Surface Builder Preview
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- Опубліковано 4 жов 2024
- About Surface Builder
Surface Builder is a tool for creating control surfaces that send MIDI data to one or more audio components in order to simplify remote control tasks. You start by creating a surface of a given size, adding buttons, knobs, faders etc. to the surface and configuring them to generate the required MIDI output. Surface Builder allows you to send note on/off, controller change and program change values as well as being able to emulate modulation wheel and pitch bend data. Buttons can also be configured to send bulk MIDI data using a single key press. You can build surfaces that span multiple scenes and link between them for large complex interfaces.
Incoming MIDI data can also be used to control or trigger elements of the interface, giving a bi-directional stream of MIDI data. Surface Builder can be added as a pure MIDI plugin which allows processing of MIDI only, or as an instrument plugin, allowing you to process audio passing through it. You can even load it as an intrument and configure a surface to start and stop audio clips either manually or remotely.
Surface Builder was designed to be used as an AUv3 plugin within your favourite DAW, but it can also be used in standalone to send MIDI directly to MIDI hardware using direct access to their MIDI ports.
Many different object types are supported including buttons, switches, lights, rotary knobs, faders, sliders, XY-Pad, keyboards, as well as text, image and box objects. Each object has many different styles and colours, so no two surfaces look the same.
Drag and drop an audio file onto a button and that button becomes a clip player. Attach rotary knobs to control the clips volume and pan. Throw on top of that a LP/HP filter knob and you are cooking on gas. Drop PNG transparent image icons on buttons to customise the look and feel.
A button can record and playback bulk MIDI commands, on both button press and release. So pressing a button could send the notes of a chord when pressed, and appropriate note offs on release.
A surface can consist of up to 6 scenes for really complex designs. Buttons and switches can be used to switch scenes and also to show and hide other objects to make better use of screen space. Once your surface is complete switch to presentation mode to hide all the toolbars. Each surface can be saved with compressed audio and images all in a single surface file.
Features
○ AUv3 and standalone modes.
○ Bluetooth MIDI support.
○ Send and Receive Note On/Off.
○ Supports all Control Change parameters.
○ Supports Program Change commands with bank support.
○ Multiple Audio Clip playback.
○ Record and playback bulk midi data.
ç Multi-Scene.
○ Multi-level undo/redo.
○ Presentation Mode.
○ iPhone and iPad compatible.
This app Will be the best ios audio/midi app in 2023. You are the Master. Thanks thanks thanks.
MIDI Layers already improved my environment, now this looks like a HUGE cherry on top.
I cannot express how valuable this tool is for an iOS DAW-less environment. Paul, you are a genius, thank you so much! 👏🤩
Always up for anything you make.
Congratulations, Paul! 🎉
This is like a dream app for me. Been wanting something like this for a long while now. Thank you Paul 🙏
This looks amazing, and something I would absolutely use.
Fascinating!
This looks interesting and will be a great performance help 😎Thanks Paul for your innovative ideas 🧙🧙
Thanks Paul for another great app. I can already imagine lots of uses for this app.
This is HUGE!
I want this now😆 great work Paul, I look forward to the master class videos when it’s released
Wow, you are incredible with apps you are releasing.. one gem after other ! Great job !
Looks like a deep and useful app - the knobs and sliders should be great for mixing/performing AUM sessions with more than a few channels (where the use of your excellent Audioscope isn't already indicated 😃)
Great for triggering those snapshots for sure!!
Wow! This looks powerful Paul.. a DIY control surface.. Who doesn’t want that? For live performance this could be huge.. I guess it could be super useful in any setting.. can’t wait to get my hands on this.. not even sure how I’ll use it yet, but I know I’ll get inspired just from building my 1st surface.. Well done + thank you.. 🙏
Paul, this is fantastic… I’ve gone through a long, evolving process of working up an on-screen control system for guitar effects using an app called Xequence PADS, so I would hate to go through that process all over again. But your Surface Builder looks so much more flexible… looking forward to trying this out. ALSO looking forward to seeing what capabilities will be available with playing audio clips; I have a very specific request for that function, and I’ll wait until I have the app… great work on this; very well thought-out…
That is a very comprehensive and useful app, Paul! One use case I can see for me would be the creation of a soundboard for triggering sound fx and whole tracks/backing tracks for use in an am dram production. Presumably, you can set the mode of a sample playback button to one shot, repeat, momentary etc.?
