Cheapest, usable iOS device for music apps for a noob :)

[zacha]

First, a correction: I meant the iPad mini 4 and the iPad Air 2 as still on current iOS versions. The iPad mini 2 dates back to 2013 and is pretty slow these days, though a lovely machine in its day.

I agree that you might want to buy the older version of whichever new iPad — mini or Air — Apple releases later this year, though that could be as late as October. That could still be a little higher than the budget you had in mind, if I’m understanding it right.

And while for many people a mini is too small, you can still get great work done on it, and I think the issue comes down to whether you like working on small form factor devices or not. Here’s a review that likes the iPad mini 5 for music production:

[Halma]

I would recommend the 6th gen iPad as well. Especially the 128 gb version. Mine was nearly full after one year. I am using it for drawing, taking notes, reading comics so all those files plus apps plus samples plus my own tracks rendered from various sources = full.

And it has 2gb RAM and supports the apple pen gen 1.

No problems at all with max polyphony and different fx chains all in hq mode (if available).

I had an really old iPad before (2nd gen with 16gb) which couldn’t use AUV3 because of the outdated iOS. And stuff that worked didn’t make fun. And always no free space on the hd ...

I think the 6th gen is the ideal thing for keeping your setup portable. Not too big and expensive like the pro but still powerful enough handling the most recent synths in combination with an excellent fx chain.

And powerful enough for sketching your stuff in one of the numerous daws (Cubasis 2/3, Audio Evolution Mobile, Beatmaker 3, Nanostudio 2 etc.) with lots of tracks.

Only downside so far is that the samplerate is fix @ 44.1 kHz.

Most apps are pretty cheap compared to desktop versions and prices. There is some good free stuff, good cheap stuff, good expensive stuff etc. Average app price I would guess between 5 and 20 bucks. And lots of sales during the year.

Some big and/or well known VST developers have ported some/all of their stuff already to iOS (Fabfilter, Toneboosters, Uvi, Audio Damage, Eventide, Moog, Korg, IK Multimedia, Klevgrand, TAL, Steinberg, SugarBytes, SynthMaster etc).

There is some real innovative stuff around especially stuff with cool new interfaces and interaction possibilities (x/y pads, mpe, gyro etc.). Loads and loads of midi stuff (chords, step sequencers, probability stuff, arpeggiator etc.).

Apps like AUM or ape matrix have an inbuilt midi router wich can route mostly every midi source to every target.

At least all that stuff runs smooth on my iPad with no hick ups at all and most of the time utterly stable.