SteveUK

My two pence - I find making music on an iPad very frustrating coming from a desktop OS. I have a new IPad Pro courtesy of work and it"s great for watching things and writing the odd document/editing a spreadsheet. The latter is better on a desktop however. If you want to make music in an apple ecosystem I recommend a Mac mini. If you are looking to add a causal sound source to a keyboard rig then any of the current iPads will be powerful enough. If you want to use apps with sound libraries get higher amount of storage

I would suggest closed back over open back headphones. Open back let in any surrounding sound However I tried closed back headphones once at practice and found the isolation wasn"t enough for me, compared to in ears anyway. It was difficult to get a mix I was happy with. YMMV of course

Just reading your post again it would be worth connecting the iPad as only display, turning off mirror and then checking macOS display settings to see if the mini thinks it has a second display attached. You may also be able to change the macOS display resolution to one that matches the iPad

When you say it loads but you can"t see anything, it sounds like it"s displaying on another screen. When you have it set to mirror of course the mini just duplicates one display. I am sure I had something similar when I first set this up as connected the iPad to a 2014 13' MacBook Pro before the mini arrived. The MacBook aspect ratio is different to the ipad so was giving a letter box view on the ipad. When the mini arrived I then had the iPad connected as the only display and then messed about with the resolutions as per second video and got the result I have now

Are you using the iPad as only display of have another monitor connected also?

Possibly the two dullest videos on YouTube, but hopefully useful to show what the Mac mini display looks like on a 12.9" 2020(? - the latest one) iPad Pro using Duet. I'm using Apple Magic Mouse to navigate and the iPad Magic Keyboard for the Keyboard (putting password into MainStage as Native Instruments haven't got Kontakt working with Apple Silicon yet)

I'll have a look when I have the rig setup over the next week to see if I have anything obvious set. When i first used duet I had the letter boxing and the image wasn't sharp. From memory I went into settings whilst the ipad was being used as the only screen, changed the resolution by clicking one to the right and then went back to the middle one. When the image came back it was full screen and sharp. Maybe the later pros resolution is different to earlier?

I have the same setup as you (assuming you have a 12.9" iPad Pro latest model and connect it via USB-C) and I see a full screen. Trying playing with the resolution settings in Duet. I found sometimes you need to change the resolution and then change it back to the original resolution to get it to work.

How do you find the speed of the T7? I went for base spec with the M1 Mac Mini as a) the upgrades are pricey and b) I think the M1 Pro and poss Max will come to the mini fairly soon so may chop the base mini in for one of those I currently use an old 512gb SSD in an external enclosure connected to the USB A port. I have been considering an NVME in external enclosure connected to the USB C port for a bit of a speed boost. Love the Rackmac enclosures. Shame in the UK they are so bloody expensive. Interestingly the space on the end of the Nord Stage 2EX 88 is just big enough for the Mac mini to sit (with the iPad Pro on the Wave on the Tier above)

That"s interesting. I guess Apple must have changed something either for 2014 or the 2018 Mac mini as the 2012 I used to have wouldn"t boot without an HDMI fake monitor plug Good to hear the mini is working out for you. I"ve only just swapped from a mid 2014 MacBook Pro to the mini and was nervous no immediate screen and keyboard wouldn"t work out

Great to see remoting in has got a whole lot easier. I've just started using an M1 Mac mini in my live rig. I use a 12.9" iPad Pro as the screen connected to the Mac Mini via USB C using Duet. Works a dream. Bonus of the new iPad Pros (not sure if the older ones have this also) is it has magnets on the back to connect to the Magic Keyboard. These keep it clamped to the metal section of my top board a Nord Wave. As an FYI the Magic Keyboard can be used to control the Mac Mini. Also the M1 Mac Minis will run headless without any third party hardware

This! I was holding out to see what Apple did with the mini and Macbook Pro to replace my 13" mid 2014 Pro. I gig with the Macbook Pro but think will replace it with a Mini and see if I can get my iPad Pro to act as a screen (if I need to see what is going on - most of the time i dont). The price difference from entry level mac mini at £699 and macbook pro at £1299 for 13" or £1899 for 14" is too great for my use case

Watching it sat in my "studio" and it sounds amazing. Cant wait for this

Key largo also gets my vote. Great keyboard mixer/DI box

I would go for isolated as you can always add ambience with mics. I use Jerry Harvey Audio JH5s (I think). Had them for nearly 10 years and really good isolation. Before that I used normal off the shelf from Sennheiser. Again good but struggled to get sufficient isolation from stage noise. When I was getting my impressions done the audiologist said I had a very straight ear canal so would explain why I struggled with universal buds

Yes you can do exactly what you are saying. However there are limitations with what you can do with aliases. If memory serves you cant set a different volume level on an alias as they all change (someone correct me if I am wrong - not near my mainstage setup at the moment), and of course you cant change patches in the plugin itself. I've found mainstage pretty good for CPU and memory usage. I think it "unloads" plugins that are not in the active patch.

