Geert Bevin’s terrific MIDI Tape Recorder precisely captures MIDI performances, including MPE, verbatim — not the slightest variation in sound. v2.0 adds a host of new features, plus a standalone version alongside the existing AUv3 plug-in. It’s low-level, direct CoreMIDI capture of what you played, exactly as you played it, with every expression intact. And it’s and open source.
Even if it’s not precision you’re after — like, uh, maybe your performance isn’t really so precise to begin with — this is a handy tool to have around. It lets you record and play back MIDI like it’s audio, with recording running in the background and autosaving. It keeps recording even when the screen is locked on an iPhone or iPad, meaning you don’t lose your work. And you can connect it locally to apps or to external controllers, including expressive/MPE controllers. (That makes sense — it’s all MIDI.)
New in this version:
Standalone version (in addition to existing AUv3)
Loop and record over each cycle
Improved MIDI file import
The legendary “fixes and improvements”
Here it is running as a plug-in, which is handy — but now the standalone option works with no host required.
Speaking of precision and verbatim capture, Geert has described this so carefully that I’m going to paste his description:
MIDI Tape Recorder records and plays back MIDI with the same accuracy and precision as an audio recorder. Most DAWs, even at their highest resolution, still change the timing of MIDI messages to accommodate their editing features, which reorders and delays them and changes how they influence sound. MIDI Tape Recorder purposefully has no note editing, no quantization and no individual CC tweaking, nothing you wouldn’t do with audio, so your performance plays back exactly as you played it. It excels at capturing expressive performances from MPE controllers and MPE plugins.
MIDI Tape Recorder now runs as a full standalone app on iPhone, iPad and Mac, alongside the AUv3 plugin. It connects to your controllers, your synths and your other apps through CoreMIDI, so you can record without a host at all. Sessions are autosaved and can be saved, opened and shared as documents, and the tape keeps rolling in the background and with the screen locked.
Version 2.0 also adds an option to keep recording over your loop on each cycle instead of stopping at the end, together with more robust MIDI file import and a number of fixes.
MIDI Tape Recorder is open source, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0.
Now, I’m curious if any DAW devs out there want to take issue with his claim. (Since this is Mac-only, does Ardour maybe do something similar, including on Linux?)
This is free and open source; you pay $9.99 for the fully built version for Mac, iPhone, and iPad. (If you can’t find ten bucks in the couch cushions, that is, you can be brave and build it with Xcode!)
