Available in the App Store a new real-time arranger called CompanionP
Haven’t try or buy it yet so I don’t know the quality. It works with Yamaha styles.

An interesting find! I realized that I have another app by the same developer. For five bucks, I had to give it a try. I like the GUI. You can control a number of functions via system exclusive messages. I don't know if OMB for IOS can be connected to an external module, but certainly this one can. I haven't tried it with some of my modules yet. I hope the developer would keep making it better. Thanks for the post.

Fran, that app doesn't come up in a search on my iPhone. Is it android?

No for iPad. Try to search for arranger

Yes I will buy and try it soon. I hope it will also work with the Roland canvas app. His other app aacompanist do.

Found it. I'll take a chance for $5.

link? demo?

Only found it on the ipad, not my Macbook - search "arranger companionP"

you tube demo?

Walter Schurter is the creator. No other info

ok so how is it?.....or how does it work?

Thank you Frans,
I couldn’t find it either.

Thank you Dave for the extra info ,going to see if I can find it now.

It does work with the Roland SoundCanvas. I didn't have to use any bridge app. MIDI Out to Soundcanvas.

Yes I just bought it and it works with the sound canvas app. Another idea to use this is with the app bismark bs-16i. This is a sampler and you can load soundfonts. There is also a xg soundfont set you can download. Just search on google.

Thats a great idea..
Bismark can be an incredible brilliant app

Thanks yes is a great app. I need a bigger Ipad with more memory lol.

Thank you Jonny.

Intriguing, it plays midi out to the sx via Bluetooth adapter, have to see if next I can connect midi in to my p121.

Unfortunately going out, so will have to try later today.

Not sure the 121 has enough sounds on board to duplicate the arrangements. You may need a full GM/XG sound map

Anyone know where I can download free Yamaha styles and how to load them in this app?

PSR Tutorial has a couple thousand!

Hi Dave,
no, I realise p121 can’t play styles hasn’t got enough onboard sounds, but hoping to maybe use it as a controller, and use sx for sound source, if that Isn’t possible, I’ll just get one of the sound apps available for iPad.

I really only want to use it for some of the onboard sx Freeplay styles. They’re really nothing more than strings and pads , so sounds shouldn’t be too difficult to get something that might sound reasonable with the styles.

Sort of like the idea of that type of backing for the piano, and the iPad rests nicely on the music rest, whereas my laptop is a bit of a clunky nightmare.

My other option is still to connect the sx to the p121 via a some sort of midi interface, ( laptop works, but messy) and have the sx next to p121. Stacking them makes the sx a bit too high to comfortably see screen or reach buttons.

So hoping this may work as an alternative for the odd style I want to use with piano.

Hi Frans, probably the early psr2000, 2100, 1500, pretty sure they don’t have the mega voices , fairly sure they would play back better.
XG drums I always found the biggest headache, you end up with some odd sounding drums if the sound source doesn’t have xg drum mapping.

Ok thanks Rikki and ekurburski will try these. Did you already try them on this app and how do you load them?

Haven’t had a chance to play round with it yet.

Already figured it out. I use WinZip for iPad. Download the styles from the psr 9000 pro and they work very well.

Rikki have you used the onboard patterns (bass and drums) on the 121? They’re great with 2 handed piano playing.

Great thank you Frans, I’ll check it out.

9000pro, wow that goes back in time, predates my kn7.

If you need some more , just PM me your email.

When I put together the style library for my sx , I didn’t bother with the really early psr styles, they didn’t sound that great on the sx900 , but I did keep them , because they were the easiest ones to convert to my Korgs. No megavoices to contend with.

Hi Dave,
no, not yet.
Unfortunately I’m a reader, can’t think of what to play unless it’s written out for me, so, decided to do some online lessons and see if it helps me to think for myself.
Keyboard, I can just hold down a left hand chord, piano I have to do a bit more, so I’m slowly working my way thru from the beginning.
Haven’t gotten to any songs yet, except for a rather weird piece from a series called Stranger Things. Never heard of a one chord song before?Thought those Freeplay styles might go with it.

Tune in your local Country Music station, there's plenty of them . And before anyone else says it, yeah, the Rap/HipHop station is another good source .

chas

Are you serious ? or are you having me on. I’m pretty gullible at times. Haha

No, just kidding. Wow, you ARE gullible. How much did you pay for that Casio with the Yamaha logo pasted on?

chas

Haha, actually worse was the Casio with PA4X logo’s plastered all over it, for the life of me , couldn’t work out why it didn’t sound like DonM’s. Hmm

Haha

Hi Dave,
I actually managed to hook up my sx900 and p121 with the app. I can use the p121 as controller for the SX.

Midi out sx connected to BT 01
Midi in P121 connected to iPad via the camera adapter gizmo.

So even if I don’t end up using the app as an arranger, it may have saved me having to buy a midi interface to connect the two together.

Hi Rikki thanks for the offer but for now I have enough styles and I know where I can download more if needed

WOW! That's great - do you see/hear a difference when you use the 121 keys on the grand piano sound??

That’s great Frans.

Hi Dave,
I think so,. At the moment sx and piano aren’t near each other, so bit hard to tell from other side of room, but I know piano is changing the chords on the sx , and sync starting it.
I have to do some furniture moving this morning so that I can get keyboard and piano, right next to each other, either stacked , or in an L shape.
I have a set of monitor speakers, so, I can place them behind piano , so sound from sx in coming from the front, not from the side. Thinking if I can set up my registrations correctly , I would just need to use the pedal, to cycle up thru the registrations for a song, won’t really need access to the buttons /screen till I choose the next song.