Another question - when you get feedback saying too high/too low, is that on the same song or different songs? Are you happy your own level between songs are consistent? My two cents: Last band I played in was two guitars 80s rock band. I did the sound from stage - was it perfect? probably not. Did we gets lots of feedback about levels being off? No, so must have been ok (ish). As noted above often starting with the band sound can help on getting keys to sit in a mix better. Some advice based on that situation: - 1. Encourage guitarists to use monitors and not just rely on their amps. This encourages them to turn their amps down as monitors tend to point towards their ears (wedges) rather than guitar amp/speakers which tend to play to their ankles (or knees if on a stand) 2. Discuss with guitarists gain structuring, particularly if they are using lots of pedals and/or multiple amp channels. One of the guitarists would get horrendous feedback and it was because he had the gain on 10 and volume on 1. After setting the right gain structure feedback was gone and levels between songs when certain pedals/channels were in/out was consistent 3. Work with guitarist to get a good balance between rhythm and solo levels. You want to avoid the solo level turning into the rhythm level as the night goes on. 4. If you have a desk with compressors, use them on the guitarist channels. This takes a bit of sound checking in rehearsal but using a med/high ratio on the compressor can deal with volume creep as the night goes on. 5. Between yourself and the guitarists work on consistent levels between songs 6. Work with guitarists to drop volume during solos to give the soloist space I mixed the sound using in ears. During sound check I would use my keytar out front to get a good mix of the band with my keys playing. My in ears had keys predominant, guitars second panned left and right and then some vocals. My mix was driven post fader so as the FOH changes my mix changes. I would use the relative balance between the keys, guitars and vocals as a reference to keep levels during the gig

Basically all of this

I share your experiences/pain. I bought an M32 (which I appreciate doesn't have the screens and is more cumbersome) to improve workflow using Komplete 11/Komplete Kontrol and IMHO it hasn't. Like you even navigating Komplete on the screen I find a bear. I also don't like that many of the NI products in Komplete are nestled inside others and you have to go through the first product to get to the second. Generally though I have found I don't get on with generic midi controllers (knobs and sliders). I experience a constant battle of mapping, re-mapping, and trying to remember what each knob/slider is mapped to. The mapping for the M32 8 knobs is not great with non-sensical parameters grouped together on the same page. Its quicker to use a mouse. Dedicated midi controllers are the way forward although not many exists. I have the Soundforce controller for the Prophet V plug-in and it works a dream. Like using a hardware synth - https://sound-force.nl/?page_id=2412

I have Komplete 11 (I think). One frustration I have with Komplete is that a number of the products are nestled inside another of the products. For example some are sample libraries within Kontakt, others are parts of Reaktor, some are presets in another synth etc. The expansions are largely all of these things and give you extra stuff across a number of the NI products. Call me old fashioned but, especially when buying something new, I like to sit with it and see what it does. With Komplete and its parts, I find you need to navigate through various products. Komplete Kontrol may help with my frustration, but never really found it an easy solution

Looks an interesting product. Quite a price hike for the standalone mode £499 for normal Machine vs £1,099 for the + version. It would be good if any NI product could be loaded but looks like a closed system plug-in wise. Also assume third party sample libraries wouldn't run either. Hopefully it shows a direction of travel though and could see standalone keyboards from NI.

It should do. I run Stage2EX into USB and KL into USB on 2014 Macbook pro (albeit the Stage2 isnt bus powered). I also run the Wave through the KL's midi ins/outs and that works fine too

Is there a reason you haven't looked at a video conference headset? These come in wired and wireless (normally bluetooth) form. I use these -https://www.jabra.co.uk/business/office-headsets/jabra-evolve/jabra-evolve-75##7599-832-109 - and since COVID working from home, probably about 8 hours a day on conference calls. Apple Airpods would also do the job. My wife uses these and its amazing how clear the microphone is even though its nowhere near your mouth.

Physical controls or would you consider tablet control? Something like the Behringer XR18 would achieve everything you want (and more) but is tablet/computer controlled

I was about to type something similar myself. I wonder how much the MI market has grown because of companies like Behringer? Has its products (and the prices they sell at) brought more people into the market place. Previously would people have scoured for used when now they can buy new? Can they now buy two synths rather than just the one etc?