Choice of iPad?

The Lounge Other Gear
#124

Then you might need a class compliant interface with both, midi and audio.

Depending on your budget you find many different interfaces on the list of @William_WiLD starting at prices from short obove 100 EUR up to expensive gear, providing good quality audio inputs/outpus and midi. It just depends, how your setup shall be :wink:

BTW there is also to consider, to think about a setup including a small audio mixer. Allen & Heath, Mackie, or Soundcraft come to my mind. Even small mixers come with aux busses, or some send busses and those support a quite flexible audio routing without the need of a computer.

And if the quality is acceptable, there are those iPad specific interfaces with audio and midi from IK or iConnectivity too.

We have got a lot of options today :wink:

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#125

you may want to look at


and belowā€¦
I explained how I use the ipad and a steinberg audio interfaceā€¦ There might be some information for youā€¦

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#126

Might consider in this case the Roland Duo Capture EX :
https://www.roland.com/us/products/duo-capture_ex/

Sometimes you need to get 2 options like Midi4+ for Studio (because itā€™s the only one to give you all the real power of routing signals midi and audio, like using your iPad app as a FX Bus Processing)
AND
another solution for nomadism music, whatā€™s cool about the Roland Duo Capture EX is itā€™s battery powered, have Midi in-out, phantom power, Hi-Z instruments switch, operate at 24bits 44.1 or 48 and and direct monitor Mono and Stereo Switch.

I use that one when outside or in a place where i work with a minimal config like Octatrack + iPad
Donā€™t forget to buy rechargeable batteries and a charger :wink:

2 Likes
#127

Thanks! Iā€™ll check it.
I have an old Focusrite 2i4, I want to give it a try first with the new powered Camera adapter cable.

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#128

I think the Korg plugKEY fills this niche beautifully:

I just canā€™t any info on bit/sample rate aside from ā€œstudio qualityā€.

EDIT: up to 24/48

#129


no audio in?

#130

Nope. I was addressing the people looking for something other than the headphone out but also MIDI sequencing.

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#131

For people wondering about IPad audio pass through on an ICM4+, hereā€™s how it worksā€¦

Din and usb midi hosting aside, the ICM4+ can connect 3 computer devices Mac/pc/iOS through 3 special ports.
The device is seen as an audio interface by all 3 devices. If connecting a computer and an IPad for example, the IPads outputs will be seen by the computer as inputs, the computer will have outputs that the IPad sees as inputs. Using software on either device that allows input/output selection, a DAW for example, you can freely route digital audio between the devices.

This allows digital audio to be routed but the ICM4+ has no audio outputs so how do we hear it?
By using a computer with an audio interface you combine the ICM4+ with the interface as an aggregate device. This combines the in/outs of both units to be seen as one audio interface by the computer, on a Mac this is called an aggregate device, for PC thereā€™s another nameā€¦
Now since your computer sees the in/out of the ICM4+ and the interface as one, in whatever software your using, letā€™s say a DAW, youā€™d set the input of the track to be the digital outs from the IPad, and the outputs to be the analog outs from the interfaceā€¦
You can go a lot further with the audio routing too, like passing it though multiple devices as fx units and back to your analog outs, for exampleā€¦

Once you set this up its not as bad as it sounds, just leave the aggregate as the audio device in the DAW, and from then on when you power everything up and open the DAW itā€™s all set up.
You do need to power up everything though, as you need the computer and interface going to hear the IPad.
The device will work standalone for midi though without having to change anything, so if you just simply power it and a couple midi devices up, it will route them as you last configured it.

This is all separate from the usb host port which is used strictly for class compliant usb midi devices and does not pass audio, but using a hub it can connect 8 midi devicesā€¦

Theres also an audio routing matrix in the config software which allows you to further customize which in/out each device sees from the other, and also you can change bit depth and sample rate at the exchange of more or less tracksā€¦

Thereā€™s a bunch more stuff this box does too, but Iā€™ll leave it here for nowā€¦

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IConnectivity iConnect AUDIO2+ And AUDIO4+ difference?
#132

You can even combine overbridge/ICM4+/interface as an aggregate and do things like send your guitar from your interface through guitar rig on computer then into the Rytms analog filters (gated by rytms sequencer synced by midi) and then over to a touch screen IPad effect then back out you interface outs, all of it clocked by an Octatrack and we havenā€™t even said what itā€™s doingā€¦ :slight_smile:

Of course the further out you go the more latency compensation you have to reckon with, but stillā€¦

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#133

In the meantime I bought a Lightning USB 3 adapter, and the Focusrite 2i4 worked perfectly with the iPad. However the power cable needs to be plugged in. This also charges the iPad, too. Iā€™m not sure how unhealthy is this for the iPad battery in long term however.

#134

IPads hit %100 battery on their meters before they actually are full to capacity.
iOS does some battery management and allows the battery to drain slightly and then recharge once in awhile while the meter will always show %100. Same for Macs but there you can see the meter go from 100 to 95 and back up again, at least on Mavericksā€¦
Itā€™s still a good idea to let the IPad drain once in awhile, but youā€™ll be fineā€¦

My Air from Dec 2013 still gets over 10 hours of battery, and Iā€™ve had it connected to an Iconnect and being powered while at %100 for countless hoursā€¦

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#135

That sounds promising. Thanks.

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#136

Thinking of adding an ipad (android type of fella here).

Is it still the rule of thumb that the ipad 2 mini, 64bit and above are adequate?

Itā€™s to run music apps synths drum machines etc., and not for general ipad use.

#137

Ipad 2 mini is on the elder side of the family imo.

I would calculate a budget and get the most recent possible. Just be sure itā€™s 64 bit.

2 Likes
#138

Just 64-bit. The other rule of thumb is to check this to help plan when to buy - especially which products are listed under do not buy right now:

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#139

I second that opinion. I had an iPad Air 2 that was a little sluggish with Moog Model15 at times. I changed it for the last iteration (the iPad non-pro that handles Apple Pencil) and everything is much smoother. And itā€™s not too costly.

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#140

Thatā€™s good to know! I have an Air2, and itā€™s always been a bit random and jumpyā€¦works good for some things and not so much for others. Havenā€™t used it at all since I got my OT. Not because they arenā€™t useful, but because I still need to learn the OT better

#141

I would advice to not update your Ipad.
My Mini 2 is very sluggish since ios11 same thing with my older Ipad (screwed by os update from Apple)

#143

Same. iOS 12 has been much smoother.

I canā€™t do anything else when Model15 is running.

#145

Reviving this a bit. With the 9.7in iPad with the A10 chip being a bit old, is it still worth it for music production stuff? Itā€™s on sale for $329 for the 128gb version on Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/Apple-iPad-Wi-Fi-128GB-Latest/dp/B07BTS6H4W

Would it make sense to wait for the newer iPads to be unveiled and then pick up one of the 2018 Pro versions instead? I tend to keep my tablets for 3-5 years.