Very true. On my old Air I had dozens of synths that even 3+ years ago I thought were a bit shit so I get to wipe the slate clean a bit before jumping down the rabbit hole all over again.
I’ve even lost Audiobus! But I was considering AUM anyway so now I get to decide and run with it.
Hopefully I’m a little more “controlled” with the app purchases this time around. Bought all sorts back when I last tried to make a go of iPad music making. Pretty keen just to focus on Drambo to begin with too though always did like Gadget - and just spotted the megadrive drum kit expansion for it… nice!
What are the best iPad music making sites these days? I seem to remember a couple from a few years back that were handy for reviews and videos. Or am I just best trawling the likes of this thread and checking things out?
Audiobus forums is pretty much the iPad music forum. This thread is pretty solid for big news but you might miss updates and small stuff if you don’t check audiobus. Drambo is crazy enough on its own, it’s kept me pretty busy. I think it’s really gonna click with my setup when midi mapping arrives. If It’s still available the moog model d app was free for a bit, you might wanna check if that’s still going on. It’s a very very close replica of the real thing, plus it’s got a polyphonic option
I also intend to focus on Drambo as a central music making app, and stop stockpiling synth and sampler apps that I rarely, if ever use.
Audiobus forum is the best iPad music forum I’ve seen. Some well-known devs such as BramBos and Beepstreet participate. The Drambo threads though are way too long to wade through. The dev is begging participants to hop over to the Beepstreet forums for Drambo talk because he can’t keep up anymore. https://forum.beepstreet.com/
AUM is still my favorite app as a straightahead mixer, audio router and even MIDI router. Also simple to use for quickly recording into audio files.
i’ve renewed my search for an audio multitracker app for arranging stems into something more finished… I found Cubasis 2 to be easiest to use, but it’s been replaced by Cubasis 3 which is too buggy for me to consider investing in, and it costs as much as Auria Pro. Yesterday I tried 4Pockets Multitrack Recorder, which looks like Meteor ported to an AUv3 plugin - it’s meant to be used in AUM effects insert. It can only record one track at a time which is an odd limitation. Maybe I’ll just Garageband for this job.
Ha I get what you’re saying but it will likely be slimmed down, plus apples legitimate DAW app for the iPad will have a lot more financial backing and potential integration than literally any other dev in the market, they own the market lol. Would definitely be held to a higher standard than GarageBand is, just something to watch out for
I said to a mate last weekend that I would be amazed if “full “ DAWs didn’t arrive on iPad within a couple of years. I used that as a partial excuse in justifying buying a new Pro now
Can you imagine a GarageBand type experience where projects are ready across iPad/Mac but for fully fledged DAWs?! Would be unreal
I’m glad I haven’t invested money and time in an iOS DAW. Seems all have some serious limitations and / or bugs. And scrolling through 20 tracks on an iPad screen just sounds like pain I can do without. But I really like AUM, recording the individual outs and export to a proper DAW with a decent sized screen.
That’s probably better said here than on the AB Forum! TBH i don’t much like any of the emulations or subtractive synths in iOS. Mostly I ended up thinking why I’m bothering when I’ve got HW and Reaktor which sound better. Factory is fun and I’ve been pleased with what I’ve got out of it, but - like most iOS synths - it lacks in the low end. Aparillo is pretty unique but a bit of a head scratcher. Capable of sounding good though.
I really dig the Apesoft apps; unique and capable of otherworldly atmospheres and radical sound mangling.
Burns Audio - free: basically MI Braids, clouds - and one of the other modules. Sounds v good
Toneboosters effects sound excellent and are v good value
Amazing Noises FX live up to their name (same developer as Apesoft IIRC)
Fred Anton Covest FX - (Chorus, Transient, Compressor) are v good but pricey for iOS
Shaper is great overdrive / bit redux / resonator
Along with Drambo, that’s pretty much it for me. It’ll have to be something very special to get me clicking purchase on the App store again.
I’ll wait for user reports. I’m sure Apple will charge a pretty penny for a Logic Pro app.
What drove me from Logic to Ableton Live on the desktop was my bandmate asking me to add an automatic fadeout to a track. I learned to do it in Live in minutes flat. Never figured it out on Logic - like so many other things I was constantly looking up stuff in the manual to learn how to do even the simplest tasks.
On IOS I’ve gotten used to splitting the functions of a DAW into separate apps. As you know the traditional desktop DAW like Logic or Live integrates MIDI sequencing, audio tracks, mastering plugins, FX plugins, etc.
On IOS none of the apps I favor the most for creating MIDI sequences have audio tracks. The IOS apps that people love for mastering audio don’t have great MIDI sequencing UIs - Auria Pro being a notorious example. Cubasis 2 wasn’t that great either - not too hard to use, but copy and paste of a couple of measures of, say, a bass line, was so tedious. So that’s why I quickly got away from trying to use one do-it-all DAW app on IOS.
Sorry if asked already but looks like I need to get myself AUM and/or Audiobus. Never used AUM and my super old Audiobus on the old iPad means I need to buy AB3 for the new one.
So, I’m quite keen not to go wild and would like to keep things fairly simple which means state saving is a big desire. Am I right that AUM does AUv3 but not IAA but Audiobus does both? I think I prefer the AUM approach/look and don’t really want to host AUM in AB as feels things would get messy. Clean and simple is the goal!
AU’s seem the way to go so AUM should suffice. I could just get both but from experience, it’s easy to go down that route with apps and you end up with a device full of shite you never look at and clogging things up!
AUM can do IAA too. I’d definitely go with AUM, I barely use Audiobus since it came out (I also barely use IAA since AUv3 became popular, it just works so much better. There are still a few great IAA only apps though e.g. Nave, Patterning)
since AUM came out its all i use (with plugins obviously).
you can route a lot of things in a modular way , but the interface will cause you to scroll left/right a lot.
i dont do songs though , mostly make loops / stems and one shots for samplers.
Keep in mind AUM doesn’t slave to midi transport controls. AB3 does and AUM slaves to AB3 transport. If you want to slave AUM to an external sequencer, you’ll need AB3.
Next, to find a midi sequencer that works nicely with it… something that works like an Ableton clip view would be good. Used to use Genome years ago but don’t think that’s supported in AUM
