iPad Music Production
This page is a collection of tools I'm gathering for music
production on the Apple iPad.NanoStudio TRG kits:
- glixhkitz from
Mrcoldy
Download: glixhkitz
Demo: Glixhkitzdemo by code:11
NanoStudio TRG MIDI Drum Clips
As the next tip indicates, it's not so easy to take a GM drum clip and import it into TRG. Luckily for you, I've done most of the work. Download this zip file of over 650 clips ready for import into TRG tracks in NanoStudio. It's all the clips from Groove Monkee but translated for use in TRG. A couple of pointers:- Once you unzip the archive, use NanoSync to drop the top-level folder into NanoStudio (or any subfolder you like, but the entire collection is only 2MB)
- In song view, use Tools|MIDI File|Import to select a
clip to copy in to your song.
- This assumes TRG is on MIDI chanel 2, which is the default when you create a new song. If your TRG instance is in a different channel, you'll have to move the clip to the proper track.
- The notes are configured by the GM drum standard which is not the default setup for TRG. For example, the standard TRG patch has bass on pad 1 and snare on pad 2. But GM has snare on pad 3. So either you'll need to move the notes in clip edit or rearrange the samples in TRG.
- Rearranging: I've done this for all the default TRG
banks. I'm not entirely satisfied with them as they
don't exactly follow the GM standard, but at least
kick/snare/hats/cymbals should be in the right place.
(Note: for these, I edited the Package.trg file by
hand as the stock banks already have some
levels/groups/buses/etc. assigned, but you can also
use the awesome TRG Maker
tool to rearrange pads and make your own banks.)
NanoStudio Tip: Importing MIDI Drum Clips:
This is a tricky procedure due to the nature of typical MIDI drum clips vs the nature of NanoStudio TRG tracks. I need to refine this, but just so I don't forget it, here's what worked for me:- Get some MIDI drum loops - here's a bunch of free ones from Groove Monkee
- Unzip to the PC and you have a bunch of .mid files. Opening these files in Finale PrintMusic, I see that the MIDI channel is 10. Importing into Reason, I see the notes start at "C1" and go up.
- In Reason, I can create a number of instruments to audition the clip: Redrum, Kong, NN-XT, etc. - they all "just work" - sweet!
- There are two problems with trying to import the file as-is into NanoStudio - the note range and MIDI channel. To solve these in Reason, I first create a synth track (Thor, Subtractor, etc.) as the next step won't work in the drum instruments.
- Move the clip to the synth instrument.
- Double-click the clip, Ctrl-A to select all notes, and
change the "C1" Note to "C2" (I know Blip says TRG's
note range is C3
to D#4 - just a quirk of Reason I guess.)
- Export the MIDI file - save it to a different location than you imported
- Use NanoSync to get the file onto the iPad
- In NanoStudio, import the MIDI file (Song|Tools|MIDI File|Import)
- Oops - Reason saved the clip as MIDI channel 1 so NanoStudio imported it on the Mixer track - just move it down to the TRG track and hit Play
- Couldn't be easier - um, yeah ;-)
- Get midicsv and unzip it somewhere (mine is at P:\Program Files\Midicsv)
- Get Perl
and install
- Get GMDrums2NanoStudio.zip and unzip it somewhere (could be same place but doesn't have to be, mine is at P:\music\MIDI\GMDrums2NanoStudio)
- Edit the 3 batch files in #3 (All_GM_to_TRG.bat, AllSubDirs_GM-to_TRG.bat, GM_to_TRG.bat) and change all the "P:" paths to the location you used in #1 and #3.
- See the readme.txt file from #3 to use the scripts
Integrating EWI and iPad - MIDI Wind Controller and NanoStudio
My first attempt at integrating the EWI and iPad resulted in the song "Blip's Blues" that you can hear on SoundCloud. This will serve as future reference to myself and for the benefit of other players, hopefully this will provide pitfalls to avoid and expectations to be managed.My hardware/software setup currently includes the following:
- Akai EWI 4000s
- Edirol UM-1ex MIDI interface
- 2in1 USB Camera Connection Kit (i.e. not Apple branded, got on eBay)
- Apple iPad 2
- NanoStudio app version 1.21
Issue #1 - Programming NanoStudio's Eden synth for breath control
The Eden synth provides 5 performance controls in the form of two XY pads and a Knob. By default, these are mapped to MIDI continuous controllers 70-74. So the first task is the reassign one or more of these performance controls to respond to breath control, CC2.Then, within an Eden patch, each performance controller can be used as a "Source" to modulate one synth parameter "Destination". This is done on the "Patch Bay" page within Eden.
This architecture presents some severe limitations for patch programmer. Mapping CC2 to a single performance controller and then assigning that performance controller in the Patch Bay means breath control will affect only a single synth parameter. To attain anything useful, breath needs to control multiple synth parameters such as Amp Amount (volume), Filter Cutoff, Filter Q (resonance), etc. simultaneously. What I did was assign two performance controllers to breath and one to mod wheel (triggered from the EWI's upper pitch bend plate), leaving the other two unused (well, not exactly unused, just a fixed value set in the patch editor. and, oh, by the way, you'll see why I left these "unused" shortly.)
An improvement request has been sent to the NanoStudio developer so perhaps this will be improved in the future. But I should note that even with this limited set of tools, a lot of useful results can be obtained, and I feel like I've barely scratched the service. For example, my results so far are fairly mildly tweaked versions of stock presets and breath is mostly affecting "the usual" parameters (as mentioned above).
