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Having a full DAW on the go is a killer feature imho. The promise has been there since stuff like 8tracks on the iPhone 3G, and various Audio Units already on

• meghan_rain 4y ago
  > Having a full DAW on the go is a killer feature imho. Macbook?
  • dagmx 4y ago
    I guess I should expand why not a laptop, but it boils down to removing lots of little friction points that make ephemeral ideas harder to put down. 1. Touch first is important because your instruments are touch as well. Being able to record my live instruments and not have to switch to a trackpad to move between UI elements seems small, but it really keeps me in the zone. 2. Same point above, but basically being able to switch between my live instrument and an on screen virtual one is a big deal to layer up an idea. Can’t do that easily with a trackpad or mouse. 3. There’s something to be said for the mobile platforms single app as a focus model. I know you can full screen a Mac app, or split screen on an iPad, but having a singular focus helps reduce distractions. 4. Weight/portability are quite different. Maybe a MacBook Air would be better, but I take my iPad Pro to more places with me than I take my much heavier MacBook Pro . I’m already taking it to draw on the go, so this is just one more thing I can do without needing to buy a new device or take a heavier one. Edit: oh and number 5 is a big one. I can put my iPad Pro in my existing music stand that works for me at multiple heigh levels. There are laptop stands that might work too, but I already use my iPad for sheet music, so it’s already a convenient setup.
    • smoldesu 4y ago
      Even as a paying Bitwig subscriber, I don't get it. My instruments are velocity and aftertouch sensitive. Having a touchscreen interface for these instruments is no better than typing on your keyboard to play notes. And then if you want to plug in hardware, you have to either settle for one thing and no charging or buy a dongle. > being able to switch between my live instrument and an on screen virtual one is a big deal to layer up an idea. Can’t do that easily with a trackpad or mouse. Keyboard shortcuts exist. Failing that, it's one click on my trackpad to switch channels. > There’s something to be said for the mobile platforms single app as a focus model. There's also something to be said for multitasking desktops that give you the flexibility of both. It's a neat option for people who already use Logic Pro, but touch-enabled DAWs have existed for over a decade (and they all kinda suck - ask me how I know). Besides the form-factor of the iPad being fairly convenient, there's no way I'd trade-in my laptop's IO and OS for a mobile one. The iPad doesn't offer enough flexibility to replace my DAW laptop.
      • dagmx 4y ago
        You don’t need to get it. You do you. Every time you’ve replied to one of my comments in the past, it’s been very binary in terms of workflows and the discussions always devolve. So this time I’m leaving it as: I explained why it’s a big deal for me. If you have your own workflows or needs, so be it. But it’s irrelevant to why I like it. I don’t need velocity for a quick idea for example. I just need to get the idea out as quickly as possible. Besides, you can always connect an external midi keyboard or audio interface to an iPad as well.
        • smoldesu 4y ago
          All that's well and good, I'm mostly just agreeing with the people who suggest a Macbook for this. The iPad runs iOS, it's gimped for all kinds of creative applications. I won't judge you if you've found a workflow to apply it to, but the status quo feels unchanged. Professional DAWs existed on iPad before, the world beneath our feet didn't crumble or anything. > Besides, you can always connect an external midi keyboard or audio interface to an iPad as well. Sure? Everyone can use class-compliant USB audio hardware. Android and Linux both support it, for whatever that's worth. Both of those OSes even support audio plugins, too. Not everyone can install MPE drivers or get that Focusrite interface set up properly without software though. That's why I still carry a laptop, it may not apply to everyone.
  • galleywest200 4y ago
    The 11-inch iPad (Pro) is much more compact, imo. You can also just mount it flat against some hardware in a rack, or against a wall in a small studio booth.
    • robotresearcher 4y ago
      It goes on the ubiquitous music stand, too. Lots of musicians use iPads already to show sheet music.
  • pdpi 4y ago
    Current-gen 12" iPad Pro is 1.5 lbs to the MacBook Air's 2.7 lbs. That's a considerable weight difference still.
    • anotherman554 4y ago
      You aren't going to use a keyboard case?
      • pdpi 4y ago
        for music production? I can see how you'd carry a midi keyboard but no keyboard for typing.
        • Cthulhu_ 4y ago
          Real musicians type on a midi keyboard. I mean their text doesn't make sense because their alphabet has only seven letters, but still. (I jest!)
          • jmmcd 4y ago
            Well, you have 7 letters, but you can also use the black keys for keyboard shortcuts.
