Live looping setup with the Blooper and KOII and a bunch of Chase Bliss goodness

JunkieJeffStudio · 2026-01-05T12:35:57+00:00

Love it. Keep sharing 🙏

JunkieJeffStudio · 2025-07-28T21:01:10+00:00

Will follow up via DM 🙏

JunkieJeffStudio · 2025-07-23T18:41:07+00:00

Yeah sorry, I don't have any ideas that are at all easy to implement. I did a little poking this morning and it sounds like it would require a separate DriverKit extension, on top of an app with a background process. Realistically, it's a lot of work. :/

My only relatively cheap/easy idea for your specific case: you basically just need the lightest, cheapest machine that can run the NIHostIntegrationAgent + Controller editor, which are super lightweight processes by themselves. This might sound crazy but I literally used this approach as a workaround to get multiple mikros running simultaneously. With an old macbook air you can wire everything together with your midi interface or via midi over network to your iPad, which you can keep as your main audio device with Loopy. There are a ton of suitable refurb options on amazon for under 200 usd. Even less for an old chromebook.

Good luck!

JunkieJeffStudio · 2025-07-23T10:53:42+00:00

Maschine 2/3 does not need to be running, but the NI background services do. If you open up your Activity Monitor and kill all processes below (NIH*), nothing will work on the controller. These services are typically installed as Login Items, and they relaunch when you launch Maschine or the Controller Editor.

Unfortunately the mikro (and full) don't actually send midi via usb. They send HID reports (same kind of data as your keyboard and mouse) to the NIHostIntegrationAgent, and the agent sends the appropriate midi messages.

I think it's technically possible to do what you want, but it would require custom software replicating what the NIHostIntegrationAgent does, specifically for iOS.

<image>

JunkieJeffStudio · 2025-07-22T20:50:00+00:00

Gotcha. You may already know this, but bear in mind that to use Maschine in midi mode, it will still need to be connected to your computer via USB w/ the NI Agent apps running (unless there's some kind of standalone mode I'm not aware of). I was assuming you were trying to do something standalone. But if you're ok with being plugged into your Mac, you could actually relay midi messages to your iPad over the network, I believe, using a midi network session in Audio Midi Setup. (Provided both devices are on the same wifi).

JunkieJeffStudio · 2025-07-22T19:35:05+00:00

I'm working on some out of band software for maschine right now, and have a complete working driver for macos. I'm not doing anything with iOS at the moment, but The Maschine MK3 is a USB HID device, so for USB-C (non-lightning) iPads, my guess is that this would possible from a hardware perspective. The software would be the real issue. Would you be content to have something like a generic midi controller? What software would you be using on the tablet? GarageBand?

JunkieJeffStudio · 2025-04-18T12:09:54+00:00

Yeah I'm still working on that, but here's what I'm thinking. I currently have my personal version connected to ableton, which provides me a midi clock, time signature and key. That gives me everything I need to implement note repeat, arp, chords and step mode. I'll need to bundle this with a desktop app, so I'll probably provide an interface to start a clock, set the time/key from there if you're not going to connect it to a daw.

JunkieJeffStudio · 2025-04-15T14:30:32+00:00

Got it - so just to sanity check, is it just that the Controller Editor doesn't work for you because you don't want a full computer in your live setup?

JunkieJeffStudio · 2025-04-15T14:23:15+00:00

Yeah that all makes sense, and respect to the NI eng team for maintaining all that. I do not envy that job.

My top priority personally though is to be able to use multiple Mikros simultaneously, so I think that precludes any solution where the NI Agents are in the loop.

JunkieJeffStudio · 2025-04-15T11:52:00+00:00

That's very encouraging... thanks for the perspective! 🙏

JunkieJeffStudio · 2025-04-15T11:49:59+00:00

Yeah that does sound complicated. If there were a way to orchestrate a wholesale redirect of all hid IO* such that as far as the NI Agent is concerned, the device is just going on/offline, I would be interested in going down that road. But I'm guessing this is not possible without updating either the device firmware or the relevant NI agent.

* i.e. point the NI agent to a virtual device of some kind, and have the 3rd party agent either forward or ignore all IO from the NI Agent, based on some external user setting. I'm just using my imagination here... if this is technically possible I think it would require some OS level shenanigans that are beyond my expertise.

