How to connect iPad as USB midi controller

[viscofisy]

Could anyone who's a bit clued up on the iPad give me some advice?
I've spent days googling for information,but I still can't figure out the best way to connect an iPad to a Windows PC.I'm wary of using wifiMidi for playing gigs,so I'm looking at USB Midi.

I basically want to use my iPad as a USB midi controller.
From what I understand,the iPad can't send MIDI through the Camera Connector Kit USB straight into a Windows PC.
To get it to work I need to install the rtpMIDI driver and iTunes.Is this correct?

Apparently the Alesis ioDock CAN send the midi signal via USB to a Windows PC...(and also charges the iPad).
Does anyone use one of these?What is it doing to the iPad signal that makes it compatible with Windows?They don't mention having to use the rtpMIDI driver.

From what I've read the Alesis has lots of dissattisfied customers,but they claim to have sorted it out,though the "stuck midi notes" issue is a bit worrying.Liine also use it in a demo video for Lemur,although they have it connected to a Mac.

Alternatively,I use a Focusrite Scarlett 8i6 audio interface,which has Midi in & out.Can I use a USB to Midi cable to connect the iPad for Midi signals?

What are these interfaces doing to understand/convert the iPad Midi signal that Windows seemingly can't do without installing th rtpMIDI driver etc?

How are people here connecting their iPads to Windows PCs?

Thanks for any suggestions or advice.

[muttlee]

hi viscofisy,

With my ipad i'm using a camera kit with a cheap usb to midi IO cables that are plugged into another usb midi that plugged into the PC.

rtpMidi does also do the job over wifi...but for reliable latencies u need an adhoc network which is a pain to setup every time on Winblows... U will need to install the rtpMIDI driver and the apple bonjor wifi printer drivers. its also pretty confusing to get rtpMidi setup if u dont know what your doing or get fustrated quickly...theres also a DS wifi midi one that some apps use, and mighty Lemur has its own one aswell, but its a since to use...

i like plugging in the midi it for low latency, but miss being able to charge it...i think u can chage and get midi from IKmedia one but its about 5times the price of getting a cheap camera kit and usb midi cable...

the ioDock has mixed reviews and there was a shitstorm with ios5.0... but it seems that is ok with ios5.1 but the ioDock doesn't do sysex if u want to use it control hardware syths or pedals...

good luck
mike

[Banned]

rtpMIDI implements the Apple OS X MIDI networking. While hoping to avoid an OS flamewar, it simply is a fact that Windows is not as good for MIDI out-of-the-box as OS X. Imho, as a Windows user, you should be really glad that rtpMIDI makes up for that in one important aspect. As a Mac user, it's great because you can use it for cheap slave machines with decent MIDI connectivity. We all win here, thanks to Tobias.

[dub3000]

Reaper supports OSC now - are there OSC apps that do what you want over wireless?

[viscofisy]

Thanks for all the advice - I didn't want to use wifi, my PC wifi makes Reaper and Ableton unusable because it interferes non-stop with audio.
I also tried today to set up an ad hoc network.It's easy on the PC,but the iPad won't connect.
I found this website
http://www.logicinmind.com/en/suppor...ork/index.html

and followed all the instructions,but still no joy..when I type in the static IP and subnet mask,I couldn't see how to "enter" it? (ie get it to progress from what I typed).

Apart from that,I bought an Alesis ioDock which arrived yesterday.
I downloaded the TouchOsc App and Editor,found I needed java,waded through the java website explanation on 64bit browsers(!!),installed iTunes,TouchBridge...still nothing!!!

I'm seeing both TouchBridge and Alesis ioDock as midi inputs in Reaper and Ableton,and enabled them,also enabled OSC and Bridge in the TouchOSC iPad app (it also has Midi enabled).

I've read everything I can find,but most info,like on hexler.net,is geared towards wifi - and even then seems confusing.On hexler.net the guy says you need PureData,but on his facebook page he says you don't,as he wrote MidiBridge to cover that??
On the hexler forum,the admin guy said you don't need rtpMidi if you're using an Alesis ioDock.He said it's simple,but I'm bordering on losing the plot!
A major part of it is I can't find out which programs are purely for wifi,and even what the latest advice is for the non wifi-ers (or even for the wifi-ers).

If anyone has managed to read this far,could you please tell me what I actually need just to get midi signals from iPad/TouchOSC via the ioDock to Reaper and Ableton on Windows7?
I tried the the LiveControl pre installed template for Ableton too,and now it seems I might need to install a python script?

Also created a template in TouchOsc Editor,but you have to sync it with the iPad using wifi,as far as I can see?
I realise things are moving quickly,and the do's and don'ts seem to change by the week.After googling for days I don't have a clue now where to find the best advice,apart from asking here.Lots of the clueless like me on hexler forum or facebook don't even get a reply.

I have one word going round my brain in my dreams ... TouchOsc&EditorOsculatorPureDataMidiBridgertpMidiC oreMidiBonjourLiveControlPythonMidiYoke.

More than usual,any help will be greatly appreciated.

[Banned]

Can you enable USB tethering on the iPad? Does it have to be MIDI (i.e. why not use OSC)?

And look at usbmuxd. Or, outdated: iTunnel.

[viscofisy]

Banned - as you can probably tell,I'm having a hard time understanding the concepts and implementation!
I read what I could find on OSC,but I don't need to send complicated messages - I'm hoping to use the ipad as a controller for simple stuff like volume changes,input selection,cueing tracks etc while I'm playing live - a bit like a touchscreen Akai APC 40.

I don't actually understand what,for example,TouchOSC is doing,other than it apparently sends Core Midi signals as part of its output along with OSC control messages?

