My custom iPad Pro based setup, with AUM + Digitakt & Digitone

[groovegcs]

Hey guys

I just launched a new YouTube channel where I specialize on discussing a highly customized and streamlined iPad Pro based music production setup with a deep integration of the Digitakt & Digitone and a unique iPhone based remote control concept in order to unlock a very unique and powerful workflow.

For anyone who might be curious about what an advanced iPad Pro based setup might look like or if you’re already familiar but are interested in new ideas, my channel might interest you.

I just released my second video which covers my setup in-depth with a very structured and detailed presentation.

Feel free to check it out here if you’re interested:

- YouTube

PRIVATE COACHING & CONSULTATION:
If you’re interested in a paid private coaching or a consultation session to help you drastically speed up the progression of your iPad music exploration journey specifically with AUM (especially if you have Elektron boxes involved in your setup but feel somewhat overwhelmed by the whole process), do not hesitate to contact me as I can really (and would love to) help guide you with focused advice which could really save you a LOT of time and hassle by putting you on the right track so that you can really start to leverage the incredible potential of the iPad and AUM in the context of your setup.

I’m dedicated full time to the iPad Pro as a platform for music production. Over the last year I have done an incredible amount of research and I’ve deployed very significant efforts to get to a point where I can present what I show on my channel, and all of this has been done out of pure passion for the process of music exploration. Throughout this process and in the context of my previous 22 years of experience in the electronic music production field, I’ve developed a very valuable understanding of the process of creating that kind of music on multiple levels, and I’m now more than ever ready and willing to share that wealth of knowledge with those who actively seek mentorship or guidance with their own music exploration process, as my own exploration process continues. I also have extensive preexisting coaching experience.

The session(s) would take place using Discord in a private call and there would be video involved through which I would be displaying my setup as you see it on YouTube, and you could potentially even share a video feed of your own setup if you have the equipment to support that capability. In order to help make the coaching session efficient, I can also help and guide you to some extent to set up Discord and OBS to share your own video feed for the Discord call, which in itself can be very valuable to know. A session would typically be between 1 and 2 hours. I’m also very flexible with hours in the context of different time zones.

If you have questions about the possibility of a session and what it would typically consist of, please contact me by email (that contact info is available directly via the YouTube video description) including what you’re trying to accomplish and I’ll be happy to help!

Cheers

[slicetwo]

I’d love to know bout it, but I definitely do not have even remotely close to 1.5 hours to watch a video. Do you have an abridged version?

[groovegcs]

I understand the feeling

The video is intended as a reference or the “backbone” if you will of the content that my channel will host, so it’s very important to make sure that it goes in enough depth to ensure that people have a good chance of understanding how it’s put together if the interest is there. Obviously that requires a substantial time investment considering the complexity of the subject. The idea behind structuring and labelling each section extensively is to give viewers the flexibility to jump to the segments that are most relevant for their particular interests or curiosity. All these sections are visible directly from within this forum directly by mousing over the video’s time bar.

Towards the beginning of the video, I dedicated a section specifically to give advice on entirely skipping Chapter 1 (which covers the list of hardware I use), for viewers curious about this setup but who aren’t in a position to justify going through the entire thing yet.

Skipping Chapter 1 by itself will shave off about 25 minutes As far as the rest of the video, an easy solution to overcome your time constraint is simply to split your watch time to cover a chapter at a time, as there’s a total of 4 Chapters detailed clearly in the video description directly via the timestamps I’ve provided on YouTube.

Other than that, it’s just a matter of time until I put out content focusing simply on using the setup to make music. Maybe that would be a more approachable starting point for what you prefer. Even though such content could never be expected to be as efficient and thorough as the reference video I already made, it would definitely be more entertaining if that’s more what you’re after.

The content of this video is fundamentally educational in nature, and it definitely requires a certain level of motivation & determination (and even discipline really) to go through it, considering the dry nature of the subject.

Lastly if you’re already an Elektron machines user, a particularly interesting point to start looking at to peek your interest is the audio routing flexibility between Elektron machines and the iPad, which is covered at the beginning of Chapter 4 in section “4.1 The Digitakt & Digitone Audio Routing”.

Ultimately I can tell you with absolute confidence that if you’re interested in making music with a highly immersive setup that seriously pushes technological boundaries (with all the benefits that come with it), this video contains highly valuable information that’s worth the watch. In my opinion the iPad has reached a critical point where it is inevitably destined to revolutionize how “DAW-less” electronic music is made in particular, but understanding all the implications as to why that is is not something that can happen at a snap of a finger.