Yes, you can set momentary or one shot, but I didn't add looped in this version... but it is already in the next version.
@@PaultheMusicMan Looks like Colin got to my request first… I hope one of the “modes” you set up will be serial play, ie: play clip A, which loops until you tap clip B which cues it up to play immediately after clip A is done, etc. That would be magnificent…
@@gtrgeorge348 I am certainly making a note of all these ideas and seeing what ideas fit best. I don't want to go too far beyond this app being a MIDI controller with audio capabilities. I have had requests for slicing samples etc. which is an app in its own right, but queueiing is something that could be done. I currently allow you to place clips in groups which mutually exclude each other. This could be extended to queue until the current clip is complete. I just need to find a neat and obvious way of doing it.
That’s exactly how I’m looking at it Colin- we’re currently rehearsing a play due to go on in October, and a simple board of one-shot fx (there’s a lot of thunder in it!) will be useful in rehearsal and beyond.
This app has so many possibilities and future potential another great addition Paul. Hope you add surface sharing at some point so we can share builds. Looking forward to seeing you expand on the audio capabilities and maybe add in a midi matrix similar to AUM at some point when used with external hardware in standalone mode. The PNG inclusion sounds great another winner. Seems like it’s a step up from NuRack FX.
Some of the testers have been sharing surfaces with me already. When you save a surface you can choose to embed the audio, before sharing with others. You can drag surfaces out of the Load Surface window to the files app and back again. I will have to do a video showing how its done.
Awesome. This could be great for controlling hardware synths in real time, especially digital ones like the dx series of synths where you can use midi CC messages rather than menu diving to program sounds.
I have tried lots of these types of apps from basic ones to apps like Lemur which allow code level scripting and logic to be applied to controls. This seems like a nice in between with a lot of ability to tailor the control capability but not too complex where you need a coding degree to create even a basic layout.
I like how you have the app itself able to make a connection to Bluetooth MIDI ports rather than needing a separate app to connect it first.
Only suggestion is that it could be nice to perhaps add a colour palette to make it easy to select a colour visually rather than the sliders.
The ability to name scenes would also be handy but perhaps this can be done and wasn’t shown.
Naming the scenes is a good idea. The only reason I didn't do it was because you can already name the buttons and add text objects titles. I did think it would be good to see the names in the scenes window, but there really isn't a great deal of room. The colours are displayed as you drag the slider around but I understand it would be easier to see all colours on a single screen and you just pick. I will give it some thought.
Looks great. Is it possible to map these to a hardware controller?
Yes, you can explicitly map to physical MIDI ports, in fact its the best way. I use it with a lot of my MIDI controllers such as my Korg NanoStudio and works great.
well done Paul, interesting app!
Great work Paul. I was waiting for this one. This plugin will be an instant buy 🎉. I saw you can play audio clips. Are you planning to play midi clips as well?
Looks great. I was looking for exactly this a couple months ago, and I found an app that does some of what I need, but being a control surface is not it's primary function. I have gotten a lot of mileage out of your modular effects app, NuRack, which can also do some MIDI control, but this looks really nice. Looking forward to the Masterclass videos and other demos.
Yes Ed, this is so much better than NuRack when it comes to MIDI control. I think once I start producing the videos showing the intricate details it will all become clear. I really struggled to get everything I wanted into this preview.
Very nice! Your new app looks great! A very interesting and flexible "Surface Builder" app...
I have the “Progressions” app, and was wondering if this new app (or Progressions directly) could manage triggering a 4 or 5 chords progression using the same “button” on a foot controller, I mean pressing a foot controller's button/switch could start/play the first chord, and when pressed again the second chord is “triggered”, and so on, until the last chord in the progression is reached, I have been looking for something like that, instead of matching each button per chord and being limited by the buttons/switches in my foot controller, and also remembering which switch triggers which chord
Looking forward for your next video about the features of "Surface Builder" app.
