MusicRadar

Given how well Apple's mobile devices lend themselves to software control, it should come as no surprise that new controller apps are hitting the iTunes App Store on a regular basis.

The last month has seen the launches of Griid (£14.99) and touchAble (£9.99), two brand new wireless controllers aimed at iPad-owning Ableton Live users (there's an iPhone version of Griid, too). Griid is the first app from Berlin-based software developer Liine, and was created in conjunction with Canadian techno legend Richie Hawtin.

Its main rival, touchAble, comes from AppBC and courtesy of programmer Christian Blomert (coincidentally also based in the German capital) in partnership with French producer Sylvain "Le K" Garcia.

Setup

At the time of writing Griid is only compatible with Live for Mac, but we're told full Windows support should be arriving "very soon". touchAble, which was released yesterday, works on both platforms.

The setup processes for each app are broadly similar and, thankfully, fairly straightforward in both cases. A software patch is applied to Live in order to add control surface scripts, then it's simply a case of adjusting a few settings in the software before establishing a wireless network connection and getting started.

Griid requires a couple of settings to be made in your Mac's Audio MIDI Setup utility, while Windows users should note that touchAble also requires the installation of MIDI-OX's free MIDI Yoke utility for signal routing.

The setup process for each app is relatively simple. Griid requires you to install the Griid Connector application and adjust some basic MIDI settings.

In addition, both apps require software to be installed on your host computer; the Griid Connector must be run every time you use the app, while the touchAble Server application is only required for Pads and Keys functionality.

touchAble's interface is a little more cluttered than Griid's, but the feature set is significantly more complex.

NEXT: Griid and touchAble's features compared

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