KVR Audio

GreyLion · Post by **GreyLion** » Fri Dec 08, 2006 3:43 am

Okay, this one's a little off-the-wall, and I won't be surprised if I don't get any replies.

The deal is that I'm looking around at MIDI controllers for Christmas, and I came across the M-Audio iControl, which is a control surface for use with GarageBand2.

iControl at Amazon

It's on sale for $99 at Amazon, and likely other places.

The spec says that it's class-compliant, and it's gotten some good reviews. Has all kinds of buttons, and a jog wheel, and transport controls, and master slider, and so on.

The question is, since it presumably sends MIDI CC's and such, could you load a host, like Reaper, and teach Reaper to respond to it? I know Reaper (and many other hosts) can be taught to respond to other control surfaces, even without compatible templates.

The price seems really killer if it could be made to work.

Anybody here got access to one and could test it?

dark.nowhere · Post by **dark.nowhere** » Fri Dec 08, 2006 4:34 am

Probably, though m-audio's site doesn't commit to stating it uses MIDI, though it does offer a MIDI port, so that's a bit suggestive. It would be fairly nice to have something this cheap.

http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/i ... -main.html

BertKoor · Post by **BertKoor** » Fri Dec 08, 2006 9:06 am

According to M-Audio it's Mac only indeed.
Although the driver is "class compliant" you probably need a PC version of that driver and that doesn't exist.

dark.nowhere wrote:it does offer a MIDI port, so that's a bit suggestive.

Not suggestive at all:

M-Audio wrote:* 5-pin MIDI input jack for connecting MIDI keyboards and devices to your Mac

So the only output is USB.

GreyLion wrote:Anybody here got access to one and could test it?

Bump, good idea! Maybe it kinda works..

John Vulich · Post by **John Vulich** » Fri Dec 08, 2006 9:13 am

dark.nowhere · Post by **dark.nowhere** » Fri Dec 08, 2006 3:09 pm

BertKoor wrote:
dark.nowhere wrote:it does offer a MIDI port, so that's a bit suggestive.
Not suggestive at all:
M-Audio wrote:* 5-pin MIDI input jack for connecting MIDI keyboards and devices to your Mac
So the only output is USB.

I just meant that it obviously sends MIDI protocol data. Whether that's just from another MIDI device or by using its own I couldn't say. But I've several MIDI devices that have USB connectors.

GreyLion · Post by **GreyLion** » Fri Dec 08, 2006 4:15 pm

yep, pretty much agree with dark on this. We know Apple speaks MIDI, and that the iControl understands MIDI. Not a big jump to surmise that the IControl is sending MIDI data over USB to control GarageBand.

But M-Audio's sales page is extremely coy about it.... I wonder if there is a MIDI spec for the controls in GarageBand that could tell what the control map is, if any?

Squonk · Post by **Squonk** » Fri Dec 08, 2006 4:37 pm

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/dec05/a ... ontrol.htm

In general, though, I think it's fair to say that you probably wouldn't buy iControl unless you were using Garage Band a lot. Incidentally, Windows XP recognises the iControl when it's plugged in to a PC, but it's not recognised by any software I tried, though it appears as a USB audio (!) device in some Preference windows.

BertKoor · Post by **BertKoor** » Fri Dec 08, 2006 4:57 pm

SoundOnSound wrote:if you run a PC or don't use Garage Band, turn to the next review and put away your credit card!

Ah, ok...

GreyLion · Post by **GreyLion** » Fri Dec 08, 2006 5:01 pm

Great link, Squonk!

Here's the full boxout in the SOS review:

**********************
While the main body of this review asserts that the iControl is exclusively dedicated to Garage Band, this isn't wholly true. In theory, the controller does its thing in exactly the same way as any other USB MIDI control surface. This means (again in theory) that if the target software is capable of manually accepting assignments of incoming control data to on-screen parameters, then iControl can do the job. In practice, however, it doesn't work very elegantly.
I tried it with Ableton Live and Propellerhead Reason, and discovered that due to the way iControl's hardware is configured, assignments didn't always work properly. Chiefly, some buttons are momentary when they would ideally latch, and the rotary encoders tend to move between the extremes of an on-screen slider's (or knob's) travel with just two clicks. In any case, there's no way to switch 'banks', so even without such problems, you can't assign more parameters than there are physical controls on the surface of the iControl.
Users of Apple's Logic may be better off; an Environment could be set up to respond to the incoming data. However, because iControl's knobs send incremental rather than absolute data (source of the 'jumping' problem I just mentioned), the objects in the Environment would have to be carefully tailored to work correctly.
In general, though, I think it's fair to say that you probably wouldn't buy iControl unless you were using Garage Band a lot. Incidentally, Windows XP recognises the iControl when it's plugged in to a PC, but it's not recognised by any software I tried, though it appears as a USB audio (!) device in some Preference windows.
*****************************

So, it looks like it can maybe be done, but would be a lot of work and probably not fully functional, unless you're persistent and clever.

If somebody here has one and wants to monkey with it and report back, especially with Reaper, which I use, that would be excellent.

But I guess I'm not likely to rush out and buy one this week.....

Hacking the iControl to work as PC MIDI control surface?