Beyond any reasonable doubt people are excited about the iPad.
I avoid the great jubilation over getting screen lock for bed reading so let’s pull together some recent news and throw it at electronic music.
The 2 big items of the past 2 weeks are both near misses.
The first is MIDIpad where this Synthopia article first caught my eye. From the bullets (and my thoughts…):
- Communicates with MacOs and Windows based PCs.
- That is awesome for Ableton and most electronic music platforms.
- Communicates with stand-alone-applications and hardware.
- Again, great.
- Communicates via network-MIDI-protocol.
- Whad’dya say?
- Plug & play via Apple Bonjour, wireless-LAN.
- Come again?
- Multitouch Interface.
- Of course.
So, MIDI over network sounds cool. I have reasonable doubts. A QoS issue comes to mind, and debates are pending. In the end I think this is sexy and stable when used correctly and well understood.
Some serious networking knowledge required however.
A great implementation of this could be with other OS boxes, Linux on my list, triggering events.
These events could be DMX, or even visual (or MIDI). Currently I am enjoying Processing thanks to Cache Flowe. I so want to fire MIDI or similar events into this program!
My fear, as I mentioned before when jumping on the term-wagon, wireless needs to be secured.
Now don’t get me wrong. I want to stage-dive while controlling an array of electronic equipment. My personal choice would be playing the mind control program. None the less, my eventual delivery to a velvet thrown to rule the world as we know it would be made so much better steering the mind control program with the iPad.
This reality is in jeopardy. I just don’t dig on wireless in a live environment. There are a number of methods (script wise) that I see crushing wireless devices. This would of course stop the mind control program before total world domination has taken permanent effect,
As my skills in Linux and other hardware / software grows I am very reluctant to open up a wireless device. If you are playing at a festival you can count on contact with a few thousand people while playing or setting up. Your wireless device, a strange thing to carry to a gig, has a hefty range. This is not a one-to-one connection or a cable. Instead this is a broadcast device that can even be detected by T-shirts.
I find it rather probable that a small minority could rock your world. Google searches for router flooding, router dos, remote router crash, and router hack is enough to strike fear.
On the other hand…does it talk USB class compliant MIDI device? (I did not see a mention)
And second we have the MIDI Mobilizer by Line 6.
Looks sexy huh? Well it certainly can be, as soon as…
Okay, first let’s look at what we know.
From the copy:
[yada]…lightest and easiest way to manage all your MIDI data.
Easily backup and transfer all your MIDI…[yada]
…to play, record, and backup MIDI information…
None of that says real time controller. It screams b-o-r-i-n-g!
Here is where is gets really steamy! There is a question:
Can anyone develop applications that talk to MIDI Mobilizer?
Answered:
Any developer who complies with Apple’s developer requirements and signs up with Line 6 as a MIDI Mobilizer developer can develop applications for MIDI Mobilizer. Contact MMdeveloper [at] line6.com for more information.
That is good to hear. I am thinking little Lemur. How about you?
There is going to be “slates”. Just as Mark Mosher points out in discussing Audio Cubes, your approach and potential will change with the interface. The ability to craft your user interface, interaction, subroutines, color, size, and so on… of y-o-u-r controller will change the game again.
Apple and the iPad are cutting a wide swath for us to blaze even more new paths.
We are stepping away from the “PC” in a great way and examining ARM Chip sets, PIC Micro Controllers, and Arduino chip sets and products from Apple. The iPhone.Touch is an ARM chip and the fancy Apple A-chip is probably not too different (only a week to go until we get inside the unit!)
Now we start hacking.
I would jailbreak my iPad and use it only for muisc in a heart beat! Don’t even have to ask me twice. Gimme one hour to hit the Apple store in Cherry Creek and game is on!
That is provided there is a program and UI builder…
Oh, not quite yet.
So the ball is rolling. Line 6 may have stepped up to the plate with the hardware. Did they leave the lid off the box far enough to do something really cool?
The “iPad to MIDI” converter is all we need. With the Lemur hovering around $2000 there is a lot of budget available for hardware that can perform like that.
Synthopia is betting some major street credit on the iPad music software genre. They are probably right. Don’t forget we need quality hardware interfaces ASAP.
iPad to MIDI – coming to a rig near you soon!
