Anyone MIDIing a sound module in the background while running iRealb?

[DaleMac]

3. If Massimo ever decides to develop a keyboard module app for us real working musicians, I'll be the first one in line to buy it

[DaleMac]

Update: I went ahead and bought iRig Midi (Amazon knocked it down to $49.99, no tax & free shipping) and have had a chance to play around with the apps using a keyboard.

GarageBand wins the prestigious "Kiss My Ass" Award. When you switch between voices, it bumps all the internal effects (reverb and echo) back to the default settings. So, if I want to play acoustic piano on some songs and electric piano or organ on others, I have to go back in and reset everything - EVERY TIME. Even if this weren't the case, the acoustic pianos only have 8-note polyphony and the electric pianos only have 6. There is no way in hell any pianist could use it for live performances. Maybe... MAYBE... there's some way to assign more polyphony to a "Track" but I'm not going to waste my damn time finding out. (I wish I had my five bucks back.)

SampleTank and iGrand, both from IK Multimedia, have a problem: If you set "Latency" to Low, there's a slight delay between playing the keys and hearing the notes; setting it to Ultra Low helps eliminate the delay, but if you play anything more complicated than Chopsticks the data stream becomes a train wreck. The keyboards appear to have 16-note polyphony, which is twice GarageBand but still not really enough for serious playing. If I had to choose, the iGrand app loads fastest, is easiest to switch between voices, and has the longest sustain time which doesn't sound looped. But I doubt I'll be using it as a module on any jobs. On top of that, iRig drains the battery pretty fast and I'd either need to recharge between sets, or run yet another cable to some external power source. So, obviously, I won't be purchasing the "Full" versions of either app.

[pdxdjazz]

...and the (prestigious) KMA Award goes to: (may I have the envelope please...)

Cant wait for the next installment!
)BOB

[DaleMac]

...Cant wait for the next installment!...

Hmm, you might be waiting a while. Since my original quest hit a dead end, I'm done researching and I've deleted most of this junk from my iPod. Maybe some future app or device will evolve into something I can actually use, but I'm not holding my breath.

Or maybe I'll get out of the music business entirely and become a rapper. If I ever want to just press one virtual piano key to get groovy loops and sick beats, freestyle some rhymes, record it, and share it on FaceBook... life would be a breeze!

Sh-boom, sh-boom