Korg Minilogue + Arp Odyssey on iPad Pro + Apple Camera Connector Kit = Pretty Cool

After reading about Korg’s new iOS app that emulates their Arp Odyssey, I decided to pick the app up on sale for $19.99 last night (introductory price). It sounds really good. I was thinking “Man I wish I had a good Bluetooth controller to play it, though” (like this one), when suddenly I thought, “I wonder if the USB out on my Korg Minilogue could let it act as a MIDI controller for my iPad…”

I then spent a few minutes digging through drawers to find the appropriate USB cable and my old school Apple Camera Connector Kit (USB version) attached to a lightning adapter, slapped that onto the iPad and connected the USB to the back of the Minilogue. I then ran a stereo mini cable from the headphone jack of the iPad Pro (remember when all devices had headphone jacks? #nostalgia) out to the audio in on the Minilogue. Then, I turned on the Minilogue and turned down all the Mixer controls to 0, so that the Minilogue itself wasn’t generating any sound.

Since I had the sound out on my iPad Pro going into the audio in on the Minilogue, playing the keyboard then resulted in whatever sound was dialed into the ARP ODYSSEi app coming through the Minilogue and passing through all the filters of the Minilogue, giving me all sorts of extra control over whatever sound the ARP ODYSSEi was pushing through. I could also turn up the mixer volume for VCO1, VCO2, and NOISE on the Minilogue to blend the sounds on it with what was coming out of ARP ODYSSEi. I spent about an hour last night just playing around with this setup and it sounded great.

And now I know I can do this with other music apps on my iPad, so I’m pretty stoked.

Also, I’ve been meaning to mention this forever: if you’re like me and you only have so much room for a “music studio” in the corner of a home office or playroom, then I highly recommend getting a Yamaha THR10C 10-watt amp. It’s got a small footprint but gorgeous loud sound with modelling controls to make it sound like various classic amps and to even dial-in and save your own sets, and it has both a Guitar and AUX in with separate volume controls. I’ve been running my keyboard and drum machines on a sequencer loop through the AUX in and plugging my guitar in and playing over it for lots of cool solo-music-man time. Maybe one of these days I’ll actually record something that sounds cool and share it.