App Shopper: MIDI Melodeon - Button Accordion Wireless MIDI Control Surface (Music)

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Dec 03 '10	Version 1.1
Nov 23 '10	New App: $4.99, v1.0

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MIDI Melodeon - Button Accordion Wireless MIDI Control Surface

iOS iPad

MIDI Melodeon is a WiFi-based wireless Button Accordion / Melodeon MIDI control surface for the iPad.

Be sure to check out the demo videos on the app website!

MIDI Melodeon doesn't produce any sound on it own, it is designed for controlling hardware or software VST-style MIDI synthesizers via a WiFi connection to a Windows or Mac OS X based computer.

The button layout is identical to the real instrument and, and the built-in note guide will help you quickly learn your way around the buttons.

The app has essentially the same button spacing as the real instrument.

Touch the buttons with the fingers on your right hand to play. Buttons light up in green when touched.

Multiple buttons may be pressed at the same time to make chords.

This style of accordion plays different notes depending on whether you are pushing or pulling on the bellows.

Touch the anywhere in the bellows image at the top of the screen for PUSH notes, lift your finger for PULL notes.

The PUSH/PULL indicator shows the current bellows direction. Also, the sides of the bellows light up tracking the bellows motion

You may slide your fingers between the buttons.

Touch the MIDI connector icon at the upper left corner to show the MIDI controls.

Using the controls, you may set the overall instrument MIDI volume, MIDI modulation, MIDI channel (1-8), key attack velocity playing style (fixed or variable), velocity min/max, and transposition (+/- 12 semitones).

Both fixed and variable velocity modes are provided to allow for expressive playback. In the variable velocity modes, the X or Y touch position within the bellows sets the velocity for the notes being played. The range for the velocity is set using the Min and Max Velocity sliders.

For fixed velocity, the Max Velocity slider value is used.

You may also set the Max Velocity to less than the Min Velocity to reverse the direction for velocity mapping in the bellows touch areas.

Select between B/C or D/G based layout. Other common tunings can be achieved by setting the transposition control.

For example, for C#/D tuning, select the B/C layout and set a +2 transposition.

Touch the '?' icon to show the base layout note names for each button (without transposition).

Touch the '!' icon at the top center to send an "All Notes Off" message to silence any "stuck" notes should they ever occur.

Touch the 'i' icon to show the instructions page.

Multiple iPads can run MIDI Melodeon on the same wireless network, each sending messages on its own MIDI channel to the hardware or software synthesizer.

All settings are saved when the app exits.

MIDI Melodeon requires two pieces of software to do its job. The first is the MIDI Melodeon app itself, running on your iPad.

The other is a small free open-source DSWiFiMIDI server application that you run on your PC or Mac before launching MIDI Melodeon.

The server application receives the MIDI messages from MIDI Melodeon via WiFi, and sends them along to either an external MIDI interface or a loopback MIDI driver to talk to software synthesizers running on the same computer.

Please read the instructions below for information on downloading and installing the open-source DSMIDIWiFi server application for your system.

For the most reliable performance with the lowest possible latency, I highly recommend that you connect the PC or Mac to the wireless access point that will be used by the iPad via a wired ethernet cable rather than use wireless for both the computer and the iPad. The computer and wireless gateway that the iPad is connected to must be on the same network.

To get the full benefit from MIDI Melodeon, you should be familiar with the use of MIDI control surfaces, hardware and/or software VST synthesizers.

High dynamic range melodeon button images graciously provided by Roy Griffiths at http://melodeonmacro.roygriffiths.com

What's new

Now supports both fixed and variable MIDI Note-On velocity modes for expressive playback.

Variable velocity modes use the touch position in the bellows to scale between adjustable minimum and maximum velocity values.

New controller for sending MIDI modulation controller messages.

Added in-app instructions screen (touch the 'i' icon).