Hardware

Sequence hardware synths from your iPad

Oxidzr sends ordinary MIDI notes, controllers and clock, so it can drive any synth or drum machine with a MIDI input. Here is how to connect them and set it up.

Connect

The standalone app sends to one MIDI destination at a time, chosen with MIDI Out in the transport settings (tap » at the top). The list shows every MIDI destination the iPad knows about:

USB: a class-compliant synth or MIDI interface plugged into the iPad’s port, directly or through an adapter or hub. Synths with only 5-pin DIN MIDI need a USB MIDI interface.
Bluetooth MIDI: Oxidzr lists Bluetooth MIDI devices once they’re connected, but has no pairing screen of its own. Connect the device from an app that has one first.
Network sessions and other apps’ MIDI inputs.

The list updates as devices come and go, and if the chosen destination disappears Oxidzr sends to it again as soon as it’s back. MIDI Out goes back to Virtual only each time the app opens.

Several synths at once

Everything Oxidzr plays goes to that one destination, on up to 16 channels. To play several synths:

Chain them on one port: daisy-chain synths through their MIDI thru, or use a multi-port interface or MIDI router that splits by channel, and set each synth to its own channel.
Use the plugin in a host: in AUM and similar hosts, the host can route Oxidzr’s output to several destinations at once.

Channels

Each sequencer sends on its own Channel, 1 to 8 by default. Set each synth to listen on the channel of the sequencer that plays it.

Multitrack and Matriceal set a channel per track, so one sequencer can play a drum machine and a bass synth.
ChMx spreads a chord’s notes over neighbouring channels: one note per mono synth, or one per part of a multitimbral synth. With Span 3, a three-note chord plays one note on each of three channels.

Drum machines

Use Multitrack mode: 8 tracks, each with its own channel and note.

Set the sequencer’s Scale to Chromatic, so each track’s Note can reach every key of the drum machine’s map.
Give each track the Ch and Note your drum machine expects: the same channel with a note per drum, or a channel per drum.
Write hits by tapping pads, with Euclidean Apply, or with the Kick, Snare and Hat pattern generators on tracks 1 to 3.

Controllers and automation

Every sequencer has 8 mod lanes. Set a lane’s To to MIDI CC and its CC number to whatever your synth responds to, such as filter cutoff. New lanes are set up on CC 1, 74, 71, 7, 10, 91, 93 and 11. Each lane has its own length and speed, and Rise Slew and Fall Slew glide between values.

A few things are sent as standard controllers, so the synth needs to respond to them:

Feature	Sent as
Glide (Saga, Matriceal) and Portamento (Stochastic)	Portamento on/off (CC 65) and portamento time (CC 5)
Stochastic Attack and Decay	Expression (CC 11)
Tie in Mono	Overlapping notes, so a mono synth set to legato slurs

MIDI clock

To make a drum machine or another sequencer follow Oxidzr’s tempo, set Clock to Send in the transport settings.

Oxidzr sends 24 clock ticks per beat while playing, Start when you press play and Stop when you stop. It sends Start rather than Continue, because its patterns restart from the first step.
Clock goes to the same places as the notes: the MIDI Out destination and the virtual source.
It’s off each time the app opens.

Oxidzr sends MIDI clock but doesn’t follow incoming MIDI clock. It’s always the clock leader. To share a tempo with other apps or devices that support it, use Ableton Link. As a plugin, Oxidzr follows the host’s tempo and transport, and the host provides clock.

Playing in from a keyboard

Oxidzr listens to every MIDI source on the iPad. With a keyboard connected:

Arp turns the selected sequencer into an arpeggiator while you hold keys.
Rec writes what you play into Mono, Poly, Chord or Multitrack, one step at a time, with the velocity you played.
Thru sends your keys out on the selected sequencer’s channel, so you hear the synth you’re sequencing.

See MIDI Out, Clock and Mod lanes in the full guide.