Connecting Cymasphere iOS to iOS Virtual Instruments

Getting Started: #

Watch the video here.

Steps: #

1. In the App Store, download a virtual instrument.
   
   Here are a few we recommend:
   
   Free:
   • iGrand Piano
   • DRC Polyphonic Synthesizer
   • Garageband
   
   Paid:
   • SampleTank
   • Moog Model D
   • Logic Pro (iPad only)
   
   
2. Regardless of which instrument(s) you install, you MUST enable ‘Background Audio’ in the virtual instrument app to allow the instrument to receive MIDI and play audio when minimized.
   
   iGrand Piano – enable background audio
   
   
   
   
   
   
   DRC Polyphonic Synthesizer – enable background audio
   
   
   
   
   
   
   Garageband – enable background audio
   
   
   
   
   
   Moog Model D – enable background audio
   
   
   
   
   
   SampleTank – enable background audio
   
   
   
   
   
   Logic Pro – enable background audio
   
   
   
   
   
3. Once you have enabled ‘Background Audio’, open Cymasphere
4. In the sidebar, open the Audio Sampler menu
   
   
5. Disable the built-in sampler (we want to hear audio from the DAW, not the sampler)
   
6. In the sidebar, open ‘MIDI I/O Devices’ menu
   
7. In MIDI Devices menu, select ‘Cymasphere’ under Output devices
   
8. You may also see a virtual MIDI port for the virtual instrument. While it doesn’t really matter if you use Cymasphere’s virtual MIDI output port or the instruments virtual MIDI input port, DON’T SELECT BOTH or your virtual instrument will receive duplicate MIDI messages from Cymasphere.
9. Play the cymatic buttons in Cymasphere – you should hear audio from your virtual instrument
   
10. Great! You should be connected – to sync Cymasphere’s sequencer to GarageBand or Logic Pro on iOS, read this article.
    
11. If you cannot hear audio:
    • Ensure your device is not in silent mode and volume is up
    • Ensure that you have enabled the correct virtual MIDI input port (the output port from Cymasphere)
    • If you are using Cymasphere Pro, open the Voice/Channel Matrix from the sidebar and ensure that each voice is assigned to a channel (by default, all voices send to channel 1)
    
    We also recommend installing MIDI Scope, a free MIDI monitoring tool for troubleshooting MIDI signal flow.