My iPad and iMac are currently connected to the same (home) network. The router is a fair distance (and 2 walls including an outside one) away from the devices, meaning Logic remote and TouchOSC connections are unreliable.

My plan is to get a second router for the studio, and connect the iMac to this new router via ethernet cable, and the iPad wirelessly. The iMac will also remain connected to the existing home router via wi-fi for internet access.

Can anyone see any glaring issues with this plan? Any help heads up would be appreciated.
A

Edit: Oh, I see someone suggested this above..

You can always use Bluetooth. Works great!

I used to have an Airport Express exactly for this reason - but for some reason I couldn't get it to work!

I've definitely done it in the past, but it just wasn't having any of it.

I think I can get my hands on a family member's unused Airport Extreme over Xmas, so maybe I'll try that.

Unfortunately it doesn't work at all for me... never connects - on the rare occasion it did, it was laggy and slow and then just lost the connection. The Mac Pro is only about 1-1.5m away! There is a table in the way, but still.

Are there any app and interface combos that would allow me to control LP Touch/LP control knobs with a BCR2000, and possibly a BCF2000 at the same time?

The Tuna knobs are pretty expensive, and I like the idea of hacking together something a bit like the Dragon MIDI controller.

https://youtu.be/iKSXPsLJ6f8?t=3m8s

If you dont need the internet at the very moment you are using the remote, have you tried just creating a Computer to Computer wifi network on your mac to link directly to the ipad? I do this all the time. You don't even need a router, just your mac and the ipad!

Maybe start fresh....use a paperclip to hold the little reset button in and plug the Express in, then keep holding it for 5 seconds (or maybe 10?). This will reset it. It will then get recognized in the Airport Utility (upper left pulldown menu) as a new device to set up, and you can set it up as a wireless hotspot.

I wanted to try this but found that -- I hate to harp on Apple's business plan -- but my older iPad was (of course) not supported, go forth, young man, and buy some mo' new! improved! stuff.

But then I found that there's a $15 app called Daw Remote HD that works with Logic 9, Logic X, and most other DAWs, and runs on an iPad of any vintage. There's also his cheaper DAW Remote that works on any iPhone. I was impressed with how attractive and well thought out they both are.

Logic X does a great job working with control surfaces. If you have more than one, you can choose to run them in parallel, where moving a fader on one moves it on the other(s), or in series where they spread across the mixer. I use my old iPhone 3 as a simple remote, and the iPad as an extension to my TASCAM FW1884 moving fader desk. You control this by how you group them in the Control Surfaces setup.

On the Android there's Touch DAW, more spartan but very useful.

@ The Beatsmith The MacPro internal "Airport Extreme" card has antenna problems, as does its bluetooth. If you have both installed, you could try disconnecting the Bluetooth, either the whole card, or just the little antenna plug. If that's too scary, Try just disabling Bluetooth in Settings. Then add an external $10 Bluetooth 4.0 USB dongle and reboot to get your Bluetooth working (better).

As to WiFi, if your internal card doesn't cut it, and you've checked the Firewall issues, sadly there are no great USB Wifi solutions for the mac. The Edimax N150 works but has terrible performance. The suggestion that's been made above, to ethernet cable from the macPro to a router is right on.

It's very very important to have a router in the same room with the iPad/iPhone/Android, very close by. Pretty cheap to add, and you can chain the "studio" router to your main router with ethernet cable, and create a local WiFi segment for your controllers with no competing traffic on it. USB routers are not recommended.

I actually don't have an Airport card in my 2009 Mac Pro - only Bluetooth! I was trying to figure out if the Remote worked well with wifi, in which case I would buy one. They're not too expensive to buy an older model that would have shipped with the computer - around £15 on eBay.

You can also buy an 802.11ac card with updated Bluetooth spec (supports handover and continuity in Sierra etc) but it costs a whole lot more (and I only want WiFi for Logic Remote).

Thanks,

Ed

I just got one of an original type BCM94321MC for my 3,1 for ten dollars shipped -- may as well keep it standard - and cheap ;-)

On my 4,1 -> 5,1 with the factory Airport Extreme, I got handover and all that BS working under Yosemite by just plugging in a ten dollar USB bluetooth dongle and using the Continuity Activation Tool.

