The Cupertino-Mushroom Kingdom gap has been closed: you can now mix and match DS and iPhone/iPod touch for wireless control of music and visuals. DSMI, the homebrew library that has enabled wireless and serial MIDI connections from the Nintendo DS, has come to iPod touch and iPhone. That means anyone building instruments and controllers on the iThing can now add wireless MIDI controllers that talk to computers – or other mobile devices, including the DS. It also means that DSMI’s acronym standing for “Nintendo DS Music Interface” has only one word that describes all the things it does.

If you’re a developer, you can grab the open source (LGPL-licensed) code. If you’re a user, apps are already supporting the new wireless features. There’s MIDI Motion Machine, which provides tilt and 16 triggers, and iXY, a 99-cent app for KAOSS Pad-style X/Y touch control. The MIDI Motion Machine author, TheRain, takes an interesting approach: there’s both a free and pay version, and the free version has source code.

Tobias Weyand, DSMI’s original co-creator along with TheRain, writes:

My friend TheRain has ported DSMI to the iPhone! This enables iPhone deveopers to easily integrate wireless MIDI in their applications, making it possible to control any MIDI application on the PC with the iPhone. The Wifi-to-MIDI bridge is the same DSMI server application that is also used for the DS, thus it works with Windows, OSX and Linux.
Also, like on the DS, both OSC and MIDI are supported!

DSMI for iPhone is available from our Google Code site (http://code.google.com/p/dsmi/) together with an open source example application called MIDI Motion Machine that is a tilt-based xy-controller.

The cool thing is that this library takes away all the hassle of communicating MIDI messages to the PC and makes development of MIDI controllers very very simple. So, we hope that people will use the DSMI to create a lot of innovative iPhone MIDI controller apps.

Pretty cool, isn’t it? :-)

By the way, if you’re a loyal Nintendo DS developer and think this whole iNonense thing is useless, the main library for DS also got a lot of improvements, cleaner coding, and collaboration on Google Code.

What about using OpenSoundControl instead of MIDI? On the iPhone/iPod, it’s a non-issue: OSC is a networking protocol, so it’s already wireless-ready. On the DS, DSMI’s source includes an OSC example, and unlike the MIDI in DSMI, you don’t need a piece of software receiving on the computer end.

Now, any suggestions for how to broaden the acronym DSMI so it’s more accurate? Digital Signal Multimodal Interface? Digital Sound and Music Interface? Damned Sweet Machine Instrument?

Or, to go recursive: DSMI Sure Means Ideas.

DSMI Official Site
CM Software Designs (home of iXY, MIDI Motion Machine, more apps and tutorials – must-visit)
DSMI at Google Code

When I first saw the iPhone at Apple’s keynote in 2007, my first thought was, this could be an interesting controller: big, pretty display, accelerometer sensors, and multi-touch input. It’s not without some problems (namely, small amounts of latency, the lack of tactile feedback inherent to touchscreens, and the size of your fingers reducing accuracy). But with refurb iPod Touch devices going for US$200 and the flexibility of having an interactive, handheld display, it remains an intriguing possibility.

Nonnus’s new iTM MidiLab (released by Silicon Studios) is a suite of MIDI controller apps. It’s free, with a planned future commercial version. It only works with networked Mac OS X 10.5 computers, so Windows and Tiger users are left out for now (because of the client app required).

Unfortunately, the app itself is held up by contract and distribution issues which seem to be plaguing many iPhone/iPod Touch developers; see a separate article on things mobile Apple developers are unhappy about. But in the meantime, Nonnus sends some details. Updated: Nonnus also notes that latency reports from users have been very positive.

