Nord User Forum

[GabeCarter]

Anyone else using an iOS device for music production? I've been using an a M Audio Midi keyboard and a iPod Touch. Just bought SampleTank for iPhone and was blown away! I ordered the iRig Midi too for 48 more sounds too! Can't wait to use this live!

How are you using your iPhone or iPod for music?

[bdodds]

I use a number of apps on my iPad:

iTablaPro - this is serious stuff. The author (who is very, very nice by the way) has put together a definitive sound engine to replicate the classic Indian tabla rhythms (taals) and it includes two tampura (string drone) and a swarmandal pattern - all definable in key and relative pitch. Worth every penny, IMHO.

Reactable Mobile - like having a Reactable on your iPad. Nothing is omitted, it's a great deal of fun. If you don't know the spectacle that is the Reactable, check it out.

Korg iELECTRIBE - like having an Electribe, but on your iPad also. Very good implementation. Stock patterns are ho-hum, create your own for success.

ReBirth for iPad - I bought the Propellerheads' ReBirth app for my PC 15 years ago, and I paid $169. Now I have it again on my iPad, which is a much more useful and intuitive interface for it, for much less.

Moog Filtatron - it's by Moog, and $.99. that's all you need to know.

Mugician - A good friend of mine wrote this app called Mugician, and it's pretty fantastic. Think fretless (or fretted) synth with an alternate keyboard and you're part-way there. It's awesome stuff, as used by Jordan Rudess here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rVpuSj75rI

I've much more, but these are the ones I'd want on a desert island.

[bdodds]

iTablaPro - this is serious stuff. The author (who is very, very nice by the way) has put together a definitive sound engine to replicate the classic Indian tabla rhythms (taals) and it includes two tampura (string drone) and a swarmandal pattern - all definable in key and relative pitch. Worth every penny, IMHO.

So I turn on my iPad just now and there's an update for this - he added Manjira!

And seriously - how often do you get to play with a rhythm that is 5.5 or 8.5 or 13 beats long? Awesome stuff.

[ThisPoison]

I'm sure many (well, older ones anyway!) have been on a similar journey to me - from basic synths, step sequencers and drum machines in 1980 through to early midi synths, sequencers and drum machines, the revolution that was cubase and Atari (controlling that same midi kit) then PC Cubase with limited plug ins and (I thought) the ultimate Logic platform on Mac with excellent plug-ins and the ability to use all the old kit collected over the years.

I seriously thought it had stopped for me until my brother bought me an iPad as a thank-you for helping him out through some problems he had. I wouldn't have bought one myself at the time.

Fast forward 6 months or so, now I have the iPad and an Alesis ioDock with a lot of music apps.

Nanostudio is stunning, as is Funkbox 2. They are way ahead (in terms of usefulness to me, that is) of iMS20, Rebirth, Sunrizer, Animoog and Filtron, Garageband - all of which (and many more to boot) are excellent and useable.

Live, I've used it for songwords/reminders and as a midi expander on top of a Nord Stage Classic (using Sunrizer and Nanostudio primarily). I've only used it 3 times live, as the ioDock had serious issues for a few months, but a firmware upgrade fixed it and now the iPad is rock solid in it's ioDock environment.

I fly a lot with work and have produced more demos in 6 months than in the previous 3 years.

So for me, it's a flexible, inspirational and a LOT of fun both in composition and performance.

I love it !

[Cee]

I had a gig the other day where the monitor sound tech had a Mac running Logic for everything.

So he'd be on stage with us asking what we needed in our monitors and controlled everything with this iPhone.

Pretty sweet stuff

[JacksonP]

This whole thing with tablets must be making big music companies little bit crazy:

Tablets are same time becoming cheaper, more powerful, more lighter and having better (touch-) screens. And this tablet platform is ideal for many music applications: just think about synth emulations with lot of knobs or mixers etc. So why wouldn't they just let companies like Apple to develop this platform and concentrate on applications which they can sell worldwide via internet and VISA. From the big companies Korg is already selling their iApps like iMS-20 and iELECTRIBE. But they must sell them a lot to make a real profit, because they are so cheap compared to their hardware duplicates.

Anyway, I also follow this progress very carefully and see when is my time to really consider iPad or iPhone. What I'd like to know about those iApps is few things:
1. Can you trust those apps? Do they crash sometimes or not?
2. Is there some latency, when playing some iSynth for example?
3. How about sound, if you compare for example iMS-20 to their (Legacy series) MS20-plugin played via pro-sound card? Do a serious iMusician need a something like Alesis ioDock or Akai Synthstation, or is it usable with just iMIDI-interface and keyboard and iPhone or iPad itself?

[bdodds]

But they must sell them a lot to make a real profit, because they are so cheap compared to their hardware duplicates.

Don't forget that hardware takes a consistent investment to produce - every unit costs something to make, software doesn't have that constraint. Once it's written it can be sold 10 or 10,000 times for the same cost, so all you really need to do is cover your development and marketing expense and the rest is profit..

[perfectsam]

Anyway, I also follow this progress very carefully and see when is my time to really consider iPad or iPhone. What I'd like to know about those iApps is few things:
1. Can you trust those apps? Do they crash sometimes or not?
2. Is there some latency, when playing some iSynth for example?
3. How about sound, if you compare for example iMS-20 to their (Legacy series) MS20-plugin played via pro-sound card? Do a serious iMusician need a something like Alesis ioDock or Akai Synthstation, or is it usable with just iMIDI-interface and keyboard and iPhone or iPad itself?

I stumbled upon this thread and these are the exact same questions I'd like to have answered as well. I've got an iPad2 and would like to use it live for MIDI playback. Obviously high latency, mediocre quality and/or crashes would be a dealbreaker. It would be really appreciated if someone could enlighten us.

Anyone else using an iOS device for music production? I've been using an a M Audio Midi keyboard and a iPod Touch. Just bought SampleTank for iPhone and was blown away! I ordered the iRig Midi too for 48 more sounds too! Can't wait to use this live!

I've checked out the iRig Midi. What are the advantages of this interface over a camera connection kit (29$) + cheap midi usb interface (~5$) which is supposed to work too according to this site? The only 2 advantages i see are Midi Thru and the possibility to charge your Device over microUSB. Anything else? If it's only these things, it doesn't justify the 70$ price tag imo.

[DrNeurus]

Hello!

I'd like to refresh the quetion:
>>>> 2. Is there some latency, when playing some iSynth for example?

Any experience about latency with iPad?

[bdodds]

There is definite latency, but it's entirely dependent on the application.. Some applications like Mugician have very, very little latency but that's because the guy who wrote that is a top-notch programmer who worked hard to fight latency.. Less carefully coded apps have tons of latency and are less "playable" - there's a Hammond emulator I forget the name of that has latency to the point of uselessness, about 60-70ms..