Guitar player who's always appreciated electronic music and hip-hop but I've only recently started exploring iPad music apps (Tardigrain, Samplr, Synthscaper, etc.). I bought AUM but I don't particularly enjoy working with multiple apps on the iPad at once in terms of making anything approaching a full song - so I'm thinking it's time to move into my Macbook Pro/iMac (and eventually some hardware).
I've been planning to go with Ableton Live Suite with Logic as the runner up, but I'm wondering if any DAWs are particularly good at integrating iOS apps into the workflow or are they all pretty much just connect over MIDI and fire up the app to record?
Any DAW particularly suited to integrating iPad apps?
-
- KVRAF
- 3778 posts since 5 Mar, 2004 from Gold Coast Australia
iOS apps and the DAW/VST world are relatively different places. You will find some devices live in both environments but they are not directly compatible (unless I miss something about Apple these days).
Why not start with Garageband which (I assume) is on your Mac already? That also is a feeder to Logic.
Why not start with Garageband which (I assume) is on your Mac already? That also is a feeder to Logic.
Benedict Roff-Marsh
http://www.benedictroffmarsh.com
http://www.benedictroffmarsh.com
-
- KVRian
- 931 posts since 14 Dec, 2014
Several apps have Ableton Link support (basically syncs BPM, for jamming), and some can export Ableton Live sets (those are marked with "Export Enabled", seems like 10 apps or so).
https://www.ableton.com/en/link/product ... m_type=ios
Seems AUM has Link support, but doesn't export Live sets.
Note that the Triqtraq app comes with a copy of Ableton Live Lite, which makes it cheaper to upgrade to Suite later (if don't you have educational discount).
Beyond music apps, there are apps to control Live, like Touchable.
https://www.ableton.com/en/link/product ... m_type=ios
Seems AUM has Link support, but doesn't export Live sets.
Note that the Triqtraq app comes with a copy of Ableton Live Lite, which makes it cheaper to upgrade to Suite later (if don't you have educational discount).
Beyond music apps, there are apps to control Live, like Touchable.
-
- KVRist
- 126 posts since 4 Feb, 2012
As was mentioned many apps have Ableton Live export (like Korg Gadget).
And some desktop DAW developers released their own apps with ability to transfer iOS projects to desktop:
Korg Gadget for iOS -> Korg Gadget for Mac (or to Ableton with all the vsts)
Garageband iOS -> Logic (and from Logic back to GB but it bounces a track into an audio file and creates a project in GB for iOS)
Cubasis -> Cubase (as for me Cubasis is the best iOS DAW)
FL Studio Mobile -> FL Studio (in FL it opens FLM plugin which replicates functionality of a mobile app)
iMaschine -> Maschine (iMaschine was abandoned by NI)
Reason Compact -> Reason (very simple and limited app but it is good when you want to start a track on an iPhone, and integration with Reason is seamless)
And some desktop DAW developers released their own apps with ability to transfer iOS projects to desktop:
Korg Gadget for iOS -> Korg Gadget for Mac (or to Ableton with all the vsts)
Garageband iOS -> Logic (and from Logic back to GB but it bounces a track into an audio file and creates a project in GB for iOS)
Cubasis -> Cubase (as for me Cubasis is the best iOS DAW)
FL Studio Mobile -> FL Studio (in FL it opens FLM plugin which replicates functionality of a mobile app)
iMaschine -> Maschine (iMaschine was abandoned by NI)
Reason Compact -> Reason (very simple and limited app but it is good when you want to start a track on an iPhone, and integration with Reason is seamless)
-
- KVRAF
- 9560 posts since 6 Jan, 2017 from Outer Space
This is easy on a Mac with Bitwig. I connect my iPad, activate it in AudioMidi setup and have a aggregate device prepared which adds the inputs virtually to my audio interface. In Bitwig I use a HW device which sends the Midi to my iPad synths and receives the audio... It should work in any DAW, as the iPad is integrated by OS X, just choose your aggregate device as audio interface...
-
- KVRian
- 961 posts since 11 May, 2004 from cologne,germany
this works in logic similarly.Tj Shredder wrote: Fri Jul 19, 2019 2:11 pm This is easy on a Mac with Bitwig. I connect my iPad, activate it in AudioMidi setup and have a aggregate device prepared which adds the inputs virtually to my audio interface. In Bitwig I use a HW device which sends the Midi to my iPad synths and receives the audio... It should work in any DAW, as the iPad is integrated by OS X, just choose your aggregate device as audio interface...
-
- KVRian
- 961 posts since 11 May, 2004 from cologne,germany
what‘s cool about the combo logic x and ipad is the free app logic remote. you can control many things with your ipad (just google it).
there are several ways of interaction between ipad and desktop:
1. midi controller/remote apps: logic remote, liine lemur
2. ipad as sound generator
there are some synths that i use as an external synth, e.g. moog model-d, or
moog model 15. i‘ll record the midi notes into logic which triggers the ipad.
later on i‘ll record the audio.