See also the project site:

iTouchMidi (the original project name, rejected by Apple)

And discussion on the Ableton forum:

http://www.ableton.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=95117

Nonnus sends along some additional details in a rough/informal email, with images, to CDM:

iTouchMidi is a suite off apps for iphone and ipod touch that allow them to be used as midi controllers

it requires a small app running on the machine where you pretend to use the midi
(currenly osx 10.5 only, soon 10.4 (really requested !!)  and in near future i hope to have an wintel version available as well)

iTouchMidi has been in beta testing by different users across the globe for about 2 weeks now, as i have not received much complains so far so it has to be going pretty smooth
also received the info from a beta tester that next saturday he is planning to ue iTouchMidi for the first time in a live perfirmance !

currently iTouchMidi has 4 different apps:

iTM MidiLab
this is the original app, currently featuring all the user interfaces (chosen at startup)
MidiLab is intended to become our showroom / beta platform
a free app (forever) where new users can test an existing an established ui from one of our available commercial apps and also some new one we may be implementing / testing at that time for new products
we feel it is a new approach regarding iphone apps

iTM Matrix
this is a button matrix implementation,
especially suited for ableton live clip triggering featuring midi feedback (showing wich clips are playing)
it can also be used for triggering samples or any other midi ontrol
currenlty there is 4*4 or 8*8 config, sending note on off
soon to be implemented,:
user configurable labels, colors,  matrix size, midi config(channel, notes) and different pages

iTM Keys
a standard midi keyboad,
ranging: c-2 -> c8 with pitch bend,

soon to be implemented :
swipe play, modulation and cc bend, midi config(channel, program change)

iTM XYPad

a trackpad sending ccs on the x and y axis for effects control
featuring spring switches (spring to center, spring to zero)
soon to be implemented,:

user configurable midi config(channel, ccs) and different pages
all guis are a bit raw as i intended some real world users to give real usage feedback bfr compromising

some of the new implementations i am working on already have bit more polished uis but still not definitive

i have also been developing 3 new iTM apps i can inform you beforehand:
iTM MCU, a mcu for the iphone ipod touch
iTM Tilt, like XYPad but using accelerometers like wii
iTM DJ, for control of digital dj applications like traktor, dekadance, etc

We hope the logjam over at Apple clears up and you can use this soon. Stay tuned.

Other controllers for iPhone/iPod Touch:

Luminar, DMX controller

Control Music and Visuals with iPhone/iPod, Free Via Pd

Tutorial: More iPhone/iPod Touch Control With Open-Source Pure Data

Create Digital Motion iPhone tag

And for Nintendo DS:

DSMIDIWiFi Free Download: Turn Your Nintendo DS into a Wireless Synth and Controller (Now Available!)

Hacked MIDI Support for Nintendo DS: DSerial

And Palm:

AxisPad: Turn Your Palm PDA Into an X/Y Music Pad

Intua is the first to get a full-fledged music creation app on the iTunes App Store, with an MPC-style sampler and step sequencer, plus effects, for the iPhone and iPod Touch. This isn’t just a toy for triggering sounds or a useful utility like a guitar tuner; it’s an actual music app on which you can produce whole songs. As with any mobile app, there are tradeoffs versus a desktop tool – but its simplicity is likely to be part of its appeal. US$19.99.

Most importantly, it’s available now.

The basic features:

• 16-pad sample triggering. Drum kits and other samples, with “auto chop,” pitch, tuning, reverse, mute, and even a nice wave editor for touch-selecting where you want sample start and end points.
• Step and song sequencer: Create patterns with a touchable step sequencer, then arrange them into bigger songs using a multitrack editor.
• Live performance support: Pattern triggering and recording is live, so you could use this as a performance tool.
• 2 effects channels: Synchronized delay, 3-band EQ, bit-crusher capabilities
• Pre-loaded kits and samples
• Sync with desktop audio: Apple doesn’t provide music apps with easy ways of getting files in and out, so Intua has built one: a synchronization tool that lets you load in new audio kits and samples, and export audio back to your machine.

We can certainly see some of the strengths of the platform. The app looks absolutely gorgeous in screen shots; elements are big and friendly and don’t appear to strain the eyes. The touch capability works beautifully for pad triggering and step sequencing – there’s even a nice, draggable velocity and “groove” graph for the step sequencer.

