But I could go with the PandaMidi wireless thing and stay on windows. Are you guys running any windows tablets? I have an old i5 laptop that just seems to be barely making it, a 2013 model I think, so maybe I don’t need crazy power. How are you physically mounting your computer to your stage gear? I got my iPad setup to be really quick to set up and secure, but I just don’t see how I’d do the same with a laptop
I’d like to keep it as handy as this, but replace the wireless Blueboard pedal with the wireless FCB1010, and replace the ipad with a computer (laptop tablet 2in1, mini computer, convertible, whatever)
In my live setup (see attached image) I have a Mac sitting on a stand (just to dissipate heat) that lives on top of a rack that contains my audio interface, inear monitoring wireless transmitter and a wifi network router. I have two iPads mounted on a mic stand to the left of my gear, one is for sheet music, the other is running Lemur to interact with Gig Performer. I use a Keith McMillan softstep pedalboard. The ipads are connected via wifi and keyboards/pedalboard are connected using a USB hub. Personally I prefer Macs to Windows only because I think Apple has done a better job supporting MIDI and audio “out of the box”. On Windows you have to deal with ASIO, virtual MIDI stuff if you need it and issues such as 3rd party audio drivers only supporting one app at a time etc.
Having said that, we do have a lot of Windows users out there but they’ll have to answer for themselves how they configure everything.
Windows 10 has served me very well in terms of music. A little less than two years ago, I purchased a Lenovo Hybrid 15.6 inch and replaced the factory SSD with a Samsung 2TB SSD. Total less than $1,300. Touchscreen is nice. I can change rackspaces easily by touching the screen with a minimal setup.
Now Windows 10 supports Bluetooth MIDI, but the app has to support the new MIDI protocol. As far as I know, only Sonar supports it. I asked the GP team about it and they said they would look into it. Midiberry works but when I send a bunch of MIDI data, there seems to be a latency issue. There is a new version of MIDIberry, but I haven’t tried it.
GP makes my Windows act like a Mac. Smooth. Both Asio4All and a dedicated ASIO driver that comes with my MIDI/Audio interface work very well. IF Mainstage people think GP is better than MS and transfer to GP, I have no reason to use a Macbook that was given to me. It is just that I don’t care for the company and try to stay away Apple’s proprietary stuff. An iPad is all the Apple I will take. I am very happy with GP in just about any Windows machines. MS Surface Pro is fantastic, but more expensive than other Windows tablets. Mine is the 1st generation, and I use it as my desktop connected to a 28 inch monitor.
Until GP supports Windows Bluetooth MIDI, I use a little Bluetooth midi receiver called WIDI Bud. It works great with no discernible latency.
I’m using a pluggable brand Bluetooth adapter then midiberry then loopmidi, and the latency is constantly changing…are you saying this widibud thing will see the Yamaha md bt01 and it also is a midi driver? I was checking their site before I bought the plug gable but there wasn’t much info that I could find. Would the widibud thing show up as a midi port in reaper the way normal midi ports do?
Chris said, “Now Windows 10 supports Bluetooth MIDI, but the app has to support the new MIDI protocol.”
And THAT is a fundamental difference between Windows and OS X and one of the many reasons I prefer to work with OS X.
OS X has built-in support for MIDI and audio interfaces. So when a new MIDI device comes along, like Alesis’ new Vortex Wireless Keytar that uses its own wireless protocol, it’s MIDI class compliant so you can plug it into a USB port on a Mac and it will just work. Same for bluetooth over MIDI.
On the Windows side, there’s more responsibility on the app to support “unusual” devices. That’s usually done through shared libraries, either written by a third party or by the application vendor. Such libraries often try to compensate for features that are available on one platform but missing on another.
In our case, we have some of each. We have upgraded some of our core libraries for Gig Performer 2 and it wouldn’t surprise me if bluetooth MIDI works on Windows now but I have not tested it.
By the way, OS X is not as proprietary as people think. Under the pretty GUI interface, OS X is really BSD Unix with a CMU Mach kernel. That means that a ton of Unix stuff (which includes Linux stuff) will run on OS X and done so from the beginning. Microsoft is only now beginning to catch up in that arena.
pipelineaudio, Yes to all your questions. By the way, The UWP MIDI Mode for Bluetooth midi is not usable. Too much latency. Besides, Sonar is discontinued. The only thing that works perfectly for me is the WIDI Bud. Each WIDI Bud unit can be connected to only one MIDI device, though. The WIDI Bud is neat. I also use it with the Bomebox when I connect directly to midi modules without a PC. In the past, I used my iPad as a midi “bridge” between my wireless controller and a Windows machine using the lightening cable.
Ok, I guess I’m going to order one, this route through MIDIBerry and loopMIDI sucks donkeyballs
I tried to get someone to post a screenshot on the reaper forum showing Widi Bud as a midi port in reaper but no luck yet. Not that we aren’t hammering on Justin or Schwa to add BLE MIDI support directly, but this seems very workable if it is truly a port. Assuming it shows up as a MIDI input in Gig Performer as well?
In all of my PCs the WIDI Bud shows up in every single DAW or any other app that deals with MIDI including GP. It had some latency at first, but when I wrote to the company a year ago or so, they issued a new firmware in a matter of a few days. No more latency.
I use the mi.1 by Quicco Sounds. The Widi Bud pairs with it just fine. I also used the Yamaha USB Bluetooth midi transmitter. Once again, the WIDI Bud paired with it just fine. No question that Windows is not as friendly as Mac when it comes to digital audio/midi, but there seems to be a solution always. A small price that I don’t mind paying as long as it works. I could never choke the WIDI Bud when sending lots of midi data on multiple midi channels simultaneously. So unless you play two Seaboards at the same time, you would be OK.
If these Bluetooth midi devices behave any way like my Bluetooth phone, then they’ll disconnect right in the middle of a performance! Not sure I’m ready for that
pipelineaudo, I have not tried out the Yamaha but only their USB Bluetooth MIDI transmitter. Quicco sound was founded by former Yamaha technicians. I like the small form factor of the mi.1.
By the way, what is your midi controller to use with Blueooth midi? The midi din out on some midi units does not power the transmitter.
I use a new Dell Inspiron 13 7000 configged with 500g SSD & 16gb RAM. Loaded with Kontakt 5, Pianoteq, VB3 and a few other vst’s for GP.
Behringer UMC404HD, soon to be replaced with a MOTU Ultralite v4 so I can output stereo audio in & pc in to my CPS SSV3 monitor & 2 different aux outs to FOH (keys & fiddle).
Controller is Studiologic SL88 Studio with laptop shelf and a Korg NanoKontrol 2 for buttons and drawbars.
Large size VHT pedalboard for all the foot stuff, power, USB hub, etc.
