Be honest, can you make real music on your iPad?

[el-bo (formerly ebow)]

At this point the only limitation i meet in producing music on iPad is due to the lack of ram

something that can be helped out with a little resampling

Something like iPad 3 in 2012 will be a better solution concerning the ram issue

of course...but, what i love about the idea of limits in memory is that it forces commitment, in much the same way as i used to have to do with bouncing on my 4track fostex...it's exactly what makes the idea of the platform different to me...the minute it starts to work without limits, and with tons of options (which it eventually will), it will lose some of its charm

everytime i open up logic, i feel overwhelmed by incomplete projects, projects i want to start and which sounds to use (and i have quite the stripped down plugin folder)

nanosynth has taken away that 'pressure', and has allowed me to focus much more clearly....i'd like to get an ipad, at some point, for the screen real estate and the built in mic, but between beatmaker 2 and nano in their current state, i reckon i could make a really great little album

[dalor]

Do you guys feel that you can use your iPad to make good music? Or is it still just a toy or "sketch pad" pad at this point?

Would anybody like to show off a sample of something they (or others) have made only on iPad?

I have an iPad and to me it's just a toy, I have downloaded garageband and other sequencers, virtual drum machines. It's not a serious production tool to me. It's fun to play with when you're out in the train, bus, plane but that's about it. I could never make a song due to its limited screen resolution. I also noticed there is a delay from touch to sound, for example playing drums on a virtual drum kit comes with a delay which makes it hard to play in timing.

[Dogboy73]

I have an iPad and to me it's just a toy, I have downloaded garageband and other sequencers, virtual drum machines. It's not a serious production tool to me. It's fun to play with when you're out in the train, bus, plane but that's about it.

That's the way I see it. I would still like one to play around on but I'm under no delusions I'm going to be able to do much beyond make some sounds in interesting, fun ways, wherever I want. That's cool

It's a great piece of kit but despite it's technical & engineering prowess I don't see that this sort of technology will replace anything we currently have - laptops, books, control surfaces, games consoles. Tablets are good & doing lots of different things but they are not great at anything. They are just a fad. The latest must have gadget. People see them as the future but I don't see it at all ..... sorry going off topic a bit there with my tablet soap box moment!!

I also noticed there is a delay from touch to sound, for example playing drums on a virtual drum kit comes with a delay which makes it hard to play in timing.

The touch screen doesn't seem to work that well in some cases. I've some lots of demo vids where the demonstrater prods the screen to do something ..... then prods it again ..... & again. Finally something happens!! Tactile it ain't! As a control interface it's fun & intuitive but a total gimmick. You can't beat knobs & sliders unless you're a Star Trek fan

[suecae_sounds]

Maybe you can take two Ipads and bang them together, thus producing a sound not entirely unlike using two rocks? That would constitute an instrument.

[Dogboy73]

Maybe you can take two Ipads and bang them together, thus producing a sound not entirely unlike using two rocks? That would constitute an instrument.

That's some expensive rocks

[DevonB]

Was just looking at the NanoStudio forum and saw they had a contest back in December. Take a listen for yourself some of the entries that are entirely done on NanoStudio. I'd say the iPad is pretty capable and more than a mere toy.

http://forums.blipinteractive.co.uk/node/1451

Devon

[Dogboy73]

I ended up taking the plunge and buying an iPad 2 just before the weekend. I'd seen enough cool looking music apps recently to convince me it would be worthwhile. I didn't want to go mad and buy every app I'd seen in one hit. So far I've only bought Reactable and downloaded a couple of freebies. I can hardly put Reactable down. Great fun to play around with and completely unlike anything I've used on a computer before. Great stuff and I'm making some good noise with it already

[KungKrille]

I don't have the patience to do complete tracks on my iPhone but have done short sequences that I sampled off into Ableton Live. The closest I have ever been to a full song was with Nanoloop that I used in my Trip-A-Tron demo

[Grain Bastard]

I ended up taking the plunge and buying an iPad 2 just before the weekend. I'd seen enough cool looking music apps recently to convince me it would be worthwhile. I didn't want to go mad and buy every app I'd seen in one hit. So far I've only bought Reactable and downloaded a couple of freebies. I can hardly put Reactable down. Great fun to play around with and completely unlike anything I've used on a computer before. Great stuff and I'm making some good noise with it already

Happy days, i use mine all the time. Does loads of things and is even filling the gap that my ps3 has left when it has gone to the gadget doctor for a medical!!! Damn 'Army of Darkness'......lol

Music wise I used a few bits and bobs in the following tune that was just some messing around with the iMS20 app and Reactable. I still wouldn't use my ipad for a whole tune but i can make loops and stuff with it whenever i want and then it's just like any other audio in the daw.

http://soundcloud.com/punisha/grainbastard-60-data

Peace.

[Dogboy73]

Very cool track, Grain. I like that a lot. BTW what method do you use to export stuff from iPad Apps? I read something about a way to do this using iTunes. Not really explored this yet though.

[DevonB]

Really depends on the app on how you can get music in and out of your iPad. With NanoStudio, you can directly dump to SoundCloud or you can use NanoSync on your PC or Mac and copy it right over. Works very well and quite painless.

Devon

[Grain Bastard]

Very cool track, Grain. I like that a lot. BTW what method do you use to export stuff from iPad Apps? I read something about a way to do this using iTunes. Not really explored this yet though.

Thanks man.

As Devon said, there are a few ways but in this instance it was simply a matter of hooking the ipad output to my mixer and recording what i jammed into the daw and chopped it from there. Oldskool but quick .

[IncarnateX]

Very cool track, Grain. I like that a lot. BTW what method do you use to export stuff from iPad Apps? I read something about a way to do this using iTunes. Not really explored this yet though.

By use of copy and paste, sonoma or the intua system you can transfer mixdowns with no need of external computers. it is not implemented on all apps, though. Be sure they have before buying.

With transfers by PC you can use wifi-fi or iTunes, but you can

can also try the free iPhone explorer

http://www.macroplant.com/iphoneexplorer/

This way you can enter your directories on an iDevice with no need of iTunes nor Wi-fi. And it is legal; you do not need to jailbreak your device.

Very effective for big transfers such as sample banks.

(Seems a little buggy, though, occasionally I have to restart it to make it find the directories) Very effective for big transfers such as sample banks.


Cheers

[an-electric-heart]

What's an "ipad"?... it's a fancy cell-phone isn't it?... a bit like one of those "Blue-teeth"?

[vata44]

Here is something I made on my iPod Touch... I found it quite fun. As someone else mentioned, the limitations actually made things move smoother, cause I could not spend 2 hours tweaking as deeply as I can on the PC.

http://www.buzztunes.org/download/tune-12130

I mean it is not a stellar movie score, but it made me happy and mellow.