Helix + iPad + Apps : OMG

TimmyO

Thought I'd start a thread for this as it may become a subject in itself.

I'd been pondering this for a silly idea I have for live solo stuffs, so decided to jump in and give it a go.

First take a quick look at this very short vid re an app called Dreamfoot : 




You get the idea? 
Stick in your chords, and send it a midi command to do one of either : play next chord, section up, section down, jump to specific section, next song, previous song. 

So I modified my basic (work in progress) acoustic patch to have footswitches for, Verse, Chorus, Play, Up, Down then used the simple midi mapping/learn page on Dreamfoot and set some synths running on the iPad and selected sounds and that was that.

I could strum the chords, giving it the rhythm/groove, the synths (you can be playing more than one at once if you like) play behind it changing chord as you stomp (keeping all your timing and variations the same across guitar and synth so you can be a bit more expressive than perfect time for the synth chords) 

All belting out of the speaker that Helix is connected to. 

(iPad connects to Helix using the Apple Camera Connection Kit USB adapter) 


Things that took a bit of faff:

I had to pull the USB1/2 level down a lot in Globals, and upped the acoustic IR level to get them balanced, but that's because I was doing this quickly. I'll make a multi-route patch with Guitar In, USB In, Mic in that way they can all have their own level control. That's tomorrow's job

If anyone is interested I'll try and do a video demo (it'll be my first so be nice lol) 

Cabicular

Very interesting
I might try this
i have one of these which seems a bit nicer than the camera kit?
http://m.usa.yamaha.com/products/pianos-keyboards/accessories/interfaces/md-bt01.html

JMP220478

like to see whats possible here

BigMonka

Ooooh, that looks very interesting - keep us posted with your progress!
I don't have a helix but I fancy having a play around with that Dream Foot app for giving a bit of background synths to my playing.

TimmyO

Cabicular said:

Very interesting
I might try this
i have one of these which seems a bit nicer than the camera kit?
http://m.usa.yamaha.com/products/pianos-keyboards/accessories/interfaces/md-bt01.html

From what I can see that's a different thing altogether. That would let you get midi in and out of the iOS device, but that's it. 

With the CCK the iPad's audio is also coming back down the cable in to the Helix, and Helix can then route it wherever (either further affected by Helix, or not - the defalt seffup is that USB 1/2 doesn't get processed, but you can change that in Helix) 

fretmeister

TimmyO

BigMonka said:

Ooooh, that looks very interesting - keep us posted with your progress!
I don't have a helix but I fancy having a play around with that Dream Foot app for giving a bit of background synths to my playing.

Dream Foot is about the 'plainest' use of the setup - it isn't Audiobus enabled but for some that makes things simpler.

you could of course take the midi in to the iPad and have Audiobus do all sorts of crazy stuff routing it to and fro between iOS apps before sending the audio back. With Audiobus 3 (not upgraded yet - it's a new purchase) you can also use the new midi filter apps to (say) grab just the root note, send that to synth/app 1, arpeggiate the chord, send that to synth/app2 and so on and so on. 

Or trigger backing tracks/loops/audio sections loaded in to Group The Loop 

But yeah, for now just prodding one switch to change chords is where I've got to. :-)  

Cabicular

TimmyO said:

Cabicular said:

Very interesting
I might try this
i have one of these which seems a bit nicer than the camera kit?
http://m.usa.yamaha.com/products/pianos-keyboards/accessories/interfaces/md-bt01.html

From what I can see that's a different thing altogether. That would let you get midi in and out of the iOS device, but that's it. 

With the CCK the iPad's audio is also coming back down the cable in to the Helix, and Helix can then route it wherever (either further affected by Helix, or not - the defalt seffup is that USB 1/2 doesn't get processed, but you can change that in Helix) 

Are the camera connection kits less 'wobbly' than they used to be? (thats the main thing putting me off tbh)

TimmyO

I've only used the current/new one (supports USB3 and adds a lightning port for charging while connected) and it seems good to me... 

Cabicular

I'll pick one up 

JMP220478

TimmyO said:

I've only used the current/new one (supports USB3 and adds a lightning port for charging while connected) and it seems good to me... 

Are you using an iPad pro ?

John_A

JMP220478 said:

TimmyO said:

I've only used the current/new one (supports USB3 and adds a lightning port for charging while connected) and it seems good to me... 

Are you using an iPad pro ?

I'm using one with a standard iPad  by the way the 9" iPad Pro is only USB 2

TimmyO

JMP220478 said:

TimmyO said:

I've only used the current/new one (supports USB3 and adds a lightning port for charging while connected) and it seems good to me... 

Are you using an iPad pro ?

no an iPad Air 1 , was just clarifying which adapter I have 

JMP220478

Anymore developments on this ?