I might opt for the Akai MPK mini, as then you get pads and encoders, too.
TURTLE BEACH USB MIDI 1X1 PORTABLE
That’s also true of similar, portable options like Korg’s nano series. The Akai LPK25 is a cute little music keyboard Akai now offers a whole mess of controllers that work without drivers. There are various driver-free audio gadgets out there the $30(!) Behringer UCA-222 just happened to be sitting out Tekserve’s show floor and worked just fine. Version 2.0 recently arrived.Īudio interfaces work, too. Check out microKORG and Shruthi-1 templates on Palm Sounds. (It works wirelessly, too.) I need to actually make a template for the MeeBlip. MIDI Touch is a brilliant little app for making custom MIDI controller maps. Just like its predecessors, there’s a little “advanced mode” switch that you can toggle to “OFF” for driver-free operation with the iPad. It’s now discontinued, but the UM-1 line lives on - see the UM-1G, now sold as Cakewalk by Roland. Synthetic Bits little midi machine: A hardware-style analog step sequencer.Įdirol UM-1 EX is a USB MIDI interface that has those 5-pin MIDI DINs on one side and USB on the other. And if you don’t necessarily want a $500 iPad, here’s a demo video of the MeeBlip “gex0008” shot with a used Yamaha QY10, a portable MIDI sequencer. MeeBlip is an open-source, hackable synth designed by James Grahame and sold and supported in collaboration with Create Digital Music. If you’re serious about MIDI, you probably won’t regret having both. Line6 points out that it also theoretically supports faster speeds, but the thing I like most about it is that you get little LED lights that flash when MIDI is sent or received – ideal for troubleshooting! SonicState did a great video hands-on review: Also the only device that works with the iPhone and iPod touch and not just the iPad. Line6 MIDI Mobilizer: Works with any device with a 5-pin MIDI DIN port, no additional hardware required. Below, here’s a demo of the CCK with the Korg iMS-20. So, we need a hardware adapter.Īpple Camera Connection Kit: Works with USB devices that support MIDI class, and USB MIDI interfaces that connect to hardware with a 5-pin MIDI DIN port. (Bluetooth seems not to be an option, because of how Apple provides access to that connection.)īut here, we’re using good, old-fashioned hardware connections, which means you can work with hardware from the 80s through today – and you don’t have to have your computer with you. Various iOS apps let you send MIDI (or other protocols, like OpenSoundControl) wirelessly, via the WiFi connection.
TURTLE BEACH USB MIDI 1X1 MAC
Of course, by definition, what I’m saying also applies to other computing platforms that can support MIDI, which includes Mac OS, Windows, and Linux. In the video at top, co-produced by CDM and Tekserve, I show a hands-on with MIDI gear and the iPad.
Tonight at an event Tekserve titled “the future of music,” then, I’m the Ghost of Music Technology Past. I’ve been working with Tekserve, an independent Apple service and sales shop in Manhattan, to help show iPad owners how they can use this protocol – now more than a quarter century old – to make all their gear work together. It doesn’t transmit sound, but it does transmit information like pitch, note events, knob twists, button presses, and clock and transport information. For the uninitiated, MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) is the de facto industry standard means for communicating musical events between different hardware and software. Like traditional computers before it, part of what makes the shiny, new iPad musically useful is its ability to work with other gear.Įnter MIDI. So it makes sense that in a music workspace, making connections is important. Practical iPad Music Making: Connecting HardwareĬreatively, music is about assembling a new whole out of lots of pieces.