There are lots of people using Bluetooth 4 just for that reason.

But frankly who cares? I ended up reversing the changes because I have no use for any of that Cloud surveillanceware.

For the task at hand, I think ethernet'ing to a studio wifi router with its own antenna is likely to perform better than using an internal Airport Extreme card. But I'll try it later this week and let you know.

OK, I got the original BCM94321MC installed in my 3,1 mac pro. It's tricky because the cables are very short and the space is narrow so you don't even have 3D vision with something always blocking one eye and your blood pressure rising.

Installation details:

1) Try to snap on the tiny antenna connectors with your thumbnail before you seat the card, it's just a little easier. It's not something I'd do "over Christmas" with somebody's card if I ever ever had to return it.

2) A lot of info on the web contradicts Apple's tech manual. The antenna wires are tagged. Apple says:

• Wire BT stays on the BlueTooth card.
• Wire 1 goes to the bottom connector on the Airport card
• Wire 3 to the top.
• Wire 2 should be (left) taped off.

3) The two screws are different. The top screw is much longer. Arrange a piece of paper to catch the screws each time you drop them. If you're lying on the floor to do this, attach a flashlight to your head.

Works very well for general networking through a router within a few meters' radius. More detailed testing later.

You can remove the front fan assembly very easily if you need more room to work...the L shaped heat sink cover is held on by magnets. Remove it to reveal the bottom screw. Remove that and the screw at the top of the Fan assembly. Now the entire fan assembly will slide straight out. It is socketed and on rails, so very easy to remove and replace.

@ Joe Porto good point. Been there done that, because I recently installed 3.2 Ghz CPUs on this "puppy". In fact I had the magnetic cover off last night to retighten the heatsinks a bit, and figured that a) I would put the Wifi board in and b) it wasn't worth removing the fan assembly. I expected it to involve less animal noises on my part and less sweat. I was on the verse of calling my wife to sit on my legs so I wouldn't keep sliding around on the floor. Goes to show optimists get their just punishment. On the positive side I found 2 of the 8 GB RAM sticks for $24, pulled out 2 of the 2 GB sticks and now Logic is running happier w/ 28GB.

Glad you're still getting use from your 2008 Pro. I've installed an SSD system drive, upped the memory to 16GB and installed a Sonnet 4-port USB 3.0 card in mine and plan to get many more years out of her.

How's Logic Remote working then?

I can't run Logic Remote because my iPad is an obsolete piece of refuse, according to Doctrine. It does run other Mackie emulators just fine, a fact that lends credence to conspiracy theories such as "They are out to make me buy mo'crap I don't need".

I haven't set it up in ad-hoc (point to point) mode, but you should see a comparison of the spread, shown by the little red marks, of the latency between a hardware FW1884 connected by Network Midi over a Gigabit Ethernet cable and over a typical multi-drop WiFi network, with the Airport talking to a router 6 feet away.






Over Ethernet it's perfectly fine even to play keyboards or percussion. Over Wifi it's at best usable for faders etc.

The Logic Remote devs in Cupertino should take a look at Liine Lemur or Touch OSC. Both allow to be connected via lightning cable/USB and connect immediately and work reliably.

I gave up on Logic Remote as it never worked reliably.

or via imac... i think even a mac mini will do that.

Odd that some people can't get Remote to work over WiFi while others can. I've been using it for years...first with a 2008 Pro, and now with a 2014 MBP. I've used it with an Airport Express to Ethernet with the Pro, and with built in WiFi with the MBP.

There has to be some underlying factor as to why it doesn't work for some people. I've always used it with an Apple base station (Airport Express, and both flat and tower Time Capsules). Nothing special...not ad hoc...just on my regular network. Currently, my studio is in a converted garage, separate from the house. No problem connecting to the router in the house with both MBP and iPad. I've used it with an iPad Air, and now an Air 2.

Maybe if folks who can't get it to work can give a detailed description of their computer and network hardware, some light can be shed on a possible solution.

