Surface Builder - MasterClass 1 - Beginners Guide
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- Опубліковано 19 чер 2023
- This is the first in a series of videos for Surface Builder, a MIDI controller for iOS.
In this video we take a look at the app from a beginners perspective giving some ideas and suggestions to help better understand the product. We create our first surface and show how MIDI mapping works between two different surfaces to demonstrate bi-directional MIDI.
We also take a look at how to assign audio clips to buttons and trigger them using MIDI, as well as how to attach time clocks and vu meters to the clip being played.
Finally we talk about standalone and the importance of port mapping.
Bloody Brilliant! I have other Midi control designers but this kicks arse. Love the way 2 surfaces can communicate with each other great that you have a clock button always struggle playing live when a show must be a certain time, fantastic.
Great app, wonderful customization options. Congrats on another super-tool. Only what is missing or I still haven't figured out is to make one knob to control more than one CC with different ranges and values. Thank you Paul, keep up the good work. 👏👍
Thanks Paul 👍🏼This app is getting now more understandable 🧙
Nice to know mate, thanks for the support as always my friend.
Excellent overview. I had to rewind a few times to get the same results as you, and had a few head scratch moments (for various reasons) but eventually managed to get the same results. Thank you. I look forward to seeing how this app develops!
Hey Colin, well hopefully in the next video I can get a little more advanced mate and show people things that are a little more useful. Always appreciate the comments as always mate.
Hi Paul … thanks for creating this great app and this very helpful video.
Just scratching the surface so far on this one but loving it 😁. Thanks Paul ! triggering multiple sound files with Helium notes in AUM easier set up than Fileplayer with less AUM real estate used 👍🏼
Another excellent idea, Paul. Thank you!
With all due respect sir, Paul, the ability to scroll between scenes in presentation mode without having to go into edit mode perhaps with a finger swipe would enhance the user experience. ( Unless I have overlooked this function somewhere )
Also, somebody mentioned on one of the FB iOS music pages, that elements on the grid get easily selected and moved accidentally, so I was thinking about a lock/unlock icon perhaps in a corner similar to the resize function. I know it’s rather bold to impose on a developers genius but I also know you really do want people enjoying your fantastic apps 😀
I'd already considered a lock function so will add this to my list. You can easily put scene change buttons on your surface to navigate scenes but some kind of gesture would be nice too.
I've added a swipe up/down in presentation mode which switches scene. The lock idea sounded good, but when not in edit mode you can't move objects anyway. I guess the only way I could improve things is to have a lock positions icon which allows you to change settings without re-positioning.
@@PaultheMusicMan scene change button ( facepalm ) - had a feeling I was missing something - thank you 😁
And the 2nd will you be providing a tutorial on Surface builder working along side AudioScope in AUM ??? I really look forward to your insight
Thank you for all you have done to help continue to love music in all its shapes and ways !! 🎉
Fantastic, Paul. Still not quite sure how to get it to send midi to my DAW on my mac, but I'm sure it is pretty straight forward?
You can create a MIDI Session using the Audio MIDI Setup tool on your Mac, and connect both your PC and MAC using a network MIDI connection. At some point I will show this as part of my MasterClass videos.
Great app! Please consider adding recording of automation/movement of knobs/faders/buttons (one shot or looping or perhaps something similar to that fader movement in Fluss by Bram)
Also - is it possible to sync events to eg beat/bar or so? Can’t find this option anywhere.
Lovely app. I din’t even know I needed it (have some control surface apps already) until I got it and it turns out that an AUv3 control surface for AUM is just what I needed :) Thanks!
Thanks for the kind comments. Currently there is no explicit sync to beat/bar option, but I am looking to add this in future. The problem here is that AUv3 gives me the tempo, time signature etc. so syncing is easy, not so over MIDI and I'm trying to avoid anything AUv3 specific. If most people are using it in an AUv3 environment then it's a no brainer.
Genius
Paul , very good app , am delighted ,and so far it has made my life so much easier when performin live. But there is one thing that would be crucial for my purposes , and that is to have one button linked to 2 or more buttons that would send data with one single press. I tried several alternatives but it looks as this cannot be done. Well to be honest I found a very rudimentary way of doing it by using Snapshots, but then again,this takes a snapshot of the 6 scenes simultaneously , and somentimes I just want to send midi data from, say, 4 buttons simultaneously onl one scene without affecting the rest of the surface. I would appreciate if this can be done .Thanks again
Try looking into the BULK send function of a button. If you add a single button it can be programmed with a list of CC's to send when you press then release a button. Tap the button, in the Properties window set the BULK MIDI fucntion and press the DATA to add your commands for ON/OFF. Hopefully this will resolve your issue.
@@PaultheMusicMan Thanks Paul for taking the time to answer. ABsolutely I think that what you are suggesting is exactly what I need . Cheers and Merry Christmas !!
Paul 🎉 you are truly a music blessing.❤ thank you I have one question or 2 lml ! Where is the chord strip object ?
