iPad advice

[dave999z]

About to pick up an iPad Air. Will be using it for Internet, email, tv & iTunes remote, occasional movie, but also as a logic & Live control surface, will prob use a multitrack recording app to sketch rough ideas, & love tweaking soft synths for days. I have a couple questions. Any advice would be appreciated.

1. Will 16GB be enough?

2. Definitely the Air over the new retina Mini?


Thanks!

[beats me]

If you think you can adhere to your plan than 16GB should be enough. If you suddenly decided to toss a bunch of music, movies, and TV shows on it then you will probably run out of space or have to be a control freak about what stays and what goes (Some people love that shit. I don’t know why). Also some games are starting to get in the 1 – 2GB range.

If you plan to use it for music then you’re going to want the extra screen size of the Air over the Mini, unless you have tiny Asian factory worker fingers and the vision of an owl.

[dave999z]

Cool, thanks for the advice. So if I really plan to save the space for audio apps / samples / maybe some sound files from occasional tracking, but not music & movies, I should be good with 16GB.

[Tarekith]

Usually with 16GB I could get most of my music apps, a hundred or so 320 AAC's for emergency DJ use, a movie or two, and a bunch of photos. So yes, if you're mainly using this for music and you don't mind watching the storage space, 16GB should be fine. That's all I had on my first few iPads, it was only with the Air I finally jumped to 32GB, and that was mainly to carry my yoga videos with me when travelling.

I would definitely get the Air over the Mini as well.

[beats me]

that was mainly to carry my yoga videos with me when travelling.

FFS.

[dave999z]

Usually with 16GB I could get most of my music apps

Most? Are there some that wouldn't fit?

Maybe I should just get 32GB then not have to think about it again. It's $120 more though to go from 16GB to 32GB, and if I don't end up needing it that will have just been a waste of money. Ugghhh. Why is this such a tough decision.

[beats me]

Usually with 16GB I could get most of my music apps

Most? Are there some that wouldn't fit?

Maybe I should just get 32GB then not have to think about it again. It's $120 more though to go from 16GB to 32GB, and if I don't end up needing it that will have just been a waste of money. Ugghhh. Why is this such a tough decision.

Let’s make that decision a little less traumatizing. On the low end you should get a good 2 years use out of it. Kicking down more for the 32G drive comes out to an extra $5 a month spread over 2 years of usage. If you still feel like that’s money wasted if you don’t use the space then I don’t know what to tell you.

[jestermgee]

Would you be getting one with a sim card for when out and about?

There are a lot of apps that make the need to load on all your music and video files almost obsolete (depending on your needs).

When I am at home I can access all my music via iTunes on my server which connects to my home audio system via "Airplay" which allows me to browse and play media from ipad but have it actually stream direct from my server to an airplay receiver.

Additionally I have an app called "AirVideo" which allows me to access all my video on my server and have it transcoded on the fly and play on the ipad without residing on it. This also has a feature to allow remote access to media as well with lower quality settings so I have access no matter where I am.

Then you also have internet radio, pandora, tunein, rdio services which all negate the need for media actually being on your ipad. I have an iphone so I just tether the ipad to that when I am out. WOrks very well and have never even filled over half the 16GB.

[beats me]

Would you be getting one with a sim card for when out and about?

I usually recommend getting the cellular version and that is the version I always get because you never know when that is going to come in handy. But having said that, I couldn’t tell you the last time I used it. But the nice thing is there is no long term contract. Just pay for a month and then kill it. You can still use up the data until the month ends.

[Tarekith]

Usually with 16GB I could get most of my music apps

Most? Are there some that wouldn't fit?

Sorry, to clarify, I don't load all my apps on the iPad at any one time. I have a lot of music apps that were free or cheap and I just don't use them anymore for whatever reason. All of my main apps (auria, BM2, Sunrier, Alchemy (with extra sound packs), DM1, etc) all fit on there just fine.

[H20nly]

Alchemy (with extra sound packs)

the one by Camel Audio?

[H20nly]

that was mainly to carry my yoga videos with me when travelling.

FFS.

[Tarekith]

Yes, the one by Camel Audio.

Re: Yoga, you should try it Beats, it's very calming. Might come in handy for all those times you can't figure out your iOS devivces and get mad, even though most 5 year olds can.

[H20nly]

Oh snap!



I downloaded the free version of Alchemy yesterday... So far it's

[Tarekith]

It's a great app, all in one if you want with the 4 track recorder, or via Audiobus and AAP in Auria. Sound packs are great too.

I think I scared beats off with my poor attempt at humor.