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Yamaha Introduces i-MX1 MIDI Interface for iOS Devices

Monday April 11, 2011 8:26 am PDT by Arnold Kim

While there have been some MIDI solutions out there for the iPad and other iOS devices, Yamaha has introduced (PDF) its first MIDI interface for iOS at the Frankfurt Musicfair.

In a small, black device the i-MX1 carries the needed electronics and two connectors for the included adapter cables which represent the MIDI input and ouput (with the well known 16 MIDI channels each). It does not just connect to the iPad, but to the iPhone and the iPod Touch, too. Since these devices are much smaller, they are even more handy controllers.

The i-MX1 is compatible to the drivers provided by the iPad-OS (iOS, Core MIDI), theres no need for special drivers. So even third- party applications that are using the iOS drivers can use the i-MX1 as MIDI-Interface.

Hispasonic posts a photo of the box and demo video (Spanish) showing it in action. The devices works with iPad as well as iPhone and iPod. Details are rather limited at this time.
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Arcady
Posted: 15 months ago
Frankfurter? LOL :rolleyes:
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ThunderSkunk
Posted: 15 months ago
Where are the hordes of geniuses that authoritatively proclaim that the iPad is a useless media consumption device?

It's growing legs...
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blackburn
Posted: 15 months ago

Frankfurter? LOL :rolleyes:

Yeah ups, it should be Frankfurt.

Anyway very handy device:)
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jayducharme
Posted: 15 months ago

Anyway very handy device:)


It looks like it has standard 1/8" in/out jacks. I wonder if it would take analog stereo input and output too. That would truly make it handy. But if it's only for MIDI, the device seems too specialized. There are other products on the market, like the Alesis iO dock (which obviously is a bit bulkier) that allow for MIDI and audio in and out. That seems a better investment, IMO.
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Dr Kevorkian94
Posted: 15 months ago
thats cool i really want to try it.
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MattInOz
Posted: 15 months ago

Where are the hordes of geniuses that authoritatively proclaim that the iPad is a useless media consumption device?

It's growing legs...


They'll just say apps are media too....
;-)
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Auax
Posted: 15 months ago
That is a handy device for me.
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catmistake
Posted: 15 months ago

It looks like it has standard 1/8" in/out jacks. I wonder if it would take analog stereo input and output too. That would truly make it handy. But if it's only for MIDI, the device seems too specialized. There are other products on the market, like the Alesis iO dock (which obviously is a bit bulkier) that allow for MIDI and audio in and out. That seems a better investment, IMO.


It's very likely only for midi, and those can not be standard stereo 1/8" TRS... midi carries 16 channels in & out... probably can't do that with analog TRS (tip-ring-sleeve).

No drivers? What this means is that whatever driver this midi device uses is likely part of the USB Standard driver set, which iOS devices support. Therefore, it is very likely any USB-MIDI device will also work just as well along with Apple's CCK, so long as it only requires the USB Standard drivers... and MIDI is pretty simple, so it shouldn't need more than that.

Third parties will try to make iOS device specific stuff... but they will have to really on what USB drivers already do for us on iOS. For example, any USB driven ADC, that supports the world standard USB stereo protocol will probably work with an iOS device and the Apple CCK. So we don't need to repurchase these iOS specific devices (like the guitar connection kit, etc.)... we just need Apple's Camera Connection Kit and external devices that are driven by the standard USB driver set (which we likely already own because we were using them with our laptops before we got iPads).
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ChrisA
Posted: 15 months ago

It's very likely only for midi, and those can not be standard stereo 1/8" TRS... midi carries 16 channels in & out... probably can't do that with analog TRS (tip-ring-sleeve).


Standard MIDI ports are 5-pin round DIN connectors but only two pins in each connector are used for the MIDI signal. The signal is digital but would work fine with a TRS connector. All 16 channels are multiplexed over the same serial date stream. (The messages contain the channel number.)
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Mugs
Posted: 15 months ago
Hey guys, sorry to sound silly, but will this allow people to connect a midi device to GarageBand on the iPad? Thanks a lot.
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