iPad purchase considerations?

The Lounge Other Gear
#26

I feel that. Iā€™m hoping the A10 iPads are powerful enough to hold me over for a few years. Iā€™m def. not interested in the regular synth type apps as I have an A4, DN, 0Coast, and Virus to fulfill those needs. Iā€™m more interested in things like the ones you mentioned for sound design and sample fodder for my DAW. Iā€™m sure Iā€™d eventually try out some of the regular synths, but weā€™ll see. I already have BM3 (got it for free when it was offered) and FLStudio Mobile (from when I owned an iPhone back in the day), along with a few other apps.

Which chip is in your current iPad? The 2gb of RAM seems questionable in the A10 iPads, but Iā€™ve heard Apple does magical things with their OS and everything to make it super efficient.

#27

I canā€™t remember the chip, itā€™s an iPad 2018ā€¦ A8 maybe?
they do run pretty fast, my iPad Air had only 1GB or RAM and handled a lot.

I think Iā€™ve barely used BM3 - I think their sample is super powerful, but the DAW aspect of it, I just couldnā€™t figure it out - I know Iā€™m not alone in this.

#28

Coolio. I think the 2018 base iPads are the A10 chip. Thanks for the info!

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#29

All of this. Big time

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#30

You are definitely not alone in this! I wanted to love that app so bad. The sound quality is shockingly good, but I thought it was a total drag to work with

#31

I totally get why youā€™d want to just treat it like an HD but you know - Apple :confused:

However - With AudioShare you can do WiFi sharing. You use a url in a browser to drop files in. Very easy.

Also you can use an app called ifunbox and transfer files straight to apps with the lightning cable. Looks like an old ftp app but works well

With a big Dropbox though itā€™s even easier, as most apps I use have direct importing and exporting via Dropbox. Including audioshare.

Still havenā€™t got round to really using the more recent Apple ā€˜filesā€™ thing much & always hated using iTunes to manage files. Remember doing it for Volca sample until i got some apps that do it better

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#32

completely agree

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#33

same. tried it often, always annoyed me

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#34

In practice, the diffs are yet to be discovered. I still get glitches in one of my Gadget projects running on a new iPad Pro 2018, so even if the raw power increases, the software needs to catch up to embrace it. EDIT: Aand I just read the new Cubasis update supporta the new hardware! Giving it a go aswell then I guessā€¦ EDIT2: Naww man, I can kill the CPU with a few ill-chosen AU instances in the new cubasis. weak.

i am hoping to really use my iPad as a workable DAW in the future. Right now, running Auria pro with a SPL Crimson 3 is as good as it gets on that front. That USB-C tho! Its proving to be a major PITA, old dongles, USB battery banks and iXLRs etc need to be replacedā€¦

I also agree on the KISS approach with iOS, it suits me. Auria Pro, Gadget with all the goodies, Lurssen mastering console, and thats it, I didnā€™t even reinstall most of the stuff I bought eariler :nyan:

#35

Do not underestimate how satisfying it is to use a physical device.

IMO, touching glass is not a fun way to make music, but the iPad makes up for it somewhat through portability and app pricing.

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#36

really depends on the app imo. Many are a PITA to use. Some are tons of fun and perfect for the touch interface

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#37

Case in point: Borderlands Granular

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#38

oh yes :slightly_smiling_face:
played with it the whole evening yesterday.

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#39

A hellauva lot more fun than mouse tho.

#40

Another option is to skip wired midi altogether and go with one of these at the end of your hardware midi chain:

https://au.yamaha.com/en/products/music_production/accessories/md-bt01/index.html

This way you donā€™t need a hub - just use the UCA222 plugged into CCK. Works great for me.

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#41

Not sure i agree. The mouse at least gives me tactile feedback. Itā€™s not expressive, but I feel like Iā€™m ā€œdoingā€ something with all the clicking and pointing (ugh). Same with turning a knob. I donā€™t get the same degree of physicality from a pane of glass.

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#42

Iā€™ve yet to find one that I enjoy as much as even turning tiny knobs on a Volca.

#43

My iPad canā€™t replace my Octatrack. I have both, obviously.

I had to put a lot of effort into memorizing certain operations on the OT, but afterwards Iā€™ve been able fly around on my OT compared to iPad.

iPad apps donā€™t always respond in a predictable manner to my finger taps and swipes. Not like the OT where i know the knobs and fader are going to behave as I expect, barring a bizarre new bug introduced by OS update.

Regarding your comment about travel, I too had fantasized about attaching all kinds of stuff to my iPad when working on music on the train or on a flight, but in reality, itā€™s a PITA to dig out extra stuff to plug into the iPad - Iā€™m always more productive using apps that work standalone (no external hardware) when Iā€™m sitting in my seat in a crowded coach-class airplane cabin.

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#44

+1
I remember taking my iPad and a Launchcontrol XL to a friendā€™s house, a few years ago.
I was thinking about doing all these routings, but I eventually just focused on Samplr aloneā€¦ I just sampled some stuff with my Behringer UCA222 and started playing with it. lots of fun.

I hope one day we get an update on that app - simple features like Ableton Link, MIDI control (at the very least for layers volume!), individual outputs for each track (this would bereally, really good, to process them with better fx)ā€¦ and ideally although not counting on it - beeing able to record the movement on envelopes, maybe fx tooā€¦
oh, and a BPF!

#45

WiFi sharing has been my default method to download/upload files to/from iPad
I remember when I first discovered it - itā€™s really simple and quite fast, downloads directly to your download folderā€¦
to those who donā€™t know it - itā€™s a feature inside AudioShare - you just connect to an IP and it shows your iPad files in your browser.

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