3. ipad as geoovebox or drum machine apps: korg electribe wave, ruismaker
in order to use the ipad as a groovebox or drum machine, you need to set up a
midi sync. when this is done , you can program drums or synths in, say, korg electribe which will run in sync to your daw. you can either record the audio or bounce from within the ios app. the korg electribe wave is great for this, because it will bounce all of the 16 instruments to dedicated channels.
there are several ways of interaction between ipad and desktop:
1. midi controller/remote apps: logic remote, liine lemur
2. ipad as sound generator
there are some synths that i use as an external synth, e.g. moog model-d, or
moog model 15. i‘ll record the midi notes into logic which triggers the ipad.
later on i‘ll record the audio.
3. ipad as geoovebox or drum machine apps: korg electribe wave, ruismaker
in order to use the ipad as a groovebox or drum machine, you need to set up a
midi sync. when this is done , you can program drums or synths in, say, korg electribe which will run in sync to your daw. you can either record the audio or bounce from within the ios app. the korg electribe wave is great for this, because it will bounce all of the 16 instruments to dedicated channels.
-
- KVRAF
- 11000 posts since 15 Apr, 2019 from Nowhere
Ableton Live is the clear winner for me in terms of integration. There are even iOS apps that can do an export as a Live set.
Can’t think of anything that works as well to connect with iOS.
Can’t think of anything that works as well to connect with iOS.
-
someone called simon someone called simon https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=185637
- KVRian
- 543 posts since 24 Jul, 2008 from a small city in a small country in the antipodes
I've been using Mainstage for guitar performance in the past. I haven't actually played live in this way for a while, but i recently figured out how to get Mainstage to send tempo info to an IOS drum app on my iphone, and get that to send audio back into an external instrument channel set up in mainstage. I could get the the iOS app to sync and start when I wanted it to etc, but I'm not sure how reliable it would be. There are different protocols on iOS and it can be pretty confusing. My app listens for ableton link, but mainstage only sends midi clock. I needed 2 other apps on my phone to get everything to work. Midimittr which sends audio through a lightning cable to my laptop, and midi link sync to convert midi clock to ableton link. Midimittr has to be on both the iOS and OSX end actually.
I guess Logic would work the same way? I haven't tried this in Logic as I'm only interested in it for live performance at the moment.
I guess Logic would work the same way? I haven't tried this in Logic as I'm only interested in it for live performance at the moment.
-
- KVRAF
- 11000 posts since 15 Apr, 2019 from Nowhere
What about using Ableton Live so you can use Live Link throughout? I connect my iPad to my MacBook and everything just works with Live. You can even connect other hardware and tempo sync it all.someone called simon wrote: Thu Aug 15, 2019 4:24 am I've been using Mainstage for guitar performance in the past. I haven't actually played live in this way for a while, but i recently figured out how to get Mainstage to send tempo info to an IOS drum app on my iphone, and get that to send audio back into an external instrument channel set up in mainstage. I could get the the iOS app to sync and start when I wanted it to etc, but I'm not sure how reliable it would be. There are different protocols on iOS and it can be pretty confusing. My app listens for ableton link, but mainstage only sends midi clock. I needed 2 other apps on my phone to get everything to work. Midimittr which sends audio through a lightning cable to my laptop, and midi link sync to convert midi clock to ableton link. Midimittr has to be on both the iOS and OSX end actually.
I guess Logic would work the same way? I haven't tried this in Logic as I'm only interested in it for live performance at the moment.
-
someone called simon someone called simon https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=185637
- KVRian
- 543 posts since 24 Jul, 2008 from a small city in a small country in the antipodes
I do have an older version of Live, but Mainstage has the looper plugin, which my Live version doesn't. I was setting up multiple loopers so I could do songs with different sections, and build them up in real time from scratch while performing.
I was considering upgrading Live, but Mainstage has some other pretty good features for what I need, including all the Logic instruments and effects... It also has set lists and great hardware integration, with the virtual representation of all your controllers that you can build. But Live may be in my future. The iOS integration is still at the experimental stage for me, and I really only wanted it because of some drum apps that have features that don't seem to exist on the OSX side, as far as I'm aware.
I was considering upgrading Live, but Mainstage has some other pretty good features for what I need, including all the Logic instruments and effects... It also has set lists and great hardware integration, with the virtual representation of all your controllers that you can build. But Live may be in my future. The iOS integration is still at the experimental stage for me, and I really only wanted it because of some drum apps that have features that don't seem to exist on the OSX side, as far as I'm aware.
-
- KVRer
- 28 posts since 13 Sep, 2021
On issue I keep having with Live 11 and the iPad (on a MacBook Pro 16in 2020, full spec) is the latency...makes it really hard to record audio, and the midi doesn't seem to ever be in sync. Any ideas on how to manage it better?
-
- KVRist
- 233 posts since 19 Aug, 2021
With Studiomux you can basically use any iPad app as an external instrument/effect:
https://apps.apple.com/de/app/studiomux/id966554837
Works quite well, a little buggy sometimes for me though. Apart from that FL Studio has an iOS app that can be loaded into FL Studio as a plugin, but the iOS app doesn't support AUv3 so it's kind of useless.
https://apps.apple.com/de/app/studiomux/id966554837
Works quite well, a little buggy sometimes for me though. Apart from that FL Studio has an iOS app that can be loaded into FL Studio as a plugin, but the iOS app doesn't support AUv3 so it's kind of useless.