MIDI Questions

[lava]

1. I feel a little silly, but I can't for the life of me figure out how to make the in-app purchase to buy the MIDI sequencing capability. Where is that?

2. The MIDI sequencer - does it have step record? Can it quantize phrases played on a midi keyboard in real time?

[dwrae]

1. When you create a MIDI or instrument track, the app will ask you to make an in-app purchase or try out the feature.

2. Unfortunately not. You can quantize afterwards though.

[lava]

Thank you. When I add a MIDI track, there does not appear to be any way for me to draw notes in that track. Is that correct? it would be great to have the ability to do that.

I also would like to ask you to add the real time quantize feature. One thing I like to do is set a pair of loop points and record myself playing MIDI notes as the loop repeats over and over, quantizing as I go.

Thanks!

[dwrae]

After creating a MIDI track, you can either:
* Arm the track and press record: if you have a USB MIDI controller connected, you can record MIDI notes/events using that
* Arm the track and press record: if you don't have a USB MIDI controller connected, a virtual MIDI keyboard will be displayed and you can record MIDI notes/events using that (or arm the track and press the left part of the button on the mixer channel where you see a small keyboard displayed so you can play it before actually recording)
* Go into Edit mode and then tap-and-slide on the MIDI track to create a new MIDI clip. The piano roll editor will open where you can enter notes/events.
* When you have an existing MIDI clip, you can also double-tap it in Scroll mode to open the piano roll editor

[lava]

After creating a MIDI track, you can either:
* Arm the track and press record: if you have a USB MIDI controller connected, you can record MIDI notes/events using that
* Arm the track and press record: if you don't have a USB MIDI controller connected, a virtual MIDI keyboard will be displayed and you can record MIDI notes/events using that (or arm the track and press the left part of the button on the mixer channel where you see a small keyboard displayed so you can play it before actually recording)
* Go into Edit mode and then tap-and-slide on the MIDI track to create a new MIDI clip. The piano roll editor will open where you can enter notes/events.
* When you have an existing MIDI clip, you can also double-tap it in Scroll mode to open the piano roll editor

When I plug my Akai LPK25 midi keyboard into my phone, everything works as you describe. However, when I create a midi track with no device connected and attempt to arm it, I get a message saying "no input device selected!". Then when I press on the arrow in the box it says "Cannot show instrument selection dialog for USB midi track!". Nowhere at all do I see anything resembling a midi keyboard displayed, or any icon that looks like that.

Is this because I have not purchased any instruments? Can I not input notes from the virtual keyboard so as to transmit them to external hardware without having any instruments installed?

[dwrae]

A USB MIDI track is for sending and received MIDI from/to an external USB MIDI device. Displaying and using a virtual keyboard would make no sense unless the events would be sent to an external synth (which is an uncommon and currently unsupported scenario).

This is not because you don't have any instruments installed or purchased.

You can always enter the piano roll editor for both USB MIDI and instrument tracks though.

[lava]

Thanks. I must have misunderstood you when you said this?:

Arm the track and press record: if you don't have a USB MIDI controller connected, a virtual MIDI keyboard will be displayed and you can record MIDI notes/events using that (or arm the track and press the left part of the button on the mixer channel where you see a small keyboard displayed so you can play it before actually recording)

That's why I tried to find the virtual keyboard with no USB MIDI controller connected.

Did you mean an audio card with no MIDI? Or an audio card with MIDI but no keyboard plugged into the MIDI port?

Here are the four configurations I am trying:

- Nothing plugged into the USB port
- Behringer UCA222 (no MIDI)
- Edirol UA-25 audio/midi interface, with external synth plugged into MIDI output
- Akai LPK25 USB MIDI keyboard (no audio)

In each case (except the first) the device is recognized. In the case of the last two, a MIDI device is seen. In NONE of those configurations do I ever see any virtual midi keyboard icon on the screen after I create and arm a USB MIDI track.

[dwrae]

That's correct, it will only display for a virtual instrument track.

[lava]

That's correct, it will only display for a virtual instrument track.

Thanks, I think I'm all sorted now.