Korg iMS20 controlled by Korg Legacy MS20 hardware
If you have a old Korg Legacy MS20 USB controller in a cupboard then dig it out and dust it off because it works as a 1-1 controller with the Korg iMS20 iPad app – no joke. Even patching with physical cables on the controller is mirrored on the iMS20 app. Caveats: naturally you need the Apple USB iPad adaptor but you also have to connect the MS20 controller via a powered hub. Not all powered hubs seem to work with this combo so try a few. Please don’t ask me where to get the MS20 controllers from, they went out of production about 5 years ago.
Of course you’ll need the Korg iMS20 app (v1.1 or higher) running on an iPad with the Camera Connection Kit – which includes the requisite USB adaptor. To be honest initially it wasn’t exactly plug n’ play and it took me a few attempts to to get the iPad to recognise the MS20. The reason for this is that iPad wont let you use any external MIDI hardware that draws more than a minuscule amount of power but the MS20 controller needs quite a bit of USB juice. Unfortunately the MS20 doesn’t include an external PSU socket so you’ll need to use a powered USB hub as a bridge between the two. I’m not entirely sure why but it seems not all powered hubs are equal to the iPad (or the MS20) and it wasn’t until I tried my third hub (a small Belkin unit) that the iPad recognised the controller. Actually there’s a free App called MIDI Monitor that can be useful in these situations.
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