Minibrute plus Ipad sequencer?

[elthorno]

Hi,

Is it possible to send Midi over USB from an Ipad (with a camera connection kit) to a Minibrute?

My thinking was that by running a sequencer like Genome and sending midi to the output port, you could use the Brute as a midi interface to other gear, without having to buy an ipad-specific midi interface.

Any reason why this wouldn't work?

[rove]

I tried plugging my minibrute (fw1.0.2) into my iPad 2 with the camera connection kit and got a "device not supported" message.  So perhaps it is not class compliant?  would be great if it worked, maybe with firmware update?

[Bruno@arturia]

Good to know. It should be possible to have a firmware solution to this.

[JnC]

I tried connecting an iPad3 directly to the MiniBrute using a camera connection kit and a USB printer cable. The message I saw was something like 'the USB device requires too much power'.  I didn't try using a USB to USB coupler with a printer cable and dock cable.

However, there may be another technical issue at hand. When you connect a midi interface via the dock connector, music software on the iPad will recognize it and use it. But when you attach a USB cable to the iPad via the camera connection kit, what is there to tell the iPad that it is attached to a midi device (the MiniBrute)?

In other words, if you attached a USB cable, the iPad's apps would have to encode midi data and stream it through the cable. I'm not aware of any apps that will do this... most look for a known midi interface and use the CoreMidi toolkit.

For what it is worth, when I plugged in an M-audio Uno USB midi interface via the camera connection kit, it worked fine with no power warnings/restrictions. And my sequencer app was able to see and use the interface, once I went into it's configuration settings. I only tested Little Midi Machine.

[ChuckL]

I used to use an Alesis Q25 direct usb to camera connect kit, ipad powered it fine, and apps recognized it as "Q25". Now with my minibrute, I'm forced to use a clunky Edirol UM-1, because I get the "too much power" message when I try to go direct usb. would be great if this could be fixed!

[Techno-iD.com]

I connected my Minibrute to an iPad 3 using iRig MIDI and it worked perfectly fine.
Minibrute sends notes, in polyphony. The Modulation and the Pitch Wheels are active, but the knobs are not.
In the other way, Minibrute receives MIDI Clock and was perfectly synced with the drumbox App "FunkBox" (which sends MIDI Clock) and the arpegiator was perfectly synced.

This also worked with an iPad 1, running iOS 4.3, with the very same results.

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/jan12/articles/app-works-0112.htm

[elthorno]

Cheers for the responses.
So since starting the thread I ended up getting an ipad mini and a camera connection kit. Plugging the Minibrute in via USB didn't work, as predicted- the device required 'too much power'. However I found I had an old (and cheap) 1x1 midi interface lying around, an Evolution EV-10. Plugged it into the connection kit and it worked first time with Little Midi Machine, sends clock and notes to my Minibrute no problem. A bit less convenient than just plugging in a USB cable, but it's good enough for me right now. Going to try out midi in to GarageBand next but can't foresee any problems.
Firmware to make the minibrute fully ipad compatible via USB would be awesome though!

[BeatPriest]

i use a regular powered USB hub between ipad3 and Minibrute, works perfect. Had an old plantronics usb compliant audio USB stick which significantly has more output power to route back in the audio in of minibrute. Due to the USB hub the Minibrute and external audiostick can be used at the same time. just tryed to use AniMg as second oscillator source. Since the AniMg has a kinda metallic timbre on most timbres they work together as a twin. This really spices up the already great sound, now the possibilities seem endless.

[elthorno]

Cheers BeatPriest- the USB hub is the way to go. Genome works nicely; you can sequence external hardware using the Minibrute's midi out port, plus the arpeggiator syncs to the clock automatically. Using the filter input is a good trick too. Add a USB soundcard and looping software (like Loopy HD) and it gets really nuts!
 
 

[beefinator]

However, there may be another technical issue at hand. When you connect a midi interface via the dock connector, music software on the iPad will recognize it and use it. But when you attach a USB cable to the iPad via the camera connection kit, what is there to tell the iPad that it is attached to a midi device (the MiniBrute)?

AFAIK, USB-MIDI is just a specific protocol over USB.  Doesn't matter whether it's a designated USB-MIDI interface or another device with USB MIDI capabilities.  It's like USB HID protocols; doesn't matter what type of mouse or keyboard you plug in to a computer, it understands that it's a mouse or keyboard.

That's assuming the device is class-compliant.  which apparently the Minibrute isn't yet.