Sidecar MIDI Controller

🇺🇸 United States
Patrick Madden  | 
41
ASO score
Text
33/100
Reviews
50/100
Graphic
60/100
Other
0/100
rating
App Rating
4.1
rating
Votes
36
rating
App Age
9y 11m
rating
Last Update
Nov 07, 2022

Compare with Category Top Apps

Metrics
Current App
Category Top Average
Difference
Rating
4.08
4.56
-11%
Number of Ratings (Voted)
36
588.5K
-100%
App Age
9y 11m
8y 1m
+23%
Price
$5
$0
In-app Purchases Price
$0
$42
Update Frequency
1151d
30d
+3 750%
Title Length
23
25
-8%
Subtitle Length
0
27
Description Length
3 449
2 701
+28%
Number of Screenshots
1248
1249
0 %
Size
0MB
220MB

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Text ASO

Title (
Characters: 23 of 30
)
Sidecar MIDI Controller
Subtitle (
Characters: 0 of 30
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Description (
Characters: 3449 of 4000
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There are hundreds of great iOS synth apps, but playing them with on-screen keyboards can be a challenge. Sidecar turns your ordinary QWERTY keyboard into a powerful MIDI controller.  The lower part of the keyboard is mapped piano-style, letting you play melodies with the physical keys -- much easier to keep your fingers in the right place, and to get the notes you want. The app is configurable; you can have ten different set-ups, and switch between them quickly with a tap on the "QWERTY" row. There are also ten configureable pads for each set-up, which you can trigger with the number keys. Each pad can play a specific note, a chord, generate a program change message, or send a control code. Because Sidecar operates in slide-over and side-by-side mode on the iPad, you can use your physical keyboard with any MIDI app, even if the other app is running in the background. On screen, you have access to each of the pads -- map the knobs and sliders of your synth apps to MIDI CC messages, and then use Sidecar to adjust these sliders as you play. Sidecar also provides a scale-configurable virtual keyboard. Pick the scale you want, and then you can't hit a wrong note. In addition to external keyboards, Sidecar also supports many game controllers. The app is now universal; while the iPhone doesn't support slide-over, you can still take advantage of the configuration options of the app. * Easy MIDI Configuration With ten separately configurable MIDI destinations you can quickly set up a set of assignments for each of the MIDI apps that you use. Have a set of chords for Animoog, choose different presets for ToneStack, or assign pads to different samples for DM1. Each MIDI destination has ten configurable pads, which can be assigned to chords, single notes, a program change message, or a controller change message. For notes and chords, the touch position controls note velocity. For controller change messages, the location of a touch on screen can be used to determine the controller value. * QWERTY Keyboard Support Toggle on support for the external keyboard, and you can switch between the ten MIDI destinations quickly (using the keys in the QWERTY row). Toggle on or off any of the ten pads by pressing the number keys. The two lowest rows of keys are mapped as a standard piano keyboard, providing a musical play surface with an ordinary text keyboard. Note that QWERTY keyboards only send "key press" information to your iPad -- to silence a sounding note, you simply tap the space bar. * AUv3 Support Add the plug-in to your favorite DAW or looper, and Sidecar will give you easy access to multiple synths. Many AUv3 hosts will also let you map the keyboard keys to the transport controls. * Game Controller Ready Sidecar also supports the iON iCade game controller, mapping the buttons of the iCade to the pads. Because the iCade was designed for games, it sends button press and release information, which makes it easy to toggle on and off the pads. * MIDI Relay If you have an external MIDI controller, you can have it send MIDI events to Sidecar -- and these will be relayed to any of the ten MIDI destinations you select. Use this to quickly switch from one synth to another. *Control Background Synths Because Sidecar sends MIDI messages, it can be used to control background synthesizers, sequencers, and effects apps. Sidecar is designed to work along side your other iOS music apps.}
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Rating & Reviews

Reviews Overview
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Rating
4.1
36 voters

Some Latest Reviews

Patabulle
09 Sep, 2024
5
Dommage pas possible de l’utiliser en arriere plan avec AUM…
Iamtheeliquor
16 Jun, 2023
5
Can make you qwerty into midi keyboard, nothing else worked until this.
Keija
21 Jan, 2023
4
Hi, I was looking for exactly this type of functionality to use the smart folio ipad keyboard for playing midi notes. Sadly, I have a german layout, so the note c is not next to the X, but in between T and U … QWERTZ Please add an option for QWERTZ keyboards to use Y instead of Z as an input for the lower c :)
PBUH91
25 Feb, 2021
5
I no longer have to faff around to go from one app to another and can finally control Gadgets transport controls outside of the app. I can even switch to AUM without having to assign a valuable key on my tiny midi keyboard. I kept telling myself, now if only it could do this and then I’d find that feature in there somewhere. I don’t need any of the IAA features, or the midi keyboard, I just needed it to trigger the transport controls in other apps like gadget and flick me around my iPad quickly, without having to buy a NanoKontrol Studio for £120. Now I can play around in Gestrument Pro and hit record in gadget when I’m ready, improving my workflow and preventing frustration (which usually kills any creativity I had brewing). Thanks guys! Edit: if I could make a request, it would be to be able to rename the keyboard mappings, so that I can know what each tab is for, instead of remembering that ‘q’ is for AUM for example. I’d also like to have presets I could save and then load. Right now you have 10 slots, each with 10 midi mappings, which sounds like a lot, until you have multiple AUM projects each with their own mappings and things start to get claustrophobic. It would also be nice to save these presets to the cloud for safe keeping. Finally, to be able to use my Bluetooth keyboard to trigger midi when the app is not in focus (off screen) would be amazing, but I think Apple doesn’t allow for that. I recognise that these are all huge asks and that this is an old app and besides its already so useful as it is! You can pair this with something like Mosaic from Bram Bos and you’d have a midi powerhouse, but this app is so much easier to use and great on its own :) Thanks again!
Gern Blasnton
16 Mar, 2020
5
Using it profusely in BeatMaker 3 Sampler because it doesn’t have a velocity keyboard to test sample layers while you are in the sampler. This also lets you use a QWERTY keyboard as a MIDI keyboard. Love it!

Other

Additional Information
Rating:
4.09
Voted: 36
App Store Link:
Price: 4.99 $
Website: -
Email: -
Privacy Policy:
Categories: Music, Utilities
Size: -
App Age: 9 years 11 months
Release Date: Jan 18, 2016
Last Update: Nov 07, 2022
Version: 1.8
Version history
1.8
Nov 07, 2022
The AUv3 now supports sending MIDI on all 16 channels, and can send either PC or CC messages. The AUv3 plug-in also now displays the MIDI messages being generated.
1.7
Jan 08, 2022
iOS now supports Bluetooth keyboard key release detection, allowing the emulated keyboard to track both up and down actions. We've also added support for AUv3; control multiple synths, loopers, and even the transport control from within your AUv3 host, all from your QWERTY keyboard.
Version history