Jump to content

iOS devices suitable for Audio production?


Recommended Posts

As I promised the day have arrived... let's talk about sampling iOS apps. As usual I will talk about those who run on old devices aswell others than run in newer devices. Let's go!

 

For the old devices (and perfect as standalones for the recycled devices you can get)

 

 

 

 

 

Next the news...

(Version 2 includding AudioUnit)

 

 

 

 

 

To be continued...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 months later...

Some updates...

 

BM3

 

 

Dedicated topic at the forum

http://www.digitalvertigo.co.uk/forum/index.php?showtopic=40169

 

Novation Ampify apps

Blocswave

 

 

 

Launchpad (it supports novation launch series controllers)

 

Blocs can share projects into Launchpad from its free version of both.

 

Grovebox. The last app added to the party...

 

Recently has added support to midi in

 

Korg Gadget

 

Also for mac...

https://youtu.be/GYMizrj78fo

 

Also works with BM3 aside apart standalone reason-like

https://youtu.be/grY8OhBdTEE

 

https://youtu.be/HQ8or88qIvA

 

Yes it works with bluetooth Korg devices!

https://youtu.be/OzMoHHKvdH0

 

And for today those are the apps doing it right lately. If someone wants to explore a bit more the platform my advice will be "visit the audiobus forum". There is very active one and full of helpful people ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've been working on/looking into a mobile production setup as well.

 

Korg Gadget is super powerful for iPhone and iPad. It's $55 but if you get the app "App Shopper" (which everyone buying pricy apps should have - it notifies you when sales start, and shows you a detailed history of the price drops and increases for every app), you can put an app in and wait until it goes on sale. Korg holds 50% off sales 3x per year and I grabbed it for $27 then. It comes with a bunch of built-in Korg synths and replica synths/drum machines (enough that I don't want any other iOS synths for now), and the interface has been a lot nicer for me on the iPhone plus than other DAW options. So far it's the only DAW that I feel like I could sort of maybe make an actual track with it

ALSO if you use Ableton live, you can actually bounce a project to .ALS and open it up directly on your computer. Huuuge plus for me.

Medly is also a cool app if you're just composing midi on the piano roll. It has the easiest/most advanced iOS piano roll I've seen and you can whip down melodies and chords fairly easy then export them. I wish the Gadget had some more multi-touch piano roll options and a bit less menu diving/tool switching.

Right now my favourite piece of gear is the X-key Air, so I have to plug it:

http://www.cme-pro.com/xkey-air/

It has full-size keys but they're only like half a cm high, the whole thing is about the size of my Apple keyboard with the same colour scheme. It's bluetooth and connects to iOS seamlessly. It's also the keyboard I use at my live shows now because it doesn't take up another USB input. It looks like it would feel awkward but it feels sooo much better than any midi keyboard with "micro" keys, it takes up a smaller footprint than 95% of micro key ones and 100% of other full sizes, and takes up less bag space than any midi keyboard I've found because it's soooo thin.

I haven't jumped to an interface yet, BUT I noticed that Apogee has the Jam which is made for iOS, and I'm pretty sure the Uno and Duo are also iOS compatible? I haven't tried them or read reviews, but I know they're among the best for Mac, so I assume there's a good chance their iOS interfaces are top notch as well.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Blocs wave also have Ableton export. It seems a growing feature like Ableton sync delivered by some devs thanks to Ableton useful APIs. I didn't try Gadeget yet but it seems very popular and I have Korg Module with the triton IAP which is awesome.

 

Thanks @Vekked for sharing your journey into mobile. It will be useful for others for sure!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I haven't jumped to an interface yet, BUT I noticed that Apogee has the Jam which is made for iOS, and I'm pretty sure the Uno and Duo are also iOS compatible? I haven't tried them or read reviews, but I know they're among the best for Mac, so I assume there's a good chance their iOS interfaces are top notch as well.

 

 

I think any Coreaudio compliant audio interface with usb (most audio interfaces) can work with ios. Using the newer camera conection kit that has usb AND a lightning port means charging whilst using usb devices.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

That is technically true, but not strictly, 80-90% class compliant devices will still want a powered hub.

(A nice little sneaky one is to grab an audio 4DJ from NI, pretty crap on desktop for latency, on IOS it is brilliant low latency performer and gives you all the ins and outs for low latency DJPP DVS)

There is an anker hub out there that gives you 7 powered USB ports and 10/100/1000 Ethernet for about £25.

(Again here it is worth noting that while you can connect multiple audio interfaces, only one will be used and they cant be aggregated, but USB MIDI devices you can combine at will)

The anker is basically a dream come true for IOS music makers, no WI-FI needed for anything like Ableton link and such.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nice - you send everything over ethernet? Sounds like theres lots to go wrong tho... the ultimate setup i'd want is so complicated it would be just as well getting a whole studio haha

I do want to figure out a more portable version of what i have now tho - where i'm using 2 mixers which both have fx sends, so can layer delay over my 1st mixer or over the output of the phone interface im running loopy with. It all relies on there being a 2nd mixer tho, if that was just a real fast interface, maybe i could go outbof my fx send on mixer A, into the interface, run a delay/reverb fx section into loopy, then loopy could go multi channel out to another fx section so i could control it all post-looper, as a kind of 8 track mixer, with fx. Could be done with a midi co troller or a korg nano thing... but all those effects running live pre and post would surely add lag... and after all that it still wouldnd sound as nice as my tape delay.... arggggg what to dooooo

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If you can use multiple output audio interface for loopyhd and external fx go for it. Alternatively you can use AUM and Audiobus to route all of these in device, adding fx (pre or post fader) and midi controllable. You can do bus mixing to low the cpu demands so and so...

