PSA - Ableton Note updated with midi input

[spokenward]

Ableton introduced their iOS Note app without midi input. It seemed nearly useless. Except maybe as a conversation starter at train stops. "Yes, I'm a producer..."

 

Now they have added midi input. People will be happiest with it if they are into Bluetooth LE MIDI or Ableton Link.  So update.

[Anderton]

Sure does a lot for $5.99! I wonder if Android will ever catch up with iOS. Probably not...some Android devices can do low-latency audio, but not all. I suspect the issue is similar to Windows. There are so many different Android configurations that it would be daunting to test all of them.

[Dr Mike Metlay]

23 hours ago, Anderton said:

Sure does a lot for $5.99! I wonder if Android will ever catch up with iOS. Probably not...some Android devices can do low-latency audio, but not all. I suspect the issue is similar to Windows. There are so many different Android configurations that it would be daunting to test all of them.

Craig, people have been trying for years, and at least one major gear company (IK Multimedia) did a big push for Android support that quietly vanished roughly a year later.

 

It's not just the fact that there is an even spread among Android users among many different versions from old to newest. Making everything worse is that there is poor overarching regulation of connection standards, and NONE for anything isochronous that's required for synchronized music production. It's not daunting; it's damn near impossible, and most folks don't try.

 

The vast majority of Android music apps are semi-pro at best, and I've had Android users look over my shoulder as I do an entire show on an iPad, then look at their tablets while obviously asking themselves why they bothered.

 

As I like to phrase it when the topic comes up: "iOS may be a walled garden, but Android is a dark, scary swamp."

 

mike

 

[Anderton]

There are several iOS-type, Note-like audio apps for Android (Cubasis 3, FL Studio Mobile, Audio Evolution Mobile Studio, n-Track Studio DAW, etc.) where latency is not an issue. I'm not sure what the engine is behind the high level of performance. Perhaps it relates to the Oboe audio library, which is designed to deliver low-latency audio for gaming. Developers say it's on a par with what iOS delivers. 

 

There's zero question that iOS remains superior for music production, but times have changed a lot since IK made their push - not the least of which is that Android now has a 72% global market share for mobile operating systems, and iOS has 27.5%. So there's a serious economic incentive to produce Android apps. 

 

I don't think the problem is so much that Android can't do what iOS can do, the issue is that testing for iOS is easy because the hardware is consistent and proven. Testing for Android is a nightmare, and you can't base minimum system requirements on the OS, as you can with iOS. A phone can run on a given OS but not be capable of low-latency audio.

 

So yeah, if you want to run a show from a tablet, good luck with Android. But I don't think there's any technical reason why Ableton Note couldn't run on some Android devices with performance equal to iOS. The problem is the word "some" devices. My Android phone has no trouble with apps like FL Studio Mobile. But even my iPhone 7S can run Geo Shred. I think an Android version of that would be filed in the "when hell freezes over" folder.

[spokenward]

I did not realize that the Ableton Link support had grown to this level.

 

https://www.ableton.com/en/link/products/

 

Even the Sonic Pi that Craig was pointing to here:

 

can share the Link metronome.

[Dr Mike Metlay]

RE your last email Craig: all very cogent points, but I'm not ready to give up my iPad just yet. 🙃

 

RE Ableton Link: I remain convinced that it's the most important advancement in live electronic music since MIDI, and I am not surprised the numbers are exploding... all they needed was for one major-league killer app to add support for Link, and in the world of computer music, there aren't all that many bigger killer apps than Logic.

 

I think that Ableton's undermarketing of Link is criminal. But that's just me.

 

mike

[RABid]

One thing that IOS has going for it is security for the app makers. Android apps are much easier to distribute once hacked and broken. Not many people want to jailbreak their $1000 IOS device just to run cracked software. Especially when $20 gets you so much and staying honest means getting updates.

[Anderton]

9 hours ago, Dr Mike Metlay said:

RE your last email Craig: all very cogent points, but I'm not ready to give up my iPad just yet. 🙃

 

Of course not...I think I made it clear that Android isn't there yet. But if Samsung, Xiaomi, and OPPO pulled a MIDI and standardized on a low-latency audio library (maybe Oboe), then they would represent almost 2/3 of the market for Android phones. At that point, they could say that products running Android OS [fill in the blank] or greater could run low-latency audio applications.

 

Not that any bean counters at cell phone companies would care about us audio types...however, it would be a big deal for those who use phones for gaming, and that's a pretty substantial market compared to Ableton Note users.

 

Then again, our industry has always ridden on the coattails of consumer electronics, right?

[GovernorSilver]

Tried Ableton Note for a bit when I got it.  I thought it was cool for its intended purpose.

 

Tried peeking at the Audiobus forum to see how peeps were getting on with the MIDI input update.   I think somebody is using it but I can't tell because people still have a hard time accepting that Note is a sketchpad app that will export your ideas to Ableton Live... and nothing more really

[Anderton]

They have Pro Tools and Bitwig in there along with Reason and Logic. I'm surprised BandLab isn't in there, seems like it would be right up their alley.

 

However, I did notice a mistake in the copy for Sonic Pi. The description says that it's "simple enough for schools, powerful enough for professional musicians." Shouldn't it be "powerful enough for schools, simple enough for professional musicians?"

 

 

[GovernorSilver]

Fooled around a bit with Note and the MiDI input, setting up AUM as the MIDI controller.  AUM has its own keyboard.

 

It's cool that the MIDI input is there.

 

However for Note's intended purpose, it seems like running Note by itself still seems to work best.   The time you spend setting up other apps to play with Note. subtracts from the time you spend getting your ideas captured in Note.

 

Seems like the demand for the MIDI in was from peeps who only want to use a sequencer for note entry - no confidence in their ability to just tap something simple with their own finger.