Members onelife Posted October 19, 2014 Members Share Posted October 19, 2014 I've been using a MacBook for several years and I'm thinking about getting an iPad. Is there a particular unit that is better for music production? What about Audio / MIDI adaptors? Is it worth while getting one with more memory? Can it be easily integrated with the MacBook and my existing DAWs? I have a PreSonus AudioBox VSL and, from what I understand, it can be controlled with an iPad via the MacBook through bluetooth. Any advice or suggestions will be much appreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CMS Author MikeRivers Posted October 19, 2014 CMS Author Share Posted October 19, 2014 Don't give up your real computer. Pads can in some instances be an aid to music production, and for people with a lot of patience, actually be a tool for complete music production. But if you're good at working with the computer, why would the thought of replacing it with a pad even enter your mind? If you're a writer, get a pad and a small USB interface and take it with you when you go on vacation. It's great for capturing ideas. Or when you have a bunch of tracks recorded, so some rough mixes for evaluation while you're on the plane. Sure, there's hardware and software that will let you do what you're doing on the computer new, but the workflow is different, and, in most cases, inefficient. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members onelife Posted October 19, 2014 Author Members Share Posted October 19, 2014 Thanks Mike. I'm looking for a portable solution that I can use to augment my existing setup rather than replace it. I'd also like to be able to take advantage of the Bluetooth connection for live mixing - making minor adjustments from the balcony etc. I plan to get a USB/audio interface so I can record some tracks 'on location' and bring them back to my studio - maybe even get some video at the same time. I don't know much about iPads so I was hoping to get some recommendations on which particular unit presents the best value for recording. I'm thinking that I may not need the newest and fastest but I don't want to be underpowered for my needs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members UstadKhanAli Posted October 19, 2014 Members Share Posted October 19, 2014 How much storage would you need? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CMS Author MikeRivers Posted October 20, 2014 CMS Author Share Posted October 20, 2014 B I'm looking for a portable solution that I can use to augment my existing setup rather than replace it. I'd also like to be able to take advantage of the Bluetooth connection for live mixing - making minor adjustments from the balcony etc. You can get good results via WiFi if you have a mixer that's compatible with the iPad. PreSonus, Mackie, Yamaha, and perhaps others make them. PreSonus has their Capture app for the iPad now that allows you to bring home your stage performance on individual tracks. The others may have something similar. Bluetooh hasn't quite found its way into pro audio yet other than to control DAW software, which is kind of a roundabout way of doing your live stage mix. There are a number of audio interefaces that connect via USB, and those that claim to be iOS Class Compliant will work with just a USB adapter to the docking port. Some newer interfaces connect via Thunderbolt and that works with iPads too, so they tell me. Focusrite is a good bet, MOTU has some multi-channel Thunderbolt interfaces that they've tested and approved for the iPad. PreSonus' Captuer software works with their mixers and records as many tracks as your mixer has channels, plus some. I Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil O'Keefe Posted October 20, 2014 Share Posted October 20, 2014 I've been using a MacBook for several years and I'm thinking about getting an iPad. Is there a particular unit that is better for music production? What about Audio / MIDI adaptors? Is it worth while getting one with more memory? Can it be easily integrated with the MacBook and my existing DAWs? I have a PreSonus AudioBox VSL and, from what I understand, it can be controlled with an iPad via the MacBook through bluetooth. Any advice or suggestions will be much appreciated. I have an iPad mini with Retina display with 128GB of RAM. It has a smaller screen, but is pretty fast by iPad standards. I love it for use as a remote control for Pro Tools, and I have a bunch of really cool softsynths and other useful music related apps on it. You can even get a fairly powerful DAW application for it (actually two - one is Steinberg's Cubasis, the other is WaveMachine Labs Auria), but moving files back and forth between it and your MacBook has to be done over wifi, and IMHO, it's not nearly as powerful as just using the laptop for the DAW. As far as MIDI, you just need to get an adapter from Apple that gives the iPad a USB port... some multichannel audio interfaces are also compatible with the iPad. Again, if you already have a laptop, I really don't see a major advantage to going with the iPad as your production / recording machine, although I do think they're useful tools. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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