Are You Ready For MIDI-Controlled iPad Apps?

It looks like iPad music software is about to take a big leap forward.

This video demos the iPad music app Electrify being controlled with an Akai APC40, via the iConnectMIDI hardware MIDI interface.

Yes – it’s a standard MIDI controller being used as a hardware interface to an iPad app.

Here’s what Electrify has to say about this:

Every function of Electrify (even the step parameters) can be controlled by the APC 40 making the APC 40 a real Groovebox with step sequencer and clip matrix! No need to touch the iPad’s display.

It’s just awesome to play around with it!

What do you need for that? a Midi Interface (iConnectMidi by iConnectivity when it’s released eventually) for connecting your iPad and the APC 40.

I used the MidiMobilizer, a USB-Midi Converter and Bome Midi Translator for testing.

This feature will be released in some weeks with an update for Electrify for free. And the best: it will work with your iPhone 4, too!

There are a lot of reasons that this is exciting. It’s clear now that there’s enough interest in the iPad as a music platform that developers are working to add hardware MIDI support.

It means that iOS apps are going to get a lot more playable.

It also means that developers will be able to use the iPad, iPhone or iPod touch as a relatively cheap “brain” for all sorts of music devices instead of developing custom hardware.

Tacking a MIDI cable onto the iPad may turn out to be an intermediate “horseless carriage” stage. I wouldn’t be surprised to see MIDI connectors before long that plug into your hardware and make them controllable wirelessly.

The Electrify + iPad combination, though, is an interesting taste of what’s coming.

Check it out and let me know what you think!

7 thoughts on “Are You Ready For MIDI-Controlled iPad Apps?

  1. This is cool, much better that iPad/IPhone on its own. There are some things that the iPad can do better that a hardware MIDI controller and some things it does worse. So I think it's great that you will be able to combine both.

  2. you better think at using the ipad as a controller i think…. it's so stupid to have an ipad and don't want to use his major feature, i.e. the touchscreen! lol

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