XPad vs KeyStage Lite

XPad is a professional sound module app and Audio Unit v3 plugin with focus on modern pad sounds for iPad. Goal was to get the warm and vibrant sound of analogue synths onto the convenient platform of an iPad and combining those sounds with the benefits of state of the art digital features while still preserving that analogue tone and feeling. Glissando XPad introduces a new way that we were developing for our apps to achieve realistic large interval Glissando. You can glide a tone continuously e.g. from the lowest octave up to the highest octave and vice versa, in any desirable speed and without causing an artificial impression to the listener. We were also thinking about how to improve the usability aspects for playing Glissando in a much more intuitive & convenient way for a keyboard player, while still preserving the player's full control. Foremost this app allows you to mix Glissando with regular polyphonic notes (e.g. chords) simultaneously or switch between these playing styles quickly at any time without leaving your hands off the keyboard. For instance you might be playing and holding a chord with your right hand while playing a Glissando slide with your left hand and punching through the right hand's chord from an octave lower than the chord, up to some octave higher than the chord. Tone Width Replicating some analogue boutique pad synthesizers is nice, but what about having a huge stack of them? That's where "Tone Width" control comes into play. Especially the important pad sounds of this app allow you to morph the sound with the "Tone Width" knob in real-time steplessly between a very thin and clean sound up to a huge and fat tonal sound as if an army of pad synths was working under your finger tips. Sensible Control Controls for the individual sound aspects is good. But it should be in a sensible way. Nothing is hard wired here. Every sound of this app presents controls that make sense for the individual sound. All controls presented are always fine tuned to the individual elements of that sound. You can alter all controls remotely by MIDI e.g. with sliders at your keyboard. The most important controls for each sound are mapped to things that you are most likely using anyway at your keyboard. For instance all sounds use the Aftertouch information of your keyboard to bring more dynamic behaviour into the sound even while just holding some notes. And just grab your modulation wheel at your keyboard to bring in some more variance. Never Lost XPad offers up to 462 sounds, but don't worry, it never lets you down and always assists you finding just the sound you need in a glimpse. You can quickly search for sounds with any combination of several criteria like sound characteristics, articulations, controls and more. Connectivity Like all our apps, XPad is very easy to use and start with. Just connect your keyboard with your iPad and you are ready to go. And of course if needed, you can simply tweak the setup, e.g. use a Bluetooth MIDI wireless connection to your keyboard instead of a cabled one, restrict MIDI input to certain devices or apps, connect to other apps with Inter-App Audio or use the sounds of this app as Audio Unit v3 plugin directly in the DAW app of your choice. Recorder The app comes with a built-in MIDI recorder that allows you to quickly record your musical ideas. You can share them as audio files with other people or transfer them as MIDI files for further work e.g. on your Mac. Sound Sets XPad is divided into 14 optional sound sets of different sound categories and provide up to 462 sounds in total. Even though the app is focused on pad sounds, this is not all this app has to offer sound-wise. The "Atmo" pack for instance contains atmospheric sounds for generating very emotional sound bases and backgrounds e.g. for film and entertainment. The "Perc" sound set contains drums and percussive sounds. The "Silicon" sound set covers synthesizers also offside the pad field, and much more.

KeyStage is a master controller, AUv3 host, and audio mixer app designed mainly for keyboard players. With KeyStage, you can simultaneously control any number of hardware and software instruments using any number of MIDI controllers in an organized way. Each project consists of sections (which corresponds to sections of a song). In each section you can change sounds and sound parameters of connected instruments, create complex splits and layers of your keyboard(s), change the functionalities of sliders/knobs/pedals of your MIDI controllers by creating advanced MIDI mappings, write your own scripts, view PDF and JPG files (e.g. sheet music) and lyrics, and much more. LIST OF FEATURES • Connect any number of MIDI controller to any number of MIDI instruments by creating tracks. • Load AUv3 instruments, effects, and MIDI Processors. • Assign any region of your keyboard(s) to any connected instrument. • Change velocity curve and velocity limits, and create velocity splits and layers. • Transpose notes and restrict notes to any key using pitch shifter. • Create mixer units to combine audio signals, turning KeyStage into an audio mixer. • With the player units, you can play wav, mp3, and m4a files, add marker points, automate actions (like play, stop, move to a marker etc.) using custom translators, or trigger certain events (like changing sections) when the player reaches a certain marker. • Input units allows you to use the microphone input, or the hardware inputs of a connected audio interface. • The Main Mixer view allows you to control volume levels and pans of all tracks, connect effect units, and connect units to mixer units. • Create instrument presets to easily change sounds of instruments by choosing patch names from patch lists. • KeyStage can also import Cubase Patch Scripts to automatically create instrument presets for your MIDI instruments. • KeyStage automatically detects new MIDI connections and recommends matching instrument presets from a database. • Simulate auto-sustain on any connected instrument. • KeyStage has a multi-track recorder, which lets you record any number of tracks simultaneously. • Change or filter any MIDI signal using custom translators. Use “Relative Control” switch to smoothly change the parameters of your instruments without any jumps. • Use XY control unit to send control change and pitch bend messages to any connected MIDI instrument. • Create setlists, quick access all the songs in a setlist from a setlist bar, move to previous/next songs from live console or using external MIDI. • Create virtual MIDI inputs/outputs for KeyStage. • Use virtual MIDI piano controller to play connected instruments. • View PDF and JPG files. Link any page or region of any file to any section. • Backup and restore your songs and global properties to Dropbox. • Map special actions (like changing octaves, switching sections, changing pages of a PDF file) to notes and controllers using custom translators. • You can write your own scripts in custom translators, which opens up endless possibilities. • Use MPE routing to control any MIDI instrument using MPE controllers like Seaboard. Use custom translators to change the functionalities of each MPE dimension. • KeyStage supports smooth transitions between sections. Pressed notes will continue to sound when you switch sections. You can access demo videos and video tutorials on my Youtube channel.