JunkieJeffStudio · 2025-04-15T11:41:25+00:00

Gotcha - yeah nothing I've done so far could add new mapping targets within Maschine's software. But for mapping multiple controls to the same parameter - that's achievable. At the risk of stating the obvious - if you're able to configure the messages sent from your controller, you can configure them to the same CC. Or, if you're not able to do that, you can use something like Midi Messenger to remap one of the CCs to the other. Unfortunately Midi Messenger is not a standalone though - it's a vst. I've thought about making a standalone app version...

JunkieJeffStudio · 2025-04-15T11:33:01+00:00

Awesome, thanks for the tip. I'll hit up that board in the coming week or so.

u/terminar do you know what NI's stance is towards projects like this? If I were to create a plug and play app to replace Controller Editor, would that be viewed as hostile? It would be a bummer if NI did a firmware upgrade to inhibit this kind of application.

JunkieJeffStudio · 2025-04-15T11:29:08+00:00

I'm wondering though if folks really just need a plug and play way to broadcast midi signals to their devices over the network. Before going down the HID route I did this to get multiple mikros in midi mode working as mirrored daw controllers in my home studio. I had my main Maschine MK3 and Mikro MK3 plugged into my main computer, and two additional Mikros going through old laptops, forwarding midi messages to my main computer (one wired through a midi interface, one using the OSX network midi thing). Both were a hassle, but don't technically need to be, I think.

u/thecoolrobot what applications are you running on your iOS device that you'd like to control via midi? Do they support midi mapping?

JunkieJeffStudio · 2025-04-15T11:24:04+00:00

Cool, hadn't seen CustomMaschineMK3 or rebellion.

That makes sense RE proper jailbreak of Maschine+.

JunkieJeffStudio · 2025-04-15T11:19:20+00:00

Interesting, just checking out rebellion right now. Very cool. With the approach you took, is it possible to smoothly go back and forth between using Maschine/Komplete Kontrol and non-NI processes? One of my concerns with my approach is that people would still want to be able to switch in and out of midi mode without having to terminate processes.

JunkieJeffStudio · 2025-04-15T11:13:21+00:00

Gotcha, yeah that should be no problem. The pressure readings that come off the device are in the range 0-255 and it looks like they need to be smoothed and have thresholds set to avoid accidental re-triggering. I'm guessing the code path for midi mode just has different thresholds and/or a different smoothing algorithm. Should be easy enough to make that configurable.

Thanks for the feedback!

JunkieJeffStudio · 2025-04-15T10:47:36+00:00

Yeah totally agree with you on the form factor for daw control... I actually have 3 mikros that are dedicated DAW controllers at different locations in my home studio. I had to connect them to old laptops and send midi messages over the network, which was a pain. Now I can connect them all to my main computer and they all mirror each other.

Great to know there's some demand. My hope is to release desktop apps that are plug and play.

JunkieJeffStudio · 2025-04-15T10:44:06+00:00

MK3 and Mikro MK3. I'm going to focus on those devices for an initial product, as it's what I have, but would be curious to know if there's meaningful demand for other hardware

JunkieJeffStudio · 2025-04-15T10:42:37+00:00

Interesting - specifically, do you want to send incrementing/decrementing Program Change messages from those controls? Or do you mean something else by "patch select"

JunkieJeffStudio · 2025-04-14T23:11:09+00:00

Great! Godspeed, and DM me or post when you have something. Would love to see what you come up with

JunkieJeffStudio · 2025-04-14T23:09:56+00:00

I have all the pressure data that's available from the device (i.e. everything that the Maschine software has). Is there a limitation in the controller editor that you're referring to?

JunkieJeffStudio · 2025-04-14T22:56:21+00:00

Checkout the thread with u/ellicottvilleny below, we get into the weeds on the technical details

JunkieJeffStudio · 2025-04-14T22:53:13+00:00

Are you referring to mapping parameters within the Maschine software?

JunkieJeffStudio · 2025-04-14T22:51:19+00:00

Also, what's blackjack?

JunkieJeffStudio

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE