Animoog is a great synth app for iOS devices. I like it very much. It sounds great and presents a very nice touchscreen keyboard that you can configure to only show keys that correspond to notes in a particular scale. For example, if you configure Animoog to play in C major, the keyboard has no black keys.

Because I’m fairly new to MIDI configuration in general, I wrote down what I did to set up Animoog to behave both as if it is a normal Ableton instrument (i.e. can be controlled via piano roll and the computer keyboard) while still allowing me to use the in-app touchscreen keyboard.

Prerequisites

I have the MIDI DLC for Animoog. I imagine it’s necessary, but could be wrong. It is very cheap.

Ensure that your phone an laptop are on the same network. For my usage, they are both connected to the same wireless network.

Audio connection

  1. Plug in the audio out (either via Lightning connector or 1/8” audio out) of your iOS device into the audio input of your computer. I use the stereo line in on my audio interface.
  2. Configure audio interface to use inputs from (1) if necessary.
    • Varies per-interface, may not be needed
  3. Configure Ableton to use audio interface and relevant inputs if necessary
    • Settings -> Audio; set in (and probably out) to your interface
    • Settings -> Audio -> Input Config; ensure your line inputs are a single stereo input

MIDI connection

On computer

  1. Open Audio MIDI Setup
  2. Click the globe (internet symbol) in the top right, next to the Bluetooth button. The MIDI Network Setup window should open.
  3. Click the + under My Sessions to create a new session.
    1. Name it anything you like
    2. At bottom-left, set “Only computers in my Directory” as the value for “Who many connect to me”
  4. In Directory, your iOS device should show up. Highlight it and click Connect. If it does not automatically show up, click + and fill in the popup with your heart.

On Animoog

  1. Press SETUP, then MIDI
  2. Set both MIDI Inputs and MIDI Outputs to Network Session 1
  3. Set the IN channel to 1, and the OUT channel to 2

In Ableton

  1. Open Preferences -> Link MIDI
  2. Ensure that “Output: Network ($SESSION_NAME)” is ON
  3. Set up external instrument
    1. Create a new External Instrument and drop it into a MIDI track
    2. In the Track configuration, set MIDI From to one of the following:
      • Network ($SESSION_NAME) to use only the Animoog keyboard. You may select All Channels or Channel 2, depending on if you have other network MIDI devices
      • $OTHER_MIDI_INPUT_DEVICES if you want to use those
      • All Ins to record all MIDI to this track
    3. In the Device configuration, set MIDI To to Network ($SESSION_NAME), Channel 1. Set Audio From to whatever you configured as your audio input (in my case 3/4 animoog)
    4. Set Monitor to Auto
    5. Save external instrument
  4. Alternately, if you want to only use Animoog as a MIDI controller
    1. Set MIDI From to Netowrk ($SESSION_NAME), Channel 2 (or All Ins)
    2. Set MIDI To to Network ($SESSION_NAME), Channel 1.
    3. Set Monitor to Auto
    4. Add the instrument that you want to control to the track