I've created a layout for the iPad app MIDI Designer, with which you can program the following Roland 80s synths:

• JX-3P with Organix mod ( organix' toolshed - JX-3P MIDI Expansion Kit )
• JX-3P with KiwiTechnics Upgrade ( JX-3P Upgrade )
• MKS-30 with Johannes Hausensteiner mod ( MKS30 midi upgrade, general information )
• JX-8P
• Alpha Juno 1 & 2
• MKS-50
• MKS-70 A + B (simultaneously!)
• MKS-70 Patch

You can find it here, I hope it'll help you get more out of your synths, and will lessen the lust for a dedicated PG for each of them!
Roland JX-3P, JX-8P, MKS-30, MKS-50

I'll post updated versions there when I have them finished.

Have fun with it, and please let me know if you have any issues or if you're a happy user ;-)!

I've just posted a new version of the layouts for the Roland JX-3P, JX-8P, MKS-30, MKS-50 and Alpha Juno 1 & 2, including many useful performance controls. In the screenshots you can see what they look like: Roland JX-3P, JX-8P, MKS-30, MKS-50

Hi Rainer - I don't find the link for your control surface for the JX-8P.
I'm looking to pick up one of these synths (though it needs some repairs, I think) and I will definitely want at least the midi controller hardware interface, or maybe iPad interface for the parameters.

If you can let me know what's working best by now, I appreciate the tips. Thanks!
Evan.

interested in this as well...would it also work with JX-10?

i think its about ipad time for me now ...
Thanks for the infos ...

PEACE

MORDICUS

I think a lot of people would use this!

Here are the screenshots from the MIDI Designer layout that I made - unfortunately the Gearslutz board won't let me post the layout itself. I love using this app to control my Rolands, I much prefer it above the hardware Behringer BCR2000 for which I also made templates for the same synths (they're on the Yahoo group "BC2000"). I kept needing a paper cheatsheet to see which pot/switch does what - and with the complex synths like the KiwiTechnics upgraded 3P, it's undoable even
With this app you can immediately see everything, and I've put some XY controllers on it for added performance-worthiness.
I now use my BCR2000 as my iPad's MIDI interface using the CCK

BTW: you can download a free Lite version that's only limited in amount of controls on the screen to check if it's something for you. It won't load my complex layout ofcourse ^^

Cheers,
Rainer

Update: the screenshots you see here are for the first incarnation of the layout - scroll down for screenshots of the latest version.

Is it possible to automate parameters in Logic with your app?

It's actually not my app, I just created these layouts for it :-)

You can surely record all control movements in Logic using Logic's automation features. The app itself does not 'automate' things, it just gives you touch controls to send out MIDI CC or MIDI SysEx and some other MIDI controls.
Some of the synths in my layout use MIDI CC (JX-3P with Organix mod, JX-3P with KiwiTechnics upgrade, MKS-30 with Johannes Hausensteiner mod), and the others use the more cumbersome SysEx (JX-8P, Alpha Juno, MKS-50).

You do have to keep in mind that MIDI CC is very easy to handle in a sequencer - almost every sequencer can graphically show you the values and use automation on it - but MIDI SysEx is not so nicely handled in sequencers because it IS exclusive to every synth. This means that you can RECORD SysEx into your sequencer without trouble, but graphically displaying the changing values and using further automation is out of the question.
This fact actually makes an app like this even more interesting, because you now finally have a way to intuitively change values on SysEx-based synths and record that, which you couldn't if you were trying to do that with automation in your sequencer.

The site's back up:
Roland JX-3P, JX-8P, MKS-30, MKS-50 - MIDI Designer Q&A

@xanax: a standard JX-10 has a very primitive MIDI implementation, that doesn't respond to MIDI CC or SysEx. With the Colin Fraser ROM (JX 10 SysEx Edit) you can edit it through f.e. MIDI Designer, although I don't know whether that mod is controlled by CC or by SysEx.

I've just posted a new version of the layout, which now includes the Roland MKS-70 as well, making it possible to edit both tone A and B at the same time, which is totally awesome because it turns the MKS-70 into a 4-DCO polysynth that is finally transparant :-) I hope you enjoy it, and please respond to this thread, or the MIDI Designer thread itself if you use it and/or have any comments or requests!

Roland JX-3P, JX-8P, MKS-30, MKS-50 - MIDI Designer Q&A

Cheers,
Rainer

Absolutely awesome job on these. The overall look and layout is top notch and obviously carefully considered. I really hope you have more hardware to do these for!

Would really love a JD990, Blofeld and Tetra template

I really hope this Ipad App takes off. A godlike app for it's designer and the touch control moving with your finger idea is genius and was one of the only reasons I held back from Ipad interfaces in the past. RTP MIDI just worked straight away and offered seemingly zero latency wireless control through my daw.


Thanks.

Kind of annoying when something this good turns up and seems to get otherwise overlooked.

Thanks for the praise! Indeed a lot of work has gone into creating them, I think I already spent more than 20 hours :-) So just creating a layout for a synth I don't have - apart from the Alpha Juno/MKS-50 ones - has a pretty low likelihood of happening, I think you'll understand! Synths I haven't made a layout for, but that are in my posession are Kawai K4, Moog Voyager, Roland JV-1080 and Ensoniq ZR-76, but apart from the Voyager, they are all multi-layer synths, which makes it quite hard to create an editor for.

You could make your own layout though for the synths you mentioned, 'Rainer-style' :P just use one of my layouts that comes closest in controls as a starting point and change the MIDI CC or SysEx code to what's needed?

Sounds like time well spent if this layout gets noticed by all those who own these synths and are looking for such a controller. Looking at the Designer website, it seems that despite your collection of layouts, other submissions seem few and far between and I hope efforts like yours motivate others to have a go.

