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iOS sequencers with desktop instruments [SOLVED]
Trying to step up my sequencer game and actually put to use the ones I collected for the opportunity to go deep. I want to drive desktop synths and drum machines, and instruments in Kontakt.
My sequencer collection (and what I understand the general landscape to be) is unevenly split across the following platforms: VST, Ableton M4L, Reason, Kontakt, JSFX (Reaper), standalone apps, and iOS. I've sort of moved away from Ableton Live and Reason, but my VST, Kontakt and Reaper sequencers are niche, have hefty learning curves, and are not nearly as inspiring as Max4Live sequencers. Hardware is out of the picture.
IOS is a great platform for small, cheap, interesting sequencers, and I've been accumulating them.
I've only ever used them inside the ipad box, so to speak and not to drive instruments on the desktop. It seems pretty straightforward, but I've also never taken this plunge. Anyone who has gone down this road before, what advice and/or apps would you suggest? I am assuming MIDI is going to be at the heart of it, over USB. Is AUM an optimal host? Any other chain tools that will make it easier to manage the sequencer apps?
Comments
MIDI should be easy to set up through a USB hub by using Audio MIDI Setup on a Mac.
If you’re on Windows you will need some third-party software to get things talking.
Let us know what hardware you have other than an iPad as that will help guide you.
Thanks for taking an interest. I'm on a Mac and trying to do start with ambient / generative types of sequences and minimize the amount of hardware involved for now. I could foresee an arpeggiator like Venomode Phrasebox in the chain.
I do have at my disposal a korg nanoKontrol2, an Arturia Beatstep, and an NI M32 keyboard. Also have some hardware synths, pedals and such, but leave those out of the conversation at the moment. I am moving and they could go into cold storage, which is what is prompting this.
iDAM will present your iPad as a single MIDI device once connected. So on the Mac end it doesn't matter what apps you use, they will be able to see 16 channels of midi. No need to over think it. Whatever works well for you for sequencing on the iPad will just schlep that midi over to whatever works well for you on the Mac.
AUM is handy for sequencer routing and channel filtering. Routing is easy - all sequencers will go to the same destination (the USB connection). So if you will be using multiple sequencers, setting different midi channels for their output before sending to the Mac is important. If the sequencers themselves can't set a midi channel, then mfxStrip is handy for changing it. Route the sequencer to mfxStrip and mfxStrip to the USB output.
The easiest way (by far in my humble opinion) is to use the iPad as if it was MIDI hardware.
Midi interfaces are pretty cheap especially if your iPad has USB-C. You should be able to get them for under £20.
So you would just plug midi out from the iPad into MIDI in on your Mac’s interface.
With a simple MIDI interface on the iPad you’ll get 16 MIDI channels which should be more than enough for that kind of setup.
I’d host the vst instruments in Live, or whatever DAW you like best on your Mac which has the benefit of obviously allowing you to record the MIDI from the iPad and/or Audio from your desktop VSTs hosted in the DAW.
This would also allow you to create as many additional tracks as you like by overdubbing. If you need more than 16 MIDI channels at once — the best advice might be “don’t bother!” You’ll end up making life complicated and the added friction might be detrimental.
Sync via midi clock to keep things easy. It would make integrating a hardware midi sequencer easy in the future too as you’d just swap that for the iPad.
All the other solutions requiring software to bridge the iPad and mac tend to be glitchy and are always at the mercy of OS updates. And/or require extra equipment.
Keep it simple and stick to MIDI and life will be much easier.
Also this setup will make sequencing external hardware with your iPad a breeze too in the future and you can still capture the MIDI/audio on the Mac at the same time.
Any method that requires specific interfaces and software on the desktop computer will be way more frustrating, prone to being temperamental and could completely break at the drop of a .1 OS update. They’re fine when they work. They don’t always work.
TLDR. Keep it simple. Just use good old fashioned 5 pin DIN actual real MIDI.
I had forgotten to even consider the direct connection as I rarely do it as I have a hub set up permanently.
Definitely the simplest way to do it.
That does remind me though ...
I did have to start using a powered hub with my old iPad to keep a stable connection to my MacBook. It seems that the battery is so weak that there's not enough power coming from the MacBook to keep the iPad connection from cutting out intermittently. The host port of the hub is plugged in to the Mac and the iPad is plugged in to one of the ports that supplies power. It took me sooooooo long to finally find out why the iDAM connection was unstable.
Yes, some devices do need that extra current. Haven’t had it happen with an iPad yet, but I definitely find the hub is the only option with some devices.
Makes a lot of sense. Thank you for suggesting it. I have the DIN cables. Thinking about the rest of the MIDI devices to pull it off. I have 2 DACS that support MIDI in/out, but one is an ancient MOTU firewire tank that won't roll with my M1 MBP, so that's out. I have one good powered USB hub that would either need to go on the laptop or the ipad but not both. The laptop supports 2 USB at most without a hub, 1 of which would be an RME Babyface with MIDI in.
If I can run the MIDI out from the iPad on the Beatstep as a pass-through, the second USB port on the laptop can host the hub and any other USB hardware would hang off that, or I could have one other thing on the MBP's 2nd USB port and put the hub on the iPad. Not sure if the Beatstep will do this, but I think it just might. Would I then be able to use the pads and dials of the Beatstep to control the sequencer on the iPad while still sending signal from AUM or whatever I use to host the sequencer back to Reaper on the desktop?
