I’m getting started on using an iPad with my XF7. Using the iPad requires that I have MIDI In/Out set to network. When I use the XF7 with Cubase, I’ve been setting MIDI In/Out to USB.

I’m starting out with the Faders & XY Pad iPad app. I have the sliders in the app set up to control the volume for MIDI channels 9-16. My idea is that by using the iPad app I can control the volume on all 16 MIDI channels in real time while I’m playing: channels 1-8 via the sliders on the XF7, channels 9-16 via the iPad app.

I have my XF7/Cubase rig set up so that I can record a “live” performance directly from the XF7 into a Cubase MIDI track. The setup sends MIDI notes from both the sequencer and the keyboard to Cubase to be recorded. Cubase then sends the notes back to the XF7 to be played audibly. It all works fine via USB.

I’m wondering two things:

1) Can my XF7/Cubase setup work over the network instead of via USB?

2) Can the XF7 to Cubase link work well if the XF7 to wireless router part of the link is happening over Wi-Fi? Would there be issues with latency, dropped data, etc?

I’d like to use both Cubase and the iPad simultaneously. This would require Cubase MIDI communication with the XF7 to happen over the network instead of USB.

I found something called rtpMIDI, which has allowed me to route the input and output of a Cubase track to a network MIDI connection.

It even works, sort of. When I tell Cubase to start recording from my XF7, Cubase starts the XF7 sequencer like I want it to, and sends the MIDI data back to the XF7 to be played, but Cubase doesn’t record the MIDI notes, and the playback sounds weird. It sounds like a minor key instead of the major key that’s actually stored in the sequencer.

Is what I want to do possible? Ideally, I would like to do it all over my Wi-Fi network. Would that work, or would there be problems with reliability/latency/etc if I go the wireless route?