The choice is yours

[Sip]

I’ve been considering getting a iPad to use with my Syntakt, so this is great and will definitely help me think about some possibilities for future recording setups. Looking forward to watching it soon!

[groovegcs]

I’m jealous lol The Syntakt is the 3rd main machine that’s also a very good candidate to pair with the iPad, but in full transparency if you want to really hit the “critical mass” where the iPad and elektron machines really augment each other optimally, IMO the major milestone would be the inclusion of the Digitakt 2 in your setup. The Syntakt already has 12 highly valuable internal parallel unique sound sources, so sacrificing any of these to sequence external stuff feels like it would be somewhat bittersweet to me, at least that’s the way I see it

A core part of the idea I developed with this whole iPad based concept was to essentially reconstruct a “budget” Syntakt by combining the Digitakt’s MIDI tracks with drum synthesizers available as AUv3. Full transparency though, coming up with a concept that even remotely approaches the Syntakt is a very tall order, but it’s feasible on a technical level. My main AUv3 candidates for that task so far have been Ruismaker FM, Ruismaker Noir, Rings FX and Sketch Audio Blip box (even though I haven’t gotten a chance to test this last one yet because I have a lot on my plate). I absolutely know there are many other amazing viable options out there that are going to be specifically compatible for p-locking, but finding them requires experimentation which takes time, and I’ve only jumped into the iPad Pro “rabbit hole” about 9 months ago, and I’ve been at this pretty much full time since.

The major caveat I’m facing with my setup in particular is that with the OG Digitakt (and the Digitone) I’m limited to controlling 8 CC parameters per MIDI track whereas the Digitakt 2 offers 16 controllable CC parameters per track and these CC controls can also be named, which represents a MAJOR improvement.

I was hoping the Digitakt and Digitone would be updated on that front, even if just with a naming system as opposed to expanding to 16 CC, but hearing people’s opinions on the likelihood of these machines seeing another update online kinda discouraged me on that front. Please Elektron prove me wrong lol

Anyhow, cheers!

[slicetwo]

@groovegcs

Ruismaker FM, Ruismaker Noir, Rings FX and Sketch Audio Blip box

Check out Drumcomputer. 8 tracks of synthesis/sampling for drums. That plus the DT MIDI is basically the Syntakt drum machines. Haha.

@groovegcs

Lastly if you’re already an Elektron machines user, a particularly interesting point to start looking at to peek your interest is the audio routing flexibility between Elektron machines and the iPad, which is covered at the beginning of Chapter 4 in section “4.1 The Digitakt & Digitone Audio Routing”.

I’ve been using my iPad with the Elektron boxes for years. Unfortunately, I think the audio routing is pretty lame given that you can’t access each track individually (since it’s not class compliant). Sure, in AUM you can route tons of audio in cool ways, but you still can’t necessarily route your DT’s kick to one track and your snare to another.

You should look into the Faderfox controllers, too. I have the EC4 and UC4. The former controls my Syntakt/Digitone/Digitakt and the latter is setup to control my AUM mixer, panning, sends, mutes, etc. They’re well worth the cost.

Mad respect for putting all the effort in to this. I’m a teacher, and I’d love to have the patience to make a longform video explaining my various rigs and techniques, but I don’t like doing all the video editing and such. Haha. I’ll definitely flick through it a bit.

[Matoshi]

Great, will watch it over the weekend… I have a DT, DN and iPadPro but never really used the iPad with the Elektrons beyond recording tracks into Logic to complete.

[groovegcs]

I also have Drumcomputer While it has a lot of potential for uniqueness and I obviously wouldn’t have bought it unless I liked how it sounded, in my experience it requires a substantial time investment to really become comfortable with its sound generators and to get to a point where I could clearly say that I can “bend” it efficiently towards the kinds of sounds that I envision and consistently hit sweet spots.

Drumcomputer is also inherently a much heavier application than something like Ruismaker Noir or Rings FX for example. Noir in particular is very stripped down, lightweight and extremely responsive. That makes it highly flexible which is very valuable in my experience when it comes to being able to scale the complexity of a project up/down efficiently.

I definitely will bring Drumcomputer in my projects at some point, but until you mentioned it just now I’ve only considered using it as its own system, independently from my elektron machines.

I’ve also been in consistent communications with Sugar Bytes directly to address some of the issues I had identified with Drumcomputer back in January, which I’m happy to say they’ve mainly resolved since. If you check the version update history on the app store, the activity that occurred around January and March is basically directly correlated to my feedback.

