Do I really need a recording studio inside of my phone?

[BERFAB]

I wondered about this too, but then yesterday I saw an ad on the back of RECORDING Mag for a new keyboard interface (can't recall the manufacturer ATM, think it might have been M-Audio) that actually incorporates your smartphone. So you can now diddle around with the phone on the road, and then plug it right into the keyboard/DAW when you get back to the studio.

This would really seem (to me at least) to be the first really practical application for legit studio use.

Now the problem for devs becomes the blurring of the price points for phone apps (typically under $10) and their big brother vsts which can sell for hundreds more. If you can use the phone apps with comparable results, why go big?

-B

I was wrong. It was Akai. http://keyboards-midi.musiciansfriend.c ... 5Qod6xjn1Q

Using an Iphone or Itouch on a more fully featured keyboard can't be far behind.

And ultimately, the phone will be the kernal that energizes the entire studio.

Still gotta write good tunes though...

Cheers
-B

[skipscada]

My impression is that any serious work is made impossible by the ergonomical limitations. The screen of an IPhone is small, so whatever is displayed tends to be small as well. Not good for your eyes. Also, holding the bloody thing for a long time leads to strain, and if you lay it down, you need to sit in a special way to get a good view, and it wobbles and spins when you push the edges of the screen. I quickly get tired of simple things like playing chess or writing e-mail on my IPod touch, and can't see myself doing anything serious with it, at least not anything that requires a lot of interaction. As a recorder, maybe. It's well equipped for basic editing and better file administration/naming than handheld recorders of the same size.

[rpc9943]

Droid x here. I bought tape recorder which will be great for interviews. It's like a basic cool edit pro minus the effects

[DWB2]

I'm not sure if the technology's there yet or the price point is right, but I can see a use for music-on-a-mobile apps. I have a twenty minutes each way daily commute (and I know a lot of people who have a lot longer) - if I could sit on the train playing around with a melody or a beat and then transfer it onto my computer and start fleshing it out when I got home it'd be a lot more interesting than reading the Metro and probably make me more productive as well...

[breakmixer]

If you asked that question in the 80's you'd of been commited...

It would have to of been a big phone back then...

Myself these apps/mobile phone gizmos do not interest me, a phone is for phoning for me, period...

[tehlord]

Look at it this way. Your throwaway iPhone apps are considerably more powerful than the Fairlight you would have paid $50k for 25 years ago.

There's no reason why you can't make excellent music on them, so use them or don't

[noisemaker]

I use iphone as a remote transport for my DAW over wifi... works pretty good for that.

[polaris20]

I have Multitrack DAW for both iPhone and iPad (universal app), and use it regularly. The sound quality exceeds what you could do on any tape deck years ago, does 8 tracks (with an in-app purchase to 24) and does enough that makes it an excellent demoing tool. Why would I want to always pack up my laptop and guitars, when I could just drop by my friend's house with an iPad and acoustic? The portability is amazing and useful.

With the iPad, the camera connector works with various USB mics and interfaces, making it even more useful.

Also, I use the iPhone version regularly for guitar lessons, to record ideas, riffs, and exercises, then immediately upload it to my Soundcloud account so they can review later on the web.

This is all before talking about iRig and Looptastic HD, which I also have and of which are both a blast. MIDI is also coming to iOS4.2, which will further extent it's usefulness. I'm sure Android will get it too.

[KrisM]

I think if it works for you, then great. If it doesn't then that's okay, too. Neither side is really going to convince the other that it is wrong, so debating it is pretty pointless. I've been having fun writing music on palm-sized devices since 2004 or so and i don't plan to stop any time soon none of it replaces my DAW, Live, Studio One and all my precious plugins, but that doesn't make things useless to me, either.