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I've been writing and recording music for 25 years. I wouldn't do it on an iPad if the app paid me. If there was ever a job that requires a mouse and multiple s

I've been writing and recording music for 25 years. I wouldn't do it on an iPad if the app paid me. If there was ever a job that requires a mouse and multiple screens even more than coding and design, it's audio engineering. Try editing a piano roll with thousands of MIDI notes, adjusting thousands of automation points and fine tuning EQ settings on a touchscreen. The experience is terrible, and no software can fix that. A tablet is just the wrong tool for the job.

eclipxe 4y ago
You haven't used Logic pro on the iPad yet. Maybe reserve judgement until you've tried it? I would actually prefer to draw in automation with a touchscreen/apple pencil vs. mouse. And direct manipulation of effect/instrument knobs as well as mixers is good.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- IAmGraydon 4y ago
  You know how you already know that you don't want to eat chocolate pudding with chopsticks? It's kind of like that. Wrong tool for the job.
desro 4y ago
I agree with you but also desire a hybrid approach. I've just spent the last ten months nearly full-time doing audio post production for an independent tv/web series in Logic. I can't tell you how often I've wanted to reach into the screen and touch/drag/edit clips in a comprehensive-multitouch-kinda way. You can take my mouse and keyboard from my cold dead hands, but a multitouch augmentation (beyond what the "magic trackpad" gets ya) could be insanely useful (hoping it's a part of the AR future).
MentallyRetired 4y ago
...but you can use a mouse and keyboard with the iPad. And an external display.
goblin89 4y ago
As a long time electronic music producer, I make sure once installed my primary software is never updated as a rule[0]. My flow doesn’t make bouncing everything to audio feasible and there is nothing worse than opening a project you have worked on for a few months to find that it sounds… different. Counter-intuitively, learning to predict and deal with crashes and working around known bugs on the fly is way easier than stopping everything and spending days debugging what exactly messed up your sound—you have a few hundred of interwired devices, and if it turns out that a small change in some arpeggiator timing algorithm or macro wiring, intentional or inadvertently caused by some improvement, is impossible to completely revert, lost inspiration aside you may feel some pretty dark emotions because the thing as you knew it is basically gone. So while the App Store model of forced updates was barely acceptable in case of toys for sketching ideas like Figure, Reason Compact, iKaossilator, etc., with my primary DAW? and I have to pay for these updates, too? For as long as App Store offers no requisite controls, proper desktop software (and of course all hardware) will rule, and I know I’m not alone with such a flow. [0] The only exception is if all tracks I started in this version were finished, and that never happens. Otherwise the new version gets installed on a new machine, I’m not in rush.
- KerrAvon 4y ago
  This is a reasonable concern; this would be worth raising to Apple if you have a channel to do so. Being able to pin apps to specific versions may indeed be a requirement if your livelihood depends on their stability.
  - southwesterly 4y ago
    They’ll probably do something similar to Xcode and have a version download stored somewhere.
- IAmGraydon 4y ago
  Agree. What's your primary DAW? Ableton here.
  - goblin89 4y ago
KerrAvon 4y ago
But you’re not limited to the touchscreen. The iPad has excellent external mouse support. I’m using Apple’s folio keyboard/trackpad combo to type this right now, but any USB or Bluetooth mouse will work. Even gaming mice work. If you don’t need a traditional cursor, you can just also use an Apple Pencil for precise pointing needs such as piano roll editing.
musictubes 4y ago
I’m sure Apple would agree that particular workflow wouldn’t be good on an iPad. That’s why they emphasize the round trip capabilities with Logic on the Mac. And really, the vast, vast majority of people doing recording, even “serious” recording aren’t doing what you described. There will be plenty of workflows that will be possible on the iPad that aren’t on a Mac. There are many different kinds and stages of audio production. Logic on the iPad is going to be great for some people.

eclipxe 4y ago

You haven't used Logic pro on the iPad yet. Maybe reserve judgement until you've tried it? I would actually prefer to draw in automation with a touchscreen/apple pencil vs. mouse. And direct manipulation of effect/instrument knobs as well as mixers is good.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
IAmGraydon 4y ago
You know how you already know that you don't want to eat chocolate pudding with chopsticks? It's kind of like that. Wrong tool for the job.

desro 4y ago

I agree with you but also desire a hybrid approach. I've just spent the last ten months nearly full-time doing audio post production for an independent tv/web series in Logic. I can't tell you how often I've wanted to reach into the screen and touch/drag/edit clips in a comprehensive-multitouch-kinda way. You can take my mouse and keyboard from my cold dead hands, but a multitouch augmentation (beyond what the "magic trackpad" gets ya) could be insanely useful (hoping it's a part of the AR future).

MentallyRetired 4y ago

...but you can use a mouse and keyboard with the iPad. And an external display.

goblin89 4y ago

As a long time electronic music producer, I make sure once installed my primary software is never updated as a rule[0]. My flow doesn’t make bouncing everything to audio feasible and there is nothing worse than opening a project you have worked on for a few months to find that it sounds… different. Counter-intuitively, learning to predict and deal with crashes and working around known bugs on the fly is way easier than stopping everything and spending days debugging what exactly messed up your sound—you have a few hundred of interwired devices, and if it turns out that a small change in some arpeggiator timing algorithm or macro wiring, intentional or inadvertently caused by some improvement, is impossible to completely revert, lost inspiration aside you may feel some pretty dark emotions because the thing as you knew it is basically gone. So while the App Store model of forced updates was barely acceptable in case of toys for sketching ideas like Figure, Reason Compact, iKaossilator, etc., with my primary DAW? and I have to pay for these updates, too? For as long as App Store offers no requisite controls, proper desktop software (and of course all hardware) will rule, and I know I’m not alone with such a flow. [0] The only exception is if all tracks I started in this version were finished, and that never happens. Otherwise the new version gets installed on a new machine, I’m not in rush.

KerrAvon 4y ago
This is a reasonable concern; this would be worth raising to Apple if you have a channel to do so. Being able to pin apps to specific versions may indeed be a requirement if your livelihood depends on their stability.
- southwesterly 4y ago
  They’ll probably do something similar to Xcode and have a version download stored somewhere.
IAmGraydon 4y ago
Agree. What's your primary DAW? Ableton here.
- goblin89 4y ago

KerrAvon 4y ago

But you’re not limited to the touchscreen. The iPad has excellent external mouse support. I’m using Apple’s folio keyboard/trackpad combo to type this right now, but any USB or Bluetooth mouse will work. Even gaming mice work. If you don’t need a traditional cursor, you can just also use an Apple Pencil for precise pointing needs such as piano roll editing.

musictubes 4y ago

I’m sure Apple would agree that particular workflow wouldn’t be good on an iPad. That’s why they emphasize the round trip capabilities with Logic on the Mac. And really, the vast, vast majority of people doing recording, even “serious” recording aren’t doing what you described. There will be plenty of workflows that will be possible on the iPad that aren’t on a Mac. There are many different kinds and stages of audio production. Logic on the iPad is going to be great for some people.