Use your iOS device as a MIDI control surface

If you don't want to wait for a commercial iOS-device control surface for your favorite DAW or virtual instrument, and you're willing to forgo some advanced features (two-way communication, for example), designing your own is much easier than you might think. You'll want to use OpenSound Control (OSC) because it is designed for network communication, and if you're not targeting an application that supports OSC, you'll need to convert the OSC messages to MIDI.

Hexler TouchOSC ($4.99 from the iTunes store) is an iOS application that hosts OSC control surfaces and handles WiFi communication with your computer. The free downloadable companion program TouchOSC Editor lets you design the control-surface GUI on your computer (Mac, Win, or Linux) and upload it to your iOS device. OSCulator ($39, Mac, osculator. net) lets you easily map OSC messages to MIDI messages and provides a MIDI port for routing these messages to your MIDI applications. The process for Windows is a bit more involved; it is documented on the Hexler website (hexler.net). Here are the details for a control panel that I use frequently with Propellerhead Reason.

Combinators Ready

TouchOSC Editor offers graphic elements for use as buttons, faders, knobs, labels, and LEDs. You can get as device specific as you like in your design, but you'll save lots of time and probably build a more useful control surface if you keep it generic. One way to do that with Reason is to target the Combinator module. That lets you control any Reason device by wrapping it in a Combinator and mapping its controls to the Combinator's.

Figure above shows the layout I use on my iPad. It controls as many as four Combinators along with four mixer channels into which the Combinators are routed. I've avoided labeling any of the iPad elements for the Combinators, relying instead on the labels on the Combinator to remind me of their function. I can use this iPad control surface with any Reason song that has a Combinator in it, ignoring any unused Combinator and mixer controls.

Once you design a control surface and upload it to your iOS device, launch OSCulator and ensure the iOS device's TouchOSC outgoing port matches OSCulator's input port (8000 by default). Touch the iOS device graphic controls one at a time and each will appear as a separate message line in the OSCulator window. These lines are ordered alphabetically by control name, so if you rename the controls in a logical fashion as you create them in TouchOSC Editor, you'll be able to easily identify the line corresponding to each control. (Edit only the part of the name after the last slash and limit yourself to lowercase letters and numerals.)

The next step is to set the MIDI event type, number, and channel for each line. Then lock the OSCulator document (Command + L) and save it. You'll need to open this document each time you use the TouchOSC control surface.

You can use your target's MIDI-learn function to map OSCulator's MIDI output to the desired controls, but in Reason, it's easier to set up OSCulator as an Advanced MIDI input and use Reason's built-in MIDI routings. Use a different MIDI channel for the mixer and each set of Combinator controls, and use Reason's Hardware Interface panel to route the controls by channel to the corresponding Reason devices.

Wah-Wah Pedals

Wah-Wah pedals are not just for guitarists anymore (and never were).

Of all the effects available to musicians, wah-wah is probably the most distinctive and most easily identified by nonmusicians. It’s usually associated with electric guitar—many classic Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton solos would be very different without it—but it’s frequently used for electric violin, bass guitar, electric piano, and Clavinet, and occasionally, even brass and wind instruments. In the right hands (or should I say feet?), wah-wah can be one of the most expressive and evocative effects that technology provides.

Mothers of Invention

Several companies experimented with tone-shifting effects in the ’60s, and the innovative Thomas Organ Company, which first imported Vox amps and instruments to the U.S., developed and patented the wah-wah pedal. In late 1966, Thomas engineer Brad Plunkett mounted a transistorized mid-range boost circuit whose frequency was controlled by a potentiometer in the housing of a Vox Continental organ’s volume pedal. One of his coworkers played a guitar through it, and voilà, wah-wah was born. The company’s CEO decided that marketing efforts should target sax and trumpet players rather than guitarists, however. Vox’s original 1967 wah-wah had an image of big-band trumpet player Clyde McCoy—famous for a 1930s pop song on which he used a “high-hat” mute for a similar effect—printed on the bottom plate.

Fortunately, others within the company recognized its potential as a guitar effect, and Plunkett continued tweaking it for electric guitar. Someone at Thomas Organ apparently thought the effect sounded like a baby crying and came up with the brand name Cry Baby. No one bothered to trademark the name, however, and Cry Baby pedals from a variety of manufacturers followed. Rock guitarists popularized the sound, and soon wahwahs were being made by Vox, Foxx, Maestro, Morley, DeArmond, Dunlop, Boss, Budda, Fulltone, and most major guitar and amp manufacturers.

