Using other music apps with Bandhelper

[Neill00]

When I go into the settings section and there is a section called “apps”.  I haven’t been able to figure out what exactly this is for but if it does what I’m hoping I want to use it.  I have some other ios apps that I would like to use within bandhelper, maybe it’s not even possible but maybe someone can advise me either way?

When I open the “apps” setting there is nothing there.  Is there some way to make bandhelper see other music apps? Specifically Sampletank iOS and Midi Guitar 2 iOS. I can’t seem to get the ios version of sampletank to work when it’s not the open screen. I thought if I could get it to be an app working within bandhelper I could overcome this problem.  I just started checking out Jam Origin Midi Guitar 2 which is pretty awesome and I can get that to work with sampletank but the sampletank sounds only play if sample tank is the open screen.  If I bring Midi guitar to the front to make an edit, sampletank doesn’t output any sound until I bring it back to the front screen.

Are we at this point yet?  Am I just not finding the instructions for this that are clearly on the website?  I’ve done searches both on google and the forums and checked through the tutorials.  If this is answered in the tutorials i’m looking at the wrong section.

Ultimately I would like to have bandhelper send midi to both apps when changing songs but I think I could figure that part out if I could just get it to work first.

It’s the best of all worlds since I got the Line 6 Helix which I can wire directly via USB to my ipad.  I can control bandhelper from the helix via midi, no more bluetooth or midi adaptor and the USB also carries the audio, so I can route sampletank back into helix which goes directly to the board.

[arlo]

This function is for jumping quickly between apps. More info is in the last paragraph of this page:

http://www.bandhelper.com/tutorials/performing.html

iOS suspends most apps when in the background, but music apps are often allowed to keep running. You can contact the other app's developer for more info about its background capabilities.

[Neill00]

Thanks Arlo, that’s not what I was hoping for but at least now I know. This info did give me another idea to use this feature.  I could maybe use this feature to switch back and forth between Bandhelper and Qu Pad which is an app that gives me full control of my mixing board.  The only trouble is I don’t know how to get the URL scheme.  The link on the page that you provided doesn’t seem to work.  Everything I’ve been able to google is way over my head.

[arlo]

You can do some trial and error, or ask the developer of that app.

[Neill00]

I've posted in the developer forum but I don't think anyone looks at it.   Going back to the original topic, now I'm wondering if it's possible to have bandhelper respond to a specific midi channel with regard to remote control of the app.   I use midi notes assigned to footswitches on my line 6 helix to change to previous or next song, restart the song, show the setlist etc.  But if I'm using midi guitar 2 when I hit those notes on my guitar it's changing everything in bandhelper.  I thought of I could limit bandhelper to respond to a single channel and put the other apps on a separate channel, it might resolve the problem.

[arlo]

Yes, you can limit by port or channel from the first two settings on the Settings > Remote Control page. For that to be useful, the guitar would also need the ability to send only to a specific (different) port or channel.

[Neill00]

Thanks Arlo, I'm still investigating that side of it. The guitar just sends audio. The audio gets interpreted by Midi Guitar 2 into midi which can then play internal synth engines in the app itself or external synths like sampletank for iOS.  So given that the two things I need to be able to do to make this work is a) have bandhelper confined to read a specific midi channel, which as you said above it can. and b) have midi guitar only send midi on a separate channel, which I haven't figured out yet.  I think ultimately I may need to investigate sample tank as well and try to limit what channel it receives on as I don't want the notes I send from the Helix to bandhelper to perform functions to be played as a note in sample tank.

It would appear that I have a ways to go but you've gotten me started so that's a great help thanks!

[Neill00]

BTW that was really stupid on my part.  I must have just assumed those settings would have been deeper in the menu and started scrolling down.  I actually looked in settings> remote control.  But I totally missed those settings.