My new secret weapon

[Josh Paxton]

Sadly the gig at which I was planning to debut this will very likely be cancelled (duh), but at least I can brag about it here: I have finally managed to turn my Hammond Pro-44 melodion into not just a wireless keytar, but one that gives me breath-controlled dynamics and filter.

 

The setup is:

 

Hammond Pro-44 > Line 6 wireless relay > iRig interface > iPad > JamSynth app

 

The real key was the JamSynth app, which is primarily meant to be a "guitar synth," though it can use any input source. Prior to that I was messing with a Sonuus pitch-to-MIDI converter, which worked, but it was kinda slow and clunky and transmitted only note-on and note-off messages. But JamSynth lets you use the input level of the source signal to control volume and filter cutoff; you blow harder, and the volume increases and/or the filter opens up. With that, the experience suddenly went from "triggering notes" to "playing music." I've also messed with RoxSyn, which bills itself as a "polyphonic guitar synth" app, but the results haven't been nearly as good; it seems more like a glorified effects processor than a synth. The (monophonic) virtual-analog engine in JamSynth is fairly basic, but sounds quite good. Its main drawback is that it doesn't have a filter resonance control. But to make up for that, it includes three different "rez" waveforms, so by mixing them in among the four oscillators, it you can get a surprising amount of flexibility from it.

 

Assuming the world doesn't end, hopefully I'll have footage of it in action at some point. In the meantime, I'll add it to the list of inevitable quarantine projects I'll be working on.

[stoken6]

Sounds like a fun project. I would be fascinated to hear any audio samples you might want to post...

 

Cheers, Mike.

[Markyboard]

Hey cool, I never considered this or using the melodica as a front end audio to midi converter.

I'm sure other DAWs have similar capability but here's one I just Googled:

 

 

I think you just inspired my project of the week - thanks!

[SamuelBLupowitz]

Josh, that is SO cool. I do hope you can demo it for us soon. I"ve been really enjoying this sort of out-of-the-box application of MIDI and software for performance lately, and I"m looking for continued inspiration as my wife and I try to be creative while isolated from our band mates.

[MAJUSCULE]

Sounds very intriguing and not too hard to implement. Hmm...

[Josh Paxton]

My next step is to figure out of something like AudioBus will let me use JamSynth as a sort of "MIDI bridge" to other synth apps. Controlling the dynamics and filter of its own sounds is cool, but doing that with the Model D app? THAT would be something. I've never used AudioBus or any of the other "make various audio and MIDI apps play nicely together" utilities, but this seems like a good time to start learning. Any beginner tips much appreciated.

[Josh Paxton]

Since that last post I discovered and downloaded another guitar synth app called MIDI Guitar 2, and... holy frikkin' crap! Stop the calls, we have a winner! It is way faster and more powerful than the others, can be set to mono or polyphonic, sounds awesome right out of the box, and lets you control other synth apps as AU units. I laughed like a giddy schoolgirl multiple times just while scrolling through the presets. More as it develops.

[tfort]

Josh- Have you looked at Jorden Rudess' app GeoShred? The later version has extensive MIDI support (including MPE) and supports AUv3.

 

http://www.moforte.com/geoshred-faq/

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/geoshred/id1064769019

http://www.wizdommusic.com/products/geoshred.html