There is always the possibility of additing something like this in future versions. This kind of thing crossed my miind too, one step at a time for now.
Thanks for the software. It would be nice if there was an option for user knobs and if you could change the font colour of the knobs, e.g. for light backgrounds.
Looks good. I see no mention of Sys-Ex, or of NPRNs. And do controls respond to incoming MIDI as well as transmitting? My envisaged use is a controller for hardware and software outside of the iPad.
It does do 8bit and 16bit NRPN but SysEx handling is quite basic. Most controls do reflect incoming MIDI, so if a button receives a message it will reflect the state of the message.
@@PaultheMusicMan That's great! Thank you. I'll definitely give it a try.
@@PaultheMusicMan Downloaded and tried a couple of basic controls. I'll begin building a test MCU control panel to see how far I can take it.
This one is absolutely amazing
I’m interested in control my hardware synths via Bluetooth using WIDI Jack, just two doubts; will it support MIDI Learn so I can build a touch control surface for a who punch of Hardware Synth parameters?
Also, what about MPE support?
Thank you
I've tried to make this app work with AUv3 and with traditional MIDI ports, but I've not added anything MPE specific to this as yet.
@@PaultheMusicMan Thank you Paul, waiting anxiously for it 🤗
Hi Paul, great app! Unfortunately, I am not able to map Surface CC faders etc. to AUM instruments, e.g. filter, volume etc.? A short video would be great. I‘m not a MIDI novice . I have gone through all the port combinations. Many thanks
It is a relatively easy task so long as you get the channel and port setup correctly. I assume the destination synth accepts MIDI CC commands, and you have told the synth to take its input directly from Surface Builders port and channel that the fader is sending too? I'm sure somewhere in one of my videos I show how to do this with Sunrizer Synthesizer.
Checkout my MasterClass #3 which shows how to map the LFO button to Sunrizer. To map a fader is similar, just make sure the channel and port are both set to 1, then make sure Sunrizer is taking input from Surface Builders port 1. The channel has to be enabled before it sends output, even though we are not using the channel. Make sure in the fader properties you select CC7 say, which is the default CC for cutoff filter. From there it depends on the destination synth and how it implements its mapping.
Many thanks for the fast reply. it works all fine now. it must be the Greek sun … or Ouzo
I bought this app and I‘m somewhat disapointed. So many options to change the look of elements and so few to change their behaviour? I wanted to make a spring-centered pitch bend slider with 14 bit range and I don‘t see how this could be done. I thought that Surface Builder was meant to do such things. Am I missing something?
Have you worked your way through all the videos yet? Add a Knob, open the properties and change the style to Pitch Wheel and the message type to Pitch Bend. Ensure 'Continuous' is set so that it sends pitch bend as you move the knob, rather than just when you release. This in my opinion is the best MIDI controller on iOS once you get used to how it works. See if there is a demo surface called keyboard test. I can't remember if it ships with this or not, but it has a spring loaded pitch bend.
@@PaultheMusicMan Hello Paul, thanks for your fast rerply, got it now! No, I haven't found the time to watch all the videos yet. I had expected to find the pitch bend functionality on the slider, not on the rotary knob. And actually I would prefer the slider look for my pitch bender. But anyway, it works now, thank you! Btw. i own around ten of your apps and like them a lot. Especially Rings FX and WaveCloud. The next one I will try to understand is Progression. ;-)
what synth is playing at 1:20. i love that sound
maybe i missed it i. the video. can you change the start point of the audio clip, and/or have the audio loop a section, when the audio clip button is presssed?
Is there any hope that Sysex processing will be implemented in Surface Builder and Layers?
It would be great if you could save the midi data stream via midi learn. Background: My Casio PXS 7000 unfortunately cannot change registrations via Midi, but a registration (click on a button) can send all settings as a combination of Sysex, CC and PC. It would of course be great if you could extract the used data from the data stream and generate the corresponding buttons automatically (Surface Builder). As far as I know, there is no software that processes sysex data as auv3 in the context of a library manager. Camelot Pro can save the data as a preset, but unfortunately it is not an auv3.
The problem is that a lot of Sysex data is specific to a model of synth, and in many cases we can't get information about the structure. The best any app can do with SysEx is recieve what we call a dump, then send that dump back when a button is pressed.
