Korg Gadget

[Sendy]

Ok, so I've had a go on it, and I'm impressed. Actually the sound quality of a lot of apps on the iPad has impressed me greatly, considering how thin and insubstantial the thing is. Gadget is quick and easy to learn, offers the bare essentials for making music (especially minimal dance music), and I like how it's quite stripped back and almost game-like. It encourages you to just try stuff and have fun.

Sometimes, I swear I get lag on the touchscreen, though, because I'll be swiping at a knob over and over, trying to be as gentle and precise as I can (Ok, so not exactly swiping then, but... my backspace key is on strike today), and then randomly it'll work on the 12th try.

Also, while the touchscreen editing is fun and fresh, creating complex sequences can feel a bit like keyhole surgery.

I'm quite enjoying the keyboard interfaces. Much easier to play than the Volcas.

I managed to get 5 gadgets running before I started to notice dropouts. I'm now interested in integrating the iPad into my computer DAW via MIDI and audio, if that's possible. But even without this ability, what a great lot of fun you can have!

I feel dirty.

[Sendy]

Oh, I picked up Thor as well, since I've read a lot about it and can now finally experience it for a low price. I know it's quite an old synth but I really like it, especially the phase distortion oscillators.

[ezelkow1]

+1

I only recently got into the whole ipad music thing but for me gadget is by far the winner, at least iOS apps are cheap enough that you really can own them all . Also if you get the camera adapter kit you can plug in a USB midi keyboard and most synths, hosts, and gadget will accept it as input.

As far as syncing it can be hit or miss, at least with windows. I synced mine using the rtp midi spec and setup audio input to my daw, but it was always a bit off as can be expected, though I'm sure you can compensate a bit.

The other neat thing about the ipad integration is it offers a whole new method of input and playing. I.e. Using something like touchable with live. But you can also get whole new keyboard layouts using apps like chordy. Then you can get something like guitarism and even have midi guitar input.

[Jace-BeOS]

I'm still interested in an iPad for reading/Internet and Korg's music apps, but my experience with iOS 7 put me off buying. Which iPad are you using? How has stability been for you?

[ezelkow1]

im using a 64gb air, havent had any performance or stability issues here except maybe a game crash once a month, and thats with using this thing daily for surfing, gaming, music, and my day job (engineering/programming and streaming video). Then again since this is really my first i* device i dont have anything to compare it to

As far as generational performance korg has a chart out there I believe:
http://www.korg.com/us/products/softwar ... page_2.php

So you get ~double performance for each generational step. This also basically lines up exactly with the processor benchmarks, each generation of ipad has basically doubled its processor performance over the previous one. So while you may not notice it in things like surfing and email, you will notice in processor intensive music apps. Much like working on a desktop with audio

[Sendy]

I'm still interested in an iPad for reading/Internet and Korg's music apps, but my experience with iOS 7 put me off buying. Which iPad are you using? How has stability been for you?

I don't know, it just says iPad on it, it's 16GB *shrug*

It's been rock solid so far.

[el-bo (formerly ebow)]

I'm now interested in integrating the iPad into my computer DAW via MIDI and audio, if that's possible. But even without this ability, what a great lot of fun you can have!

this seems to be the hot thing for integration right now (a midiconnect4 is also available)

http://www.iconnectivity.com/iConnectMIDI2plus

allows audio through which i believe means being able to use the ipad as controller and a sound module

there is so much fun to be had with the ipad, especially when you start to look outside the standard synth interfaces

here's a great blog to check out for all things musical on the ipad

http://discchord.com/

[setAI]

Gadget is amazing- I am constantly surprised at how good the sounds are- especially the analog synths- the bass this thing produces is bone rattling!

[Spiritos]

+1 for sounds from Korg Gadget but +2 for Animoog.

[gamecat666]

be careful, all this praise will attract all the anti-ipad snobs who say its a toy and therefore irrelevant.


im still sad I cant get Gadget as I only have an ipad1. its the #1 reason i have for upgrading at the moment!

[Jace-BeOS]

I loved iPad and iPhone... until iOS 7. Then I became an anti iOS 7 snob

[el-bo (formerly ebow)]

+2 for Animoog.

it's currently on sale, i believe. I love it; it feels alive

[Step child]

I am glad that many people like this, but I don't want this to be a trend.

[Scott Murrell]

---Love the sounds and never use the app! If your iPad is docked then you're out of luck with the mode it's in, please Korg do something about this we need portrait AND landscape modes. We could also use a Wavestation and M1 Gadget!!! I thought as long as I'm asking might as well go for the gusto!

[Sendy]

be careful, all this praise will attract all the anti-ipad snobs who say its a toy and therefore irrelevant.


im still sad I cant get Gadget as I only have an ipad1. its the #1 reason i have for upgrading at the moment!

Well, in a way it is a sort of toy, in the sense that it's more casual. I don't think that's a bad thing, though. The Commodore 64 was essentially a toy and people make some serious tunes on that.

I'm also somewhat anti-"get an app to do the work", convenience comes at a cost, and it's more than the 1.99 needed to download the app . What this creates is a bunch of people who want to create music, because they are now able to, but they don't really know what to create, or where to create from, so they end up getting the whole thing backwards. I think we can see evidence of that becoming a trend all around us.

On the other hand, the iPad is brilliantly designed; I had a go on one of those notebook thingies, I think it was Icecream Sandwich or something, and I found the OS completely baffling, even when it comes to basic housekeeping. Everything I've done on the iPad has been completely self-explanatory and fun to boot. And the sound quality is quite staggering from something so thin!

I also quite like Angry Birds. It's better than most of the games we had as a kid. Good luck getting your kids to do homework these days

Do they still have homework, is it still a thing? I always thought it was the dumbest idea.