Cubasis with IAA-instruments and external keyboard

Cubasis
#1

Hi.

First post here - just started to test out cubasis on ipad air 2. So far so good.

What I don’t understand so far, when using an IAA-instrument in cubasis it doesnt seem to matter which track I select - it always plays the instrument. When I use more than 1 IAA-instrument they start to stack up on each other - which is pretty useless. The same I got inside AuriaPro, so it doesnt seem to directly being related to cubasis.

Is that due to the fact that the hooked up IAA-apps are still listening to the external keyboard through CoreMidi? Does that need to be disabled somewhere? Using Audio Units work fine …

Another weird thing: Ravenscroft275 doesnt seem to receive ANY midi standalone - no sound (keys form the app work of course). Through Audio Unit it does work fine.

… long way to go I suppose

#2

Hi borisb2,

Please let me know, if enabling “MIDI Input Only for Armed Track”, located in Setup/MIDI helps to solve the problem.

Regarding Ravenscroft275, we suggest to use the Audio Unit version, since AU can be seen as Apple’s successor of IAA more or less.
The AU format provides more flexible options compared to IAA as well.

Best,
Lars

#3

The „MIDI input only for armed track“ option is already enabled. That can’t be the reason.

Also. Auria Pro plays the IAA sounds even if the track is not on record (which I thought needs to be to hear any MIDI)

#4

I checked again with cubasis:

  • new project, add midi track, add iWavestation as IAA
  • add a second midi track, play any instrument, the iWavestation still comes through, no matter what. Back on the iWavestation-track it seems to play the sound twice
  • add a third midi track, iGrand as IAA -> now I’m playing iWavestation and iGrand on every channel, no matter what


    the only exception:
    when adding iSymphonic as IAA it asks me if I want IAA-Midi only or IAA- and CoreMidi. when choosing IAA-Midi only it works! Midi only comes through when I’m on that track. But I dont have this option with all the other apps.

Well there must be something - this is useless so far … can I disable CoreMidi?

I Pad Air 2, 11.4, Cubasis 2.5

#5

somebody posted in audiobus forum:

“iWavestation always listen to ‘hardware’ first, it doesn’t care if it’s connected using IAA.
(Solution here would be for Korg to add a ‘check’ that if iWavestation is connected via IAA to ignore input from CoreMidi inputs and only listen to midi coming from the host the app is connected to).”

Is that really the case??? with sampletank as well ? … now I start to understand why you can disable CoreMidi with iSymphonic.

geeez - that would be a big bummer for me for serious music production on Ipad - as it stands at the moment at least (no AU for SampleTank)

… sorry Lars, I forgot to mention. Yes, I am using an external keyboard (Kurzweil KP110) connected to the Ipad via USB, not the internal cubasis/Auria keys - so I guess, that’s the problem?

#6

in the meantime I found this thread:
https://www.steinberg.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=110061

following these steps from Lars:
Sampletank loaded as a multitimbral instrument via IAA

  • Create a MIDI track and load Sampletank via IAA
  • Go to Sampletank and establish Live Mode
  • Create a second MIDI track in Cubasis and set it to “No instrument”
  • Set MIDI Output to “SampleTank Full” and choose the MIDI channel as desired (e.g. Ch2)
  • Follow step 3 and 4 to establish optional MIDI tracks to trigger additional Sampletank instruments

Yes, that does work with the internal keyboard in cubasis. It does NOT work with an external MIDI-keyboard, at least not with my Kurzweil KP110. SampleTank doesn’t care what track I am selecting in Cubasis with what Midi-channel. Being in LIVE Mode (and switching back to cubasis) it still plays whatever MIDI-OUT channel on my Kurzweil-Keyboard I am setting.
I guess this goes back to what Samu was saying in Audiobus-forum: “iWavestation always listen to ‘hardware’ first, it doesn’t care if it’s connected using IAA.” Apparently that is true for all instruments-apps.

If thats the case, I’m out. This is RIDICULOUS… How on earth are you supposed to use these virtual instruments together with cubasis and an external controller??? … what about iRig Keys?

EDIT: one last thought:
I could set the Midi-channel on my keyboard to a channel that SampleTank doesnt know (for example 16). But then I would need cubasis to route what I’m (externally) playing to the Midi-channel from the selected Midi-track. Again, that does work of course with the internal keyboard, but not with the external. Why can’t cubasis not route incoming Midi-notes to the Midi-channel from the selected track?
found this thread: https://www.steinberg.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=183&t=142297
Is my Kurzweil KP110 maybe not a “Core MIDI compatible hardware”?

#7

Hi boris2,

By default, most iOS apps receive from all CoreMIDI ports and from VirtualMIDI. Some apps, like Cubasis, allow you to select which ports should be received.

If MIDI Thru is disabled, Cubasis doesn’t forward the MIDI input, it only routes the internal keyboard and track playback to the MIDI output.
If MIDI Thru is enabled, Cubasis forwards the MIDI input to the output, without modifying anything, i.e. the output channel is ignored for MIDI Thru. This behavior will be changed in a future update.
Regarding IAA and CoreMIDI, if an IAA app is connected to Cubasis on one MIDI track, and you also send MIDI to it from another MIDI track, the latter is completely independent from IAA, it’s CoreMIDI and is directly received by the other (IAA) app, without going through IAA.

In general, we recommend AU in favour of IAA because it doesn’t require manual MIDI routing and because IAA is limited to 1 connection per app.
If you must use IAA, the best way is to disable all MIDI input except Cubasis in the IAA app and use an IAA instrument on a MIDI track. However, multiple channels with IAA instruments are not supported yet by Cubasis.

Additionally, we will have a closer look at the feature request “MIDI Thru Re-Channelize” for the next update but one.

Best,
Lars

#8

I came across the same issue last night whilst trying to hook up my iPad and Cubasis 2 in the studio.

Specifically I like to use external hardware and sound sources, but shockingly it seems impossible to route a midi input to a specific output channel!!!

In my world these kind of functionalities are the absolute basics.

What makes this seem all the more ridiculous to me is that I could do this on a Steingerg product that is approximately 20 years old now running on a mac of the same vintage…imagine the CPU power of that Mac in comparison to an iPad Pro 2nd gen. The version of cubase was Cubase 3.5 VST, it was (and still is LOL) a rock solid, very functional bit of software.

Lars and whoever else is involved in developing Cubasis - please, please make this basic sequencing functionality available to us as soon as possible.

#9

I produced music for a living many years ago with cubase and logic on PC. Of course I also agree that these are absolute basics - and old colleagues would laugh at me hearing about the MIDI-routing.

But things work a bit different in IOS-world. It seems people are happy to use internal keyboard (cubasis or auria). AND - there’s light at the end of the tunnel which is Audio Units. That brings the experience a bit back to where I left off with VST in the early 2000s

On the other side: I do remember sampling with Akai S3000 and later on with EXS24 my ass off to get good piano-/orchestral-/loop-sounds, buying tons of sampleCDs at bestService in munich (Lars will know), just to get good stuff … What you can load now through App-Store for just a few dollars is just mindblowing (ravenscroft, zeeon, Beathawk etc.) … I quit making music early 2000s because I was pretty much done with it. For the first time I now feel pretty excited again to get some stuff together …

IF I just had a good sampler in cubasis (beefed up internal one, SampleTank as AU or beathawk that f***ing remembers any setting in AU mode)