This way I can just play sx itself, or if I want to play the piano with a style backing, I can do that.

Stacked is going to be a bit more difficult as the piano is fairly high to start with, I bought the optionalYamaha stand and pedals.

Hi Dave,
Sx piano definitely sounds better played via. p121.

It’s awesome. P121 sustain pedal works, ( I was going to have to buy a new one for the sx, my old one is playing up after 30 years, haha. Can’t complain.)

I can actually mute the piano part on sx and use p121 piano sound across the whole piano keyboard ( personally think p121 piano sounds better than sx piano, but that’s me.

Still deciding on stacking vs L shape setup.

Basically got myself a Clavinova of sorts. haha

Thank you Frans for finding this app. Inadvertently it was what I was looking for to get midi functions on my p121.

Glad I could help Rikki

BS-16i is certainly a great opp which had its beginning as a VST plug-in, but the Japanese developer discontinued it. Right, there are many soundfonts on the net - even Ketron 2, Ketron S1000, and Ketron SD90 soundfonts some people in Europe sampled. Anyway, I connected my Ketron SD1000 hardware module to my iPad as a sound source for CompanionP. It sounds good, but CompanionP couldn't change chords on every beat. OMB (IOS demo version) was able to do it. Maybe we should write to the author and encourage him to come up with a "pro" version with more features.

Hi Torch, Bismark is still available.

One thing I did notice , unless I’m missing something, is there channel 9 , percussion?

Have omb in my laptop, both versions, used it years ago and it was good. Haven’t actually tried the omb app on iPad, Jos might have a demo version, not sure.

Yes good idea. Also the reverb buttons don’t work properly with the sound canvas app. I haven ‘t try companionp with my hardware yet.

I noticed that also that there is no percussion. We certainly should make a list of all this and mentioned it to the author. Nice thing is companionp also work with the korg wavestation and iM1 app.

Hi Rikki, Bismark BS-16 started as a Windows/MAC VST plug-in more than 15 years ago. It never developed into a 64 bit version. The author eventually killed it , and came out with the IOS version. Yes, there is an OMB demo version for the iPad. Wouldn't it be great if Dan would write a "junior" version of vArranger for IOS devices?
Chris

Porting vArranger to iOS is cool for sure, as vArranger is far ahead of arranger software available today for iOS
But to do that, I need to hire some iOS developpers etc... and not sure the work will be paid with the $5 app price

Although many apps are ridiculously cheap, there are examples of very expensive ones. One of them is „Turbosound“, an app for Alpine live music. Each single instrument costs around 50 Euros, so you can easily spend 500 Euros or more for a good selection of sounds. Apparently, some really interested musicians are willing to pay it.
So, for Varranger, I wouldn‘t think you couldn‘t charge a price that covers programming costs...

Hi Torch
Sorry I thought you were talking about the one for the iPad. I’ve never come across it before.

Hi Dan,
OMB for iOS is $47 aud, so guessing it must be around $30 usd ?

The question is how many apps does he sells ?
I think one day, cross platform development will be easier, and I will port to iOS and Android.
For now, you will soon be able to control vArranger from your iPad with the TouchOSC app. This is impressive

Yes I will be willing to pay about 50 euro for a Varranger version for the iPad. Korg apps aren’t cheap either and I have them all

Yes but then you still need a pc or laptop and I like to do it all from one device the IPad.

Fair enough, I have no idea. Personally I won’t bother, mainly only ever used omb as a style editor .

Can you elaborate Dan. Are you saying ie the VArranger engine, so to speak, will still reside in Laptop, but, style / sound selection etc will be an iPad app?

I'd think that anyone who's a registered user of vA2 would jump on an IOS or Android version. Provided that the IOS version of vA2 retains most of the core features, it can be priced much higher than OMB IOS. Also, I suppose you could make available your soundbanks as an in-app purchase to make it worthwhile your efforts and to protect your soundbanks.

Yes, you can forget your computer in a corner, and play with your iPad

Thanks Dan,
sounds like a great update.

I don’t see any reason why apple would make cross platform development any easier... they have the pre dominant development tools for the mobile platform.

Porting to ipad in general means starting anew from scratch.. thats why we don’t see much pc software being ported to ios.. and will not see in the future..

Some third party tools exists to help on cross platform dev, but still not perfect... Especially for graphicals... nothing really cross platform

Hi Dan,
an iPad, it wouldn’t have the capacity to store the type of sound banks you have for a pc for use with VArranger , or would it??

I think today iPads are OK to become an arranger, but are not pleasant to load new styles etc.... Computers are way more easy to deal with

Apple mde a huge step with ios13 in this department
I can connect external ssd’s and usb sticks now




My ipad pro has 512GB and an external 1TB drive connected..
Its huge..

Also the AUv3’s (apple version of VST) come in a huge variety and all of the highest quallity..


Biggest problem for Dann is, almost noboddy is going to pay €300 for an ipad version.. when going ipad you need to make the money from the volume/numbers of sales.. so you need to adapt the V-arranger to be wanted by the more younger publicum on ipad, that will buy any musicall program of great quallity thats reasonably priced...

Hi Bachus
wow, I had no idea of the capacity of the ipads. Quite frankly I never checked.
Until very recently only ever used mine for emails , checking stuff on the internet etc.
And a couple of games I got addicted to.

It wasn’t till I bought the sx and p121 that I thought of using it in conjunction with my keyboards ie using it with the yamaha apps and songbook.

I’ve always used my laptop, mainly because the music software I use all runs on it.

Finally checked my capacity, only 32 gig, but barely used half of it.

Thank you, going to do a bit more checking on what’s available.