(Bluetooth seems not to be an option, because of how Apple provides access to that connection.)īut here, we’re using good, old-fashioned hardware connections, which means you can work with hardware from the 80s through today – and you don’t have to have your computer with you. Various iOS apps let you send MIDI (or other protocols, like OpenSoundControl) wirelessly, via the WiFi connection. Of course, by definition, what I’m saying also applies to other computing platforms that can support MIDI, which includes Mac OS, Windows, and Linux. In the video at top, co-produced by CDM and Tekserve, I show a hands-on with MIDI gear and the iPad.

Tonight at an event Tekserve titled “the future of music,” then, I’m the Ghost of Music Technology Past. I’ve been working with Tekserve, an independent Apple service and sales shop in Manhattan, to help show iPad owners how they can use this protocol – now more than a quarter century old – to make all their gear work together. It doesn’t transmit sound, but it does transmit information like pitch, note events, knob twists, button presses, and clock and transport information. For the uninitiated, MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) is the de facto industry standard means for communicating musical events between different hardware and software. Like traditional computers before it, part of what makes the shiny, new iPad musically useful is its ability to work with other gear.Įnter MIDI. So it makes sense that in a music workspace, making connections is important. Practical iPad Music Making: Connecting HardwareĬreatively, music is about assembling a new whole out of lots of pieces.

Connecting midi keyboard to ipad