MIDIAngloXL is a 30-button Anglo Concertina CoreMIDI control surface for the iPad.

MIDIAngloXL doesn't produce any sound on its own, it is for playing hardware or software VST-style MIDI synthesizers via CoreMIDI hardware interfaces connected to the dock connector or virtual MIDI instruments running on your iPad such as SampleTank by IK Multimedia or Sonosaurus ThumbJam.

Please visit the app support website to see some amazing live demo videos and for the settings you will need to enable in the synth app you are using to have it work with the control surface.

Anglo-style concertinas are commonly used for playing traditional Irish dance tunes, and is a much-favored instrument in County Clare, Ireland.

The Anglo concertina is bisonoric, meaning the instrument plays a different note for each button depending on whether you are pushing or pulling on the bellows.

In the app, to play, simply tip the iPad to the left for a bellows push note, or to the right for a bellows pull note, and press a button. The colors on the top of the screen alternate to show the changes between push and pull. Blue on the left represents a push, blue on the right represents a pull.

You may reverse the bellows while pushing a button simply by tipping in the opposite direction.

Multiple buttons may be pressed at the same time to play chords.

Touch the diamond area at the bottom center of the screen to add vibrato effects. Touch and release in the upper half for a high vibrato, lower half for a low vibrato. The farther from the center vertically, the deeper the vibrato depth.

Touch the '?' icon to show the note names for each button.

Touch the MIDI connector icon to show the MIDI controls.

You may select the volume, MIDI channel, attack velocity, and semitone transposition (+/- 12), as well as set the push/pull tilt sensitivity.

The lower the tilt sensitivity, the farther from neutral you need to tilt the iPad to change bellows direction.

All MIDI settings are saved when MIDIAngloXL quits and restored the next time it is run.

Touch the '!' icon at the upper right to quiet any "stuck" notes if they occur.

The button layout is based on a 30-button modified C/G Jeffries style.

Here's the settings changes required for two popular synth apps:

IK Multimedia SampleTank:

- In Settings (touch the gear icon), enable "Background Audio"

Sonosaurus ThumbJam:

- In "Prefs", under "MIDI Control", in "MIDI General Options" enable "Use CoreMIDI" and "Active in Background"

Other CoreMIDI compatible synth apps will have similar settings.