I also found that displaying Drumcomputer’s UI in AUM put a significant load on my iPad so I kind of put it aside over these last few months because I have so much to investigate on multiple fronts that I’m basically in no rush for any specific investigation path. Now that you’ve mentioned it though, my curiosity is peeked to give it another look and to see how it performs as it’s been updated multiple times.

If it turns out that Drumcomputer is perfectly compatible with P-locking on my Digitakt, I definitely see myself potentially putting in some serious hours to “make it my own” because I had high hopes with it right from the beginning before even buying the iPad due to all the research I had done.

On a side note, I also have a very extensive collection of carefully selected applications, but I’m going to reveal it progressively through much more approachable videos as I add new content to my channel along the way.

[groovegcs]

I forgot to respond to the other things you mentionned!

I also am aware of the appeal of the Faderfox stuff , as well as the MIDI Fighter twister stuff.

I was originally very interested in the Faderfox stuff because of the ability to name CC parameters but I found that for my applications so far my needs are essentially covered because of the flexibility of the iPad’s touchscreen.

I also completely understand your gripe with the routing of individual elektron machines tracks and even though I wish I was able to route everything separately for optimal flexibility, in practice it doesn’t cause a problem with my workflow and I can always outsource a particular sound directly to an AUv3 sound generator hosted on the iPad in AUM.

Regarding what you mentioned about the video editing thing. I basically feel the same way you do but I decided to overcome the fact that I would prefer making music rather than editing videos because I’m convinced it’s possible to hit a “groove” where you can effectively end up doing one while also doing the other (as far as recording cool video content while making music I mean). I also see the whole exercise of presenting information to others as a process through which I effectively have the incentive to expand my expertise using the tools which I can then leverage for my own music making process.

Cheers!

[slicetwo]

It def works with the plocks. For a while, I used it with my DT1 in that fashion. 8 samplers and 8 drum synths.

[Sip]

Watched the whole thing. Although I don’t think this setup is for me, I did learn quite a bit about audio and MIDI routing using the iPad and it helped inform my future decisions. And I can see how several aspects of this would be useful for others. Thanks for the video!

Not that I don’t appreciate the long-form content, but I imagine if you made a shorter <10 minute music performance video of your workflow in action, it might grab the attention of more people who would benefit from what you put out there just a thought.

[groovegcs]

Thanks for the feedback I really appreciate it, and you’re a LLLLEGEND for having watched the whole thing haha Honestly I totally get your logic about the appeal of making a performance video to showcase the workflow because I had the same idea. I chose to postpone doing that for my next video partly because I had major concerns regarding the length of the video. I also didn’t want to half-ass a showcase and as of now I don’t know how long it would take me to put something of that nature together.

I want to “cook” something that really does justice to my custom concept and I’m not sure if I want to do voice commentating as I put the thing together either so I’ll have to experiment to see if I can get away with adding voice commentating in post, which as of now I don’t know how to do in Davinci Resolve (I mean specifically recording just audio on the spot in Davinci as the video is playing) so I’m going to have to research that as well. For now I’m thinking maybe of just playing the original recorded OBS video in VLC and re-recording my own PC screen in OBS so that I can pause and navigate the video and generate commentating audio bits from there, but I’m thinking that this approach would be an inefficient and inflexible way to go about it.

Anyhow! The compromise I chose for the video was to at least get a groove going for a little while at the beginning so that it wouldn’t be 100% dry lol, and even doing that was somewhat improvised at the last minute. I’m completely new to video content production and while I’m fairly familiar with the level of quality that is expected in order to become undeniable, I also recognize that I have to put a hard limit to how much I push myself throughout this learning process. I’m just starting so for now I chose to begin with an emphasis on articulating valuable information because that seemed more accessible to me as a starting point to develop my video editing skill.

Even though what I chose to present is not exactly sexy or a “seduction” operation, I chose to begin building my channel’s content history by laying down the foundational stuff because once I start to pump out shorter videos that are more jam/fun oriented, I want to be able to easily point people to my in-depth guide to essentially get the technical stuff out of the way efficiently.

I’m also definitely open to the idea of eventually redoing an edit that would include a showcase further down the road as I gain experience

[groovegcs]

First showcase/mini jam session available

The showcase barely scratches the surface but at least it’s a first step towards making more accessible shorter format content.

- YouTube

Next the focus is going to be on upping the quality and focusing on specific themes

I’m going back to the grind!

Cheers!

[groovegcs]

Here are the latest developments of my journey

The video below represents my latest efforts to significantly improve the overall production quality of my videos while keeping the duration under 5 minutes.

I know the written commentating can be a bit challenging to follow, but I’m testing the waters to find out if that speed ends up working out.

