DAWs for iPad

are there any good DAWs for the iPad? or like, all-in-one music making apps

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/sunvox/id324462544?mt=8

  On 3/6/2014 at 7:12 PM, mcbpete said:

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/sunvox/id324462544?mt=8

 

 

Man, this looks like Buzz on the iPad. Gonna try this out. Have you tried it on a first gen iPad, mcbpete?

Beatmaker 2 is what I use and it's pretty thorough. I'd recommend it definitely.

Oh sunvox looks nice. This is what I use and swear by, nothing you can't do really. A real pocket mpc and the drum samples aren't bad. Plus the keyboard sampler is perfect.

 

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/beatmaker-2/id417020234?mt=8

 

Edit: Let me echo The Bro: It's all about Beatmaker 2.

 

But let me reiterate my "ooo" about sunvox also.

Edited March 6, 2014 by sheatheman

  On 3/6/2014 at 7:15 PM, paranerd said:

Man, this looks like Buzz on the iPad. Gonna try this out. Have you tried it on a first gen iPad, mcbpete?

Aye it pretty much is a portable version of Buzz (albeit with fewer machines). I've actually got it for Android - worked fine on my old crappy phone too (though screen space was a big issue) so I imagine would work fine on a first gen iPad

The soundset in Beatmaker 2 isn't great but it's features more than make up for it. Only thing it lacks currently is a fruity loops style step sequencer and arpeggiator but I think they will come with future versions.

  On 3/6/2014 at 7:20 PM, mcbpete said:

 

  On 3/6/2014 at 7:15 PM, paranerd said:

Man, this looks like Buzz on the iPad. Gonna try this out. Have you tried it on a first gen iPad, mcbpete?

Aye it pretty much is a portable version of Buzz (albeit with fewer machines). I've actually got it for Android - worked fine on my old crappy phone too (though screen space was a big issue) so I imagine would work fine on a first gen iPad

 

 

 

Great, thanks!

Also heard good things about Korg's Gadget so that might be worth considering.

Animoog and Filtatron are also great additions which you can use with a daw via audio copy and paste.

is a good show for keeping up to date on iOS music apps, it seems. I got nano studio based on the review in . looks pretty good, actually. got a long ass train ride in front of me tomorrow, so I'm thinking it'll be a good time to make a few tunes.

 

e: I've tried sunvox, but tbh the learning curve is quite high with me as I've never worked with trackers extensively before. they're very cumbersome to me.

Edited March 6, 2014 by pizza

I was gonna get Nanostudio originally but decided to go Beatmaker 2 instead. Let me know how it goes with Nano though as I'd be curious to find out.

Sunvox is great

Here's a breakdown of my favorites:

 

Nanostudio. I love working in this app most of all. Great workflow and comes with a wonderful subtractive synth. It doesn't support proper audio tracks, so if you're doing a long vocal track or are used to cutting up drums while seeing the waveforms you might be annoyed. The trick is to cut up longer tracks into smaller chunks and put them in the sampler.

 

Gadget sounds fantastic, although the synths are a bit limited and there's very little in terms of mixing features. So no insert or master fx, side-chaining, etc. But you can get song started real quick.

 

Beatmaker 2. This DOES have proper audio tracks and MIDI, but not a nice synth. All the sounds are sampled, so you'll need to rely more on other iPad synth apps and bring them in. Piano roll very similar to Nanostudio. I do think this MPC-style pads in this app are the best on the iPad.

 

Sunvox. Yeah, pretty similar to Buzz. The UI is a little awkward to use on the iPad, but this app still super capable. I made my track on the WATMM Autechre comp with it.

 

Caustic

You guys missed this one. Closest thing to Reason on the iPad. Even comes with a modular synth. Love how you can automate pretty much every single knob. For $10 it's well worth it.

 

Then there's Cubasis and Auria - which are more typical DAWs, but it's tough (at least for me) to make full electronic tracks in them without screwing with Audiobus, Virtual MIDI or Inter-app audio. Both don't even have with a built-in sampler. Alot of people make tracks in one of the first apps I mentioned and bring the stems into Auria for mixing, since it's got great plugins.. the Fabfilter and PSP stuff.

Caustic looks neat! how do you guys sync other synth apps with these DAW kind of softwares? Audiobus?

Yeah you use Audiobus or Inter App Audio which is much less hassle but not as widely supported. By the way the virtual synths on the IPad are very CPU hungry and you could find yourself getting frustrated very quickly with buffering problems. Slightly off topic one thing I am looking for is a decent 303 emulator that supports Audiobus and does midi cc. Maybe you guys can help me out there. Cheers.

Oh yeah Feartherush you forgot to mention FL Studio.

Here is a track i made in beatmaker and animoog

 

 

 

  On 3/6/2014 at 8:14 PM, The Bro said:

Slightly off topic one thing I am looking for is a decent 303 emulator that supports Audiobus and does midi cc. Maybe you guys can help me out there. Cheers.

Oh yeah Feartherush you forgot to mention FL Studio.

 

The best 303 emulator for the iPad is technobox2 by Audiorealism, who also makes ABL2 for the desktop. It only has audiocopy/paste, but it's the only thing I'll use if I want anything near a 303. Don't even try Finger Bassline. Horrible.

 

Here's a bit of ipad acid w/ technobox2:

https://soundcloud.com/weakmassive/fbacid-2-1/s-juW18

 

Oh and Fl Studio kinda sucks compared to the other stuff.

Edited March 6, 2014 by feartherush

  On 3/6/2014 at 8:25 PM, sheatheman said:

Here is a track i made in beatmaker and animoog

 

 

  Reveal hidden contents

https://soundcloud.com/shea-mcgilvray/waiting-looking

 

 

Nice track - great atmosphere. Did you use any of BM2's effects? I don't like them very much at all, but this came out great.

Oh yeah, I use all those effects. Delay and compressor for sure. The compressor on there is one of my favorite things of all time. The bitcrusher is good too. You just have to use them right.

 

Thanks.

nthing sunvox.

 

I got it on my iphone and its really awesome to make a tune on the the bus towards a destination and then being able to rock out to it on the return trip.

Feartherush yeah I have technobox 2. Shame it doesn't support audiobus. So how does audiocopy work then? Cheers.

  On 3/7/2014 at 9:57 AM, The Bro said:

Feartherush yeah I have technobox 2. Shame it doesn't support audiobus. So how does audiocopy work then? Cheers.

Audio copy works just like copy & pasting text from one document to another in something like MS Word but with audio files. If you make some audio in one app then you can copy it and paste it into another app. Its very straight forward once you have done it a few times.

 

Ive got lots of apps and i really like Cubasis as a centre piece and use audiobus/iaa and acp (audiocopypaste) to get the audio from all the really cool apps that are about. Gadget was mentioned and it is very good - Gadget thru Turnado (via audiobus) is another level :)

 

I also find the ipad a perfect partner for my OP-1.

 

iVCS3 is sounding promising too from the half hour i got with it yesterday.

Yeah I saw iVCS3 was released yesterday. Bit expensive but as you say it does look good.

  On 3/7/2014 at 9:57 AM, The Bro said:

Feartherush yeah I have technobox 2. Shame it doesn't support audiobus. So how does audiocopy work then? Cheers.

More specifically, in technobox2 you hit record and when you're done you hit "upload" and then there's a dialog for Audiocopy.

Edited March 7, 2014 by feartherush