So how does BeatMaker stand up to the competition, at least on paper?

On the upside, you get a fast, friendly, fun interface, and one that has looks befitting Apple’s beautiful gadget. And, notably, this is an official app you can use without hacking your device. But some power users may still opt for gaming devices for more advanced mobile editing and synthesis. BeatMaker lacks any synthesis features, as on tools like PSPSeq or the upcoming Korg DS-10. (Perhaps we will see some in the future, though, since they got effects working – a bassline synth, perhaps?) You also don’t get wireless MIDI control and sequencing, as on the Nintendo DS’ DSMIDIWiFi, so you can’t connect BeatMaker to a computer studio in the way you can with NitroTracker on DS or the touch controllers aka.iphone and i3L on the iPhone/Touch.

BeatMaker’s real nearest rival may be PSP Rhythm on the PSP. I’ll be interested to hear whether BeatMaker’s audio engine stands up to PSP Rhythm’s on quality. BeatMaker has its lovely interface and touch capabilities, but PSP Rhythm has a synth (bassline and a general purpose wave synth) and a hardware-style interface some may prefer.

These aren’t criticisms – on the contrary, I think differentiation is a good thing. I’ve been having a number of conversations with developers, and part of what I’m hearing is that certain platform features continue to direct developers to different mobile platforms. Not everyone is migrating to Apple – meaning Intua has a chance to stake out a real niche here.

BeatMaker is the serious music creation app the platform has been waiting for, and it app gives you way more power for your dollar than a lot of what I’ve seen on the iPhone. It’s real, worthy, powerful app. If you’ve got an iPod Touch or iPhone and would like to test drive the app for CDM and write up a review / video a review, let me know!

Intua BeatMaker

Direct iTunes Link

(Thanks to everyone who sent this in! That’s always a good indication there’s excitement in the digital musician community around the device and this specific app.)

Update:

Mathieu has some more details: MIDI export is coming very soon. (Mic recording could be possible if there’s a better input solution.)

And one site already has a video hands-on (though CDMers, I’m sure you can do even better – we’ll have one or two of you on this soon).

BeatMaker for iPhone: Upcoming Features Q&A, Video Review

Previously:

Big Updates for Handheld Homebrew Music: NitroTracker 0.4, PSPSeq 3, PSP Rhythm 8

Beyond Mobile Music Making: Organizational Musical Uses for iPhone, Other Smart Devices

Hardware sequencers were a fantastic idea: you had a box that did nothing but sequence other gear. Then along came the computer, then the idea of trying to make the computer do absolutely everything all the time, and the standalone MIDI sequencer disappeared. In a bizarre twist of fate, it’s back — on Nintendo DS.

Jed (beatsnbleeps.com) writes to let us know about his DS sequencer, DStep. It’s partly an “homage to the KP3″ from Korg, though unless your fingertip is the size of a DS stylus point, it should be a bit more accurate touch-wise. It’s a very elegant little step sequencer, shown here controlling a Nord Micro Modular. (The modular patch you see on the computer screen is the Nord editing software.) Hardware MIDI support gets hacked into the DS via Collin Meyer’s DS MIDI cable hardware/code solution.

It’s funny, because to me this brings the way you integrate a computer into a studio back full circle. It’s not that you dump the computer — on the contrary, you simply use it as a component in a set of gear.

As for mobile gadgets to work with, this also illustrates some advantages of the DS over the iPhone — well, aside from the obvious facts that it’s far cheaper, you’re not saving up battery life to make calls, and you can play Mario Kart. The old-fashioned game hardware buttons actually come in handy, and they’re ergonomically placed, you get the added precision of a stylus, and the DS hardware is more hackable. Multi-touch would be nice on those faders, though.

If you’re ready to give this a go, here’s what you need:

DS MIDI hack

Tob’s DS MIDI Website

DStep details and ROM download

It’s still in development, so we’ll be watching.

