Running iOS music apps as "modules" - potential of in-device CoreMIDI communication

Yesterday I just noticed that Molten Drum Machine support sending MIDI clock sync to other apps on the same iPad. That made me curious and after some surveys, I found some other apps also supporting this feature. So I had some experiments and I recorded what I can do so far this morning.

In this video I demonstrated 3 apps MoDrum, Bassline (from Finger-lab) and Gruvtron (from Sound Trends LLC) running simultaneously on the same iPad. The beats from 3 apps are synced by MIDI clock (MoDrum as the clock source).

Since all the 3 apps are universal apps, it should be no problem to do it on iPhone too.

This is really an awesome feature and made me feel like the apps as"modules" which can work together with other apps on the same iPad/iPhone, rather than running them as the only app exclusively on the device. Last week I noticed a project Polyonix trying to make multiple apps running simultaneously on the same screen of a jailbroken device. This will make controlling these apps even easier.

You can check out the app list which support in-device MIDI clock sync here from this article on blog.ilearnmusic.com. For more technical details, you can read this article from Syntheticbits.com.

I can see that with the ability of MIDI communication with other apps on the same device, there's great potential for the apps which focus on one thing (as a synth, controller, or MIDI sequencer). Musicians can freely choose the best apps they like for each component and combine them altogether to achieve the same effects which currently only workstation-typed apps can do (like NanoStudio, GarageBand, FL Studio Mobile, Xewton Music Studio, etc.).

Thinking in a whole Music Production / Performance environment ....

If the trend really goes in a way like making apps like module on iPad / iPhone, to help the cooperation of different apps altogether on the same device, I believe some "new" categories of music apps will appear soon:

Here is the brief introduction of some new interesting app categories which should appear soon:

• Live / Pattern controller apps: These apps have great special design of layout which helps musicians to play music easily. Or they provide flexible and customizable interface to let musicians control other apps.
• Instrument Combinator apps: These apps behaves like the "Combination" rack which Reason provides or the COMBI presets on the hardware synthesizer keyboards. They enable musicians to play multiple instruments easily (layered, split or more complex programming).
• MIDI Pattern / Sequencer apps: You can say these apps will behave like those DAW applications for desktop workstations. They send MIDI sequence to control instruments app (like Drums and bass apps). Furthermore, they can do real-time MIDI recording as well.

In my opinion I think Polychord, SoundPrism Pro and TouchOSC already have the potential to be great Live / Pattern controller apps as long as they support sending MIDI to other apps on the same iPad / iPhone. Little MIDI Machine could be a great MIDI Pattern / Sequencer app. I haven't seen any apps providing Instrument Combinator features, I might like to try to implement one myself when I am free. ;)

However, If musicians need to make that many apps work altogether, there needs to be a simple way to let musicians do it, since the beauty of iOS is that it is not a sophisticated monster like desktop DAWs.

Finally some of you might want to ask why I am so focused and passionate on running all of the apps on the same device. my thought is if I can take just one iPad with me and still do what I can do using a laptop, why bother myself to take more equipment and worry about the audio & network connection problem? ;P

If any of you are interested in similar topics (no matter you are just a musician, a developer or even designers), you are always welcomed to discuss with me by leaving comments in this article or contacting me via twitter (@wangpy_tw) or email.