Here’s the primer :

Open up any modern (hardware) keyboard and start Google-ing the bigger parts on the circuit board to begin understanding that not only are these (awesome) units built on 10-20 year old technology but the iPhone is considerably more powerful.

With that said we introduce products such as the Akai Synth Station

or the Line 6 MIDI Mobilizer that I have posted several times on the MIDI Mobilizer, most currently here.

So what’s the problem now, right?

I just read a follow up article on CDM regarding this topic. This article ultimately falls in line with all the NDA protection and conjecture on the Apple policies.  Here’s a few quotes from CDM:

Here is a few lines from the referenced CDM article (this will cause brain pain):

The old agreement

3.3.24 Your Application may interface, communicate, or otherwise interoperate with or control an iPhone Accessory (as defined above) through Bluetooth or Apple’s 30-pin dock connector only if You have obtained a license for such iPhone Accessory under Apple’s MFi Program.

The new agreement

3.3.25 Your Application may interface, communicate, or otherwise interoperate with or control an iPhone Accessory (as defined above) through Bluetooth or Apple’s 30-pin dock connector only if (i) such iPhone Accessory is licensed under Apple’s MFi Program at the time that You initially submit Your Application, (ii) the MFi Licensee has added Your Application to a list of those approved for interoperability with their iPhone Accessory, and (iii) the MFi Licensee has received approval from the Apple MFi Program for such addition.

{via CDM} Apple is now allowing third-party apps to support those hardware accessories – provided Apple approves both the accessory itself, and via the accessory’s maker, the app.

I don’t want to discuss the inner workings of this statement, but it is clear that we there is some nasty stuff going on.

Let’s bring it around to the end users (you and me).

The iPhone (OS) and similar devices has the potential to revolutionize the synth, controller, and hardware industry 3 years ago. Unfortunately it looks like another 3 years is going to  pass before anything real happens.

Apple is not going to relinquish control for us greedy electronic musicians who are often much smarter than the other iPhone users and have a high density of hackers and programmers in the audience.  Roland and Korg are safe (for now) but the end may be near.  As soon as there is an established protocol and standardization for input/output on these devices the guitar pedal market is going to shrink considerably.  The number of effects on outboard pedals that can not be “virtualized” is pretty small.  Boss, as a pedal manufacturer, should be worried, very worried.

When some required changes finally take place here is my prediction:

• End users are going to grow the tool kit exponentially
• End users will need to sift through a market of mostly crap as weak programmers and (cr)app(y) development will dominate
• Large companies will be crushed as they lack the inherent required agility to shift with the market
• Large companies will further alienate users as they grasp to old ideas of revenue generation that do not work in the “app” market
• Boutique sales will slowly rise and dominate as the choice of professionals (tube, analog, and other similar choices)
• Smaller companies and blogs will become the resource of choice for those in the know
• Large “knock off companies” such as Akai, Alesis, Bheringer, and Novation will mass market popular choices that lack the quality professionals desire

I really don’t know what the future holds, but one thing is clear – the technology is moving faster than academic, corporate, and traditional media can keep up with.

It is up to us, the (Ableton and electronic music)  users, to make am impact and speak honestly and truthfully in all realms to keep music alive.

If we fail, the traditional stability of pedals, keyboards, and instruments in general will be suffocated by an influx of cheap China knockoffs, crappy apps, and bug laden software that crushes so many systems everyday already.

DISCLAIMER : I am posting this information for peer review. There shall be no violation of any NDA, developer agreement, or otherwise. Commentary on this information is welcome and open to the public domain.

I just received a return email from Line 6 for an SDK for the MIDI Mobilizer.  If anyone would like to see the PDF application please contact me.  There are no limitation immediately visible on the PDF document preventing me from posting, but I suspect that posting this agreement will impact me negatively.

Here is original copy from the returned email response with a few items [redacted] out of courtesy.

Dear [name],

Thank you for your interest in our MIDI Mobilizer developer program.  We are very excited to see what creative uses developers may have for our new MIDI interface.

