cubasis on sale and some questions

[ezelkow1]

So cubasis is on sale for the next day. Im brand new to the whole ipad music making thing. Right now I have alchemy pro and was contemplating a daw to get so looking for recommendations and some general info

So far I guess my choices are between cubasis and BM2. There any ups/downs to either choice? I dont really plan on doing any recording at all, mostly virtual instruments and loops type of stuff. Would I need audiobus? or is that only for routing external type of stuff into a daw? Does cubasis have any sort of drum machine or drum sequencing mode (there isnt a whole lot of info on the app page)?

Anything else I should know about?

[BiancaNeve]

Cubasis is based on a piano roll style interface. So it may not be what you're looking for.

But there are lots of stand alone drum sequencers that you can connect to it via midi.

Have a peek at FL studio mobile for a DAW where a step sequencer is central to the design.

Also have a look at newly released Caustic.

If you want to be able to record from Alchemy into the DAW you get, you may need to get Audiobus depending on which one you select.

For example FL studio would need Audiobus but in cubasis you could either use Audiobus or inter app audio.

At the end of the day it comes down to the way you like to work and what type of music you want to make.

[peanut_gallery]

For what you are looking to do, BeatMaker2 is probably a better choice than Cubasis. Cubasis does have drum pads and a MIDI editor, but I don't think you can edit/import the samples on the drum pads. You are stuck with what's there (and it's not terribly great). You can easily bring in audio drum loops to an audio track, but BeatMaker 2 will let you do that as well.

Both Cubasis and BM2 use IAA (inter-app audio), which Alchemy can use as well, so you don't need Audiobus to use Alchemy with those two apps. That said, not all synth apps are on the IAA train yet, so you may need to get Audiobus to use other synth apps in conjunction with Cubasis and BM2.

Though I don't use BM2, I will say it is probably the most feature rich and comprehensive DAW app for the iOS. You can do loops, MIDI recording/editing, audio recording/editing, MPC style drums (with your own drum samples) and much more. The main issue I personally have with it is the overall workflow isn't my cup of tea (I use NanoStudio mostly, and then Cubasis when I need to do a lot of IAA/Audiobus recording for complex passages).

The IAA/Audiobus implementation in Cubasis is probably the best on the iOS platform to date, and its workflow is generally pretty good. That said, it's missing automation, has no drum sample editing, has a clunky interface for getting audio out of Cubasis into other apps, and is still prone to all sorts of buggy behavior.

Also worth mentioning: BM2 has amazing DropBox integration for getting audio in and out of BM2. It's doesn't have a real internal synth (which Cubasis does), but it has a very good sampler (supporting multi-samples, I believe) and beat slicer. At this point it is also a very stable app.

[martygras]

Yes, Audiobus will probably become the hub of your workflow. I also wanted to say that many of us actually use 2 or 3 DAW's to match the type of needs each user has.

I still recommend Garageband as a starter or core DAW, but they still have some improvements to make as do most DAW apps. Nanostudio is also an option.

[ezelkow1]

Thanks for the info

First Im not really beat oriented, the only reason I asked about a built in drum setup was to avoid having to get a separate drum app

What are the advantages of nanostudio that you see vs. BM2? Im open to all daws really, its just cubasis and bm2 were the big ones I had seen that seemed to have what i was looking for

[BiancaNeve]

I may be wrong on this but I seem to recall reading that there was going to be a new version of nano studio along soon that's not going to be a free upgrade from the current one. If that's the case it may be worth waiting.

I agree about BM2 having a very hard to master work flow, it's one of those apps that I have that I keep deleting to make space then reloading to have another look as it does have some clever stuff in there.

If you're more orchestral then Xewton's Music studio might be worth a look as well since the last upgrade included a whole set of new orchestral instruments which are of a pretty good standard

[ezelkow1]

Im more electronic, mostly use ableton on the pc side with an occasional helping of studio one

[peanut_gallery]

Yes, NanoStudio 2 is due out at some point next year, which will probably have an amazing feature set (the most wanted of which is full audio recording).

In my opinion, NanoStudio has one of the best workflows in iOS DAWs, particularly in it's MIDI recording and editing. Pretty much all recording in NS is MIDI based. It has a very good built in synth that has a very deep subtractive synthesis engine (with just about any parameter being available for automation or routed to one of the two X/Y pads) but also allows for samples as the signal source. The latter is a great option for taking single note samples from other apps and then using them in NS. To note, though, the samples used in the synth are mono and it currently doesn't support multi-samples.

While NanoStudio doesn't support traditional audio recording, you can record (in stereo) samples which are then triggered by the MPC style drum pads. I've done many projects with full audio in NanoStudio, either recording directly via the mic or through Audiobus, as well as using other apps to record audio and then importing the audio to NanoStudio and triggering them via the drum pads (again the samples triggered by the drum pads support full stereo). The major drawback to this, particularly when mixing, is that if you playback somewhere mid-sample after the MIDI trigger point, the sample won't play - you always need to start at or before the MIDI trigger (which is true for all MIDI playback) for the sample to play.

NanoStudio as it is now is definitely behind the curve in features compared to most other iOS DAWs, but it's the simple workflow and flexibility in options that keeps it in the game for myself and a lot of other users.

That said, it may make sense to be patient and wait for NS2 (though there's currently no ETA for a release yet) rather than plunking down $20 for it now (it's $15 for the base app, but an extra $5 to go from the 6 base tracks to 16).

[BMoore]

Nanostudio lacks in both sounds and features.

With BM2 you can easily import your own samples into the very good drum machine, and there are many 3rd party sound libraries to choose from. Also from the new in-app shop. The keyboard/synth sounds are no better than NS, although more "bread and butter" sounds. There are also more presets overall. The drum sounds are somewhat good. The workflow is not bad either.
The effects are s**t.
Supports both Audiobus and IAA.

Cubasis. Good sounds. Good workflow. Good effects. Great Audiobus and IAA implementation.
Features are good, and there is a feature roadmap over at the forum.
Expensive.