ThumbJam and iRig Keys midi controler?

By SienaT, 6 April, 2013

Forum
Apple Hardware and Compatible Accessories
Hi all, OK, so here's the situation, and I'm hoping that one of you could give me a hand as I've tried other lists for Apple and iOS users and no one was able to help. I bought ThumbJam, which is very accessible with Voiceover. I was wondering how to go about setting up my iRig Keys midi keyboard to work with Thumbjam? The Thumbjam user guide doesn't explain things very clearly, and the manual for my keyboard doesn't say anything about Thumbjam. Anyway, the other thing is that when the keyboard is plugged in, I no longer hear speech from Voiceover or any other sound from my iPod Touch, whether I'm using headphones, external speakers or the iPod's built in speaker. Is this normal? Is there a way I can set up the midi input without the keyboard being plugged in? Thank you in advance for your help! If anyone of you have this particular keyboard and can help me out, please feel free to respond on the forum or by email at siena.trigiani@gmail.com (which is also my Apple ID, so you can send me an iMessage there as well). Take care, Siena.

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Comments

By Victor Tsaran on Tuesday, April 23, 2013 - 19:36

Hi, What version of iOS are you running? I tried using iRig Keys with Thumbjam on the iPad and didn't have the problem you described. However… There are two known issues with the latest version of Thumbjam, as confirmed by the author: MIDI input does not automatically activate when plugging a MIDI keyboard, such as iRig Keys. It used to but something got accidentally broken with the last update. You actually have to go into "prefs->MIDI Input" and turn the feature on. The problem is that when you try doing that with Voiceover on, the screen reader will crash (also a known issue). So, it looks like you may need sighted help to get it going, at least for now.

Hi Victor, I'm using iOS version 6.1.2 (not sure if this is the latest update for iOS on the iPod. I know there was an update for the iPhone which I got, but I'm not seeing any other updates for the iPod Touch). Anyway, are the developers of Thumbjam aware of this issue with Voiceover crashing when trying to set up the midi keyboard, or should I go ahead and post it on the ThumbJam forum? By the way, the Thumbjam forum is very accessible, so if any of you would like to join it, it's at www.thumbjam.com . You would join it the same way you would on the AppleVis forum. Take care, and thanks again for your help! Best wishes, Siena. P.S. I forgot to ask, do you remember what I have to click on in order to turn the midi input on? And does the keyboard need to be plugged in? Just wondering so that I can tell the sighted person that will be helping me what to look for. Thanks again!

Hi again, Oops, I knew there was something I forgot to ask: What about Voiceover and other sounds not being audible when the iRig Keys is plugged in to the iPod? Is this something that was broken in iOS 6.1.2, or is this is an issue with the iRig Keys? What do I do to make this work properly? It's not just in ThumbJam that I'm getting this, it's in all of iOS. Thanks again!