In order to become a MIDI Mobilizer developer and to receive the technical documents, we request that you fill out and return the attached agreement.  You can sign it electronically and email the completed form to [email address].  Or, you can fill it out manually and send a scan of the completed form to MMDeveloper@line6.com, or fax it to [phone number].  In addition, you will need to follow all of Apple’s requirements for being an iPhone developer.

Upon receipt of the signed developer agreement, we will send you back a fully executed version and our MIDI Mobilizer SDK.  The MIDI Mobilizer SDK is provided at no charge, and with no royalty or license fee for its use.  Due to Apple’s policies, it will be necessary for Line 6 to approve the application and provide its name and ID to Apple in order for it to function with the MIDI Mobilizer.  All other aspects of the submission of applications to Apple remain the same as with any other application, and are handled directly by the developer.

As outlined in the agreement, we request that an Application Plan be submitted to us for our approval.  This can be a simple description in an email, and enables us to provide advanced feedback and/or legal review if necessary prior to any significant development effort.  We do not anticipate this step being an impediment to your progress, but instead should reduce the time required for Line 6 to provide approval of the application’s use with MIDI Mobilizer to Apple when your development is complete.

As mentioned, the development files for MIDI Mobilizer are provided free of charge.  You can choose to charge any amount you like for the MIDI Mobilizer application you develop, or to make it free of charge, without any approval or cost incurred from Line 6.

We look forward to your partnership, and to seeing the many uses that MIDI Mobilizer might inspire.

Best regards,
-The MIDI Mobilizer team

There is some bold in there.  The cool part makes Line 6 look PIMP! In short, you can charge what ever you want for the application and Line 6 don’t care. Very interested in the license that the SDK has, if any.

The other bold elements make it pretty clear that Line 6 has it’s hands tied by the Apple agreement.  Here is an example of these limitations:

..no interpreted code may be downloaded or used in an Application except for code that is interpreted and run by Apple’s Documented APIs and built-in interpreter(s). Notwithstanding the foregoing, with Apple’s prior written consent, an Application may use embedded interpreted code in a limited way if such use is solely for providing minor features or functionality that are consistent with the intended and advertised purpose of the Application.. [source CNET]

Your desirable application to control MIDI output via hardware is still pretty far off. The list is long and the real meat of the issue is rumored to be in the Apple developer agreement. I understand the developer agreement is itself under a NDA of it’s own (removing the developer agreement from the public domain for review). These limitations clearly state that you can not allow users to program an application.  Programming MIDI functionality that interacts in real time is an apparent violation of these rules.  (I wonder how the Line 6 SDK works if it is NOT one of the documented “built-in interpreter(s)”?)

It seems safe to say that we (the end user) are very much a victim of Apple’s feud  with Adobe and the Flash system (among many fights).  Depending on your view, understanding, and interpertation of the environment (covered by various NDA’s) there is no distinction between Flash and MIDI interfaces.

So how does Touch OSC, Griid, and others get around this? Easy – they are a dedicated application that is interfacing with an external API (such as an OSC protocol or the Ableton API via network communication and the use of additional software outside of iOS).

Although the iPad and similar Apple devices are very much the coolest electronic gadgets I have ever owned, Apple’s over authoritarian reach and restriction of the hardware and software is unjust to say the least.

Counterpoint: One may claim that the only way to have a hard/software application run stable,such as in the iOS and iPhone, iPad, etc environment, you need to rule your hard/software with an iron fist. This is why your alarm clock, microwave, and car run well – no SDK or tweaker (like me) messing around.

Update : Look here and red between the lines.

My advocacy against wireless communication for Live should hardly go unnoticed.  Nor should it be difficult to find an honest sentence from me on the Line 6 MIDI Mobilizer.

History and defense  of Line 6. This hardware and software application was created to back up patches and data (period).  SysEx data and similar.  Very good – Line 6 gets a Gold Star!

Head on over to this CDM article and learn more on this topic.

So what is the problem?

Well, the hardware is 100% capable of passing info form the iOs to a MIDI cable, but no methods other than record and play. No “button creation” and assignment to your desired CC number, Note, etc.

The CDM review is interesting and much of the hoop-la is centered around the L6 side.