Previously: GrooveStep step sequencer / pattern maker for DS

The DS’ stylus and touchscreen make an ideal pocket-able interface: they’re coupled with friendly, conventional arcade buttons, but provide precise control of visual interfaces without using a mouse. (Touch with fingertips is not nearly as accurate, especially on tiny screens.) That’s already inspired quite a bit of music software, but GrooveStep earns extra points for employing a friendly interface for easy, quick pattern sequencing.

Official GrooveStep Site, which includes a limited Flash editor interface demo.

Liz and I got to meet up with GrooveStep creator Martin Robaszewski at winter NAMM, but we weren’t allowed to talk about it — until now. What I can tell you that might not come across in the video:

• It’s ridiculously fun.
• The samples sound fantastic. (That humble DS headphone jack can make sounds, folk.)
• It’s really, really fast: the minimal interface makes on-the-fly pattern making pretty quick.

Official specs so far:

Song Features:
16 tracks with up to 2 samples per track
Tempo: 30-300 BPM

Pattern Editor features:
Variable pattern length: 1-64 steps
Variable pattern playback speeds: 1x, 2x, 4x

That’s all we have in the way of official info: release information is all in the future (when, where, how much, publisher, etc.). But with this and Korg’s DS-10, plus Pro Performer, NitroTracker, and DSMusic Interface (now including Wifi and serial alike), the DS is one hot little mobile music platform.

Side note — hey, bad news; it looks like the DSerial2, the DS serial interface with tilt, is no more? Anyone heard more about this?

“FOR JAPAN ONLY”

Correction: Despite what the website says, the DS-10 is in fact getting an international release!

Product info, specs, samples [AQ Interactive; English]

Blog [Japanese only]

Music sample

Via Music Thing and CDM comments (thanks, Thomas)

Features:

• Dual dual synths: Two patchable virtual synths, with two oscillators each
• Drum machine: Four-part drum machines loaded with samples of the virtual synth
• Sequencer: 2 synth tracks, 4 drum machine tracks, 16 steps
• Effects: Delay, chorus, flanger
• Input methods: Touch-control screen with real-time sound control, a keyboard screen, and matrix screen

As far as connectivity, you can “exchange sounds and songs and play multiple units simultaneously through a wireless communications link.” Now, if someone in the homebrew community were able to hack that, perhaps you could add MIDI compatibility, so you could use this alongside a DS running homebrew software, or perhaps bridge to hardware MIDI and plug in a Tenori-On. (See previous discussion of DSMIDI.)

AQ Interactive is a bona fide game development house and publisher in Japan. They haven’t exactly had a spotless record, producing Vampire’s Rain for Xbox 360, but they have worked on “Cry On” with Hironobu Sakaguchi (writer) and Nobuo Uematsu (composer) of Final Fantasy legend. (I think that game may have been delayed.) Update/revision: Cavia, the Japanese game house published by AQ, appears to be the actual developer of the engine and the title. They also worked on Cry On and the Dragonball Z DS game, along with various other titles. Nothing really related to a synth, but we’ll see how they do. (Not to be confused with Clavia, the synth maker!)

Take action

Anyone familiar with the legality of, oh, CDM importing a whole bunch of these and shipping them around the world? (You’d need a DS capable of playing Japanese titles, of course.) Or we could just all meet in Tokyo this summer. Airfare sales anywhere?

Never mind! The DS-10 is going international; stay tuned for details!

Availability: July 2008

Pricing: 4,800 YEN (tax included), which works out to slightly less than US$50.

Features:

• load .wav file or live-recorded audio

• scratch
• pitch control
• FX “Retrig”
• FX “DownSampling”
• Midi OUT (wireless)
• stylus control
• NDSMotion control

I love the distinctive digital-sounding effects and the integration of visual feedback with stylus control. Version status is “pre-teta-alpha demo”, so use with caution, but it is freely available for download.

