If you’re using hardware then you know what I’m talking about. SysEx management is something really useful, and being able to manage via iOS is extra handy too. MidiQuesti describes itself as “Unparalleled SysEx Management for MIDI Hardware”. Which is a very big claim indeed, but reading through the app’s description, and it might just have something.
According to the developer, Midi Quest supports over 630 of the most popular MIDI instruments and other devices from over 50 different manufacturers including Korg, Roland, Yamaha, Kurzweil, Alesis, Waldorf, Kawai, Akai, and E-mu, and is able to store, organize, and edit banks and the individual patches, combinations, multis, performances, drums settings, and other SysEx loaded from your MIDI hardware. Apparently Midi Quest is a true multi-instrument editor/librarian designed from the ground up to effectively support multiple MIDI ports, multiple manufacturers, and multiple MIDI devices. So if you have a lot of external hardware this could be exactly what you need. That is if you want to use iOS for SysEx management anyway.
Here’s the full app’s description so you can see if this is going to be an app you want to use:
Midi Quest “talks” to each MIDI device individually so it can simultaneously send SysEx to as many as 250 different instruments and still edit another instrument – all at the same time. Try doing that with any other editor/librarian…
Midi Quest is not a panel editor. Midi Quest is a professional, integrated system capable of fully managing, editing, and organizing the simplest to the most complex workstation class MIDI devices and hardware synthesizers such as Korg’s flagship workstation, the Kronos.
Midi Quest natively reads and writes industry standard .syx and .mid files so that you can easily take advantage of SysEx downloaded from the internet or received from a friend.
Midi Quest for iPad imports Set, Collection, individual Patch, and individual Bank files from Mac and Windows versions of Midi Quest so existing SysEx can easily be stored and edited on an iPad.
Midi Quest can store an entire studio configuration – in a single file.
First, what every editor/librarian should have (but may not)… Midi Quest will easily handle all of your bank editing tasks. Copy and Paste, Swap, or Insert single or multiple patches within the same bank or with other banks using menu commands or drag and drop. Along with a dozen other standard commands to rename, sort, shift patches, and so on. 1-tap audition automatically sends selected patches.
Midi Quest’s unique and powerful bank editing capabilities are highlighted in multi-timbral instruments with parent/child linked editing and display.
Just like its bank editors, Midi Quest’s parameter editors cover all of the basics with the features you expect – multiple ways to edit each parameter: grab and drag editing, extended popup editing, and true rotary knob editing. Unlike most panel editors, Midi Quest can retrieve and display all of the current values of all parameters. Of course, Midi Quest performs edits in real time so the instrument immediately reflects the changes made on screen. It also offers a range of both manual and automatic auditioning options.
Scale each editor to a customizable size (up to 3X) so editing is fast and easy.
Along with the editor’s many features, take advantage of the Block Copy/Swap options which allows for the selection of a logical group of parameters such as an envelope, oscillator, effect, or LFO and copy/swap them within the same patch, or a different patch.
Midi Quest is not just for the patch tweaker. Midi Quest has many users who have never created a new patch by editing individual parameters. Their secret is Midi Quest’s five different patch generators: Mix, Blend, Mix All, Morph, and Gen 4. Each takes existing sounds and combines them in different ways to create entire banks of new sounds in a matter of seconds. This type of experimentation, without Midi Quest, would require days but with Midi Quest there are results in seconds.
Looking for new inspiration? Looking for a sound but no time for programming? Midi Quest has the answer for you. Sound Quest’s latest patch collection contains over 180,000 unique patches and is now accessible to everyone with Midi Quest using the unique Patch Zone view. This context sensitive view tracks the instrument and type of SysEx and automatically lists the available patches.
MidiQuesti is free to download on the app store, but requires IAPs for devices, which comes as no surprise really.