How to connect to other devices

You can connect your mobile device with other devices, like your computer running a DAW, or another mobile device, and send MIDI commands to these. You can connect via WiFi, Bluetooth or cable, but depending on the combination of operating systems, not all combinations are possible. Here are some of the combinations:

iOS

Connect to Mac OS X

WiFi

Create a "Core MIDI Network" module in MusiKraken. On your Mac, go to Applications -> Utilities and start "Audio MIDI Setup".

Now go to Window -> Show MIDI Studio. On the top right of the MIDI Studio, there is a button for "Configure Network Driver". By clicking on it, you can see the current configuration of the local network MIDI sessions and under "Directories" you should see your device. To connect to your device, select it and click on "Connect".

Alternatively you can connect directly from your device. Click on the plus sign in the "Core MIDI Network" module in the editor and you should see a list of Network MIDI devices. Select one and click on OK to connect to it. And stop a connection with the minus sign button.

Here is the official documentation by Apple:

Share MIDI information over a network in Audio MIDI Setup on Mac

Bluetooth

Create a "MIDI Output" module in MusiKraken. On your Mac, go to Applications -> Utilities and start "Audio MIDI Setup".

Now go to Window -> Show MIDI Studio. On the top right of the MIDI Studio, there is a button for "Configure Bluetooth". Click on it.

And in MusiKraken, on the editor screen, tap on the cogwheel button in the MIDI Output module. Here you should see the "Scan for Bluetooth devices" and "Advertise as Bluetooth device" options.

For Bluetooth connections, one of the devices is the Central which scans for devices and connects to them, and the other device is the Peripheral which advertises its name to central devices.

So if the Mac should be the Peripheral, click on the "Advertise" button in MIDI Studio, tap "Scan for Bluetooth devices" in MusiKraken and select your Mac to connect to it. Once it is connected, you also need to select the Bluetooth device from the "Devices" list in MIDI Output, so that the module knows where to send the MIDI data to.

If the Mac should be the Central, click on "Advertise as Bluetooth device" in MusiKraken, turn "Advertise MIDI Service" on, and then select this device in MIDI Studio on your Mac and click on "Connect".

Here is the official documentation by Apple:

Set up Bluetooth MIDI devices in Audio MIDI Setup on Mac

USB Cable

Connect your iOS device to your Mac via a USB cable. Now on your Mac, go to Applications -> Utilities and start "Audio MIDI Setup".

On the left, you should see the name of your device. Click on the "Enable" button below it to enable IDAM (Inter-Device Audio and MIDI).

Now create a "MIDI Output" module in MusiKraken. If you click on the cogwheel button in the module, you should be able to select "IDAM MIDI Host" from the list of devices.

Connect to Windows

WiFi

Windows doesn't support RTP-MIDI directly, so first you need to install a tool for that. One of the best tools for that is Tobias Erichsens rtpMIDI that you can download here:

rtpMIDI

Once that is running, create a "Core MIDI Network" module in MusiKraken, tap the + sign on the newly created node and select the session in rtpMIDI on Windows.

USB Cable

There isn't official support to send data from iOS to Windows via USB cable, but there is kind of a "back door" that iTunes uses and that can also be used by apps.

For that you need to install a tool on Windows that handles the connection and the virtual MIDI ports. There currently isn't an official MusiKraken tool (while I have a working prototype, I won't release it for now because I would need to buy the license for a special driver to create virtual MIDI ports, which is not worth it at the moment), there are existing tools that work together with MusiKraken.

For example you can use StudioMux: https://zerodebug.com/#/studiomux

Install the StudioMux driver on your Windows computer, connect the USB cable, start StudioMux on the iOS device and make sure it connects to the StudioMux server.

Now open MusiKraken, create a "MIDI Output" module and select "studiomux" (or whatever you called the output port in StudioMux) from the list. Now, whatever you send to this MIDI Output will be sent to your computer.

Connect to AUM (or any other app on the same device)

One frequently asked question is how to use MusiKraken in combination with AUM. This also works with any other app running on the same device.

MusiKraken is an Audio Unit Host, same as AUM. So it cannot be loaded as an AUv3 plugin. The reason why it is a host is that many of the input modules (like Camera or Game Controllers) are only available when MusiKraken is in the foreground. This is a security restriction by Apple. So instead, MusiKraken can host AUv3 and therefore directly use them inside the app.

To use it in combination with AUM, at least one of the apps needs to have "background audio" enabled. To enable this in MusiKraken, tap on the cogwheel icon on the editor screen to get to the general settings and enable "Run in the background". Please note that once enabled, MusiKraken will continue to run and use battery while it is in the background, so either kill the app or disable this again when no longer used. AUM runs in the background by default.

To send MIDI events from MusiKraken to AUM, create a MIDI Output module, and select either the "MusiKraken out" or the "AUM" port in it. Both MusiKraken and AUM have one virtual input and one virtual output port each. It doesn't matter which one you use, as long as you use the same pair of input and output port in both AUM and MusiKraken.