Hey … I asked the same question and I found out that the chord strips and at least one other object type will be included in a future update.
Wow I guess it was a tease but thank you for responding. I thought it was something wrong and deleted to redownload again. As great as it is. I hope he informs others they might use it as a excuse for apple to return $money after buying. Anyway I wish u the best with your love for music.
Yeah, the next version which is due sometime around this next weekend will contain those new objects.
Hey Paul, assuming you can have multiple clips per instance of the app could you also have a volume knob for each to control levels? So say in 1 instance have 8-12 clips, each with a knob to control volume? Also what’s the time limit with these?
You can add a knob and attach it to a clip, so if you have 8 clips you can have 8 controlling volume knobs and a master if you wish.
Paul,
Thanks for this super amazing tool, I try to use it for a combination to get the songs out of “evolver” and de presets out of my hardware (tc helicon voice live 3x).
The problem is that I come to the first 127 presets and with the pr sub on 1 to the next 127 but then a can’t get not to the next 127 in the program change numbers .
Do you know how?
Thanks in advance and best regards,
Peter
First of all the target device needs to support program change. Evolver doesn't support it but I would have thought Helicon would have siince it is a piece hardware but I'm not familiar with the product. I've been testing this functionality out on SynthMaster 2, but you need to ensure presets here are placed in the bank you are trying to select. This may also be true of Helicon.
Hi I'm getting Surface Builder pretty close to working for my needs, however my version doesn't resemble the video, for example my 'menu settings' do not have a "midi input' selection and there are several other differences between the version on my iPad Pro 2023 (Surface Builder version 1.08 build 56) and the version I see here. Can anyone explain what I might be missing, thanks!
I usually produce these videos immediately after launch, but I'm constantly working on additional features after these videos are created. This will account for the many differences you will find in the videos compared to version 1.08. There isn't a MIDI Input section in Settings that I can see, If you can point out where you see this in the video maybe I can help?
Another 4pockets app added to my collection. Any chance we could add lfos to a surface, I’d pay an in app purch for that. My desktop daw is Bitwig mainly for the ridiculous amount of modulators it provides. Strikes me that this app could offer similar functionality and configurability.
I love this idea mate, I can see this being really useful.
Hello,
Thank you for this new audio Tool.
I am wondering if this has the ability
1/ to record an audio or midi within the interface
2/ play back the clip previously recorded
3/ this playback could it be at a defined time in a time line?
Recording audio is beyond what this app was written to do. Some even suggest it was stupid of me to add any audio support at all to the app, but I feel this makes it stand out from the rest. To launch a clip at a specific click time is an interesting one that I will consider adding to a future version as this had already crossed my mind. At the least I would like to add a scheduler to trigger components on the surface.
Paul can I control external midi instruments
If you watch this video it should answer the question. If iOS can see the physical MIDI port then yes, but you need to do the port mapping as explained in this video.
Is it possible to make the steeper object advance in a serries of ticks? Divisions of say 32 making it a quarter of a dial? or any other division? If that is not presently possible could I include it on my wish list please? Many thanks again
If you press the < and > buttons they progressively get faster. If you turn off the CONTINUOUS mode then they only send MIDI when you release the < and > buttons, which is great for selecting presets where you need to slow things down a little.
Very nice app, but no support for 14 bit MIDI? 😢
Remotely controlled knobs don’t send midi data.
There is a learn function for knobs, but if I turn my Hardware knob (or fader), the surface builder’s knob moves, but does not send midi data. If I turn the same knob on the touchscreen it does.
So Surface Builder is useless, if you want to control it with MIDI hardware knobs or fader boxes?
This is intentional. If you turn the knobs manually it does of course send data, but it assumes incoming data is positioning data for the knobs (1:1 mapping not 1:1:1) so purposely doe not pass that on.
Sorry, but this doesn’t make sense to me …
@@nikvr2025 In my demonstrations of Surface Builder I show 2 instances connected together being able to control each other. Quite often you want that 2 way communication, but if you think about it it both instances were firing off MIDI commands based upon what they received you would end up with a MIDI loop where A sends to B then B sends to A and so on. This is not how this kind of program should work. Only the controlling instance that has human interaction to turn knobs should send MIDI. You are trying to relay events between hardware -> software -> hardware/software which isn't supported for this reason. Sorry I can't explain better.
thanks for the (unfortunately useless) explanation.
It’s no rocket science to avoid a MIDI loop.
Just separate the “learned” MIDI command from the knob assigned one.
This works perfect with ApeSoft‘s „MIDI send“, an auV3 plugin which comes free with apeMatrix.
Here you can assign a CC number and MIDI channel to each knob and assign a different CC or Channel for remote control.
I had no doubt, that this was possible with your Surface Builder (which I really like and would like to use).
Unfortunately I was wrong. So this nice App is useless for me. 😢
Perhaps there is a chance to see this in a future update? Shouldn‘t be to difficult to implement.
Cheers.