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iPAD: Making music on it yet?


rasputin1963

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I see the current rage is music-making apps for your iPAD,  and darned sophisticated ones,  too.    Every kind of synth,  wavetable and FX processing you can imagine is available.

Are you into this sort of thing?   Just curious.    Can iPAD be taken seriously as professional music-making tool?


Thanks,  ras

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I'll try it when someone gives me an iPad. I have no reason to buy one. I have perfectly satisfactory recording solutions without having to worry about a device over which I have practically no control, and, which, based on my experience with my Android tablet (which was a door prize), sometimes has a mind of its own.

If I had an iPad I might use it as a backup recorder, but not as the primary recorder. And I sure wouldn't mix or edit on one. I'm much too clumsy for that!

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I'm not interested in it mostly because I have other stuff that can handle the job capably. But I do like tablet/touchpad thingies.

I suppose an issue I might have with using an iPad are things that it seems to me that things that the connections seem flimsy, especially if you're out in the field. I could be wrong, but that's my impression.

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MikeRivers wrote:

If I had an iPad I might use it as a backup recorder, but not as the primary recorder. And I sure wouldn't mix or edit on one. I'm much too clumsy for that!


Well, mine is mostly used to control my Mackie DL1608 for live sound but it's not clumsy at all for that IMO. I do have Auria installed too and it is amazing and Garage Band is pretty good too. That said it's too much of a PITA to get stuff on and off the iPad (thanks Steve Jobs frown.gif) so I'll fire up Audacity or Reaper on my laptop if I'm editing audio (mostly 2 track for video). The small screen and my old eyes don't help either - my laptop has a 17" screen and my next one will be touch enabled and at least a four core for video editing biggrin.gif.

BTW if anyone has any important audio that is unusable due to line frequency buzz I've come up with an amazingly effective process to remove it in Audacity cool.gif.

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Mike speaks for me.

Although I actually had a client offer to buy me an iPad. (But that was before he started getting pissed off when the Genius Bar guys told him he could no longer update his 4 or 5 year old iMac -- which I don't even think is true from what I've read, but I haven't worked directly on his issues yet.)

did finally see what looked like a moderately sophisticated dual oscillator Android virtual-analog synth plug. It even had USB MIDI. (It must be 'serious' -- they want a 'whopping' $7.59 for the app.  wink.gif  EDIT: found a version of it for ~$4 on the Play store.)

The iPad, of course, has benefitted from Apple's total control of the platform, where Android's highly fragmented multi-manufacture hardware base has been a huge impediment to the growth of hardware add-ons like audio converters. (Although many Androids can be 'rooted' to take advantage of user-created solutions that can allow connection to outboard converters and such.)

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I have a few different things on my iPad, and I've been pretty darned impressed with a few of them. I just downloaded Cakewalk's new Z3TA+ synth last night, and so far, it's a winner. The Korg iPolysix is a very cool retro synth, and there's enough capabilities there that you can do quite a bit musically with just that app... it's basically two synths, a drum machine, and effects all in one. I also really like the iMPC, although I wish it had a stock sample bank with "real" drum sounds too.

 

I'm pretty impressed that you can get that kind of synth horsepower now for anywhere from ten to thirty bucks. It's actually pretty amazing when you stop to think about it. At least it is to me - but I was around when synths were new, exotic, and very, very expensive.

 

There are other apps and protocols now (Audiobus, etc.) that allow multiple iOS apps to work together. I do have Garageband on my iPad, and I've thought about adding Cubase or Auria too, but I'm more likely to use a laptop if I need to do any serious remote recording. I know you "can" on an iPad, but I don't see the need. But as a mobile music companion? I think it's a great tool for writing, working out ideas and arrangements, fiddling around while waiting for... whatever. I also have AC-7 on mine and use it as a DAW remote - and it's great for that too.

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I've done a few things with the iPad version of Garageband. Understand that I am not a pro, just doing things for my own enjoyment and possibly sending to family/friends. The big problem I've had is I often use midi files I download as backing tracks, and the instruments available on the iPad often don't match up. It's best for me to convert the midi to an mp3 on my computer and use that. The other problem is transferring the files between computer and iPad. Each uses a slightly different file format. There is a workaround, but it sure would be easier to be able to swap back and forth. The big advatage to using ther iPad is portability. Makes it ideal for taking to a practice/jam session etc. and recording your part to do self critique or to record that solo you whipped out. If your home in your studio, you'd probably want to use your regular computer.

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