MIDI Mobilizer I With Sampletank Full Packs

Hi dev,

Using MidiBridge is pretty much the only way of using an original Midi Mobilizer (MMZ 1) with SampleTank. In fact, using an MMZ with MidiBridge offers more flexibility when working with apps like SampleTank, GarageBand and the Korg apps (to name a few) as those apps have fixed MIDI settings and often will be triggered from the original (CoreMIDI) interface as well as from MidiBridge which usually results in unwanted(double notes or ignored channel/note mapping.

Be careful not to confuse the AudioBus streams and the MIDI streams. They are quite different kettles of fish. You should be able to use Music Studio to record the audio from the Audiobus stream into an audio track and I think the MIDI stream separately into a MIDI track. I'm not that familiar with Music Studio.

I'm reasonably sure that Music Studio has support for the MMZ natively, so in this case you can choose whether to route the MMZ events through MidiBridge or into Music Studio directly. Depends a bit on your workflow.

Personally for constructing songs quickly and simply I find GarageBand to be a great all-in-one solution so for your birthday composition it may be a bit less effort to try that, unless you are already well versed with Music Studio. With GarageBand, you'll find that it will respond to your MMZ events with MidiBridge running.

Regards, Nic.

Hi dev,

Yes, GarageBand has simplified techniques but you can also not use those and use it like a traditional DAW and play/edit your own tracks. It is limited in terms of tracks (8) and sounds, but for quick sketching out of ideas that can sound reasonable I find it very easy to use. Your mileage may vary and if you want something more comprehensive then maybe Music Studio is more suitable for you. GarageBand has no MIDI output and can only be used in the AudioBus output slot, which means Apple want you to use it as the primary DAW. You can't for example use GarageBand to play SampleTank like you would a normal sequencer.

You should be able to load SampleTank into AudioBus' input slot and GB or MS in the output slot and use your keyboard connected via the MMZ to play SampleTank and have the resulting audio recorded as an audio track in GB or MS. For GB this will record the audio only, as I don't think you can record audio and MIDI at the same time (could be wrong there).

In theory you could also just use MS as a pure MIDI sequencer to drive SampleTank and not worry about AudioBus at all. Just record your playing into Music Studio and then you can have Music Studio 'play' SampleTank purely via MIDI. That way you can adjust your MIDI events (ie. your performance) inside MS and use SampleTank purely as a MIDI sound module. To mixdown you could then setup sampletank as AudioBus input and MS as output and connect MS MIDI out to ST MIDI in and record the resulting audio in MS and export the stereo track. I'm just thinking aloud here - there are so many ways of constructing workflow and everyone works differently.

I find that for live playing there is too much latency when going through AudioBus (especially if running something in the effects slot) and prefer to stay in the MIDI realm until it is time for mixdown.

My suggestion is to experiment with the apps and get to grips with things. Over time the differences between MIDI and audio streams should become more apparent and you'll then start refining how you like to work. Maybe start off simply with your MMZ/keyboard in GarageBand to get a feel and then try Music Studio in the same manner. After that you can add SampleTank into the mix (ahem) and then fiddle around with running it through AudioBus or just via MIDI control or both.

Regards, Nic.