Ableton alone can’t take you mobile, apart from bringing your MacBook running Live on the bus. But now KORG is ready to take your Ableton Live work on the road. Apart from adding native Live set export to their electribe and electribe sampler, the new versions of KORG’s iOS apps Gadget and iKaossilator do export, too.
And that’s just one feature in the deceptively-named “1.03” release of KORG’s Gadget.
Gadget is one of those apps that I’ve had to file under “wow, this looks cool but I’ve no time.” As the name implies, you get a selection of synths and drum machines. Here’s where having a newer iPad benefits you, too – the latest processor runs up to 20 at once. There’s a 303-style bass, PCM and digital synths, virtual analog synths, semi-modulars, percussion synths, “wobble” and chip goodies. Then, you can either perform live with the lot or save patterns.
1.03 finally makes integrating that goodness easier, with MIDI input, Live export, and multitrack export, for starters:
MIDI input. You can connect MIDI devices for easier playability. KORG has wisely made their latest gear class-compliant, so that includes KORG keyboards – make the full-sized Taktile into a synth by adding an iPad, or going the other way, add a tiny nanoSERIES input for tactile control beyond the touchscreen. (And yes, that’s a huge limitation of Native Instruments’ pricey Komplete Kontrol keyboards we saw this week; they need a computer to function, so you essentially pay more for hardware that does less.) See the whole KORG controller lineup.
Export as Ableton Live sets. Each phrase and scene in Gadget now exports natively to an Ableton Live set with clips and scenes, respectively. You can transfer via Dropbox or iTunes File Sharing. And if you don’t use Ableton —
Export as individual audio tracks. From Pro Tools or Maschine, that means another way of moving phrases and songs around. (It appears you’d have to leave one phrase per track in order to separate them, so it’s not as convenient as Ableton Live, perhaps, by definition – but still very workable.)
Other enhancements: 64-bit, landscape. 1.03 also fixes an annoyance: you can now use landscape mode and not just portrait. It’s also 64-bit native, bringing big performance gains on new Apple hardware.
There are also two new instruments:
Bilbao is a US$9.99 in-app sample player, with 16 one-shots and import:
Nice, but Abu Dabhi is I think more interesting – sample slicing and groove manipulation, also US$9.99:
— on top of 1.02’s addition of Audiobus, more. The last “minor” update brought Audiobus support, a better sequencer and UI, a beginners’ guide, and more. It also has “Increased Japanese,” which is always a good thing. See the what’s new guide for all the specifics.
KORG has been releasing featured tracks from the community, too. Let’s have a listen. (Maybe there are some CDM readers in the bunch?)
The app is on sale, alongside KORG’s other apps, through September 8th on the App Store for US$28.99 (instead of the usual $38.99).