Wah’s Happening

Wah-wah pedals work by manually sweeping a bandpass or lowpass filter’s resonant peak, dynamically changing the signal’s spectral content. You create the classic wah-wah sound by rocking the treadle either rhythmically or synchronized with picking your guitar strings for a sound that resembles vocal phrasing. You can also achieve a vowellike tone by positioning the treadle somewhere in the middle of its range to simulate a formant by emphasizing a particular frequency band. Strumming muted guitar strings while pumping the treadle has driven the hook of many a funk track, too.

Although wah-wah pedals are ideal for sweeping synth sounds with your foot, you could achieve a similar effect by assigning a MIDI expression pedal to control a resonant filter’s frequency. Most guitar-amp-modeling plug-ins for DAWs include a wah-wah in their arsenal of virtual stompboxes. Wah aficionados insist that different makes have their own personalities, and indeed, an assortment of design types yield different but similar effects. On stage or in the studio, as with any kind of vintage instruments or effects, purists insist that nothing beats the real thing.

Mobile Networks and Digital Dividend

Mobile networks, also called cellular networks, are based on different kinds of multiple access schemes in their radio interface (communication between mobile station and base station). Traditional multiple access schemes, such as Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA), Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA), and Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) are utilized in first-generation (1G) and second-generation (2G) systems.

Mobile Technology

Analog FDMA-based networks, such as Advanced Mobile Phone Service (AMPS), Nordic Mobile Telephone (NMT), and Personal Handy phone System (PHS), are called first-generation systems. The first digital mobile networks, such as North American TDMA (also known as D-AMPS because of the same frequency band used), and cdmaOne, European Global System for Mobile communications (GSM), and Japanese Personal Digital Cellular telecommunication system (PDC) are called second-generation (2G) systems. Enhancements of 2G systems, such as packet transmission - General Packet Radio System (GPRS) and Enhanced Data calls for GSM Evolution (EDGE) - are usually referred to as 2.5G.

In specification work, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) defines the common name IMT-2000 for 3G systems, and the third generation partnership project, 3GPP, takes care of standardization work for the entire mobile network family - GSM (2G), GPRS (2.5G), EDGE (2.5G) and UMTS (3G).

Universal Mobile Telecommunication System

UMTS as a system is an evolutionary step for voice and data calls of different transmission rates measured in kbps or Mbps. The key idea of UMTS is to be as dynamic as possible and to use system resources for different purposes (for example FACH or RACH channels for both signaling and low data traffic needs). Voice calls range from low quality to high quality (6-12 kbps, for example), depending on the user profile. Data services also vary (from 0 kbps to 2 Mbps), depending on the application needs. Various data applications like video streaming and games are aggressively marketed, even though the applications most expected today are email and Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) solutions, and the major goal of UMTS is the reduction of response time in these data transmission applications.

The UMTS network contains Radio Access Network (RAN), Core Network (CN), and Network Management System (NMS). Radio access network is also called UMTS Terrestrial RAN (UTRAN), and radio access (radio interface) is also called UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access (UTRA). GSM is also part of the UMTS network; thus the UMTS system has similar types of interfaces and network elements as in GSM. Due to similar architecture, the UMTS part of the specification is similar to the GSM part of the specification (for example, in the names and use of signaling channels or radio interface parameters); therefore, a good knowledge of the GSM is very helpful in understanding the UMTS system.

Digital Dividend

The latest development in mobile technologies is LTE (Long Term Evolution) technology which will be mainly used in frequency bands which were released after the transition to digital TV broadcasting - digital dividend. 3GPP Long Term Evolution is the latest standard in the mobile network technology tree that produced the GSM/EDGE and UMTS/HSPA network technologies. It is a project of the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), operating under a name trademarked by one of the associations within the partnership, the European Telecommunications Standards Institute. The LTE specification provides downlink peak rates of at least 100 Mbps, an uplink of at least 50 Mbps and RAN round-trip times of less than 10 ms. LTE supports scalable carrier bandwidths, from 1.4 MHz to 20 MHz and supports both frequency division duplexing (FDD) and time division duplexing (TDD).

The mobile industry is seeking an allocation of at least 100 MHz of Digital Dividend spectrum in all regions, awarded on a harmonized basis. With such an allocation, the vision of mobile broadband everywhere can be transformed into a reality. Spectrum (or frequency) harmonization, where countries across a region use the same spectrum frequency, is vital. It is critical for the successful, cost-effective deployment of any wireless service as it provides the economies of scale which drive down handset and network equipment costs and encourage innovation. Without such harmonization, handset costs could be prohibitively high, which would reduce uptake. This would harm not only consumers and the mobile industry, but also reduce the benefits that mobile technologies bring to national economies. If spectrum allocation is not coordinated internationally, then many smaller markets may be neglected by device manufacturers, who would naturally concentrate on larger markets, with greater potential for volume sales and a higher return on investment.