One way to use these two apps incombination is to have MusiKraken in the foreground and use AUM to generate the sound in the background. In this case, all of the MusiKraken inputs can be used, but you cannot directly change anything in AUM unless you temporarily switch the app.

As an alternative, you can have AUM in the foreground and MusiKraken in the background (when background audio is enabled). In this case, the camera and Game Controller, and of course all touch inputs, won't be available, but some of the inputs, like Motion Sensors and Apple Watch, are still available. Or you can route the MIDI events from AUM through MusiKraken, apply MIDI effects, and route it back to AUM. To do this, create a MIDI Input module and select either AUM or MusiKraken In in both this module and in AUM.

Android

Connect to Mac OS X

USB Cable

Not all Android devices support MIDI via USB. Connect your Android device with your computer via USB cable. Then pull down from the top of the screen and tap the "Use USB for" setting. If your device supports MIDI, then there should be a "MIDI" selection on this list. Select it and now your device should show up as a MIDI device on your computer.

If there is no "MIDI" on that list, your device might still support it. Some manufacturers simply hide this option. As a workaround, you need to enable "developer mode" on your device. Go to settings > About Phone, and then tap multiple times on the "Build Number" (or "OS version" or similar) field. After a few taps, the device will tell you that you are now a developer.

Now there should be new developer settings. Search for "developer" in the settings and navigate to it. Scroll down to "Default USB configuration", and tap on it. Here you hopefully see an option to enable "MIDI".

Note that, unfortunately, not all manufacturers have this workaround, and on some devices you can even select "MIDI" here and it still won't work...

WiFi

Create a "MIDI over Network" module in MusiKraken. On your Mac, go to Applications -> Utilities and start "Audio MIDI Setup".

Now go to Window -> Show MIDI Studio. On the top right of the MIDI Studio, there is a button for "Configure Network Driver". By clicking on it, you can see the current configuration of the local network MIDI sessions and under "Directories" you should see your device. To connect to your device, select it and click on "Connect".

Here is the official documentation by Apple:

Share MIDI information over a network in Audio MIDI Setup on Mac

Bluetooth

Bluetooth MIDI can be tricky on Android, depending on what you want to do.

Android has native Bluetooth MIDI support on some devices. But it only works, if your Android device is the "central" and the other device is the "peripheral". To connect to another Bluetooth device this way in MusiKraken, create a MIDI Output module. If your device supports native Bluetooth MIDI, then there should be a "Scan for Bluetooth devices" option here. Once you tap the "start" button next to it, it will start scanning for peripheral Bluetooth MIDI devices.

This works nicely on older Macs, but for M1 and newer devices, this will connect, and then automatically disconnect again, making it incompatible.

As a workaround, I created my own Bluetooth MIDI implementation. To use this, create a Bluetooth MIDI Out module. In the settings of this module, there is the option to "Advertise as Bluetooth device". Once this is enabled, your Android device will advertise itself as a Bluetooth MIDI device.

Now on your Mac, go to Window -> Show MIDI Studio. On the top right of the MIDI Studio, there is a button for "Configure Bluetooth". Click on it. Your Android device should appear on the list of devices to connect to. Click on the "connect" button to connect the two. And on Android, select your mac from the "Device" list below to use it.

Please note that my own implementation of Bluetooth MIDI is still very experimental, as it might be in conflict with the native Bluetooth MIDI support. If it doesn't work on your device, please send me an e-mail to info@snarp.ch with details about which device and Android version you use, so that I can make it work on as many devices as possible.

Connect to Windows

USB Cable

Not all Android devices support MIDI via USB. Connect your Android device with your computer via USB cable. Then pull down from the top of the screen and tap the "Use USB for" setting. If your device supports MIDI, then there should be a "MIDI" selection on this list. Select it and now your device should show up as a MIDI device on your computer.

If there is no "MIDI" on that list, your device might still support it. Some manufacturers simply hide this option. As a workaround, you need to enable "developer mode" on your device. Go to settings > About Phone, and then tap multiple times on the "Build Number" (or "OS version" or similar) field. After a few taps, the device will tell you that you are now a developer.

Now there should be new developer settings. Search for "developer" in the settings and navigate to it. Scroll down to "Default USB configuration", and tap on it. Here you hopefully see an option to enable "MIDI".

Note that, unfortunately, not all manufacturers have this workaround, and on some devices you can even select "MIDI" here and it still won't work...

WiFi

Windows doesn't support RTP-MIDI directly, so first you need to install a tool for that. One of the best tools for that is Tobias Erichsens rtpMIDI that you can download here:

rtpMIDI

Once that is running, create a "MIDI over Network" module in MusiKraken. Now you should see your device in rtpMidi and can click on "connect" to connect to it.