I have resisted the urge to buy an ipad very strongly since they first came onto the market I am now however contemplating a chance of heart purely to be able to use touchOsc as a way of controlling live.
The band that I am in at the moment are getting read you move our heavy electronic show live and one of the issues that we keep running into is that the macbook pro we are planning to use to run ableton live and all the audio that we need only has 2 USB ports thus limiting quite considerably how many physical controllers that we can use. We are using a Starr labs MIDI guitar which needs to USB port and when you add in the MBox 2 that we want to use that is both USB ports accounted for. We have used USB hubs but are slightly concerned about power issues to all of the devices.
The Ipad and TouchOsc and the nature of its wireless connection obviously frees us of this problem. Having not owned one before I had a few questions I was hoping someone could help with:
- When we are playing live can we have several different pages of control templates that we can switch between seamlessly during the performance so that we can control a number of different parameters/devices within live on the one Ipad?
- Do we need to bring a wireless router with us to the gigs to use the thing or can we set up a connection with just the ipad and the macbook?
- Has anyone else done this and do they recommend it?
I have to say I love the idea of a fully customisable and portable controller but it sounds too good to be true! Anybody’s feedback would be appreciated.
Cheers
Tim
Using Ipad ans TouchOsc as Live controller
Re: Using Ipad ans TouchOsc as Live controller
I'm starting to use TouchOSC on an ipad a lot for our show as well.
>- When we are playing live can we have several different pages of control templates that we can switch between seamlessly during the performance so that we can control a number of different parameters/devices within live on the one Ipad?
Yes, in TouchOSC you can switch between any number of pages that you create in a layout.
>- Do we need to bring a wireless router with us to the gigs to use the thing or can we set up a connection with just the ipad and the macbook?
Most folks seem to recommend using an ad-hoc network, in which case you don't need a router. I use a wireless router. I find that the signal strength is a lot better, and most especially if the computer gets powered off and is restarted, it will join the network without the need to recreate the ad-hoc network. I find ad-hoc networks too fiddly for real live shows. But as I say, I think mine is a minority opinion. I plug the router in by ethernet to the laptop by the way, so that only the ipads are talking to the router wirelessly.
- Has anyone else done this and do they recommend it?
It's great but in my case anyway it took a LOT of development and testing time to get everything to work smoothly and to be robust.
-Luddy
>- When we are playing live can we have several different pages of control templates that we can switch between seamlessly during the performance so that we can control a number of different parameters/devices within live on the one Ipad?
Yes, in TouchOSC you can switch between any number of pages that you create in a layout.
>- Do we need to bring a wireless router with us to the gigs to use the thing or can we set up a connection with just the ipad and the macbook?
Most folks seem to recommend using an ad-hoc network, in which case you don't need a router. I use a wireless router. I find that the signal strength is a lot better, and most especially if the computer gets powered off and is restarted, it will join the network without the need to recreate the ad-hoc network. I find ad-hoc networks too fiddly for real live shows. But as I say, I think mine is a minority opinion. I plug the router in by ethernet to the laptop by the way, so that only the ipads are talking to the router wirelessly.
- Has anyone else done this and do they recommend it?
It's great but in my case anyway it took a LOT of development and testing time to get everything to work smoothly and to be robust.
-Luddy
Re: Using Ipad ans TouchOsc as Live controller
Seriously helpful man - thank you so much.
Certainly erring on the side of going for this now. I note that you mention ipads in the plural - does that mean that you can potentially use two ipads so that both of you have control over everything at the same time?
Certainly erring on the side of going for this now. I note that you mention ipads in the plural - does that mean that you can potentially use two ipads so that both of you have control over everything at the same time?
Re: Using Ipad ans TouchOsc as Live controller
Well, everything is a big word haha.Derj wrote:Seriously helpful man - thank you so much.
Certainly erring on the side of going for this now. I note that you mention ipads in the plural - does that mean that you can potentially use two ipads so that both of you have control over everything at the same time?
I plan pretty carefully what we control at any given moment. There are two of us using iPads on stage; I control the firing of scenes and clips, and effects. My partner controls effects on her voice.Maybe what you mean though is whether we can control the same stuff; the answer to that is no, the two ipads are controlling different things.
It's a lot of fun, I don't think you'll regret it. Just takes some time to get it all ironed out and solid.
-Luddy
Last edited by luddy on Mon Jul 25, 2011 2:52 pm, edited 1 time in total.
-
jestermgee
- Posts: 4500
- Joined: Mon Apr 26, 2010 6:38 am
Re: Using Ipad ans TouchOsc as Live controller
Also check out touchable for iPad. It costs a little more than touchosc but does a lot. Touchosc should allow multiple iPads for general control but if you want multiple control surfaces using the liveosc template then I think it only allows a single instance... Touchable allows for 2 instances tho. Have a mixer on one and the pads on another or pads on both... If a mate has an iPad it makes music making a lot of fun.
Could never replace hardware but does compliment well.
Could never replace hardware but does compliment well.