Musikmesse 2012: Vestax VMIDI iOS Interface

March 24, 2012 By 11 Comments


First we had the news that the VCI-400 was getting standalone mixer mode, and then it was the look but don’t touch VCI-380. But I did get to handle at least one piece of Vestax news, and that was the rather cool VMIDI iOS interface.

To recap – VMIDI is an interface that allows a regular MIDI controller to be plugged into iOS devices and control CoreMIDI apps. Nice and simple. And Vestax had some set up running Animoog and NLog MIDI Synth, powered by a pair of Korg nanoKEYs. I may have used a PadOne myself.

I’ve become accustomed to Vestax pushing the boat out build-wise, and had expected the VMIDI to be hewn from a solid block of Tungsten steel or something equally over the top. But this is plastic. It does however feel good enough to be thrown around in your bag.

It’s simple and it works. But for me it signals a shift for digital DJs and legitimises iOS devices as viable DJ machines. Being able to hook any MIDI controller up to an iPad is a godsend. It won’t be a matter of waiting for  companies like Numark to add a 30 pin plug to an existing product anymore. App makers will start to add core support for the plethora of MIDI controllers just like software vendors to now for Mac and PC.

But this isn’t a magical link that’ll make every controller work with every app. That’ll take a little time to iron out, but I hope that developers will be encouraged to start to write specific apps for specific controllers.

For me however, there is one obstacle that stops this from being perfect, and that’s the fact that VMIDI requires power. This does somewhat limit the whole portability of using an iOS device, but does at least mean that your rig can be that little bit smaller by not having to bring a laptop. We can only hope that in time, the iPad will have enough power to drive VMIDI, or that the next version can be battery or wall powered.

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  • http://www.djworx.com Mark Settle

    I think I have to buy an iPad all over again. This, the Numark iDJ Pro and Mixvibes for iPad seem to force my hand.

  • GroovinDJ

    If you do want a truly portable solution that doesn’t need power, the Apple iPad Camera Connection Kit includes a USB-to-30-pin plastic dongle that allows you to connect various USB kit to an iPad (not just cameras) and it does work in much the same way – I’ve used it with an Akai MPK25.

    • http://www.djworx.com Mark Settle

      Which app did you use with that? I had success with cameras but couldn’t seem to get controllers working with it. Then again, I didn’t try [i]that[/i] hard if I’m honest.

      • GroovinDJ

        Just tried it with Korg iMS-20 synth, Yamaha TNR-i, Animoog and Garage Band – and it works on all.

      • http://twitter.com/AndyrewSmith Andy Smith

        I tried it with an Akai LPD8 with Garageband and it worked fine.

    • http://www.djworx.com Mark Settle

      So are we saying that if we use the £25 USB camera connector and a split cue cable, then we can do the same thing but without the power?

      • GroovinDJ

        Without the power, without the bulk and without the extra cabling.

    • http://www.nem0nic.com nem0nic

      Here’s the problem. Yes, the Apple CCK does allow some controllers to be connected to the iPad via the USB connection. But there is a major limit on how much current that device can draw before the iPad sends you an error and disables the attached device. So while you might be able to use something like an LPD8, you certainly will NOT be able to use something like a VCI-380. And THAT is there the VMIDI comes into play.

      What this means is that obviously Vestax have some solid plans to move into iOS. Otherwise they wouldn’t be building hardware around the prospect. And I would further guess that the software they’re working with is NOT Algoriddim’s Djay software, since Numark seems to have them wrapped up. So this is a really interesting product when you peel back a few layers.

      As a sidenote, this isn’t the first product of it’s kind. The iConnect MIDI by iConnectivity has been out for a year or so… http://iconnectivity.com/iConnectMIDI-Overview I’m going to guess that this Vestax VMIDI will be less expensive.

  • http://twitter.com/deejayelektron Ron Maran

    Great call on the camera connection kit!

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