iPad Pro - a tool to cure all GAS forever?

[keyman_sam]

I'm downsizing my studio and find that each day there's a new app that can rival high quality plugins. Though I haven't integrated the iPhone into my workflow yet, I can see myself turning to the iPhone/iPad just as I would a hardware synthesizer.

With the iPad Pro and split view display, it becomes more appealing than ever to use the iPad as a serious musical device with unlimited potential. So, for the price of a cup of coffee we could feast ourselves with jaw-dropping basses, effects, and a way of interaction never been possible before. It is inevitable that one of the accessories for the iPad Pro would be a docking station/soundcard with so you can treat it like any other piece of hardware.

So now I wonder if the iPad is the last instrument we ever need? Have we gotten to the point where we can get rid of all our fancy shmancy power-sucking, space-occupying, heavy-ass hardware synths/effect racks and satisfy our sonic appetite with a touch of a button?

[Mushy Mushy]

This was a no brainer purchase for me.

Then the Surface Pro came along and smashed it out of the park.

Sure the price of the latter is obscene, but it just means I'll save a little longer.

And this is coming from a first gen iPad fanboy.

[Scotty]

You don't even need a docking station. Music IO is an app that passes audio and midi in both directions through to the IOs device via the usb charger cable. It has a vst counterpart and a loopback midi hook (loopbe) is all that is needed. No dock, no midi cables, no audio cables. It works better on Mac at the moment but it is functional on Windows devices. http://musicioapp.com/

[fmr]

...get rid of all our fancy shmancy power-sucking, space-occupying, heavy-ass hardware synths/effect racks ...

If you have any of these that want to get rid of, please tell me. I will gladly release you of that burden

[chk071]

This was a no brainer purchase for me.

Then the Surface Pro came along and smashed it out of the park.

Sure the price of the latter is obscene, but it just means I'll save a little longer.

And this is coming from a first gen iPad fanboy.

Not a big fan of tablets (rather Smartphones), but if then, i'd rather opt for a Windows tablet too. Nothing better than being able to run my desktop DAW, plugins and what not on the tablet. An iPad or an Android tablet could only give me crippled functionality to what i'm used to on my desktop or laptop.

[chk071]

...get rid of all our fancy shmancy power-sucking, space-occupying, heavy-ass hardware synths/effect racks ...

If you have any of these that want to get rid of, please tell me. I will gladly release you of that burden

Hehe, same here, same here.

[Mushy Mushy]

This was a no brainer purchase for me.

Then the Surface Pro came along and smashed it out of the park.

Sure the price of the latter is obscene, but it just means I'll save a little longer.

And this is coming from a first gen iPad fanboy.

Not a big fan of tablets (rather Smartphones), but if then, i'd rather opt for a Windows tablet too. Nothing better than being able to run my desktop DAW, plugins and what not on the tablet. An iPad or an Android tablet could only give me crippled functionality to what i'm used to on my desktop or laptop.

Exactly.
The point being I have a solid portable and most importantly fully featured DAW. I could then migrate those ideas to the desktop when I got home.

Using an iPad and only an iPad for serious studio work seems a bit far off just yet.

[Melodyshine]

Most ios apps don't support split view. Moreover the Ipad Pro does not have 3D touch.
But the new ios plugin/au system is interesting.

[Jace-BeOS]

Probably not, but I want one for various reasons anyway (like the official stylus and possibility of using it like a Wacom Cintique with a better display), and music apps are definitely on my list of reasons!

[keyman_sam]

This was a no brainer purchase for me.

Then the Surface Pro came along and smashed it out of the park.

Sure the price of the latter is obscene, but it just means I'll save a little longer.

And this is coming from a first gen iPad fanboy.

Not a big fan of tablets (rather Smartphones), but if then, i'd rather opt for a Windows tablet too. Nothing better than being able to run my desktop DAW, plugins and what not on the tablet. An iPad or an Android tablet could only give me crippled functionality to what i'm used to on my desktop or laptop.

The whole point is to gain something unique, as you would with a hardware effects unit. I have no interest in replicating what I already have - I'm interested in the iOS precisely because of the apps that are so unique that you don't get the same in the VST world, and even if you do the interaction makes it a different experience.

[iPlogger]

The iPad does offer quite a lot in the way of synth apps and music making in general. As an iPad fanboy I still eventually switched over to the Surface just this Summer. Depending on your needs, the iPad may or may not completely meet your needs. I came from a 100% hardware background (never used a computer for music) before integrating the iPad into my rig. For various reasons, it just never quite met my needs.

Since you mentioned you want to use it like hardware, just keep in mind, iOS allows only a single instance of an app to load at a time. What this means is, you load up Nave (for example) and you can only play one Nave sound at a time. No layering or splits. You can't have Nave playing on two MIDI Channels. It's one voice. Except for very few exceptions (like SampleTank, BS-16, maybe Sunrizer) most apps will be a single voice only.