Apple, iPad and Fashion

Anyone who dismisses the iPad as simply a big iPod touch is missing the point. Because of its size and the fact that it's based on an OS designed solely for touchscreen devices, the iPad could be called the first truly usable tablet. It's a great way to read, watch TV shows and movies, surf the Web (sans Flash, yes), take notes and even write longer-form items (with or without an add-on keyboard), and do a hundred other things. Businesses are finding ways to use them, as well.

With every new tablet released, pundits proclaim the arrival of an "iPad killer"- claims that echo the many false predictions regarding the fate of the iPhone. The fact is that the iPad has a big head start, and Apple and the huge community of developers will continue to make it better. There's no such thing as an iPad killer-get used to it.

iPad 2

The iPad 2 is here. All of you people who refuse to buy the first version of any product can now emerge from hiding and buy an Apple tablet device safely and securely.

As with all new Apple products, the iPad 2 is fascinating because of the choices the company made about which features to add (cameras and a magnetic case), which ones to change (thickness and weight), and which ones to leave out (an iPhone 4 - class Retina display).

But for me, perhaps the most interesting thing about the iPad 2's release was the pair of Apple-created apps that appeared alongside it: Garage Band (which also runs on the original iPad) and iMovie (which ran on other iOS devices, but has now been expanded to run on the iPad 2).

Tapping Out Rhythms

Let's get this clear: I'm no musician. I can play a bit of piano and I can sort of sightread music. But my musical education ended when I was in my early teens. Over the years, I've noodled around a bit in the musical corners of Garage Band on the Mac. But I never had as much fun as I did in the first few hours I spent playing with GarageBand on the iPad 2. The introduction of "smart'' instruments and the tactile nature of the iPad make the difference, I think GarageBand's Smart Instruments eliminate the learning curve usually required to make pleasant sounds: Once I set my song in D major, the smart guitar transformed into eight complementary chords, which I could play it' by touching the chord name, strumming in the strings, or choosing one of four auto- g play styles. Within 15 minutes I had created f2 a multilayered track with guitar, bass, organ, and drum parts. (My apologies to Fountains of Wayne: I butchered "Hey Julie." But I had fun doing it.)

Now, the tactile thing: To use GarageBand on the Mac, you have to use a mouse or (if you're really cool) a USB keyboard or a guitar with a fancy input. Playing music with a standard keyboard isn't fulfilling. But tapping out chords on an iPad screen, and running your fingers over virtual guitar strings? Fun. It's that simple. Not that Garage Band on the iPad is frivolous or dumbed down.

Unless you just don't like music, you will never get more for your $5 than by buying GarageBand for your iPad.

Making Movies

iMovie on the iPhone showed that a simplified video-editing app could work on an iOS device. iMovie on the iPad 2 shows that it doesn't even have to be that simplified. The app actually makes the radical redesign of the Mac version of iMovie make sense. iMovie on the iPad isn't the same as iMovie on the Mac, but you can tell how the two are related, and I'd imagine that they'll become even more so in the future.

iMovie on the iPad has room for an editing timeline, a preview window, and a view into the iPad's video library, making it easy to pick clips and add them to your project. I was able to piece together a video, trim clips, set transitions, and even record a voice-over in no time at all.

Unfortunately, iMovie can't use video files that aren't in the specific format shot by iOS devices. That will limit its appeal until more cameras start to support the ability to shoot video in formats iOS devices can understand. As a result, I won't be using iMovie on the iPad to edit my home movies just yet. Unless, that is, I ditch my camcorder and just start shooting everything with my iPhone 4.

But that quibble aside, let's step back to appreciate what iMovie on the iPad represents. This is a tiny, thin tablet that can edit high-definition video files without breaking a sweat, and then package them up and shoot them off to YouTube or Vimeo. A few years ago my iMac struggled to edit SD video.It's amazing the strides Apple has made, and it's no wonder the company chose to release this new version of iMovie to show off the increased power of the iPad 2. It's impressive.

The App Story

These days, so many stories about Apple focus on the success of the App Store, especially the sheer number of apps that are available. With the release of iMovie and GarageBand, Apple is sending a slightly different message: It's not just the number of apps; it's the quality of those apps-and of the devices that run them.

Conclusion

Finally, let 's send all the best wishes we can to Steve Jobs and his family. He's on a medical leave of absence again and I'm sure we'll find out sooner or later what the reason is this time but let's hope he recovers quickly. I'm not saying that for Apple's sake as I think the company will be just fine without him. Hopefully he'll return fully recovered to the helm of Apple during the year.