building a synth out of two iPads and two iPods?

[erikb1971]

Hi all

I Have been using my computer to make music for about 15 years now I guess. Started with simple sequencing, then sold more and more outboard synths. Eventually, I ended up make music completely "in the box". My wife has family abroad,  and a friend of mine owns a apartment in Egypt, so I spend quite a lot of time away from my music computer. Since a year or two I take my iPad1 with me on these trips, and make music on it. I have found myself less and less trying to produce complete tracks on it, but using it more and more as a stand alone instrument. Some of my favorite synths on it are:
Animoog http://www.moogmusic.com/products/apps/animoog-0
Waldorf Wave http://www.waldorf-music.info/en/component/content/article/57-news/418-waldorf-ipad-synthesizer.html
Korg iMS20 http://www.korg.com/ims20

but definitely also some more experimental sound generators like
Samplr http://samplr.net/
Impaktor http://beepstreet.com/impaktor

I find myself having real FUN again playing those instruments and experimenting with them. And all of it on a piece of hardware that second hand is now less than 200 Euro, 170 Dollar (?)
There are also some truly amazing sound mangling apps around for the iPad, my favourites being:
Amplitube http://www.ikmultimedia.com/products/amplitubeipad/
Turnado http://www.sugar-bytes.de/content/products/TurnadoIOS/

Even for on a simple device like an iPod touch (less than 100 euro /dollars second hand) you can do some amazing effect things:
Filtraton http://www.moogmusic.com/products/apps/filtatron

Just the other day, I hooked up my iPad and my iPhone to a small mixer, the iPad line out feeding into my iPhone line in. I was amazed what a great sounds I got by feeding the iMS20 into the filtraton, or the Impaktor into amplitube, and how much the whole touch screen experience makes it so easy to experiment and come up with sounds I never thought of using my mouse and computer. Biggest downside is the cables, powersupply, holding the hardware ... it was a mess. So I thought: what if I made one synth box / surface / whatever with 2 iPads (one as a sound generator feeding in the second one as an effect unit) and for fun adding 2x iPod touch as extra effect inserts / sends. One power supply to power it all, some switches maybe for flexible routing,... that would be one super flexible hands one music making box! Maybe adding a Line In to run external sounds through them (there are for as far as I know no good hardware compressor / eq emulations yet, but that should be just a matter of time). Could also add a midi in for adding a external keyboard though I love the extra expression of the touch keyboard...

It seems pretty doable to make a break out box for a single ipad: http://www.synthtopia.com/content/2011/05/30/diy-ipad-audio-dock-designed-by-reed-ghazala/
schematic:

The investment in iOS hardware would be about 600 Euro... putting all of it together can't be that expensive... sounds like a machine I would definitely use!
Would like to hear your ideas on it, but even just writing it down made me organise my thoughts a lot better. What do you think.. any thoughts on how to make the routing / mixer interface?

Cheers

Erik

 

[CJ]

email  Kevin Mitnick,

or Tsutomu Shimomura, i bet they could help,  ;D

 

[erikb1971]

you mean this Kevin?

Kevin David Mitnick (born on August 6, 1963) is an American computer security consultant, author, convicted criminal, and hacker. In the late 20th century, he was convicted of various computer and communications-related crimes. At the time of his arrest, he was the most-wanted computer criminal in the United States.[1]

And this Tsotomu?

Tsutomu Shimomura (下村 努, Shimomura Tsutomu?, born October 23, 1964) is an American scientist and computer security expert based in the United States, who became an instant celebrity when he and computer journalist John Markoff tracked down and helped the FBI arrest hacker Kevin Mitnick.

hmmm.. thanks.. I guess ;-)

 

[erikb1971]

ok... here we go:

one podbreakout ($14,99)
one podsocket ($14,99)

still have to decide which one is smarter to use

 

[erikb1971]

one korg MS20iC midi usb controller ($249 dutch ebay):

 

[erikb1971]

Ipad 1 ($120 dutch marktplaats)

Korg ims20 app ($29,99)

 

[erikb1971]

Pin Signal Description
1 GND Ground (-), internaly connected with Pin 2 on iPod motherboard
2 GND Audio and Video ground (-), internaly connected with Pin 2 on iPod motherboard
3 Right Line Out - R (+) (Audio output, right channel)
4 Left Line Out - L(+) (Audio output, left channel)
5 Right In Line In - R (+)
6 Left In Line In - L (+)
8 Video Out Composite video output (only when the slideshow mode is active on iPod Photo)
9 S-Video Chrominance output for iPod Color, Photo only
10 S-Video Luminance output for iPod Color, Photo only
11 GND Serial GND
12 Tx ipod sending line, Serial TxD
13 Rx ipod receiving line, Serial RxD
14 NC
15 GND Ground (-), internaly connected with pin 16 on iPod motherboard
16 GND USB GND (-), internaly connected with pin 15 on iPod motherboard
17 NC
18 3.3V 3.3V Power (+)
Stepped up to provide +5 VDC to USB on iPod Camera Connector.
If iPod is put to sleep while Camera Connector is present, +5 VDC at this pin slowly drains back to 0 VDC.
19,20 +12V Firewire Power 12 VDC (+)
21 Accessory Indicator/Serial enable Different resistances indicate accessory type:
• 1KOhm - iPod docking station, beeps when connected
• 10KOhm - Takes some iPods into photo import mode
• 68kOhm - makes iPhone 3g send audio through line-out without any messages
• 500KOhm - related to serial communication / used to enable serial communications Used in Dension Ice Link Plus car interface
• 1MOhm - Belkin auto adaptor, iPod shuts down automatically when power disconnected Connecting pin 21 to ground with a 1MOhm resistor does stop the ipod when power (i.e. Firewire-12V) is cut. Looks to be that when this pin is grounded it closes a switch so that on loss of power the Ipod shuts off. Dock has the same Resistor.
22 TPA (-) FireWire Data TPA (-)
23 5 VDC (+) USB Power 5 VDC (+)
24 TPA (+) FireWire Data TPA (+)
25 Data (-) USB Data (-)
26 TPB (-) FireWire Data TPB (-)
27 Data (+) USB Data (+)
Pins 25 and 27 may be used in different manner. To force the iPod 5G to charge in any case, when 'USB Power 5 VDC' (pin 23) is fed, 25 must be connected to 5V through a 10KOhm resistor, and 27 must be connected to the Ground (for example: pin 1) with a 10KOhm resistor.
28 TPB (+) FireWire Data TPB (+)
29,30 GND FireWire Ground (-)

 

[rock soderstrom]

Interesting! Go ahead Erik! 8)

 

[erikb1971]

tnx rock.. pretty busy at the moment.. but should be having some time in the weekend...