Introduction
Welcome to Little MIDI Machine! This little app lets you turn your iPad into an analog-style step sequencer that you can use to control your hardware synthesizers. Create melodic loops, mute and unmute notes, skip steps, change clock speed, switch it into reverse, all the fun things a traditional hardware step sequencer lets you do.
First though, you need to be sure you have an iPad and either a Line 6 MIDI Mobilizer hardware interface or a Camera Connection Kit connected to a USB MIDI Interface, and an external synth to control. Or you can also use Little MIDI via CoreMIDI Network WiFi, in a setup with other iOS devices or a computer.
Without a proper MIDI setup, you can still play with the sequencer using the simple sound samples included with the app, but you will not be able to access all the functions and won't be able to control an external synth. Little MIDI is designed to work in a MIDI environment, so be warned it will be kind of boring without one!
Main screen
Quick Start
The most important parts when you're getting started:
Start button in the upper left corner starts the sequencer.
Sliders control the pitch of the notes played by the sequencer.
LEDs below the sliders tell you which step the sequencer is currently playing.
Gate buttons below that turn notes off an on. If this row is all dark, no notes will be played!
Controls
Start/Stop button
Press this button to start the sequencer running, or if it's already running, to stop it.
Clear Sequence
Clear and reset the current sequence to its default starting state.
Copy/Paste button
The copy button allows you to copy the note, velocity, mute and skip information for one sub-sequence to another sub-sequence, or over to the other sequence. Press once to copy the currently displayed sub-sequence, then choose the destination sub-sequence with the sub-sequence or sequence buttons, then press the button again to paste the data to the currently displayed sub-sequence.
File button
This button brings up the file menu, which lets you load, save and clear sequence patterns.
Tempo slider
Set the master tempo speed that the sequencer will run at. You can also manually enter a specific numeric value in the settings menu.
Settings button
This button brings up the settings menu, where you can configure MIDI channel and note values for your sequences, manually set the tempo, link the two sequencers together, or reset the MIDI output with a MIDI panic button.
Help button
This button brings up this page, which you apparently have already figured out.
Sequence 1 select button
Pressing this button selects Sequence 1 (orange sequence) as the currently displayed sequence.
Sequence 2 select button
Pressing this button selects Sequence 2 (green sequence) as the currently displayed sequence.
Sequence Step sliders
These sliders allow you to set the note value (in note mode) or the velocity value (in velocity mode) for each step of the sequence loop.
Mute Step buttons
This button allows you to turn the note on or off at each step in the sequence loop.
Skip Step buttons
This button allows you to skip a step in the sequence loop. The note for that step will not be played, and the sequencer will skip over to the next step immediately. For example, assume at time 1 you are at step 1 in the sequence, which plays normally. At time 2 the sequencer moves to step 2, which is a skipped step, so the sequencer immediately move to step 3. At time 3, the sequencer moves to step 4. Skipping steps allows you to create repeating loops that are less than 16 steps long.
Note length slider
Use this slider to set the length of the transmitted MIDI note. The minimum size is a very short blip, the maximum size of the note is the length of the step.
Sub-Sequence select buttons
Choose one of four subsequences within the current sequence. This allows you to, for instance, move between different parts of a song. Sub-sequence 1 could be the intro, then you move to sub-sequence 2 for the next part. The sub-sequence will change over to the new selection when the clock reaches the end of the sequence. If you activate the "link sub-sequences" option in the settings menu, both Sequence 1 (orange) and Sequence 2 (green) will always play the same sub-sequence, and will switch over together.
Clock Speed buttons
Sets the speed of the clock for the currently displayed sequence in reference to the master tempo clock. 1 is the regular speed, 2 is twice as slow, 4 is four times as slow.
Display buttons
The display buttons determine whether the sliders display the note (N) data of the current sequence, or the velocity (V) data.
Reverse button
Activating the reverse button causes the current sequence to move in reverse, from right to left instead of left to right.
Random button
Activating the random button causes the current sequence to play randomly.
File menu
Load Sequence
Choose a previously saved sequence from the file list, and then press the load button to load it into the sequencer, overwriting the current sequence.
Save Sequence
Enter in a name for the sequence, and save it to the iPad to be loaded later.
Delete file
Choose a file from the file list, and then press this delete button to delete that previously saved file. Useful when it turns out that, in retrospect, that sequence actually kind of sucks (it happens to us all).
Settings menu
NOTE/CHANNEL TAB
MIDI Channel
Set the MIDI channel to transmit on for each of the two sequencers. Orange of course sets the orange sequencer, green sets green.
Base Note
Set the base note for the sequencer to transmit. If you set the slider to the exact middle point, this is the note that will be transmitted. At the top the slider will be one octave above this base note, at the bottom the slider will be one octave below this note.
MIDI ROUTING TAB
INT CLK / EXT CLK
Choose whether to use Little MIDI Machine's internal sequencer clock (default) or sync LMM up using an external clock from another device/app.
CLOCK IN SOURCE
When you have chosen to use an external clock, this chooses where that clock will be coming in from, either the Line 6 Mobilizer (if connected) or CoreMIDI (network or USB).
CLOCK OUT DESTINATION
Choose where to send MIDI clock messages, as well as MIDI start and stop messages. You can choose Line 6 Mobilizer (if connected) and/or CoreMIDI (network or USB).
NOTE OUT 1 AND 2 DESTINATION
Choose where to send MIDI note messages from the sequencer. You can choose Line 6 Mobilizer (if connected) and/or CoreMIDI (network or USB). Different values can be set for sequencer 1 (orange) and sequencer 2 (green).
CONNECT WIFI DEVICES
This will set up a connection between your iOS device and all nearby iOS/computers connected to the same network that are running CoreMIDI apps, which allows you to send/receive network CoreMIDI messages to/from those devices.
OTHER SETTINGS MENU FUNCTIONS
Numeric Tempo
If you want to set the sequencer to a specific tempo, type in the value here instead of using the slider on the main screen.
Link Sub-Sequences
When this option is active, switching between sub-sequences (A B C D) will be linked for both the orange and green sequences. So if you go from sub-sequence A to B on the orange sequencer, when it switches the green sequencer will also switch from A to B. This can be useful if you are using the sub-sequences to represent parts of a song (intro, mid, build, finish) and always want both sequencers using the same sub-sequence.
MIDI Reset
Press this to reset the Line 6 MIDI Mobilizer and/or CoreMIDI interfaces and hopefully clear up any hanging notes or other problems.
We hope you enjoy making music with the Little MIDI Machine! Let us know if you're using it to create music, we love hearing about what you're up to!
For the latest info, videos and tutorials check out the Little MIDI Machine page.
Also be sure to check out some of the other iOS music apps available from Synthetic Bits, including our FunkBox vintage drum machine app:
