I think I'll buy an Ipad instead

Discuss music production with Ableton Live.
Faark Orff
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I think I'll buy an Ipad instead

Post by Faark Orff » Mon May 23, 2011 12:58 pm

I was going to get a Macbook Pro, but decided to get an Ipad instead. I'll get one at the end of the week.

Yeah I know, Macbook is probably 50 times more powerful, but some of those music apps look cool and cheap.

Top of my list are the two Korg synths, Nano Studio and Amplitube.

Music making any place, any time. Plus long battery life. Will I really get 10 hours?

I hope I won't be disappionted. I hate the pricing structure though.

32 GB or pay the extra 100 for 64?

Would you go for Apple Care?

Pasha
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Re: I think I'll buy an Ipad instead

Post by Pasha » Mon May 23, 2011 3:18 pm

Faark Orff wrote:I was going to get a Macbook Pro, but decided to get an Ipad instead. I'll get one at the end of the week.

Yeah I know, Macbook is probably 50 times more powerful, but some of those music apps look cool and cheap.

Top of my list are the two Korg synths, Nano Studio and Amplitube.

Music making any place, any time. Plus long battery life. Will I really get 10 hours?

I hope I won't be disappionted. I hate the pricing structure though.

32 GB or pay the extra 100 for 64?

Would you go for Apple Care?
Apple Care might be useful (I got for my Macs) but what can be broken in an ipad? (except the glass...)
64 is more than 32 but for me 100 is too much and you're reaching the price of an Air very soon.
I'd try to calculate my space requirements then I'd add a 30% and see what it sums to.
People think they need to carry ALL of their stuff ALL the times. This is not true.
Sync often and you spare 100 bucks for some good accessories.

- My two cents
- Pasha
Mac Studio M1
Live 12 Suite,Zebra ,Valhalla Plugins, MIDI Guitar (2+3),Guitar, Bass, VG99, GP10, JV1010 and some controllers
______________________________________
Music : http://alonetone.com/pasha

brianbacio
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Re: I think I'll buy an Ipad instead

Post by brianbacio » Mon May 23, 2011 10:04 pm

i got a 32 Mo Ipad some months ago. Bought ALL of the best music apps out there,. Had fun doing stuff left and right. True, Korg ims 20 is fab (i electribe is very limited compared to the real thing), and Beatmaker 2 is great but you will never achieve what Live and a laptop can do. Touchable is incredible as far as Live controllers go (fixing up an ad hoc network is a tedious affair EVERY time you want to fire up and play. But after a while the whole experience is still "toyish". I'd say get an Air and Maschine, things will then cook for you.
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JAMM
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Re: I think I'll buy an Ipad instead

Post by JAMM » Mon May 23, 2011 10:28 pm

ipad is a nice tool and a lot off fun but no MBP replacement.

Akshara
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Re: I think I'll buy an Ipad instead

Post by Akshara » Mon May 23, 2011 11:00 pm

Faark Orff wrote:I hope I won't be disappionted.
Having both, an iPad is a great addition to a MBP; yet not a replacement. I think you will be disappointed. Sounds like you already know this intuitively.

An iPad could absolutely be someone's sole musical device, depending upon their needs and if their expectations are reasonable. It can be incredible as a touch-based instrument or controller, and as a musical swiss army knife for studio utilities, sheet music, composition and research tools. As a self sufficient DAW solution though, it is seriously limited.

Plus an iPad requires either a desktop or laptop running iTunes for syncing, and will not work out of the box without one, so it cannot be a true standalone solution.

However, to your questions...
Will I really get 10 hours?

32 GB or pay the extra 100 for 64?

Would you go for Apple Care?
Possibly, depending on the iPad's settings (brightness, location services, notifications) and other uses. Some things use more power than others.

I would go for the 64GB version over Applecare, if the iPad is to be used standalone for multitrack recording of internal instruments and external audio and video. It can fill up quickly.

Khazul
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Re: I think I'll buy an Ipad instead

Post by Khazul » Tue May 24, 2011 12:04 pm

Depends what you want out of it and your musical expertise/experience. For some the music apps will be near useless toys that are interesting as curiosities while for others they might be a great but simplistic intro to making music.

Personally I find that atempting to actually create a track on an iphone or ipad is a total waste of time, however there are a number of apps around that have been useful to help me capture some basic ideas (melodies/chord progressions etc) while im on a train etc and transfer them to my DAW when back in studio. The other plus with the ipad is as a controller, though again for me, not a single controller app is really standing out for me yet as a killer must-have controller, though many of them are good for specific tasks.

Re battery life - you will get more time than you would out of an MBP and perhaps an air. If you are really after light weight music creation on the move - then one of the macbook air's would be my choice once they get their next refresh. If you are after the studio add-on to work with an existing studio setup, but perhaps let you capture some ideas on the move or at least tinker and avoid getting bored on a train - then ipad. or purely tinkering and capturing some ideas on the move, then actually an iphone can be useful.
Nothing to see here - move along!

rcpunker
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Re: I think I'll buy an Ipad instead

Post by rcpunker » Tue May 24, 2011 12:30 pm

BUYER BEWARE: I have no concrete proof on this so go to forgive me,but, I have the strong feeling my Apple products that run on the battery is loaded with an UPDATE from Apple that goes and sets my devices to run out on battery life way shorter than I first go buy it. Which then force me to buy a newer device which I no can afford.

Faark Orff
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Re: I think I'll buy an Ipad instead

Post by Faark Orff » Tue May 24, 2011 3:59 pm

Thanks for the comments so far.

I realise that an Ipad is nowhere near as powerful as the Macbooks. Some have suggested the Air model, but the Macbooks don't have touch screens. The way I imagine I'll use the Ipad is as a musical instrument/studio that I can take anywhere. I don't expect to get the results you get on a Macbook or pro software like Ableton/Cubase etc....., but it will serve as en excellent ideas pad, plus I can import some of the music I am working on and develop it on the move. However, I bought my Sony Viao 13" thinking I would do that. It promises 6 hours battery life, but I'll be lucky to get half an hour. Doesn't seem right. 10 hours battery life sounds very appealing.

If I need more power, then I can export things to my Sony machine or my desktop, which need an upgrade, but I can still get things done.

Touch screen interaction is what I want. I would love to try some of the instruments I have seen demos of on YouTube to compare with the real thing. I really hope an Ipad will meet my expectations. I don't expect a virtual guitar to be anywhere near the experience of a real one, but if it shares some aspects of the mechanics of real playing, that'll do. I see it as in instrument in itself. Clever software developers could take it beyond our imaginations. If I had the money, it might be cool performing using 10 IPads. Who knows? It might revolutionise music and take it to the next level. That is what I predict, so I'm taking the plunge.

Most have said go for 32Gb rather than 64, but 100 euros more for double the capacity seems tempting. I am undecided on that.

blakjesus
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Re: I think I'll buy an Ipad instead

Post by blakjesus » Tue May 24, 2011 4:17 pm

rcpunker wrote:BUYER BEWARE: I have no concrete proof on this so go to forgive me,but, I have the strong feeling my Apple products that run on the battery is loaded with an UPDATE from Apple that goes and sets my devices to run out on battery life way shorter than I first go buy it. Which then force me to buy a newer device which I no can afford.
You do realize this happens with most battery powered devices right? Batteries get weak and sometimes die over time. Every laptop/phone/handheld gaming device/toothbrush/shaver/etc that i have owned that had a rechargeable battery eventually stopped retaining as much of a charge and the battery would get weaker before dying.

rcpunker
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Re: I think I'll buy an Ipad instead

Post by rcpunker » Tue May 24, 2011 4:21 pm

blakjesus wrote:
rcpunker wrote:BUYER BEWARE: I have no concrete proof on this so go to forgive me,but, I have the strong feeling my Apple products that run on the battery is loaded with an UPDATE from Apple that goes and sets my devices to run out on battery life way shorter than I first go buy it. Which then force me to buy a newer device which I no can afford.
You do realize this happens with most battery powered devices right? Batteries get weak and sometimes die over time. Every laptop/phone/handheld gaming device/toothbrush/shaver/etc that i have owned that had a rechargeable battery eventually stopped retaining as much of a charge and the battery would get weaker before dying.
Yes I understand.BUT IN A MATTER OF OWNING A BRAND NEW DEVICE FOR 3 WEEEKS, REPEAT 3 WEEKS, THEN DO THE APPLE UPDATE THEN ALL OF A SUDDEN THE BATTERY DRAINS MUCH FASTER????
and before anyone goes to ask...............I did reset all my preferences back to save battery life after on the updates.

Faark Orff
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Re: I think I'll buy an Ipad instead

Post by Faark Orff » Tue May 24, 2011 5:07 pm

A potential problem has occurred to me.

Does IPad support 24bit files? If not, could make me rethink my plans.

I did a quick Google and it may not. Not sure yet.

