For a long time I had a dream that I could somehow use the music software on my iPad – for example synths like Propellerhead Thor, Animoog or Korg iMS-20 – in my Cubase 5 productions. Now I can, and I have iConnectivity iConnectMIDI 2+ to thank for this.
The device, further to be called as iCM2+, enables users to send MIDI in, out and through, and the latter is the reason why it can return audio in sync with MIDI from iPad into DAW. I am also now an owner of iCM2+ so everything I write is based on what I have actually done with it.
In my opinion both software and hardware often make the cardinal mistake that they do not focus on making comprehensive manuals and tutorial videos. The videos can also be focused on wrong things, since if I am an existing or future customer, I need at some point to find out how the product is actually installed in my specific system.
When manuals are concerned, the iCM2+ was no exception. I believe there was a line or two I could actually use as guideline in actually setting things up. The installation itself was no problem, since as promised, iCM2+ is a plug’n play device. But sometimes there just is no sound coming out no matter what, and usually I have no clue why.
After an hour or so and about a dozen different internet sources I started to get the hang of it. Because iCM2+ works together with the primary audio interface, two separate audio input busses in Cubase 5 were needed. Also the first time ever the DAW metronome click sound simply disappeared, which was confusing since I use it in testing audio levels before turning any mixer knobs further up. The solution: enable click sound in the new buss in Cubase 5, for some reason this is not the default setting. There was also this rhythmic glitch coming seemingly from nowhere in the output channel, which was removed only after I had upgraded my ASIO4All driver to its latest version.
The iCM2+ has standard MIDI connections in its back panel so I connected my master keyboard and opened an iPad synth after I had first created an audio track with the new iCM2+ buss as input source. And the light came, or more accurately sound. Suddenly all my iPad synths were available in Cubase, and it felt really good.
This morning I had already created a demo setting where Sugar Bytes Thesys – an iPad MIDI step sequencer – controlled both Propellerhead Thor and a vst synth open in my DAW simultaneously, and the sound from these two sources was in perfect sync. I just sat and listened to the output channel for minutes, occasionally adjusting the sound a bit. Also, both instruments could be recorded in their respective tracks for further mixing.
It is not often that a device actually makes your dream come true, although in marketing this is quite common a promise. In case of iCM2+ it took some time and effort, but the result was nothing less than the realization of something I had been dreaming of ever since I bought my first iPad synth.
Missing Sample 