I thought at first that an iPad connected to a usb on my PC through the Camera Connection Kit would work,although I realised that I might need a program to translate the Core Midi info into something Reaper or Ableton could understand.
I don't know how the ioDock deals with it,but it's plug and play,and has a midi out,so I hoped it was sending actual midi signals similar to say an Akai APC 40.The Admin at hexler.net forums says:

You can save yourself a lot of trouble and equipment just using one of these:
http://www.alesis.com/iodock - but then there's no further info in their documentation for TouchOsc,it's all about wifi.

But now I've run into all these complications,and I'm not into programming or even scripting,so I'm out of my depth,apart from what I can find in the forums.I just read someone on the liine forum complaining of the same issues with the same equipment I have,but using Lemur.

Again,the Lemur guy told him it's simple - do X.
Of course,X didn't work,and there was no further reply from liine.
http://liine.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=1085

That's been repeated in the hexler forums etc.

There's no real info around for the musician like me who's not big into the technical side.

I emailed hexler today.Maybe I'll get a reply.
Tried to join their forum yesterday,but still can't login as they haven't "processed" my application yet!

Surely it can't be that difficult to use an iPad more or less like an APC 40 with Windows7 and a usb cable?

[Banned]

Originally Posted by viscofisy

Banned - as you can probably tell,I'm having a hard time understanding the concepts and implementation!
I read what I could find on OSC,but I don't need to send complicated messages - I'm hoping to use the ipad as a controller for simple stuff like volume changes,input selection,cueing tracks etc while I'm playing live - a bit like a touchscreen Akai APC 40.

I don't actually understand what,for example,TouchOSC is doing,other than it apparently sends Core Midi signals as part of its output along with OSC control messages?[...]

OSC messages aren't more complicated than MIDI, to the contrary, they're much more human readable.

In fact, you're probably making things much more complicated by wanting to use MIDI from start to end (while you're already making it difficult for yourself by [1] using Windows and [2] avoiding WiFi).

Imho using a MIDI cable from a dock on the iPad to a MIDI input port on the PC woud *not* be the way to go, unless you want a solution that is fully compatible with MIDI hardware you already have. Otherwise, it makes no sense to me: I'd suggest just using OSC.

But if for some reason you really want to use MIDI over IP, on Windows rtpMIDI seems the best (if not the only) choice. Have you already tried that?
To use USB instead of WiFi for IP traffic between the PC and iPad, I suggest looking at usbmuxd (if you can't already enable that by enabling USB tethering or something - is the iPad jailbroken?).

[viscofisy]

Nope,not jailbroken - I've only had it for a few weeks,so haven't looked into that yet.
I'll try setting up an adhoc network again tomorrow,but I'm wary of gigging like that,and also I don't know if an adhoc network would be less prone to audio interference than what I experience when I accidentally forget to switch off my wifi and open Reaper - it's totally unuseable,but it might be different if it's not going through the router,don't know yet.

I took another look at the liine website.They have a video on using the Alesis ioDock with Lemur,and despite the complaint on their forum,I might risk it.It was my original intention to use Lemur,but TouchOSC is much cheaper,and I thought I could get it to do the simple-ish stuff I need.

Seems like I'll need wifi at least to make my own templates,although I can go back to the usb cable for operating it.

I'll look more into OSC - most of what I've seen so far is too technical for me to understand the benefits.I only really got into DAWs through learning Reaper,and I play mainly amplified acoustic instruments - but since getting Reaper I've ended up with BFD and Trillian,and a few free Vst synths.Now I'm incorporating loops and hoping to keep most of my performance as "live" as possible,and maybe with a bit of "mixing" the stuff I've just played.I'm just experimenting to see how it feels.

So I think I'll maybe try Lemur,as it looks to be a less complicated setup,and if I get that working I'll learn more about OSC when the pressure's off a bit.
Thanks for the advice so far,and if there's any other suggestions I'd be glad to hear them and try them out once I finally get the iPad running

[Banned]

Yeah, first try to get it running using wifi, then look into avoiding it using usbmuxd or similar.

I'd suggest the same with OSC and MIDI too: first try getting TouchOSC, Lemur or similar to work using OSC, and only then look into using MIDI (with rtpMIDI on the Windows end). In this case, OSC is less complicated: unlike MIDI, it's made with IP networking in mind. As a bonus, you'll have feedback from REAPER, i.e. when you change things in REAPER, the remote controller paramaters will sync to it.

Then consider what using MIDI instead of OSC would offer (perhaps not much if anything at all in your case, except you being more familiar with it), and whether its worth to buy a dock for it. It's definitely very useful to have MIDI I/O on an iPad, I'm just saying it's far from ideal for controlling REAPER. So if you don't have other MIDI gear, I definitely wouldn't recommend buying a MIDI I/O dock just for controlling REAPER.

[viscofisy]

Just to update - I got my iPad connected for midi through Alesis iODOCK using Lemur app
Liine have a tutorial video on this very thing,if anyone is in the same boat and and wants a wired midi iPad connection.

(The ioDock also allows you to record into the iPad - though there were major complaints over non-compatability with garageband.I'll post my findings in another thread once I've used a few apps,if anyone's interested.)

In my exasperation suggested I might not get a reply from hexler.net (aka TouchOSC). My apologies,as Rob,who I believe is the developer, sent me a helpful email less than 24 hours after I contacted them.

So I'm still a bit of a Luddite as regards wifi,but I'm going experimenting tonight.

Also,could someone recommend a good midi tutorial?I'm new to this,as I've mostly relied on pre-programmed.
I'm lost when it comes to abstract explanations,so I'd need a tutorial with examples.Once I get the gist,I'm flying.
I understand about the ports,and the 16 channels,and midi-learn stuff,the midi editor etc.
Actually,I'll probably ask this in another thread.

Thanks for all the help