So you’re that kind of performer who has two or three iPads controlling your music software with various MIDI applications and interfaces through MIDI and/or OSC. However, you can’t get a good night’s sleep from fear of losing your wireless connection and being left “unconnected” in front of a crowd of people desperately waiting for you to drop the bass. Sound familiar? Until recently, the only stable way of connecting to your computer was with bulky third-party MIDI adapters. These solve half of the issues but also remove your ability to keep your device charged without the need for even more bulky cables.

You’ve probably had the dream of simply connecting that one skinny white USB cable to your iPad and computer and have it magically work. Well, now you can! A trio of new products will finally allow you to realize your MIDI connection dreams (well, if you’re a Mac OSX user, that is. Sorry to the rest of the computing planet). Below I’ll give an overview of Midimux, MIDI LE, and Music IO.

Midimux

From the developers of touchAble (the intensely complex and detailed iOS interface for Ableton Live), Midimux gives users direct connection support. It effortlessly provides two-way communication between the iPad and OSX as well as allowing for the creation of dedicated ports within the iPad itself that allow apps to route MIDI internally. It operates using a simple server program that keeps a connection with the iOS app. The team behind Midimux has also developed an app called Audiomux for – you guessed it! – streaming audio to a Mac through a USB cable.

MIDI LE

MIDI LE for USB is a free application that enables you to use a standard Lightning/30-Pin Cable to connect your iOS device to your Mac, which is similar in operation to Midimux. The drawback with MIDI LE is that it is only available to users running iOS 8 on their device (unlike Midimux which develops and tests on the very first version iPads running iOS 5), though they are developing compatibility with Windows. MIDI LE also has an alternative program that connects wirelessly via Bluetooth (but that’s another story).

Music IO

Music IO is the product of a collaborative effort between three top music app developers: Confusion Studios (makers of MIDI Designer Pro), Audeonic Apps (makers of MidiBridge) and the Secret Base Design team. Music IO boasts many of the same features as the other two at a low introductory price of $2.99. Early entry into this software ensures access to some forthcoming features such as audio over the connection cable (much like Midimux’s anticipated Audiomux), support for multiple iOS devices, and comprehensive MIDI device interchange between devices.

These new applications will be a game-changer for anyone looking to integrate iOS devices with Liquid Rhythm or their favourite DAW. The applications will also enable Liquid Rhythm users to integrate Liquid Rhythm with our templates for Liine’s Lemur and MIDI Designer with a single USB cable. No more struggling a WIFI connection or setting up an ad hoc network!

Click here to learn more about Liquid Rhythm templates for Tablet iOS devices.