Thanks for the suggestion of mfxStrip. Exactly the type of workflow tool I was looking for.
Does the routing get more complicated if I am using the Beatstep as MIDI out and also potentially control in via USB? Here's where it gets confusing to me. Do I put the Beatstep on a control channel that the sequencers are all listening to? Then they each send out on their own unique MIDI channels back to the DAW. Will all those channels go back thru DIN out on the Beatstep seems to be one big question.
Where would the MIDI clock go? Beatstep would be best situated. Am I correct in thinking this? Google says it supports clock out over both USB and DIN
Well the thing about keeping it 100% MIDI is you can do whatever you can do with hardware.
I would get a cheap MIDI usb interface for the iPad — or something like a Zoom U24 which has MIDI and 2 audio in/out interface (and has optional battery power if you use it without a hub).
MIDI out from the iPad midi interface goes to MIDI IN on the RME on your Mac.
The Beatstep goes to the USB in on your Mac directly.
Then you can use the iPad and/or the beatstep to sequence/control VSTs.
If you set up Reaper so that each vst responds on a different midi channel you can have up to 16 separate channels being sequenced by the iPad plus however many extra tracks you can do with the beatstep.
You could merge the beatstep with any track by outputting on the same channel.
Set reaper to respond to omni midi and anything you play on any midi device will be sent to the record enabled channel (even all at once).
In the future if you can expand your hardware or use your hardware MIDI synths you could get a MIDI merge box (about £35 for a 3 in 1 out) and expand what feeds the Mac without needing another interface for the Mac.
You could use IDAM to connect the iPad but then you’ll need to plug a hub into the Mac to have enough inputs. You won’t need an interface for that to work but it’s a but more of a faff and you’ll often need to visit audio/MIDI setup on the mac.
With MIDI you won’t need a hub on Mac or iPad unless you need more USB inputs. But for just iPad/Beatstep/RME you wouldn’t actually need a hub at all.
The one major nit in your otherwise reasonable plan is that I am in the midst of a midlife purge, and selling 2/3 of my possessions and putting half the remainder into storage for 6-12 months. I need another USB interface like I need a hole in the head. I need to sell about half a dozen of them ... yesterday! Point being no hardware is coming in or else I'm acting at cross-purposes to myself.
But I would sacrifice using the Beatstep as MIDI passthrough from the iPad if it can serve that role. I might have a USB mixer that I could deploy temporarily with MIDI in/out to get to your solution. That thing needs to be sold, so again cross-purposes. Medium term, replacing the korg and the Beatstep with a nanoKontrol studio might be a valid option, but not at this point.
If you use a USB hub with the host port plugged in to the Mac, the iPad will appear as one device to the Mac. The BeatStep will appear as a separate device to the Mac. It will not appear as a device to the iPad. Each will have 16 available channels in whatever Mac DAW you're using.
Routing will only be complicated if you need the Beatstep to appear to the iPad.
There should be no reason for the Midi to bounce back to the Beatstep. If some routing glitch I can't think of did result in this, there might be a midi through setting on the Beatstep to block this.
There's no easy answer for that. DAWs and apps vary in their ability to follow midi clock. Most DAWs tend to want to be the master. AUM won't follow midi clock at all without bridging clock to Ableton Link using something like Audiobus. Audiobus will follow clock. I can't say for sure, but I'm guessing having the Beatstep as the master will be the hardest way to go. Probably the iPad or the Mac DAW will work best as the master.
All this assumes attaching the iPad to the Mac using iDAM. If you send the midi to an interface on the Mac, that changes things.
Oh - a side comment in case it ends up being needed. MidiPipe on the Mac can be very helpful for some routing challenges. For instance, it can let you route a hardware device or sequencer plugged in to the Mac (or to a hub attached to the Mac) to the iPad - something that you can't do normally.
Yay, got it working.
iPad <--usb--> Beatstep --din--> RME --usb--> Ableton --> RME --optical--> headphone DAC +/- speakers
Definitely needs some finesse and filtering, but I think I can make this work. The Beatstep is doing exactly what I wanted and the best use I've actually found for it. The shim that glued it together for me was MIDI Tools on the iPad, and a lot of monitoring to see what changed as I messed with routing in AUM.
Absolutely loving it. Spent hours last night noodling. If I had known this would be so easy, I'd have done it ages ago.
So excited. Opens up a whole new universe of options for me, and gives a reason to use all the tools I've accumulated during sales, like MIDI Tools, whose Route & Clone+Filter gave me all of the filtering and rerouting I needed to get going. Bought mfxStrip just to have options. It seems as if I may be able to use the Beatstep pads for control on both/either the ipad and/or the desktop. Need to experiment. Thanks for all the advice. I found even the unimplemented suggestions edifying.
Oh cool, you're using the Beatstep as a MIDI interface for the iPad :-)
I should have though of that as I've done the same kind of thing with my ancient Novation XioSynth (Which Amazingly still works as a MIDI + Audio interface on the iPad!).