A wireless solution for your average MIDI studio ..

[Tony Scharf]

On Fri, Jul 15, 2011 at 12:39 PM, Jay Vaughan <jayv at synth.net> wrote:
> What I ask is if this is a response to a problem that might evolve into an interesting solution, or if its a mega-trend which dare not ought to be disturbed?  Perhaps people will use iPhone synths on stage, pretty soon .. and if so, wouldn't it be nice to have a wireless set of sensors to use them with?

It depends on what the person is doing.  For me, I don't think there
is any iPad/iPhone or Android hardware/software combo that could
actually do my whole stage rig and I am just playing notes.  People
doing lots of tracks using Live would definitely still need the CPU,
RAM and Access speed of a desktop.

So in the long term? Maybe.  Short term?  Probably not.

>
> (Its already happening with wii and jailbreaks and puredata bundles, and so on..)
>
> If this develops, for the thousands and thousands of people who still have and use "legacy MIDI" gear for real live events (lets hope it still happens, somewhere), then I guess its a given that there will be adapters.
>
> ANT <-> MIDI
>
> I think its feasible to put the whole package in a small cylinder, half the height of a shotgun-shell perhaps, [>:MIDI plug, ANT package / Battery]
>
> Then you can just access the whole legacy rig as sensors from your iPad.
>

Lets analyze why someone might have a legacy MIDI setup that they take
on stage.  In my opinion, it would because:

A - they don't trust or feel software is right for them.
B - They established their live rig a long time ago, and why change
something that works?
C - They are not aware of what software could do, but would change
their rig if they knew they could.

A & B are going to be a hard sell.  C maybe a target, but I feel they
will go the laptop route as more learn about it simply because you can
do so much more with a laptop than you can any combination of hardware
synthesizers.  For the cost of a Roland or Korg workstation, my laptop
does more than any of them.


>
> Well, I must admit that I am blinded by the roomful of ANT devices I have available to see and work on right now,
>

This is the biggest challenge you face coming up with a product.

> Anyway .. Sensor networks are pretty robust.  A hospital full of ECG/blood-sugar data and so on is a bit more delicate than MIDI.
>
> BTW, I discovered today that the iPad can do ANT, as in it has a radio component that can be tuned to ANT frequencies.  Apple have not exposed the interface to a framework.  Jailbroken iPads, though, is the big question I have on my mind tonight ..
>

I think requiring people to jailbreak their device in order to use
your product will significantly reduce who will be interested.

Tony