Start a new topic

So you want to change octaves on a Lightboard M in iOS...here's one weird trick to get 'er done.

TL;DR - Audiobus has midi support, use MIDI Tools to transpose.


Slightly longer explanation:


Note:  This was tested with


First, get ahold of Audiobus 3 if you don't have it.  It has an ability to use AUv3 plugins and, for a nominal fee, it will allow you to work with midi signals as well.  


Once you have Audiobus 3, go into the MIDI section (button on the lower left).  There will be three boxes.  The far left is inputs, the far right is outputs, the middle is for "Midi Filters".


Assuming your Lightpad is off, to hook it up do the following:

  1. Click the plus in the far left box and select "Bluetooth Connections" (make sure your Lightpad is in pairing mode.)
  2. Select Lightpad Block, wait for it to connect
  3. Go back out to the main menu (left arrow) and there should be a "Lightpad Block DXC3 Bluetooth".  Click the right arrow and select "All Channels"
  4. Profit?
Your Lightpad is now connected to Audiobus!


Secondly, you're going to need to route this to Virtual MIDI.  So:

  1. Click the plus in the far right box.
  2. Select Virtual MIDI.
  3. Select Virtual MIDI Bridge, this will create a midi channel for your music apps titled Audiobus 3.
  4. Go to the Synth (or whatever app) you want to use with your lightpad, make sure that Audiobus 3 is selected as your Midi Source (and NO others).
Your light block should now be connected to your music app, you might test it to make sure things are working so far.

Lastly, you're going to want to use the Midi Filter to transpose the inputs:
  1. Make sure MIDI Tools is installed.  If you bought it after starting up Audiobus, make sure you restart Audiobus.
  2. In your setup in Audiobus, click on the plus sign in the middle box.
  3. Click on the Audio Units selector, you should see a list of MIDI tools
  4. There are a lot of nifty options here, but the one you want to select is called "MIDI Key Zone".  So...select it.
  5. Click on the big purple gear that is now I the middle box, this will take you into the plug in.
  6. Expand the Low Key, Low Fad, High Key and High Fad to cover all 88 keys (for now, you can play with it later).
  7. Hopefully you've noticed the transpose control by now, I think you know what to do, eh?
After following all these steps, I was finally able to adjust the range of my Lightpad up and down as much as I wanted in Sunrizer (which was the big goal).  It works with any other apps as well, and it does actually pass on the entire MPE signal from what I can tell...  So that's cool.

Note:  If you are using this setup, you're going to want to commit to it.  If you try to mix this setup with the regular way you would use Lightpad with, say, Garageband....you are going to get frustrated.  I would recommend always selecting Audiobus 3 as your MIDI source and making sure you deselect any other possible inputs.  Besides, you can use Audiobus to attach multiple midi devices and route them to Virtual MIDI, so you may consider just restricting all your routing to Audiobus :)

Devs:  Look, I'm a dev as well.  I know you all have a lot going on.  But......I mean.......  Transposing on a 25 key keyboard is a _basic_ functionality.  I can get not having the arp or the chords stuff in the AU but....transpose at least?  

Even better, maybe in 4.5 make it so that by click both power and pair at the same time we are given a way to select a new transpose from the device?  I imagine that would be a bit of a beast to develop, but it would be suuuuuuper helpful.

Honestly...I came within about 10 minutes of returning the darn thing after 2 days of trying to figure out how to transpose in my "non-Noise" synths.  Then I remembered Audiobus had added MIDI routing in version 3 and....finally figure it out.  

But...yeah....kind of a pain if I'm being real.  Kind of a "won't recommend this product to any friends who are wanting to be mobile, despite the fact that it's amazing, simply because it lacks one basic function because I wouldn't want to walk them through the above process if they hadn't already bought it" kind of a pain :/


1 person has this question
1 Comment

Update: Another route for this just appeared with Korg Gadget 2. It has a new midi gadget that allows you to send midi to another device, and it has a trasnpose option (as well as a lot of other niceties!) At that point the new setup can be as simple as Gadget -> (some synth) -> Garageband, all using inter-app audio from Apple. I would personally still recommend getting Audiobus with this particular setup though, as it will allow for more efficient busing setups...

2 people like this
Login to post a comment