Wait, ad hoc is not "on my regular network", it's what's also called point-to-point, where there is no router, just "each other". All this networking stuff is a breeze - once you get it working. But there are lots of ways to set it up wrong, and with WiFi there are always extra entities and interference issues. The more entities, the worse it gets. Every time i reconfigure I it takes a good while to get it straightened out again. Unless you're going by IP address there are Netbios names, Bonjour names, DNS etc. So I don't think looking for the mystery underlying factor is likely to come up with a single reason. It's the people for whom it just works that are lucky.

A small update.
I've been using Touch OSC recently with Logic, over my normal home network. Whilst Logic remote proved temperamental, I haven't experienced any network issues with Touch OSC at all. I've no idea why.

For those having issues with Logic Remote over WIFI.. Touch OSC comes with a "Logic Pad" template that lets you alter the mixer, plugins, effects, instruments etc in Logic. And in some cases, it works even better than the official app. Also, it costs peanuts and can transmit/convert MIDI.

Just a heads up in case it helps anyone.

Sorry...that was supposed to read NOT ad hoc.

They do allow a wired connection from Logic to Logic remote.
Create a Iphone USB PAN in network settings ( once you have they physical connect hooked up). Works just fine here.

Thanks for the heads up. Is this an iPhone only thing, or does it work with an iPad as well?

OK, I just did the "ad hoc network" thing, having the mac pro "create network" on the airport menu bar menu, creating a network called XEON.

Then declaring a port in Network MIDI called XEON14.

Then connecting my old iPhone 4's WiFi to the XEON network

Start up DAW Remote and in the app connect to port XEON14.

Bingo. It shows up in Network MIDI as my iPhone. Then in Control Surfaces in Logic X as Logic Remote connected over port XEON14. Logic is so good at integrating multiple control surfaces. I press play on the iPhone and the play light comes on on the Tascam too, the track plays and the faders dance. It becomes one big happy machine without a lot of configuration hassle.

Now, let's see how much lag we get, and how much jitter.



Not like on a gigabit ethernet hardwired Tascam, but passable for pushing buttons and faders.

I REALLY like DAW Remote.

http://eumlab.com/daw-remote/

http://eumlab.com/daw-remote-hd/

Beautiful design. Works on old iPhones (e.g. iPhone 3), and the HD version with full faders etc works on all the old iPads (e.g. original iPad). That really says a lot, and it makes me angry, that Apple makes the opposite effort, to make us spend on shinier gear and shovel entire shiploads of old electronics to that valley of toxic death in China where, amidst the acrid smoke of burning piles of computer waste, women and children salvage precious metals from our discarded toys. Yes, I realize they may appreciate having those jobs. It might elude economic analysis, but I know it makes me angry.

I just plug the damned iPad into my desktop's (2008 mp) USB hub. You can get a 25-foot cable for nothing. Am I missing something?
Works like a charm and is actually a total game hanger for me. I mix way faster and seldom look at the screen. And the iPad keeps charging a little, which helps because remote can suck that battery like Tim Cook. Only complaint is that opening a plugin on the iPad does not open the GUI on the desktop monitor. Is there a way to solve this problem?
Honestly I like Remote so much that it may keep me from abandoning Mac and setting my MP on fire in Tim Cook's yard. That simpering moron.

...whoa! and I thought I was angry!

@ 808KickDrum Have you ever tripped on a cable? Last night I got a foot wrapped in a headphone lead, and then a speaker started towards the floor, and as I caught it I pushed a guitar off its stand, and it was one of those acrobatic moments that made me remember why wireless rules - with clumsy fools!

Yes, I've tripped on many a cable and Tim Cooked both myself and my surroundings. My denouement involved a vacuum cleaner and an airborn Event Opal. Totally Tim Cooked the wall. But a long cable can be put out of harm's way. And you can always use your iPhone for simple wireless record/stop, where latency doesn't matter so much.

Sorry, are you guys using the 'official' Logic app wired, or another app?

Trying to keep up here!

808's using something wired, Apploid or not. No, wait, he said he was using the Apple one.

Me, I'm using wireless DAW Remote, and am still trippin' on other cables,
so I'm asking old 808 why he's so enchanted with a cabled iPad.
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