Then there is the issue that many apps are still OMNI only. I don't quite get this, but it certainly has limited me when playing live. Again, not stuff I like having to deal with as I don't use OMNI with my hardware either.

MIDI Sync is still a rarity to get working on iOS. Most apps don't recognize it and those that do, many people end up having a tough time getting apps to sync.

And last, there are issues of some apps not playing well when others are open. I think many of these issues are probably mostly resolved now, due to more RAM and faster processor, but it's something to maybe do some research on. I am still on an iPad 4, so don't have personal experience with the more recent iPads to know how often these issues still occur. But if I don't load things in the right order, I end up with crackling. And some apps just won't play while another app is open.

It's possible AU may resolve some of these issues I mentioned, but at this point, we don't know.

My goal is for playing live, so my problems/issues have been focused on that. If you want to just record one sound at a time, then the iPad may well be a great tool. Especially with the wonderful Auria app for mixing/mastering. But I, too, was hoping to use it like my hardware, and for me, it did not satisfy. In the 4.5 years I've been using the iPad, I ended up buying a new rackmount synth and keyboard/synth because I just could not do what I had hoped. Then, this summer, I ended up getting a Surface and it's been a wonderful tool. Yes, synths are more expensive, but I'm now able to run multiple instances of Alchemy and Synthmaster (which I also have on iPad). Something I could never do with the iPad.

If you know your specific needs, ask on the boards. There are lots of people using the iPad for music. There are some very nice apps for it. It can be your complete portable studio. And I still will probably use it for recording as I have nothing on my computer that is quite like what I have with Auria.

[keyman_sam]

But you don't get anything with a surface that you don't already have, true? WIth the iPad the advantage is with the unique apps and companies pouring in money towards app development. You don't get that with the surface and the windows store right? What am I missing? I don't see the surface being better than the iPad to add to a setup.

[keyman_sam]

You don't even need a docking station. Music IO is an app that passes audio and midi in both directions through to the IOs device via the usb charger cable. It has a vst counterpart and a loopback midi hook (loopbe) is all that is needed. No dock, no midi cables, no audio cables. It works better on Mac at the moment but it is functional on Windows devices. http://musicioapp.com/

Unfortunately latency on music IO seems to be 30 ms. :-/

I'm thinking with a decent soundcard we should be able to get it to 10 ms from midi/audio in to iPad to soundcard input of computer.

[aMUSEd]

But you don't get anything with a surface that you don't already have, true? WIth the iPad the advantage is with the unique apps and companies pouring in money towards app development. You don't get that with the surface and the windows store right? What am I missing? I don't see the surface being better than the iPad to add to a setup.

Agreed, also the Surface just runs Windows stuff, much of which is not optimised for touch, whereas on iOS every app must use touch. I agree there are many things it can do that iOS can't (although I can also do those on my Windows laptop) but for me the advantage of the iPad is the entirely touch centric interface.

[iPlogger]

But you don't get anything with a surface that you don't already have, true?

I'm not sure what you are comparing to. The iPad or hardware? One of the biggest advantages to me is that I can now have layers of Alchemy and Synthmaster while playing live. I have those same two apps on my iPad and that is just not possible right now. Maybe AU will change that. To me, multi-timbral is a HUGE loss on the iPad.

> WIth the iPad the advantage is with the unique apps and companies
> pouring in money towards app development. You don't get that with
> the surface and the windows store right? What am I missing?

Yes. The iPad does have some unique apps. Orphion is one of my favorites for input/playing. But many synth apps are also available on desktop. I guess a question is, what do you mean by unique? Is it the apps that have a unique input style? Or the music apps or specific synth apps?

Don't look at the Windows store. The Surface Pro runs full Windows Desktop. I'm not necessarily saying you are missing anything. Maybe for your needs, the iPad will be perfect. But as you stated you have a hardware background and have an expectation of the iPad being the last piece of equipment you'll ever need, I just wanted to point out disadvantages. If nothing I mentioned is a factor for you then no doubt, you will be thrilled with the iPad.

much of which is not optimized for touch

aMUSEd is correct and am sorry I didn't mention this disadvantage in my earlier post. Most apps on Windows are not made for touch. You can still use touch, but often times the GUI is small and cluttered for touch. Then there is also the lack of apps with multi-touch. I am mainly editing or designing sounds and then just needing to play them back, so multi-touch was not as important for me. There is a slow trickle of stuff made for a touch interface.

If it is the multi-touch aspect of the iPad that interests you most, then a Windows tablet will definitely leave you disappointed. If you just want to playback sounds like you do with hardware, then the IPad can do it, but the current limitations, to me, put the Surface ahead in this area. Again, with AU coming out, maybe these disadvantages will be removed.