In the latest episode of Sonic Touch, Nick Batt and Gaz Williams take a look at the new iConnectivity iConnectMIDI 4+ and Korg Gadget update.
Two updates here – first up the iConnectivity iConnect MIDI 4+ the flagship MIDI/Audio passthrough interface with RTP MIDI, then Korg Gadget’s massive update with Ableton Live integration.
via sonicstate
Pity they withheld the information that Gadget’s MIDI sync is totally unusable unless you can compensate its massive latency externally. (so yes, you can sync with ableton, but you can’t with most hardware).
How hard is it Korg?
A MIDI offset slider?
Come on! You got so many things right…
holding off on blibao and abu dhabi until they fix this.
Hmm, not aware of that, will definitely look into it.
Thank you Nick. Entertaining and in-depth review as usual.
Btw.
There are apps of which i know that they have (or enable) an internal clock offset: – Stroke Machine, Beat Maker 2, lemur… but can’t think of many other apps besides those…
Anyway, for people using their iOs device with hardware it’s a must-have.
the latency on an ipad3 is around 60ms.
Gadget is the BEST app on the market. Hands down.
I use the iConnectMidi4+ daily. The routing matrix took a while to figure out and it could use a major GUI overhaul to be both more logical and user friendly. However, I have my hardware synth collection, two iPads, a MacBookPro, a Windows 7 DAW, and three Controller keyboards all ‘speaking’ to each other (over midi) flawlessly through one of these boxes.
I do have one complaint though:
The Audio pass-thru function is virtually useless on a Windows machine if you already have a decent audio interface communicating via ASIO. The ICM4+ requires ASIO4ALL, which works fine if the ICM4+ is working in isolation. However, A4A’s driver aggregation feature means you can’t use the quality ASIO drivers of your existing interface (WDM is required). In my case, this means I must either use the ICM4+ audio or the audio of my 18i20 interface. This, of course, is a windows limitation and not strictly an ICM problem. The pass-thru feature works perfectly on a MAC, though, due to OSX’s built-in driver aggregation.
In what way is the audio of lesser quality when you’ve used ASIO4ALL compared to your interface’s native drivers?
It’s not. It’s the same at my house.
It was kind of a loaded question….
I am fairly dependent on the software mixer that accompanies the 18i20. When using the 18i20 with the ASIO4ALL driver, the mixer software simply doesn’t work. Maybe I have something setup wrong, but I’ve tried and tried to make everything play well together to no avail. I also have about twice the reported latency in Sonar X3 when using the aggregated A4A driver vs. the focusrite driver.
I’ve had no issues running audio out of the iPhone headphone jack and direct into my interface, though, so I’ve not really given Audio pass-thru much thought in recent weeks.
I love the ICM4+ for midi, though. Well worth the cost. I do wish their was an 8×8 version, though. Perhaps a future DIN expander unit with additional ins and outs?
Nick is not really into sampling that much but Gaz c’mon man we’re counting on you to tell us the truth about those samplers, they are not ready for prime time. please give them both a real once over and come back and do another review. Love you guys but those samplers would be underwhelming if they were free, and to have to pay for such under specced samplers is really not a good look for Korg.
@theclapper: when you say the new IAPs are “underwhelming” is that based on your own experience? Even if you’re just speculating based on online coverage the observation seems oddly negative.
The worth of Bilbao or lack thereof is largely based on your own desire or lack thereof to employ your own samples within Gadgets ensemble. Ditto Abu Dhabi and I can’t imagine anyone being underwhelmed by the capability of that app assuming it’s intended purpose is one you desire in the first place.
As with all the Gadgets these serve a specific purpose and fit splendidly into the overall model.
you think I’m being oddly negative, I think you’re being oddly uninformed about sample slicers.
you can’t even sample in these samplers. you can’t even determine the number of slices in abudahbi, I could go further but I don’t want to waste my time if you’re not serious, if you respond incline then I will tell you every single thing that is wrong with them.
you noticed they didn’t get the clapper!
I have allot of respect for both Nick and Gaz, there was nothing negative about my post.
Abu Dhabi and the extra iap are both 12 dollars australian, 24 dollars more plus the initial cost? Me think not. I already have sampler and I guess loopy by far better products maybe for 3-6 dollars
Muy bueno korg gadgets pero cuando quiero sincronizarlo con mi MC 303 tiene mucha latencia ;( no sirveara nada este midi sync