I point to the highly ambiguous environment a result of the EFF win. The iOs is a  100% solid front from Apple (in a vague manner littered with the threats of losing a dev license) stating that there is no 3rd party programming (keeping that short, big topic). The L6MM with an SDK should violate this agreement.

Expanded: If you make a button, assign it to CC 44 and fire off that command in an iOs environment you are breaking the iOs rules (100% pre EFF win).  The developer who “allowed” this to happen will most likely have apps pulled from the iTunes store and lose the license. Them Apple people are real nice…

You get it, I don’t need to connect the dots any further than saying how Apple apparently knows something about MIDI and in conjunction with ATT’s paranoia (indeed industry wide) where we can “bring down the network [of cell towers] by trying to force MIDI out in real time”.

C’mon people!

Well there is an SDK available now.  I have an email in.

For now please let me know what you know! How has the iOs dev environment changed? How close are we to getting the MIDI control OFF WIRELESS?

This conversation is NOT over.  We have some progress!

Special thanks to EFF for fighting the good fight against the forces of EVIL!

Hello all – everyone is going to the up-coming classes with Steve Nalepa this Saturday and ILL.GATES on 23May2010 right?!?

Here’s a round up of some news and “stuff”

Once again, Ean Gold at DJTT has a great post that answers a question I get ALL of the time.

What soundcard? Well, here is a round up of the under $200 ones. My personal choice is Tascam for the lower budget otherwise RME.

I think he passed over some of the best interfaces out there, but I will drop him a B for effort. This next image pulls him out of the “C-” category:

For your reference we used 14ms as the barrier for human perception If you exceed 14ms latency you will know it is there (general). I am now require under 10ms on my interface or else things don’t work. (also why I personally use so much non-digital dedicated processing).

For the glitch inside all of us, here’s a Korg Monotron with a 2nd osc:

iPad as atmosphere generator (musically):

Hardly my “thing” but regardless we are seeing the tablet evolve rather quickly. Again, pray (to the electronic gods) that Apple reconsiders the inappropriately restrictive developer agreement and NDA.

Free Plugin via Gear Junkies. A little copy and paste:

Get the niveau filter section of our famous mpressor plugin – it’s free! Add punch to muffled snares, reduce the harshness from active pickups, create some wonderful Dub and LoFi sounds… there are so many ways to benefit from this little tool. It’s fast, efficient, and most important: it sounds great!

More soon.

–M

ABLETON LIVE WORKSHOP: TECHNIQUES AND STRATEGIES
FOR COMPOSITION, PRODUCTION AND LIVE PERFORMANCE

Five Hour Intensive Ableton Live Workshop in Denver, CO taught by Steve Nalepa.

Saturday May 1, 2010 from 1pm-6pm at The Lucid Gallery (719 W 8th Ave Denver, CO 80204). The cost is $100.

WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION:

Ableton Live is a dynamic and empowering tool for every stage of the musical process, from composition to production to live performance. Whether you are a producer or dj, sound designer or composer, the versatility of Ableton Live makes it the ideal tool for both beginners and experts alike. This workshop is an opportunity to learn from a veteran Ableton Live expert who has been teaching this software to the biggest artists in electronic music for years. Please bring a pair of headphones and your laptop loaded up with Ableton Live, as there will be a series of exercises. You can download a free 30 day working demo from www.ableton.com

The workshop begins with a brief overview of the capabilities of Ableton Live, followed by a series of composition and production techniques. There will be Live demonstrations and practice exercises with step by step instructions that cover the entire songwriting process, exploring a variety of different approaches. Topics covered include crafting beats, getting the fattest drum sounds, writing
melodies, creating basslines, using EQ and effects, experimenting with sound design, sidechain compression, arranging, mixing and mastering.

The workshop also addresses a variety of ways to utilize Ableton Live for Live Performance, providing you with an overview of the various strategies while delivering a plethora of tips and tricks culled from the instructor’s many years of working with and performing alongside the most innovative performers in the world. Learn how artists like Nosaj Thing, Adam Freeland, Flying Lotus, [a]pendics.shuffle, Bassnectar and The Glitch Mob set up their live performance documents. Some artists use Live to DJ complete songs while adding real time dub and glitch effects, others prefer to break their songs out into stems, building up their compositions on the fly so their performances have more room for improvisation. Live is great for loop recording, and it even features video now so you can rock audiovisual sets.