.@@PaultheMusicMan A dump would be a step in the right direction. I mean, just listen to the midi input, save it as a preset (in a list) and then recall the dump. The same can be implemented for PC in layers.
@@HansAlbers10000 I will add it to my list of future improvements for Surface Builder and see how it goes. The only real issue is SysEx dumps can be quite big.
@@PaultheMusicMan I know that this is not just an empty phrase. If you like, I can send you an example to the support email address. Thank you!
@@HansAlbers10000 Can you email me at info at 4pockets dot com. I have an experimental TestFlight version with a new MIDI Recorder button function. If you send me your email address I will send a TestFlight invite.
Can it connect to pc via USB typc c to make controlling for daws?
It depends if you have the neccessary drivers installed I guess. As long as you have physical MIDI ports on the PC. I know it is possible on the Mac to control things over a MIDI session and I will be describing that in a forthcoming tutorial.
Does it support MPE and Poly Aftertouch?
This is not really for routing MIDI it is more of a controller. Since most of the ontrol is coming from a touch screen it is not really possible to support things like aftertouch.
@@PaultheMusicMan If it's for designing controllers, then you should be able to support MPE and aftertouch. There are virtual controllers like KB-1, Velocity KB, Woodtroller, and Beat Pads that make excellent use of on-screen velocity andMPE!
@@jackcimino8822 Aha, now I understand what you are asking... an interface like an MPE controller with the ability to slide the finger on screen to generate velocity/cc control etc? I am planning on adding this kind of controller, although it won't be in the initial release. This was not really designed as a dedicated keyboard interface as nothing beats a real keyboard. This is more of a generic control app for launching clips, changing patches, controlling levels etc. I'm sure the videos I release will make it more clear.
@@PaultheMusicMan Exactly! Although I love the controller apps I have, I am frustrated with their limitations. At the same time, I cannot afford a Linnstrument. The best I got is my trusty iPad Air 3 with a Roland UM-One and MOTU M4. It works well with the MPE recording of Studio One and Cubase.
Surface builder the chord object is missing also the one object below it.
How does this differ to Midi Designer Pro 2? That's been around for years, and has hundreds of templates built by users online. I
This can be used as an auv3, each surface saved right in the aum session or whatever you're working on. Midi Designer can't do that, so doesn't suit the way many ios music makers like to work
@@GavinskisTutorials Ah okay. Very cool. I went searching for it in the store but couldn't find it. When is it being released and do you know of the price?
@@anthonybrettame out today, been out for hours now. $8.99.
@@HotStrange Sweet. For the price its a no brainer. Ill grab and have a play. Cheers!
I was thinking the same thing, regarding MIDI Designer. I've used it for a long time and it can get super-deep. But somehow Paul's apps seem to find that sweet spot between thinking like a musician and thinking like a programmer. I don't know if/when he sleeps, but between his apps and his incredibly helpful tutorials, Paul's an iOS Music Production international treasure in my book 👍🏻
Very nice app, but no support for 14 bit MIDI? 😢
We support various controllers like pitch bend independently, but what other controllers are you thinking of?
@@PaultheMusicMan NRPN (14bit MSB/LSB), which iVCS3 and many other Synths do support. 7bit MIDI resolution is to coarse for filter or oscillator sweeps. Ape Matrix supports it as well.
MidiDesigner2 has support for 14Bit NRPN CC messages as well.
@@nikvr2025 Yes, I will be adding it soon, although there are not so many MIDI messages that use MSB/LSB combinations, but I guess if you have full control over both sides of a conversation you can utilize them.
@@nikvr2025 I assume Ape Matrix allows you to pick two CC values (one for MSB and another for LSB) right?
Keeps crashing after iOS 17! Help!!!
Can you be more specific about what you are doing? It runs fine for me but maybe you are doing something specific that causes an issue. Upgrading to new iOS versions early is always a bad move. Don't forget to first run the app in standalone mode to ensure all the presets are installed if this is a fresh installation of Surface Builder. I've just run the app on iOS17.0.3 and it appears to be running fine for me.
Shut up and take my money :)