The Zoom U24 is a proper interface and has 1/4" inputs/outputs.
I’ve only ever sent out from the headphone jack. The difference in quality between out from headphone vs the U24 is like toy vs tool.
…and if you’re looking to get away from a linear DAW, try AUM.
First, it’s a work of art, form and function.
Second, it’s like an endless performance mixer.
Third, it’s like a eurorack case with a built-in badass mixer and your apps are the modules. 
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Yeah I don’t know of one that does.
You’ll want to be careful how you feed that battery: I’ve just come from hell with battery issues due to the charger I was using.
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I only use high quality rechargeables, and I probably won’t connect any power source other than Apple’s own charger to a tablet as expensive as this one.
If you can get around the touch-screen aspect of it, that’s exactly what it is. Ribn alone - for 2 usd - is like having 8 complex LFOs and then Rosetta Suite is all your sequencing needs and so on and so on…
Does the U24 also work standalone as a recorder when a mic is attached? I didn’t get that from the product description.
It does not record unfortunately.
But AUM records multitrack (god bless it).
This was my mistake.
The Zoom h6 will work as a stand-alone recorder and interface for the iPad. In fact, although it says you can’t in the manual, you CAN multitrack with it (ie record with ALL of the channels (not just one stereo in)). But, unlike the U24/U44, it doesn’t have separate jacks for power and USB.
I’ve got both, so let me know if you have any specific questions and I’ll do my best to answer. The U44 is DEAD simple and really great. Bought it over the u24 because of the MIDI jacks.
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I mention the separate jacks because the H6 will chew through batteries if it’s used with the the iPad as a multichannel interface.
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This thing is really good: https://www.alesis.com/products/legacy/control-hub
It takes midi in/out from any device. Plus it has audio out L+R that can be sent to OT or any device.
I have iPad for a few years the problem is it can’t handle too much of audio and midi, some more powerful apps will start to cause dropouts.
The u24 has midi.
Are you thinking of the u22?
If you haven’t already do yourself a favour and get the app documents 5 by readle. Easy downloading of files and you can actually see the % things are done instead of waiting round trying to figure out if its done or not. Done me wonders for file organisation, native files app is wack
This guy!
That’s the one I have. And love. It even works without being connected to a computer/iOS device (so I can keep everything set up but have hardware running directly to monitors without having to plug the iPad in).
I will say the footprints on the Zoom devices are VERY awkward. Prepare to have a giant bug, with wires as legs/tentacles, on your desk… I shove mine under a hutch.
I don’t know if other people know this, but I use a battery pack that I use for charging my phone when I don’t have power to run all my roland boutique’s without batteries. Looks like the Zoom U-24 could also be used like this. I think I payed 10 dollars for the batterry pack.
10 buck used at the Flea Market
Maybe not a popular answer, but if it were me, I’d sell it and get a notebook computer of your choosing.
iOS is really holding back productivity on the iPad. Apple needs to port over the Finder / file system from MacOS to iOS.
Apple is doing great on the hardware side, but now iOS is the bottleneck. Once they bridge the file system gap, and allow you to do simple things like use the USB-C port to connect a simple thumb drive to transfer files, I’ll be among the first to take advantage of the huge leaps in processing power Apple have made.
But who knows when that will happen? It could be tomorrow, or three years from now.
Not in my view. 
If I had a choice I don’t know that I would be using the platform. Yet.
If you have a camera connector kit, you could buy one synth, hook it up to your DT through usb midi and try it out. I think it’s a great tool for syntheses and effects. Like having a lot of really good digital synths at your disposal. I like the Apesoft stuff. Mood in particular…And I actually first bought an iPad for their iVCS3 emulation…that thing going into Samplr is amazing. I’d just try a couple of synths and sell it if you think it’s shit.