Akshara
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Re: I think I'll buy an Ipad instead

Post by Akshara » Tue May 24, 2011 8:35 pm

Faark Orff wrote:Touch screen interaction is what I want... I see it as in instrument in itself... Who knows? It might revolutionise music and take it to the next level. That is what I predict, so I'm taking the plunge.
From this perspective, I would be surprised if you are disappointed. I agree about it revolutionizing music; and it has made a major impact on how I use my studio, macbook pro and internet.
Faark Orff wrote:Most have said go for 32Gb rather than 64, but 100 euros more for double the capacity seems tempting. I am undecided on that.
32GB will likely be more than enough for most people; however, I'm recommending the 64GB to you because of how you want to use it, so that there is always plenty of space, beyond the normal media usage, for all the specialized music apps and audio recordings, without needing to sync to the PC frequently.
Faark Orff wrote:A potential problem has occurred to me.

Does IPad support 24bit files? If not, could make me rethink my plans.

I did a quick Google and it may not. Not sure yet.
And so the first limitation raises its head... as far as I understand, while iTunes itself does not support 24-bit playback on iOS devices, and the iPad specs say that only 16-bit is supported over USB, some manufacturers are claiming that 24-bit audio is possible with the most recent iOS update, though I have yet to read about one specifically. Nanostudio uses floating point, yet is limited to 16-bit on export. It is possible that a future iOS update or interface will add 24-bit i/o; and then it may never happen.

This is the kind of compromise that you simply have to be good with if you go with an iPad as a DAW. For example, read through LoopStationZebra's thorough critiques on the iPad's midi implementation on this forum. Many things improved with MIDI over the last year, and some things are still missing and may never happen on this current generation. The iPad is really a consumer device that can do some amazing things, not a professional audio device; however, if one recognizes this and is good with it, the positives that it opens to the creative process can potentially outweigh the limitations.

In my opinion, apps like Synthtopia, Mugician, Thumbjam, Morphwiz and iTabla are pretty awesome, and so is the iOS Garageband; and I never think about 24-bit vs 16-bit when using them. They sound good to me. Would I like 24-bit? Sure, that would be awesome. Am I going to wait for it? Hell no. Five finger filtering is just too cool (Synthtopia).

astromass
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Re: I think I'll buy an Ipad instead

Post by astromass » Tue May 24, 2011 10:51 pm

One app us all u need...NANOSTUDIO! :-)
nyquist theorem and nyquil...

Tarekith
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Re: I think I'll buy an Ipad instead

Post by Tarekith » Tue May 24, 2011 11:16 pm

If your goal is produce full-fledged tunes, go with the laptop and not the iPad. While iOS devices can certainly do complete songs (and I've posted a few of mine here), it's a lot more work, and there's a lot more limitations that make it something I'd not recommend for use all the time. Great when you want to get outside or play with something different, but as a long term full on production solution there's still just too many compromises you need to deal with.
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Faark Orff
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Re: I think I'll buy an Ipad instead

Post by Faark Orff » Wed May 25, 2011 4:52 pm

Akshara wrote:And so the first limitation raises its head... . The iPad is really a consumer device that can do some amazing things, not a professional audio device; however, if one recognizes this and is good with it, the positives that it opens to the creative process can potentially outweigh the limitations.

In my opinion, apps like Synthtopia, Mugician, Thumbjam, Morphwiz and iTabla are pretty awesome, and so is the iOS Garageband; and I never think about 24-bit vs 16-bit when using them. They sound good to me. Would I like 24-bit? Sure, that would be awesome. Am I going to wait for it? Hell no. Five finger filtering is just too cool (Synthtopia).
Fair point.

I want 24 bit because that is the bitrate I use when recording. It would be nice to incorporate some of my stuff without hassle and also export things I create on an Ipad without compatibility problems. I realise it is reduced to 16 bit should I ever release a CD. With mp3, I suppose it doesn't matter. But as you say, the creative potential adds a new dimension to music making. Also for me, portability, battery life and touch screen are positive points too.

What I have read on my Google searches suggest that Android machines are better. Shame they don't have as many apps. I also read negative stuff about Apple. Such as, all Ipads are locked from accessing the Wikileaks site. Disturbing big brother tactics if true. Plus once you are on the Apple wagon, then basically they dictate which products they want you to buy.
Tarekith wrote:If your goal is produce full-fledged tunes, go with the laptop and not the iPad. While iOS devices can certainly do complete songs (and I've posted a few of mine here), it's a lot more work, and there's a lot more limitations that make it something I'd not recommend for use all the time. Great when you want to get outside or play with something different, but as a long term full on production solution there's still just too many compromises you need to deal with.

Primarily, I will always finish tunes on my computers. They are aging, but still getting the job done. The Ipad is something I would like to incoroporate in my arsenal of toys and it would be nice not to have compatibility issues.
astromass wrote:One app us all u need...NANOSTUDIO! :-)
Yeah. It's nice. I tried the PC demo. That is where I noticed it wouldn't incorporate my 24 bit recordings.

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