Doris began as a replacement for a soon to be discontinued app that was being used by the Gorillaz Playback Engineer, but quickly became much more. dgApps designer Dave Guerin discusses what Doris does for him and what the app could do for any sound engineer, playback engineer, or even musician, looking for a tidy way to control MIDI devices.

Out on tour, Guerin found himself needing more macros than he had buttons on the console, so Doris was born. The app can control as many MIDI devices as you need, via MIDI USB interfaces and over Bluetooth, storing MIDI commands as buttons in user assigned pages, all easily accessible and laid out in a way that works for every individual.

"The first public beta version of Doris was released in 2023. I’ve done 14 beta versions since then and our first full App Store release came in June 2024," Guerin explains. "During the development time, as well as touring worldwide with Blur, I have also written two more apps, Timothy, a speaking clock for Apple Watch, and TruckPack, an app for listing the order of your flight cases as they go on the truck."

As a long-time touring monitor engineer for Blur and Gorillaz, Guerin knows what it takes to get a successful show on the road night after night. It is this experience that has informed his approach to app design. Doris is a straightforward, reliable app that will do exactly what you need it to.

Capable of sending, receiving and configuring MIDI in-app, without the need for additional software, Doris is a MIDI controller with a difference. Designed specifically for sound engineers and playback engineers it has functionality at its core. The app is streamlined and there is nothing added that doesn’t need to be there; just pure, easily understood functionality at your fingertips.

Six programmable types of button are available: Note On/Off will send a note, either with a momentary touch, with the off command being fired on release, or with the next touch, as required.

Control Change and Program Change buttons are fully configurable and the multiple MIDI button is capable of sending multiple commands with a single touch and can send them all at once, or sequentially, depending on user preference.

In addition to this functionality, each button is also customisable visually, from colour and size to text weight and background colour. There are even spacer buttons that are only visible in edit mode, to ensure your screen is designed exactly the way you want it to be.

The flash function ensures that users are alerted to the success of a MIDI command. Each button will flash when MIDI is received, or for a specific programmable event, in a variety of scenarios.

MIDI Commands can be sent, directly from the app, via Bluetooth or USB, to multiple devices from the same project. The app is fully configurable, with multiple screens, buttons and sizes of buttons all capable of being set according to preference.

Sharing and transferring your Doris projects as files could not be simpler. Project files can be duplicated and shared with all the usual iPhone/iPad share options available. If additional projects are needed, when touring with more than one band, or mixing shows in rep, Doris can store multiple projects at once, all within the app.

Doris is already out in the world, with engineers using it successfully to streamline their workflows.

Hope Andrea is Playback Engineer for The Script tour 2024, using the app to not only control parts of the Monitor Engineers’ DiGiCo console, but also to trigger actions in her DirectOut PRODIGY.MP.

"I find the Multi MIDI buttons really useful and use them to trigger multiple actions within my interfaces at once. The Flash buttons are great for when I want confirmation a device has received the MIDI message, or to monitor interface states."

Guerin has also used the app multiple times, most recently with Little Simz, controlling crew talk-back and IEM feeds.

"Communication between the crew, and crew to artist is essential, especially in rehearsals," he says. "I ended up writing over 60 macros on the desk, all controlled by MIDI from Doris. Not just for talk-back but for IEM testing and more. It’s a great, stable app and I know other engineers, techs and musicians are definitely going to enjoy using it, too!"