You mention that multi layer synths would be a problem but do you consider the prospect impossible due to restraints of the current version of the software or, given the time and the madness to attempt such a thing, could you link say 4 "layer buttons" to allow a single page of parameters to route settings accordingly. If so, does the package allow for a multiple selection to make multiple changes too?

I may well have a play though

It would be mainly due to the madness of it :-)
The app makes it possible to have one control function as a Supercontrol to govern multiple Subcontrols simultaneously. On for example the MKS-30 layout the 'XY Controls' for LPF/Resonance and LPF/VCF ENV both change the value of the individual controls, so they all keep in sync. You could also apply this for multiple layers at the same time.
I'm pretty sure that many people just design simpler controllers that just do exactly what they need, without going through the hassle of being comprehensive and all :-)

Any way to run the app on a MacBook Pro? I'll have the KIWI mod finished on my JX-3p soon but wont have an Ipad for a while.

It really is an iPad app, so no, you can't run it on a mac. You can run it on an iPad 1 though, which will still be cheaper than buying some hardware controller! It's one of the reasons I actually bought my iPad, 'cause I looked at all the wishes I had for a hw controller, but couldn't decide on a particular one, then I found out that there's all kinds of controller sw for the iPad, including DAW remotes and user-designable controllers like MIDI Designer, and decided that one iPad could replace them all for me, plus all the other super things you can do with it, like all the synths, sequencers etc.

An iPad is on my short list, I can't wait to download your app!

That's cool! (btw It's not *my* app, I'm just using it a lot :-) )

I've just uploaded the latest version (2013-01-20), which allows you to select the MIDI channel for each synth from the page itself; I also made several improvements on the MKS-70 Patch and performance page.
The link is in the first post.

Enjoy!
Rainer

omg i luv u.

thank you so much

my ipad and jx8p have lusted after each other for a long time

now they can play

<3


ill post pics when i have it setup

Please add the MKS-80.

Yes, please.

Rainer, you've helped me before on the BC2000 forum. I'm curious as to how you view the iPad and apps vs. the BCR2000. Do you still use your BCR, or has the iPad replaced it? With all the music apps available, I'm seriously considering an iPad.

I have an iPad 2 & a JX8P and a Juno 2 so what am I waiting for!!! Thanks for this.

@Travst:
I bought my iPad especially to be my all-in-one controller instead of investing in several hardware ones. Luckily I ran into this MIDI Designer app which is so fast and easy to work with, both when designing and just using it. I've tried out some others, but they either required a PC to design on, or were just too cumbersome to get the stuff going that I wanted to create.
Since I have the iPad - and my layouts for the Rolands ofcourse :-) - I haven't used my BCR at all anymore, except as a MIDI interface for my iPad :D

Mind you that you will have to have some kind of MIDI interface for your iPad if you purely work with hardware (ie no computer). The BCR2000 works fine in combination with the Camera Connection Kit's (CCK). If you use a computer as your sequencer, a Mac natively supports the "MIDI over Wifi" thing that the iPad (and iPhone) does, and for a Windows PC you'll need Tobias Erichsen's rtpMIDI, which is free. That is obviously the nicest way to use your iPad - you can just sit on your (studio) couch or anywhere else and program your synths! :-)

The greatest thing that hit the iPad/iPhone music scene recently is "AudioBus", an app that enables compatible apps to send their audio to another (compatible) app. Thus you can run a drumcomputer (like the great DM-1) in the background, and record it in your sequencer app, which sends MIDI sync to the DM-1. Marvellous stuff!

@Bitley:
Indeed :-) As I don't have an Alpha Juno/MKS-50 myself, I hadn't been able to test the layout yet, but a very enthusiastic fellow user is testing it as we speak. It actually seems that the Alpha Juno has *exactly* the same Sysex implementation as the MKS-50, so there's no need for the two separate pages that I made. I'll update it real soon when I get the testresults in, and post an update!

@Dougt/Forwerd:
I might do an MKS-80 page some day when I find the time, although I haven't got one. I've studied the Sysex implementation a bit, and know beforehand that some controls will behave awkward, as the MKS-80 has some parameters that are stashed in the same Byte, so altering one control will suddenly send the values for something else too. This is caused by the Roland programmers in the 80s, who wanted a patch to take up as little memory as possible... the MPG-80 should do exactly the same though, but I don't have experience with it.

Thanks for all the positive responses!

Thank you, Rainer. As always, you were very helpful. Given the apps that are available for the iPad now, I can justify buying one. Midi Designer looks like an incredible app, and rtpMIDI seems very straightforward. Your panels are excellent as well.

Which iPad do you use? Also, are you able to use a USB-to-MIDI cable with the JX-8P and the iPad?

I've got an iPad 3 ("the new iPad" hahaha, 6 months later they launch the iPad 4 which is twice as fast) which works superbly, the Retina screen is definately a plus. An iPad 2 or iPad Mini would also work great, but they both don't have the high res screen which is so nice if you use it as a controller. If you want to explore the possibilities of the iPad as a small studio, I'd go for a 2nd hand iPad 3 or 4 as they both are faster than the older models, and if you want to run several soft synths and a sequencer at the same time, that does make a difference.

Obviously I don't know all the options for connecting your iPad to the MIDI world, check out Devices | iOS MIDI for stuff that's know (not) to work with the CCK. Your BCR does work obviously :-) There's tons of info around for getting MIDI to your iPad, also on this forum.
BTW the iPad 4 (Lightning adapter) CCK comes in two flavours, you need the USB one, not the SD Card version.

I have a Roland UM-1 which is on the "doesn't work" list. Bah!