Over the past few years, the company Line 6 has built up a good reputation amongst musicians and producers for making guitars, amplifiers, effect processors and recording interfaces for use in the studio and on the stage. Perhaps you ‘ve seen or had the chance to use one of their pod products, a comprehensive line of effects modules; or own one of their amps, like I have. Their products are award winning and are used by internationally renowned artists worldwide.
Now the company has created something for iPhone-touting musicians. They ‘ve called it the MIDI Mobilizer – a MIDI interface for iPhone and iPod Touch. I ‘ve had the chance to test it over the past week. Here are my thoughts on it.
What is MIDI?
First off, if you are reading this piece I assume that you know a bit about the technical side of recording music in the digital age. In case you don ‘t, check out this article on what a MIDI file actually is. Put simply it ‘s a file that stores notes as impulses that can be translated into adaptable notes in digital audio software.
Say you play ‘Mary had a little Lamb ‘ on a MIDI keyboard connected to a computer, your software will take what you play and transfer them to notes, which you can move then around or modify to your heart ‘s content. Usually you need a MIDI capable instrument and a computer. Line 6 ‘s MIDI mobilizer makes the process portable by eliminating the computer as MIDI translator.
Setting up the MIDI mobilizer
Take a look on how to set up the MIDI mobilizer on Line 6 ‘s movies page. Bear in mind that Line 6 has catered for the moment when you ‘ve left your computer at home. Specs can be read here.
My usual setup is a MIDI keyboard connected to my Macbook, which lets me record my song ideas directly into Garageband.
Yet I was eager to try the Line 6 thingamajiggy. I hooked up my keyboard to a sound module and speaker, downloaded the MIDI Memo Recorder App (free from the iTunes App Store) and was ready to go. Or to be more precise, my husband “also a musician- helped me set up and got promptly carried away with making sounds on the keyboard, preventing me from getting on with this review. 🙂
What we experienced
I have to be honest and say that we ran into a few snags. First the app was only intermittently functional, sometimes lagging, sometimes unwilling to recognize the attached gadget.
And this is important, since the app can ‘t be used without its hardware partner. Also the timer on the file playback was off more often than not, e.g. showing 2 seconds elapsed when the file had already played for longer.
Then, after a successful recording and transfer of the file stored in the app to my computer via email, we found it could not open into Garageband. Hmm.
After a bit of brainstorming my husband opened it in Quicktime, saved as Standard MIDI file then re-exported it to Garageband. I asked Line 6 about this and got the following explanation, which I ‘ll reproduce here so I don ‘t get the technical details wrong:
‘SMPTE time code is a widely used standard for marking time between events that are not tempo-based. It is unfortunate that GarageBand does not support this format, but this is beyond our control. It is possible to mark the data as tempo-based, even if it isn ‘t. This is how the export function of QuickTime works, which then does make it possible to open within GarageBand. When MIDI data is exported from QuickTime as a MIDI file, it chooses to set the tempo at 60BPM, the time signature at 4/4, and the timing resolution to 240 pulses per quarter note. Since GarageBand will recognize this format, it is able to open this file, even though the tempo and time signature are not related to what the music data is. Although this introduces a different problem (forcing a specific tempo on the music that was not originally tempo based), it is a viable work-around. We will continue to look into this to see if there could be additional workarounds with regard to GarageBand. ‘
The company acknowledges that there are more programs that do not recognize the format and they are working towards other solutions to this problem. Till then you ‘ll have to rely on workarounds. As I don ‘t own all audio programs I couldn ‘t test it myself but a friend confirmed to me that the file opens natively into Logic Pro.
Other uses
Apart from straightforward recording and sharing, the MIDI mobilizer can also backup MIDI parameters from Line 6 gear e.g. you can transfer settings into a friend’s pod device, or import settings into rental gear. Additionally it can restore MIDI settings if they got lost due to a system crash.
Support
Should you run into problems with the MIDI mobilizer or its accompanying app, the company offers support via their online forums, Knowledge Base documentation, FAQs and via email in addition to phone support.
Conclusions
Ultimately both the app and the device do the job they promise. However a few more features would definitely enhance the experience. Why share single files only by email? Let us share several files at a time via wifi or Bluetooth or even via file transfer with my iPhone plugged in.
While I ‘m sure that the hiccups we and others have encountered with the MIDI mobilizer and its partner app the MIDI Memo Recorder will be resolved in future hardware and software updates, I do wonder if a perfected app and device will ensure success for this unique iPhone accessory. After all, this is something that can be used by a minority of iPhone users, serious musicians. At US$ 69.99 I find the price is also a bit steep for something that I don ‘t need if I take my laptop with me. Yes I love my iPhone but I also love my laptop.
As always the market will reveal whether Line 6 has created an itch that buyers respond to.
For more information, visit Line 6 ‘s MIDI mobilizer page.
You can buy the MIDI mobilizer from Amazon.com.
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TAGS: audio, iPhone, ipod touch, Music