 

If you don’ t have AUM and want to know how much cpu will require your setup just post your routing and I will try to mimic it adding some of my fx into the chain and make some snapshots. With iOS 11 it’s possible to record the screen but I didn’t tried yet.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

ah yes i have audio bus - i guess i just need a decent controller - thats the problem actually. like how to keep it simple.... pretty quickly i'd be into a usb hub, power bar/cables, a foot switch, and an array of faders/knobs/buttons (korg nano?)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well you have some options to keep it cable friendly...

The first suggestiom will be novation audiohub+cck3 usb if you need more than one controller (my suggestion launchcontrol xl) and if you only need one then focusrite itrack dock (if its suitable with your device model)

 

Also there are some bt controllers emerging but check compatibility with your apps. Ie korg nanostudio or akai lpd bt.

 

https://youtu.be/ZP-ElX43FOg

https://goo.gl/images/ARYiSa

 

 

https://youtu.be/eIMgyto5KJ4

http://www.akaipro.com/products/new-products/lpd8-wireless

http://www.akaipro.com/products/new-products/lpk25-wireless

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah or simply throw all that shit out and run BM3 with a MIDI controller, you could even just get the BT korg thing and have zero wires.

I am seriously vibing off just the ipad and nothing else, its taking me back to when i had some minimal shit 25 years ago, but its powerful as fuck as well as completely portable.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Beatmaker does indeed look awesome, but loopy hd has such a good system of working, visually and for ease of use, it means you can get on with doing the musicy bit rather than the computery bit, which i like.

The way the sounds are arranged in circles also helps visualise what in doing as i use it to build loops from vinyl...

i think the audiohub makes sense for me... one box... it would be even nicer if it had another audio input so i could route my tape delay through it but i could probably use digi delay apps for live shows...

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest Symatic

Just got a cck (usb3 version) so i can connect stuff up to the phone while charging.

 

Tried it with a simple usb keyboard - i can type in text apps but unfortunately loopy hd doesnt recognize my old shitty keyboard - other people on their forums have had success tho so ill try another one, would be a nice cheap way of doing a foot switch.

 

I also tried my nanopad2, it works fine for bindings but not through my usb hub for some reason.... which means i cant use it alongside a soundcard. Ill try another hub to make sure thats not the problem.

 

As a random test i plugged in my axiom 25, works fine.

 

The other thing is that when i didnt have the lightning port powering my phone, the usb devices threw up a "not enough power" error on the phone, but if i had the lighning plugged in it was enough to power the device too - i guess thats cool... i dunno if itried it with the bigger axiom 25 but the nanopad worked off the phone/cck power when it was plugged in

 

 

Im still on the fence about the audiohub... its convenient but im wondering if i get a 2-in 2-out i can use one of those in/out paths to run a feedback loop for tape delay....

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest Symatic

Oh and i also randomly tried to run my old line6 mobile in off the lighning port on the cck-usb3, but it just threw up a not-recognized error

Link to comment
Share on other sites

About the keyboard I didn’t try so I can help atm...

 

About nanopads I read somewhere weird behaviour so google it and maybe you can find s solution. I seems work properly with korg apps so maybe it’s a matter of channel or somekind.

 

About usb hubs and ccks... the old ccks deliver more energy than the new usb 3 so it works better with powered hubs but also some things that maybe should work... do it (with or without charging plugged) so it’s a matter of try.

As advice the way you plug the things matters. For example:

- Plug first things into hub.

- Then plug hub into cck.

- Finally plug the cck into iPad.

In this way most of the “this device drain to much power” errors are avoided and you can figure what controllers/soundcard really need extra power or not but remember it depends on cck model too. My launchkey 61 mk2 works with iPad or iPhone with the cck3 but the combo old 30 pins cck + 30 pins to lightning only works with iPad. The same applies to other dock and 30 pins adaptors... try before buy lol.

 

Audiohub or akai eie (the red one) work flawless and with the new cck usb3 the device charge get solved.

 

If I can help any other way just tell me, mate. ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest Symatic

nice one mutis - yeah I'll try those suggestions about order of connection...

 

I'm still trying to work out how to implement my tape delay - I've got a Marantz CP430 (same as PMD43) portable tape deck which is 3-head, so it does a nice delay sound, although it's too fast for my liking, i wanna mod it to get the pitch control to extend down to like 30-50% if possible..... right now its really quick delay but for dubby stuff like i get with my Akai reel to Reel delay i need way slower tape speed cos the rec/play tape heads are so much closer in the marantz.

 

Right now I'm also having to use a whole 2nd mixer to create the feedback loop, ideally i'd like to get the feedback loop happening inside the deck, and maybe use the headphone volume pot as a feedback control.....

 

anyway, one possible solution i thought of would be to get a 4-in 4 out (i said 2 x 2 earlier oops) soundcard, and use one set of i/o's to do the feedback loop, and the other i/o for my loopy HD setup, and maybe i can send the echo's out of the same output as loopy as a mixed signal.....

 

I'm so tempted to get a focusrite 6i6 cos it looks dope, and i could use a nicee studio soundcard cos at the moment i just use my SL3 for everything.

anyway my main goal is to have a setup thats smaller than what i have now. right now i have a 2 mixer setup, and the 2nd mixer is only there cos i need a feedback loop for tape delay, in line with Loopy....

it's a sweet setup tho cos i can have pre-loopy delay (record echo's into the loops) and i can also echo the loopy output if i want so its really flexible.... it's just not very portable for gigs.

if i could make it all in the marantz box, i could turn up to a gig with just the marantz, my phone/soundcard, and a bag with my mixer and record in.....

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest Symatic

 

Heres the marantz as it is now. I found a simple mod online where you bypass a switch that disables pitch control during record mode - which lets me adjust pitch whilst doi g the delay (as you need to be recording to do it)

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...