AUM (iOS) with MAINFRAME-B

AUM running on iOS with the MAINFRAME MIDI visualizer lets you visualize virtually any MIDI signal on an LED strip. Together, they create a highly versatile and portable live lighting setup—perfect for any traveling performer. This works with both MAINFRAME B and B Plus, since both support USB MIDI.

You don’t need any special drivers, plugins, or VSTs. All you need is a Lightning to USB dongle, like the one shown here. Once it’s plugged into your device, you’ll also need to power the dongle, since iOS devices don’t supply enough power for external USB gear.

With MAINFRAME plugged in, just open AUM, go into MIDI routing, and you’ll see MAINFRAME B appear automatically. For this demo, I’m routing a keyboard to MAINFRAME, and as I play, you can see MIDI being visualized in real time.

You can route virtually any MIDI app to MAINFRAME—here I’ve also got a sequencer and an arpeggiator sending MIDI data. If you add a USB hub to the dongle, you can connect MAINFRAME as usual and also plug in any other MIDI controller, effectively turning your phone into a powerful portable MIDI hub.

And that’s it! It’s a simple setup, but I’m really just scratching the surface of what AUM can do. If you haven’t explored it yet, AUM is a powerful mixing app for iOS and iPadOS. There’s a lot more I want to try out, but it’s already clear that MAINFRAME paired with AUM and iOS is a great combo for portable setups.