iPad AU Instruments host with lowest latency?

[ImproKeys]

Dear members,

sometimes I need to add some virtual instruments to my simple rig. I would use an ipad 8th generation. I need to setup splits, lets say Moog Model D on lower, Neo soul keys on upper. Which host would you recommend, regarding the lowest latency introduced?

 

Thank you!

 

[yannis D]

I use AUM 

Nice features, no latency, simple layout, routings etc 

 

 

 

 

[AnotherScott]

This is an interesting question, and I was hoping to see some more responses! AUM, Camelot Pro, and Keyscape seem to be the three main app-hosting apps. I would similarly be curious to know, if someone has ever loaded the same apps into more than one of these, if there was any difference in latency based on which host you chose.

[ImproKeys]

5 hours ago, AnotherScott said:

This is an interesting question, and I was hoping to see some more responses! AUM, Camelot Pro, and Keyscape seem to be the three main app-hosting apps. I would similarly be curious to know, if someone has ever loaded the same apps into more than one of these, if there was any difference in latency based on which host you chose.

Hi!

Yesterday I played a short gig with Korg module loaded with two instances in AUM with 128 buffer on a recent normal ipad. worked great.

I will try that in Camelot pro in the future. (camelot is on sale!)

Cheers

[ewall08530]

  For some solo piano gigs I’m using an iPad Air (3rd gen) with AUM hosting Ravenscroft 275 and Korg Module for occasional Wurly and Rhodes.  I connect from my Roland RD 88 with a simple camera type lightening connector with an extra USB port for charging while using.  
   I’ve done about 6 gigs with no noticeable latency at all.  I can’t compare to the other app hosts mentioned.  I struggled using and understanding Keyscape but tried AUM and it was very intuitive for me to use.  
   I’ve begun experimenting with using VB3m and iFretless Bass in addition to the other 2 apps.  The RD 88 allows me to have Ravenscroft and Korg Module on Upper 1 zone, VB3m on Upper 2 zone and when I choose Split on the Roland I have iFretless. VB3m and iFretless are running stand alone outside of AUM and still I’m not experiencing noticeable latency.  
 

[Stokely]

The only app I've really used a bit in that ballpark is midiflow....it's not the same category of app as AUM as it doesn't deal with audio, but it does handle routing.  It might be able to set up splits and layers, I'm not really sure.   I know it can do things like take messages on one channel and change it to a different channel.   Also any kind of transform you might want, like mod wheel changing to cc <whatever>.

What i might use it for--to have Midiflow patches that set which of my two keyboards control one or more apps on the ipad.   These apps--really just one right now, B-3X--are just running on the ipad set to receive on particular midi channels.    When the Midiflow patch is selected, it will send bank/patch messages to the apps, and also to the hardware keyboards.   For example, the Novation Summit has a global setting for local on/off.   If I just turn that off, but connect up the Summit to the usb hub, I can have it play sounds from the ipad, from the Modx, or from itself by routing a Summit source to a Summit destination.     I haven't noticed any latency with any of the routings I've tried.

I will have to warm up to the Midiflow patch list.  It's a list, with alphabet on the right like the contacts on your phone.  That's good if your set list tends to change I guess, and ours does from gig to gig.   I've actually spaced out and been unable to find a patch in my MODX set list grid.   Still it would be nice to be able to set up actual "set lists" in the app.

Part of the reason I am trying this app is that the MODX very unfortunately makes you choose midi or usb...so if the MODX is hooked to the ipad, the Summit can't trigger MODX pianos via the midi port.   

[miden]

14 hours ago, AnotherScott said:

This is an interesting question, and I was hoping to see some more responses! AUM, Camelot Pro, and Keyscape seem to be the three main app-hosting apps. I would similarly be curious to know, if someone has ever loaded the same apps into more than one of these, if there was any difference in latency based on which host you chose.

 

 

Yep I have....use Camelot and AUM extensively, and tried Keystage for a couple of weeks. I detected no differences in any of them using the same plugins in all. Most awkward was keystage; simplest is AUM;  easiest "on-stage" workflow AUM, although Camelot was only a "split-hair" difference away in this category. The "mixer" layout of AUM suits live play a little better I feel.

[AnotherScott]

On 8/9/2022 at 2:51 PM, miden said:

 

 

Yep I have....use Camelot and AUM extensively, and tried Keystage for a couple of weeks. I detected no differences in any of them using the same plugins in all. Most awkward was keystage; simplest is AUM;  easiest "on-stage" workflow AUM, although Camelot was only a "split-hair" difference away in this category. The "mixer" layout of AUM suits live play a little better I feel.

 

In only brief eval, I found AUM the most complicated of them. I discussed one aspect of that at https://forums.musicplayer.com/topic/180530-gig-report-first-quotall-iosquot-long/page/2/#comment-2875931 but also, part of it is just that I'm icon-challenged, and much more quickly grasp things that use words. To me, this screen looks like hieroglyphics... 

 

 

whereas the other apps largely use English.

 

But what actually prompted my return to this thread was the thought about the preference for a mixer layout (the comment, "the 'mixer' layout of AUM suits live play a little better I feel"). While Keystage's default screen is more "track" oriented, it also has a mixer screen, which I posted in another thread, but I'll put it here as well... and again, it's more english than hieroglyphic:

 

 

...not that I'm promoting Keystage as a model of simplicity, either. It has some complications of its own.

[ImproKeys]

Thank you all! I gave AUM a try and it is solid, used it on two gigs so far. Cheers!

[Baldwin Funster]

Latency just really isn't that much of a thing in iOS. I have tried dozens of synth apps on my mini4 and none have had any latency problem. In AUM and standalone mode. Compared to Windows where I'm always tweaking buffers and Android where the shortest latency achievable is still longer than anything else .

[D. Gauss]

only have Camelot Pro and it seems fine.

[Stokely]

Piggybacking with a question that is tangential yet hardly worthy I don't think of a new thread...

Any recommendations for an app that mainly does program changes?  I have messed with Midiflow, which will do it (and a lot more), and I'm aware of Onsong, which will do it and a LOT more--but I'm not going to pay for subscription for a lot of functionality I don't need.

Ideally, there'd be an app with song names where I click one and it sends out bank/program changes to two hardware keyboards.   Even more ideally, I could organize custom setlists.   Midiflow will do the bank/program changes but I'm not super pleased with the actual patch organization options in that app.

[AnotherScott]

1 hour ago, Stokely said:

Ideally, there'd be an app with song names where I click one and it sends out bank/program changes to two hardware keyboards.   Even more ideally, I could organize custom setlists.  

Sounds like you're describing Set List Maker with the MIDI iap. I imagine there are others...

[AnotherScott]

On 8/9/2022 at 2:51 PM, miden said:

Yep I have....use Camelot and AUM extensively, and tried Keystage for a couple of weeks. I detected no differences in any of them using the same plugins in all. Most awkward was keystage; simplest is AUM;  easiest "on-stage" workflow AUM, although Camelot was only a "split-hair" difference away in this category. The "mixer" layout of AUM suits live play a little better I feel.

p.s. to my previous response...

 

First, thanks for the info about not noticing any different in latency performance of a given set of apps using any of these hosting environments. It's nice for there to be one less variable to worry about. ;-)

 

Also, about preferring a "mixer" layout, here's a video I just came across that shows more about how Keystage can work that way as well...

 

 

 

Now if I could only figure out how to set all this stuff up myself! None of these apps have sufficient docs, IMO. 

 

His mentioning of crashes at the end is a little worrisome. But I don't want to assume any of these are more or less stable than the others, when pushed to their limits. It's hard to get good comparisons in this regard.