Jam Session #3: iPad Pro Custom AUM Setup Workflow Showcase & Deep House Experimental Groove

- YouTube

Video description:

A deep house inspired experimental electronic music jam session featuring my custom iPad Pro based music production setup including the Elektron Digitakt & Digitone showcasing a unique workflow based on AUM.

Any feedback would be appreciated!

[groovegcs]

Actual Deep House this time (& much more handsy!)

- YouTube

Video description:
A Deep House jam session emphasizing on using Koshiba (by iceGear/iceWorks) and Omega (by Bleass) as a sound source. I also demonstrate using Volcano 3 (by Fabfilter). The session features my custom iPad Pro based music production setup including the Elektron Digitakt & Digitone showcasing a unique workflow based on AUM.

[groovegcs]

Update! I prepared this performance to showcase mainly how powerful the Digitakt can be at manipulating complex sampled content, particularly vocals that follow a redundant structure. On a technical level this is by far the most demanding performance I’ve recorded yet purely from an execution standpoint.

On a side note, I realized how difficult it is to get exposure on YouTube even through proper specific keywords search, which in full transparency is a bit of a tough blow. If you enjoy my content I would be VERY appreciative if you dropped a like on my video directly on YouTube as it will significantly help my new channel gain more exposure. I’m convinced that posting these video updates on Elektronauts has been pretty much the only reason I got any exposure at all, so my sincere thanks to those who have expressed interest in my content so far.

Anyhow here’s the video:

- YouTube

Description:
A Deep House raw performance with no post processing emphasizing on using the Digitakt for manipulating complex sampled vocal content and featuring the newly iOS released OB-Xd 3 synthesizer. I also briefly demonstrate using Volcano 3 (by Fabfilter). The session features my custom iPad Pro based music production setup including the Elektron Digitakt & Digitone showcasing a unique workflow based on AUM and the extensive use of an iPhone remote control based on Surface Builder.

Cheers!

[groovegcs]

A faster groove this time In this one I heavily rely on WOV (by K-Devices) and Koshiba (by iceWorks/iceGear). Towards the end I also share a few thoughts regarding some of the underlying issues with the iOS platform as it stands. I also share where I’d like things to go to get a positive snowball effect going to drive more interest on a large scale towards iPad & hardware based music making…

Here’s the video:

- YouTube

Description:
A raw deep house influenced 132 BPM performance with no post processing emphasizing on using WOV (by K-Devices) and Koshiba (by iceWorks/iceGear). The performance also features the OB-Xd 3 synthesizer which was recently released on iOS, augmented by Shaper 2 (by K-Devices). I also briefly demonstrate using Volcano 3 (by Fabfilter). The session features my custom iPad Pro based music production setup including the Elektron Digitakt & Digitone showcasing a unique workflow based on AUM and the extensive use of an iPhone remote control based on Surface Builder.

If you enjoy the video please give it a like on YouTube directly, as it really helps to increase my exposure. Thanks & cheers!

[Watto]

Long time elektronaholic here but only recently got an iPad.

The possibilities are immense. Thanks for making all this content, I’ll have more to say once I’ve had a chance to get my head around some of it!

Cheers!

[kAfA]

Very nice content! Thank you so much! I personally like the combination of a Digitakt II with the iPad Pro incredibly well, because the real-time editing possibilities are immense! As far as drum synthesizers are concerned, I think the AUs mentioned here are just as great - but personally I’m still waiting for the port of Unfiltered Audio’s Battalion (supposedly they are working on it)… because for me this plugin is one of the most flexible programmable on the market and a real cornucopia for individual sounds/samples.

[groovegcs]

OMG I’m waiting exactly for the same thing! I even tried to contact Unfiltered Audio a while ago to see if I could join Battalion’s iOS beta (in case there was one) but no luck so far.

Thanks for the kind words I really appreciate it! I’m jealous of your Digitakt II lol because of the ability to customize the names of mapped CC parameters for the MIDI tracks. I did post on the Digitakt feature request to hopefully have that added, both for the Digitone and Digitakt, but now that I’ve seen leaks of the latest product that Elektron appears to be working on and the timing of the year, my hopes on that front are kind of dwindling…

Even though I don’t own it I’m also closely monitoring the Prism AUv3 sequencer as a lot of its functionality intersects with elektron gear (as clearly the dev is a DT/DN user himself) but I’m definitely not sure about the usability of the UI, and I’m also considering Cong Burn’s Strokes as it uses Mutable Instruments Plaits code for its sound generators and is also likely to be in a polished state by now.

From the same dev I’m also considering Stacks, but because it was released not long ago I want to give it at least a few months to give it a chance to reach a polished state.

Cheers!