Secret Base Design have released a public beta of their forthcoming AUv3 update for Side Car.
A note from the developer…….
I’ve been in the guts of a couple of apps over the past month or two, rejiggering everything for AUv3. Sidecar is dropping the wireless streaming (you didn’t even know it was there, did you?), and will focus on just being a QWERTY-keyboard MIDI controller.
Apple has added support for up and down keypresses on the keyboard (they did this a while back, but I hadn’t noticed before). You can now use the ASDF and ZXCV rows like a piano keyboard; you can play chords, and the key up/down turns notes on/off. Shift will take you up an octave, and there’s an octave select on the main app interface.
There are ten “pages” of MIDI control, selected by the QWERTY row. Each page can be routed to different synths, while the number keys can be mapped to CC, PC, notes, or chords.
Sidecar was designed to handle slide-over on the iPad, so you could have one app running full screen, and then get the MIDI keyboard control with Sidecar hovering on top.
The new AUv3 stuff, which I think folks will really dig — install Sidecar in an effects slot on an audio track (it does pass-through of audio). If you open the interface in your AUv3 host, the app can catch key strokes, and turn them in to MIDI.
For the AUv3, the QWERTY row will send to MIDI channels 1 through 10. Route the MIDI out from Sidecar to where-ever you want it to go, add filtering by channel, and you can easily switch between synths with the tap of the key. For the AUv3, the number keys send program change messages to the selected MIDI channel, so you can easily switch patches. I might make the number keys programmable in the future.
AUM works great as a host for Sidecar, and it remembers the MIDI routing for each session, so all the configuration is saved. The only thing to watch for is keyboard focus — if the Sidecar UI is open, it can catch keystrokes — but you can move the window to the side, so that it doesn’t obscure anything else. If there are multiple AUv3 interfaces open, and they all accept keystrokes, something else might “grab” a key, and it won’t get to Sidecar. It appears with AUM that the most recently opened interface gets priority — so if keys are not being detected, try closing and then reopening the Sidecar interface.
A couple of new things are going to happen before the full release — so there will likely be one more open beta before it goes to the app store. If this is your sort of thing, give it a spin and let me know if you spot trouble!
You must have an up-to-date installation of Apple’s TestFlight in order to take part in the beta.
To join the Side Car beta, click here:
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