Trigger a second iPad to play at same time?

peamanschesthair

Hi Peter

Thanks for your work on this product.

I’m currently looking into a redundancy playback system and would ideally like to incorporate StageTraxx 3 into it. I’m enjoying the app, and despite a few bugs like sometimes slow-to-start playback on some multitrack songs it’s working incredibly.

Is there a way that I could trigger a second iPad to from the master iPad to select a song and play it at the same time? That way I could connect the second iPad to the redundancy interface and then would have a backup backing track playback feed?

I know I can trigger another iPad with midi, but doubt I would be able to get the other iPad to select the correct song using manual midi commands.. so I would love it if there was something like that within the network session?

Any ideas for me?

Many thanks again!
Peter

peter

You can define program change commands for songs. So selecting the correct song via midi works fine. So does starting and stopping the playback. But I doubt it will be completely in sync.

I guess the only way to have two instances run completely in sync is if you have identical hardware and trigger song selection and playback start/end on both devices via midi. That way the latency should be almost identical on both devices.

peamanschesthair

peter

Thanks for the idea Peter. I’ll try to look into this..

so I’d need a midi trigger that is able to connect to both to trigger both iPads.
In an ideal world one iPad would still be hosting the session, otherwise how would I select the song on the other iPad without having to do it twice? Any suggestions about doing that via a midi command?

peter

You could send a program change from most midi gear. Say a keyboard or a guitar pedal maybe. Then send that into a midi splitter and into both ipads.

peamanschesthair

So you think for sure there’s no sneaky way to trigger a play on an iPad that’s part of a session with a main host iPad?

As that would save having to buy another midi trigger, a splitter, and then somehow programming song selection to select the same song on a separate iPad.

peter

Not if you want to be able to switch from device a to device b without anyone noticing.

peamanschesthair

peter is there a way that would work even with the latency that people would notice? Until I can get a midi trigger for the two devices?

peter

Use midi. Setup iPad 1 so that it send program changes that select the same song on the second iPad and then send a play command when you hit play. You can use the midimittr app to send midi via wifi from one device to another. But honestly. The latency will be very noticeable.

peamanschesthair

Ok, I think your idea might help for when I get a trigger that can trigger two iPads. Or a midi splitter I suppose.
That would allow the main iPad to choose the song, and then the second iPad have the song selected for it..
Is there a way to send a song selection via midi programmatically or would it have to be on a song by song basis? How would that program change look? Would it have a song ID? Or something?

Thanks again Peter

peter

Example: You want a song to be selectable by Program Change 1 on channel 1.

In song details on the backup ipad enter PC1@1 for "Song Select Command".

In the lyrics of the same song on the other iPad write: [midi: PC1@1]. That command will be sent when the song is loaded.

Now repeat this for all other songs.