FP30 not receiving MIDI data from Apps

[Zengusan]

I connected my FP30 to my iPad via Bluetooth. I have tried different music apps on the appstore, I found that all those apps can receive MIDI data from the FP30 (they can detect which keys I am playing), but none of them can play sound on the FP30. The MIDI over Bluetooth is supposed to be 2-way, right? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[SeaGtGruff]

Yes, according to the Owner's Manual (page 8), you can send and receive MIDI-- as you say, 2-way. If the apps can detect which keys you're playing, then it sounds like you've got a successful connection.

Which iPad apps are you using to send MIDI to the FP-30?

 

[Zengusan]

I have tried Flowkey, Yousician and Skoove. None of them is playing anything through the FP30.

 

[SeaGtGruff]

I have an iPad, so I'll see if I can check out those apps with one of my Yamaha keyboards.

 

[SeaGtGruff]

I've installed those three apps on my iPad, but I can't use them with my keyboards right now because I can't find the connector from my Camera Connection Kit.

So I installed the Flowkey app on my Windows computer to try it. My keyboard is detected automatically. In the popup settings window-- the one in the upper right corner of the song screen, not the one in the bottom left corner of the main screen-- there is an option for "MIDI Sound." Whether or not that is turned on, the meter underneath it moves when I play on my keyboard. If I have "MIDI Sound" turned on, I can hear a piano sound from the computer when I play on my keyboard-- not my Yamaha's piano sound, but the piano sound from the Flowkey program. If I have "MIDI Sound" turned off, I can't hear anything from the computer when I play on my keyboard. So "MIDI Sound" controls whether or not the app will play a piano sound on your device (computer or tablet) in response to what you play on your keyboard.

As far as I can tell, there is no option to have Flowkey send MIDI to your keyboard; it doesn't play the songs through your keyboard using your keyboard's sounds. I haven't tried the other two programs on my PC yet, but I imagine that they're similar. I can't find any information on the web sites for these three programs about whether or not they include an option to output MIDI to a connected keyboard; it looks like you can only input MIDI from the connected keyboard.

 

[Marten Richens]

As far as I'm aware on my FP30 the Midi connection isn't a true two way in that you can use things as a sound unit. The only thing I have found that works well is the Roland app designed for the FP30 (which isn't a massive amount of use I know). The piano doesn't have the capability to connect a midi device using wires, so I can't see them doing it wirelessly. You can us it as a midi keyboard, but that's really about it. Roland had to cut costs somewhere when making the FP30 to make it available in the price bracket.

 

[SeaGtGruff]

Based on the manuals for the FP-30-- which are pretty brief-- it looks like the Bluetooth MIDI should be two-way, so I think the real issue in this case is that the apps themselves aren't designed to transmit MIDI to a connected keyboard. It might be good to test the Bluetooth connection with an app that's known to transmit MIDI to a connected device.

EDIT: Now if I can just figure out where the USB connector from my Camera Connection Kit has disappeared to!

 

[Ted Nicoson]

Many iPad sequencer apps, particularly the older ones, do not transmit MIDI to external devices, but rather hardwire it, internally, to their own, and usually limited, sound module circuits, but you will normally not find that prominently listed in their spec sheets or owners manuals. This has been the major criticism of Garageband for the iPad, since its inception. I would say that you need to do your homework, but with inaccurate and/or limited-info spec sheets, that is not aways possible. I have found that many of the legitimate app writers have their own websites, so if you go there, you can normally get a lot more info than just reading the hype in the iTunes App Store, but no guarantees on that, either. If the app, itself, does not transmit MIDI externally, to begin with, then Bluetooth will not help, and even if the app DOES transmit MIDI externally, it would also need to be Bluetooth enabled.

 

[SeaGtGruff]

Good points all. I was testing the Flowkeys app with a standard USB-MIDI connection to a Windows computer, and am not certain whether the Windows app is identical in functionality to the iPad app, but the Windows app definitely did not send MIDI back to the keyboard.

Regarding GarageBand, I don't think the Mac version has any MIDI output, either.

 

[Zengusan]

I asked Flowkey about this and just got a response from them. It seems that the app does not have the capability to send MIDI to the piano, the songs (sounds) can only be played through the IPad. I tried another app (Piano Adventures Player) and it does play the song through the piano. So I guess it is an app specific thing. Thank you all for the great help.

P.S. The Bluetooth midi function of the FP30 is quite stable. All of the apps that I have tested can connect to the keyboard without any issue.