            • jasomill 4y ago
              And pedals! I've half-seriously considered experimenting with an expression pedal as a vertical scroll controller for desktop applications, using a second pedal to switch between relative (pedal position relative to center → scroll velocity, zero movement when pedal position is centered) and absolute (pedal position → page position, zero movement unless pedal position changes) modes. For wide multicolumn IDE/text-editor layouts, spatially-mapped fader banks and/or organ drawbars might also make useful scrollers.
      • pwthornton 4y ago
        I would assume more people using Final Cut Pro will use a keyboard case, but for mobile music production, it there may be more people willing to go without the keyboard case, particularly if you are mostly using it to noodle down ideas, use the on screen instruments, etc.
  • squokko 4y ago
    Personally, I feel like the iPad is very "flow" and the computer is very "precise." When I'm in the zone, just vibing, I'd much prefer to bust out musical ideas on an iPad (assuming no instruments available, of course). When I want to tweak the exact reverb parameters I'd rather have the computer.
• jahnu 4y ago
  As developers of professional audio plugins this is very exciting for us. The horsepower is there and the touch interface allows for some really cool possibilities. We already enjoy using AUM and Cubasis, but will be very interested to see if support for pro hardware improves now on iPad.
  • eurekin 4y ago
    Please consider supporting multi touch, where it makes sense
    • jahnu 4y ago
      We absolutely do already :D https://gs-dsp.com/ https://gs-dsp.com/
      • drcongo 4y ago
        Big fan of your interfaces here, and MMM is an amazing utility - thanks.
        • jahnu 4y ago
          Thank you so much! More stuff coming all the time :)
  • andybak 4y ago
    I've got a Steam Deck and I've been curious about using that as a music composition tool. The controls offer some interesting possibilities as performance inputs. The problem is that all Windows or Linux music apps tend to presume a large monitor and a mouse and keyboard. I've not found anything terribly usable.
    • freedomben 4y ago
      That's a really interesting idea! With the dual trackpads plus all standard controller inputs and the paddles on the back, the Deck is really uniquely positioned here. You could try plugging in a monitor via HDMI. If you don't have a dock (the JSAUX one is cheap and gets great reviews, but I personally have the official one) you can get a pretty cheap USBC to HDMI cable nearly anywhere. I found some in stock at a random walmart on a road trip. Was able to plug the deck into our van's built-in entertainment system (it still blows my mind that there are now vehicles with TV screens built in). If you do end up doing it, I'd love to see a video/blog post/whatever about it
• speg 4y ago
  This captures my use case pretty well. I’m a hobby photographer and use Lightroom on iPad as my only software step. I’d like to dabble with video. Now I have an easy avenue to do that. If it goes well and I need more, I can move to the full experience on a Mac.
• NexRebular 4y ago
  There already has been a DAW on the go for a while. It's even multiplatform with iOS and Android. https://www.steinberg.net/cubasis/ https://www.steinberg.net/cubasis/
  • dagmx 4y ago
    True, I didn’t mean to imply that there wasn’t and I thought I’d alluded to that by mentioning the other recording apps on the iPhone. However I’m a Logic Pro user. Cubase is great but it just never clicked with me as much as Logic did. I’ve gone through a majority of the DAWs on macOS but Logic Pro and Live were the only ones that really stuck for me. Obviously purely subjective. I edited my comment above to reflect my DAW preference factors in.
    • NexRebular 4y ago
      Subjective indeed. I usually dabble in Nuendo and have pretty much all Steinberg workflow with Dorico in the mix too (also on iPad). I really should check out Logic too one of these days, but as it's a mixed environment in the "studio" with Mac OS and Windows these multiplatform apps make life a bit easier for now.
• bartread 4y ago
  GarageBand was always pretty decent on iPad back in the day, at least as a scratchpad for ideas. But yes, this is exciting. I'd quite like to see something like Ableton or Bitwig make its way onto iPad as well.
  • dagmx 4y ago
    Ableton on iPad would be such a great fit, especially the session clip view.
    • Slow_Hand 4y ago
      Have you tried Ableton Note? It's not a 1 to 1 version of Ableton, but it streamlines a lot of the features to make the equivalent of musical sketching app. You can then save your session and it opens perfectly in Ableton Live. I'm not a huge fan of music apps on iOS, but I played with it briefly and it's quite good. They've really done a great job to make it a very musical tool within the limitations of an iPhone (and presumably iPad).
• MuffinFlavored 4y ago
  > DAW Digital Audio Workstation (DAW)
• quijoteuniv 4y ago
  The idea that any piece of gear enables artist is one of the biggest lies we have been sold. True Artist will use any tool at their reach to do art. In terms of music the level is so high already that is irrelevant. Sound is not music.