There are an almost endless amount of possibilities with Ableton Live, even more so now that it integrates seamlessly with Serato and MAX/MSP. This workshop will fill your head with ideas and leave you truly inspired. This is a complete overview course aimed at bringing new users and experts alike to a new level of understanding of this incredibly powerful piece of music software.

ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR:

Steve Nalepa (Chapman University Conservatory of Music, 1320 Records)

LA-based electronic musician, multimedia artist and mad scientist collector Steve Nalepa is one of the world’s foremost experts on Ableton Live. Working for years with M-Audio/Ableton, Nalepa provided VIP support and software training for a multitude of high-profile  artists and producers. Nalepa has produced tracks with such legends as Bill Laswell and Pharoah Sanders, performed with the LA Philharmonic at Walt Disney Concert Hall, and shared the stage with some of the
most revered electronic musicians and video artists in the world. 1320 Records released his triple album Flatlands in May, the original compositions accompanied by a collection of music videos and remixes by an all-star cast of luminaries including The Glitch Mob, Deru and Nosaj Thing. Nalepa is one of 100 artists featured in Visionaire 53: Sound, his song Flatlands joining original pieces from David Byrne, U2, Lalo Schifrin, Danger Mouse, Yoko Ono and more on five 12” vinyl record picture discs packaged with a portable record player inside a specially produced domed case. When he’s not in the lab, rocking international dancefloors or hosting Ableton Live workshops, Nalepa can be found teaching Ableton Live, Logic, ProTools and Reason to the students in his Principles of Music Technology classes at Chapman University Conservatory of Music.

Enough on the eye-fad already!

http://communikey.us/ coming up – I will be there!

Rapid fire:

Thx Ean for this post on cabling and essentially professionalism. Good read!

I have a Black OHM64 on the way! I will bring it to the next meet up (working on it).

Facebook account now set up (as user*) go to: http://www.facebook.com/ableton.colorado and grab a friend request. We will not refuse anyone, but we could ban ya…

* why? So we can post stuff to the account, the user group is “fan” thing and this should have been what I used initially.

Build your own damn “what is that thing called?” using this technology.

Super-dooper cheat sheet for Ableton.

I am becoming a rather BIG fan of Livid Instruments. The following post is how (damn) easy it is to build you own (freaking) controller (foot pedal version):

A guide to effective mixing of drums (part2)

Free JoMoX samples. I am working on the same thing, but I am using a Leslie cabinet:

Jo-Leslie Render #1 by dj-not-so-much

Jason is cool, support him!

Is this coming to Colorado? Should it?

Happy (freakin’) Friday.  Long week for you also?

News, iPad this weekend.  Gear Junkies take the cake, here is the YouTube embed:

Need to look at the details more – can I MIDI it?

A WHOLE COLLECTION of new controllers. Again, Gear Junkies kicks ass! Synthopia saw the same good stuff, I am using their image.

I am a H-U-G-E RME Fan. They have a new interface called “Baby Face” (PDF info), a micro extension, if you will, on the successful Fire Face technology. (If you don’t know about Fire Face, check it out).

Reactables – coming closer to you both physically and financially.

Gear Junkies FTW with a Messe review. Very good break down (these guys do such as great job. Special thanks to Mark D and crew for all the effort.  Ableton Denver loves you!)

Korg Monotron – a new classic or a key-chain toy gone wild? You decide!

I am an admitted non-fan of VST / plugin technology. Yeah I use them, but it is not my thing. Regardless, this next item is cool- it is like a VST instrument trapped on the iPad.

When I look at this image of Mini Synth (for iPad):

I think of this Superman (2) image:

As if a perfectly good VST was banished for galactic crime.

Oh, and just when you thought the iPad is going to be cool, CDM gets real and shows us how nasty Apple can be (looking like they are all legal team?)

We will be art walkin’ on Sante Fe tonight after we hit Dorkbot. See you there?

More soon, warp your world!

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!