Issue #2 - Core MIDI Not So Great Yet
I am still experiencing several issues with the MIDI input. Occasionally, a stuck note occurs in NanoStudio, forcing a trip to the MIDI setting screen where the Panic button is located. More frustratingly, the MIDI interface frequently just quits working, sometimes with a message like "this USB accessory in not supported" and sometimes not. The only work-around I've found is to disconnect the CCK, wait a few seconds, then reconnect. I'm not blaming this on NanoStudio as the same behavior can be seen with the MIDI Monitor app as well.By the way, this issue alone makes the entire setup completely unusable in a live situation.This behavior was not helped by using a powered USB hub, nor was it helped by iOS 5. It seems that Core MIDI just can't keep up with the EWI's volume of MIDI data.
Issue #2.b - Line 6 MIDI Mobilizer to the Rescue!
On a lark I found a used Line 6 MIDI Mobilizer and plugged the EWI into it driving NanoStudio. The result? NO MORE STUCK NOTES! YEA! So that's the good news. The bad news is that the newer apps are mostly not supporting the original L6MM so options for EWI & MIDI are still pretty limited.Issue #3 - Recording Limitations in NanoStudio
NanoStudio has limits of "up to 1000 parts per song" and "up to 1000 events per part" which sounds like a lot of data until you realize how much MIDI data is spit out by the EWI. This is made worse by the situation described above where then CC2 data is doubled (and now you see why I didn't triple or quadruple). For Blip's Blues, 8-bars worked out to about 800-900 events. Of course, this varies with how quickly the breath and "mod wheel" are changed (as well as how many actual notes are played but that is minimal compared to the number of CC events). So as long as no more than 8 (or so) bars are recorded at once, all is well. If more is attempted, what happens is that the part fills up (has 1000 events) and the rest of that bar is empty until a new part starts at the next bar marker.Obviously, having to stop every 4 or 8 bars messes with your "flow" as a soloist and reduces options for phrasing since each phrase has to fit within that recording window.
I will be making another improvement request to the NanoStudio developer so maybe this situation can be improved as well.
A final tip for recording EWI - TURN OFF QUANTIZE! I couldn't figure out why playing sounded so smooth during recording and so choppy on playback until I realized the quantize setting was on. Even at 1/16th note resolution this will ruin your expression.
Conclusions:
Well, that's it so far. As I said, you can hear some of my results in the "Blip's Blues" track (although only 3 of about 18 patches I've made so far), but I have hopes for better results in the future. If it sounds like I'm complaining too loudly, let me add that NanoStudio has huge potential and is already a highly capable production tool. Of course, it was not designed with wind controller users in mind, but with a few small changes, it could become a major player for us, not just on the iPad but for music production software in general.I doubt I will be throwing out my desktop software such as Propellerhead Reason/Record, Band-in-a-Box, etc. any time soon, if ever. But overall, I am very optimistic that the iPad will become a significant tool in my music production arsenal.
Integrating EWI and iPad - Meteor DAW
My second attempt at integrating the EWI and iPad resulted in the song "The Visitor From Afar" that you can hear on SoundCloud. As above, this note is intended to serve as future reference to myself and as a list of pitfalls to avoid and expectations to be managed.For this project, the relevant hardware/software setup involved:
- Akai EWI 4000s
- IK Multimedia iRig
- Apple iPad 2
- NanoStudio app version 1.21
- Meteor Multi Track Recorder app version 1.02
Having originally been disappointed with EWI MIDI input, I turned to audio recording using the iRig device.
Recording Experience
Hooking up the iRig and recording into Meteor was extremely easy. Meteor has input monitoring and latency compensation so felt very natural. I experienced no latency issues.Editing and splicing of takes went pretty smoothly as well. Although Meteor lacks more sophisticating tools like crossfades, the manual fade tool was adequate and clips can overlap in the track view to combine tails/starts. I'd say my Micro BR's days are numbered, indeed, have passed.
Issue #1 - iRig noise
This was the only real complaint about this process. Soloing back a recorded EWI track, a could faintly hear the entire NanoStudio backing track as well as Meteor's metronome. Not good! It was a very low level, maybe -50dB, but was clearly audible on headphones. (I later discovered this "internal feedback" is a known issue with the iRig and even mentioned in the Meteor user's guide.) Such "spill" would not normally be a big issue in the context of the overall mix, but the click present was totally unacceptable. Fortunately, I found a solution in the Noise Gate effect in Meteor. Used as the first insert effect on the EWI tracks, this pretty much eliminated the spill in the quiet sections and it was well masked by the recorded audio otherwise. Still it's something to be aware of and manage. In particular, I turned down the metronome as low as possible and turned it off when not needed (e.g. when normal rhythm track was sufficient.)Bottom line: a less noisy solution is desired, but iRig works, with minor caveats.
Mixing Experience
Overall, I would say the mixing experience reminded me of "the bad old days" (2009 :-) ) where I did the bulk of backing tracks in Propellerhead Reason with recorded audio tracks in Cockos Reaper, combining the two in Reaper using Rewire. I have not done this since switching to Properllerhead Reason+Record where the audio and MIDI tracks live side-by-side seamlessly. It is much easier to get a well integrated mix together in the unified environment than the hybrid environment. I found the same to be true between NanoStudio and Meteor.Having said that, Meteor proved to be a pretty powerful mixing environment. I only had 5 simultaneous tracks going since all the NanoStudio tracks had been mixed down to a stereo pair for import into Meteor. So Meteor had plenty of horsepower, for this project at least. I had 1 master effect (a 'mix glue' compressor), 3 aux sends (reverb, delay, and chorus), and a total of 6 insert effects. I ended up buying the extra effects for Noise Gate, Compressor, Graphic Equalizer, and Distortion.
There are only two master effect slots provided, so I ended up mixing down and creating a separate "mastering" project where I applied the graphic EQ and a limiter.