Protein: DScratch
Via Octatone on the CDM forums

Ready to put together a Nintendo DS music studio? Here’s some help:
Hacked MIDI Support for Nintendo DS: DSerial (that’s hardware MIDI)
DSMIDIWiFi Free Download: Turn Your Nintendo DS into a Wireless Synth and Controller
Mobile Music: Tracker for Nintendo DS, DS Homebrew Music Roundup

Two things I find amusing: one, that the music games built for DS haven’t been as much fun as homebrew music “tools.” Two, that there isn’t something like this as a built-in instrument in Ableton Live. Attention, developers, on both counts.

M-06, the previously Japan-only game that allows you to transform a Nintendo DS into a guitar, is coming to the US via Ubisoft, reports Newsweek’s OneUp. (What’s this? DS music in Newsweek? Times have changed!)

Exclusive: Ubisoft to Publish Jam Sessions, an Improved Version of Japanese Cult Hit Guitar Game, in North America This June [OneUp -- and you complain about my headlines being too long?]

OneUp exclusive announcement video

The results aren’t quite competitive with an actual guitar, but as a novelty it looks like great fun, it’s amazing it’s possible at all, and it might actually be useful as a portable songwriting device.

Commercial software isn’t the only way to make the DS into a music controller. We first saw the awesome DSMidiWifi back in November, which allows you to use the DS with any standard MIDI software.

Since M-06 has been out in Japan, we’ve got lots of videos, like Play-Asia’s in-depth overview (prior to the US announcement, so ignore the import mention if you’re in America):

Our friend and resident graphicalist Nat has some great shots of the box art:

DS Guitar…. DS SOLOOOOOOO! \m/ [onetonnemusic]

Thanks to Patrick Murphy for this one.

We’ve already seen the Nintendo DS used as a wireless WiFi MIDI controller. But if you’re longing for some good, old-fashioned, hard MIDI connections to your DS, too, you’re now in luck.

Natrium42, the creator of homebrew-launcher classic PassMe, has built a multi-purpose serial device for the DS called DSerial. Via his schematics, you can support both MIDI input and MIDI output via standard 5-pin DIN cords.

That’s cool enough, but of course you need something with which to use all that MIDI goodness. Tobias Weyand has updated his DS MIDI application so it now supports both wifi MIDI connections (to a computer) and hardware, cabled MIDI connections (to MIDI-compatible synths, keyboards, controllers, effects, guitar controllers, etc., etc.) That makes your DS into an all-purpose MIDI controller for everything you own. Since the previous name, DSMIDIWiFi, doesn’t cover the full range, Tobias has redubbed the application DSMI. (Sounds like some evil branch of the US Defense Department creating killer, mutant dolphin cyborgs. Actually stands for DS Music Interface.)

And this should soon get even better: Tobias is working on keyboard support via DSerial and DSMI for his DS tracker, NitroTracker, which would make the DS into an all-in-one mini music studio.

Grab your soldering iron and your DS and read up on the details.

The hardware hack (DSerial + MIDI) for adding input and output jacks:
MIDI In/Out Hardware for DS [Natrium42 blog]
Schematics and instructions for MIDI on the DSerial wiki

The software side, for wifi support and/or communications via DSerial + MIDI:
DSMIDIWiFi gets DSerial support and becomes DSMI [0xtob’s DS coding blog]

AxisPad miniMusic [Product Page]

Interestingly, the X/Y pad here can both control internal sounds (designed in miniMusic’s own software), or act as a MIDI controller for sending data to other devices or software. US$19.95, with a full demo available; could be worth it as illustrated below. miniMusic also make various other nice tools for the Palm platform, this being just one of them.

In fact, the only hardware left out is the Windows Mobile / PocketPC platform, unless anyone knows of a solution. (I wonder if miniMusic’s stuff will work with StyleTap, which lets you run Palm software on Windows Mobile gear.)

Other X/Y controllers? Do let us know.