iPad Worth Buying for a Music Production Tool?

and please don’t forget that you can connect your ipad to macbook as an audio interface natively, no input tho. there’s also studiomux app which allows to send audio signal to ipad via usb but i found it quite clumsy

What audio interface would you guys recommend for sending audio out from the ipad? Not gonna do much or any recording in. Just wondering if there’s a better way to send the audio out instead of using the headphone jack

saw this today :smiley:

Korg PlugKey would fit you. But I would spend the extra for a Zoom u24 in case you want to process with your iPad and/or send midi out.

Check out Gorillaz “The Fall” recorded and made mostly with iPad… I believe they’ve used iPad a lot in they’re later albums too…

Not sure if it’s really better but… I used to take the line out of the zoom H5(=connected as AI)

Have not used ipad anymore though

I wanna update this topic and not start a new one.

As many here probably know the iPad can be a serious music tool or even your entire studio environment. But the lack of proper videos online is just mind blowing. There’s just so much noise from terrible Youtubers that have either no clue what they’re doing or simply don’t care but love to be populair online.

Try finding a video of someone using a decent MCU controller on the iPad. I couldn’t find any!
Than how are people ever gonna take the iPad serious if all we see is people trying to hit tiny buttons on a touchscreen with their sausage fingers?

So… that’s why I wanted to update this Topic.

Who here uses their iPad as a professional music tool?
What are your favorite plugins and daws?
What midi controllers audio interfaces etc have you been enjoying the most?

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I love using my Digitakt to sequence iPad synths through AUM. Moog model d, bass 808, tardigrain and fractal bits are some of my fave

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I’ve retired my computer over 5 years ago (except for mixdown, but that’s someone else’s job) and been ios ever since.

Don’t regret it 1 second and it gets better everyday.

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So what’s the most normal way people hook an iPad into their audio system? I have a 12.9-inch iPad Pro so it has a usb-c connector. With a usb-c to regular usb cable I can connect to a presonus audiobox and get audio out…

But that means the port is used and it can’t be charging, so it’s just running on battery. Can you get some form of adapter that let’s it charge and connect audio at the same time?

And for MIDI… I’m guessing bluetooth midi is the normal workflow? Are there other options?

People always mention using a camera connection kit… what is that needed for? Is it just used on older ipads?

Thanks!

Using a usbc hub (power delivery) and a Steinberg usb Audio Interface .

Camera connection it is for lightning to USB (or usb powered hub) The lightning port can provide VERY little power, so there is one with a USB port and a lightning port for power.

Your pro should work with a USB-C hub. If its a powered USB C hub, it should charge your ipad at the same time… Hub into ipad…50 things into hub.

Your ipad will recognize anything USB class compliant (audio interfaces, controllers, etc…)

Personally I use non pro ipads for audio because 99.9% of the apps for audio don’t use multicore, thus you see no performance over a ipadpro with 8 cores than an ipad mini5

So my setup is kinda like this:

ipad mini 5—>Camera connection kit ------>Powered USB hub ------>Motu828es via USB + Midicontrollers + Class compliant hardware instruments + 5 pin MIDI hubs

I actually have a total of 3 ipads on my motu828 (1 via USB for 24channels + 1 on each ADAT for additional 8 channels each)

Most people swear by the iconnectivity interfaces, but i’ve never had much luck with them and they discontinued the popular iConnectMIDI4+ (due to any day apple can change a spec and render that unit useless).

Bluetooth midi is ok, but I still stick to wired.

Long story short (in a nutshell), however you have your computer DAW setup, you can replace the computer with an ipad + hub as long as everything is USB class compliant.

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I don’t know why I don’t ever find myself using it…maybe now that I have some sequencer channels on the DT I will use it more. I’m not quite there yet accurately using the touch screen for live use though. I don’t really have much more insight on why I don’t use it. Some fantastic apps! Groove Rider 16 is a great groove box and sequencing app. The MiniMoog Model D app sounds so damn good.

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Ahhhh ok yes I’ve been thinking about this backwards. I was thinking the iPad needed to plug into the presonus audio device but that isn’t how it goes. The iPad plugs into a powered USB hub and then everything gets plugged into that hub. I have presonus devices with midi ports so I agree there’s no reason to use bluetooth midi.

Thanks for clearing this up cause it was really not clicking in my head.

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Yeah. Plug the hub into the iPad…then the presonus into the hub.
If the presonus is class compliant, DAWs and apps like AUM will see all of its in and outs (up to 24 in / 24 out - I believe the iPad has a hard limit of 24) and the midi ports.

What’s your hub? Last time I looked for one it was hard to get a powered one that actually gave power back to my iPad.

I think this question is already a bit old and since 2021 things have improved a lot on ipad and mac os, now the apps can be used on my macbook pro and ipad pro, really my most powerful production system.

now I can only say that my ipad has a minimoog, a moog model 15 with a modular system with very good filters, on the other hand too, I have an emulation of electribe 2 and koala sampler, esoteric things like ¨Samplr¨ and finally triqtraq and ¨jamm pro

Only with this hardware I can create all the stems that I want in the world, and then create my final productions in logic pro, and if I find it necessary to use electron rytm for some more analog things, I add more tracks.

I love my elektron machines, but what makes you professional is rather your wisdom and level of academic studies in the sector.

That is why a professional will make any voice or instrument sound flawless and with ipad pro too, using midi sequencers I can handle hardware that is considered more professional.

Another thing to keep in mind, if the ipad is a more stable machine than anything analog, we should consider that everything that works with precision and without problems is worthy of an instrument for the professional and to play with the hands using midi keys or whatever. that you like the most.

I’m using iPads with lightning ipads, so I need the cck.

Regular power adapter and lighting cable to adapter, hub into sub port of the adapter.

These also these from Amazon that work fine too as I have a bunch of these

I think it’s these, there’s a bunch similar, have to check which one exactly.

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I have the AVB running out of my motu into logic, so it tracks in all 48 channels at once. Then give it to the mixdown guy (cause actual recording and mixdown is the worst part of it all. By the time I get to that stage I’m already over working the track. Besides…there’s 1000s of people better than me at mixdown than I am and they ACTUALLY ENJOY IT)

P.S. I still keep most of my sequencing external, and I still use a ton of external gear, but there’s sooo many interesting approaches for iOS sequencers. You can use as many different sequencers as you want. One thing can have a xox sequencer, one a 303 style baseline, and other can have a full matrix of clips like ableton.
iOS is pretty modular. Drambo is the future of this. It’s an octatrack on steroids.

For take a look at collider on the iPad?

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This biggest issue you’ll run across which infuriate people to no end and what forces people to give up is:
Most AU synths and effects don’t have midi out, so there’s no feedback to controllers. Everything is absolute values so using things like encoders in banks/preset, they don’t remember the values when switching banks, so you get value jumps all over the place.
I’ve just resorted to building my own controllers which save values of banks when switching so when I return to them, there’s no value jumping.
Lots and lots and lots of teensy controllers have come and gone. Still trying to get closer to my perfect controller.
It’s been fun.