  • carlmr 4y ago
    A DAW is near essential for making EDM. It's actually quite cheap compared to the instruments you need for other music styles. Sure you can make EDM with more limited means, but a DAW opens up basically everything.
    • quijoteuniv 4y ago
      And many think that for art more options is better, however the greatest works were done with huge limitations. Beatles 4 track, Bladerunner no CGI to name 2.
    • cruano 4y ago
      If by "everything" you mean better production quality, sure, but I doubt you'd do your best sound-design work laying down on your couch with your airpods. I think the only thing this enables is for you to "finish" your songs on the ipad itself, which is not the game changer the OP is saying it is.
  • jc_811 4y ago
    Does a piano player relying on a piano not count as “gear enabling an artist”? If there’s no piano does that true artist start playing a napkin instead because it’s within their reach?
    • quijoteuniv 4y ago
      You will be surprised when you find out how many amazing piano players have practice in a piece of wood/cardboard with the keys drawn/carved
      • 4y ago
• toyg 4y ago
  The iPad is not an entry point to the ecosystem; the difference with Macs in terms of modality of use is too stark. The Macs are simply meant to eventually go away. From the perspective of Apple, they are a legacy coccyx. For them the iPad, where nothing is replaceable and Apple is in full control of content distribution, is the superior form of computing.
  • fckgw 4y ago
    They must be doing a terrible job since Apple is selling more Macs now than they ever have.
  • blowski 4y ago
    Why would Apple only sell iPads when they can sell iPads + Macs?
  • Toutouxc 4y ago
    Developers have been begging for years to be able to code for iPad on iPad, wouldn’t allowing this be an easy first step towards the iPad only dystopia? Do you have an explanation for why it’s still almost impossible?
    • toyg 4y ago
      Apple will allow that when they have the means and inclination to lock you into coding only what they want you to code, and nothing more. At the moment this is not possible - developing an iOS app requires knowing about files and filesystems and utilities etc etc, which means you cannot stay in your little sandbox. Once they figure out how to build tools that do away with all of that and still work, then you'll be able to do it.
      • iknowstuff 3y ago
        That's exactly what they did when they allowed users to "Submit your completed apps to the App Store with App Store Connect" from Swift Playgrounds on iPads: https://apps.apple.com/app/id908519492 https://apps.apple.com/app/id908519492
• Maursault 4y ago
  > Having a full DAW on the go is a killer feature imho. I think the problem here that most won't realize is that they'll have no idea what you're listening to and so will be mixing audio in the dark, so to speak. Professionals will check headphone mixes, but generally won't mix with headphones certainly not bluetooth headphones. I suppose there may exist such a thing as powered Bluetooth monitors, but again, the wireless Bluetooth, and what it does to audio, is the weak part in the chain. iPad built in speakers are not flat, so if you mix for them, the audio might only sound alright coming out of an iPad. There are probably audio docks for iPad which will include a DAC for converting stereo sound from the iPad USB-C port, and jacks for monitors, but I have never seen one that doesn't have the cheapest components available. Not sure of the current abilities of iPad and USB-C, but last I heard, iPad was only capable of stereo in and stereo out. There's a lot that can be done with just two tracks, but do not doubt that everything depends on the converters and preamps, so a professional quality USB-C ADC/DAC with decent pres (unless off-boarded) is paramount to creating half decent tracks, which is paramount to creating very good mixes. Not everyone is a professional audio engineer, and everyone here that is an expert at everything will likely be satisfied with terrible converters and the audio they produce. YMMV
  • B1FF_PSUVM 4y ago
    > the wireless Bluetooth, and what it does to audio, It should do about the same as the "oxygen-free copper" cables, perhaps slower - moving bits from A to B. Is there any evidence otherwise?
    • 0x457 4y ago
      Well, BT introduces additional delay and jitter. It's fine for listening to music because you can "cache" segments. That's totally not going to working real-time audio. Apple doesn't support aptX HD, aptX Lossless, LDAC for Bluetooth devices. IIRC they use AAC 256 kbps for their wireless audio. Once again, totally fine for listening Spotify and apply music, but I imagine suboptimal for DAW.
      • Ancapistani 3y ago
• pdntspa 4y ago
  Wonder how Logic Pro ipad compares to FLStudio mobile?
• ROTMetro 4y ago
  Yay more Apple users complaining that their VSTs don't work on Apple's XYZ variant that yet again broke something instead of actual talk about the VSTs in question. It already makes many discussion threads nearly useless, I look forward to more of it.
• shams93 4y ago
  I'll be more excited when they finally can bring over xcode and I can use an ipad to write au plugins.
• nr2x 4y ago
  Main issue is lack of compatibility with any audio interface not in CC mode.