When MIDI is received/sent then both those ports should flash.

Some apps are a little touchy with MIDI so you do have to experiment a bit; sometimes it is better for an app to send to/receive from MidiBridge's own virtual port.

The idea is that once you have all the apps setup then when you want to patch inputs to outputs you just switch to MidiBridge and change the routings there.

myst515

I've used MidiBridge to control music apps in my iTouch with the SS25, as well using MB and SS25 to control music apps wireless in my iPad.

gjcyrus

@snoopy - im pretty sure i did. I mean for me that was the value withe app in the sense of when i get an idea, i dont want to waste time remembering where in the settings for each app to find the midi in and midi out. and it has worked fine with my other apps so i dont want to tarnish their image on this forum but like you said, one still needs to experiment with the settings somewhat but with that being said, isnt that the developer's job? thats why i paid my hard earned $10 right so that i could experiment with making music, not learning the settings for every app i own.