Loopy Pro: Create music, your way.
What is Loopy Pro? — Loopy Pro is a powerful, flexible, and intuitive live looper, sampler, clip launcher and DAW for iPhone and iPad. At its core, it allows you to record and layer sounds in real-time to create complex musical arrangements. But it doesn’t stop there—Loopy Pro offers advanced tools to customize your workflow, build dynamic performance setups, and create a seamless connection between instruments, effects, and external gear.
Use it for live looping, sequencing, arranging, mixing, and much more. Whether you're a live performer, a producer, or just experimenting with sound, Loopy Pro helps you take control of your creative process.
Download on the App StoreLoopy Pro is your all-in-one musical toolkit. Try it for free today.
DAW, iOS version: where to start?
Hey guys,
1st post here and not even sure this is the right place... I have to thank you for this forum, a nice source of info!
I just bought an ipad for musical purpose (haven't receive it yet) and it could sound silly but I found out that the possiblities were far beyond what I was planning on doing with it at first and especially because of Audiobus (which I didn't know anything about 2 weeks ago!) 
A little bit of context: At first I bought an Ipad to play the guitar at night with some niec emulation and also as a powerfull companion for my Teenage-Engineering OP-1 to feed his sampler or to record some synths/drums on different tracks, etc. But now I am seeing the Ipad as a very nice and powerfull stand-alone and all-in-one production unit with an added MIDI keyboard.
I would need your expertise to get started and don't make any "mistake". I was considering starting with Cubasis but it looks like there is a large part of this forum users who are not very happy with it especially under iOS 9, I saw a lot of people writting about ipad crashing or apps freezing with Audiobus in a classic set-up (Synth -> Effect -> DAW). So it is kind of a double question: Would it be better to go for Auria? Should I stick to iOS 8 if I have a chance?
Any thought?
Thanks for the help!
Comments
I'd personally recommend sticking with iOS 8 for the time being.
Auria is great but very resource intensive and there's no MIDI. With that said, Auria Pro will have MIDI and is supposedly coming soon, but there's no exact ETA, as it's still in Beta.
My recommendation is Multitrack Studio. I'm pretty sure others will agree. It has a low resource footprint, does audio and MIDI well, and can even support Apple's new AU implementation on iDevices.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/multitrackstudio-for-ipad/id776998585?mt=8
I like MTS. good thread here on it.
https://forum.audiob.us/discussion/6293/multitrackstudio-tips-tricks-updates-last-update-v-2-4-1-on-11-09-15#latest
My recommendation would be to start with GarageBand then see how you go.
Unless it's a 2nd hand iPad ios8 is unlikely to be an option. But even if it was, starting with a blank canvas I would go for ios9 and only buy apps that work well with it.
In my subjective opinion Auria is way better than Cubasis. Auria Pro, when it is released (hopefully within a month or so) will have MIDI.
The main caveat with Auria is that the power comes with the plugins, and that can get expensive. However the base package does come with everything you need to make mixes: a compressor, expander, bus compression, limiter, delay, chorus, reverb, and EQ. However the optional plugins are made by Fabfilter and PSP and they are very very good.
There's another (bad) app called "Multitrack Studio" - make sure it's MultitrackStudio for iPad (no space).
It depends on what you want to do, which iPad you have, and how much storage you have on your iPad.
The link I posted is to the correct app
RUN AWAY!
Thanks you all for the messages.
I may go with GarageBand at first, I'm sure I can learn a lot from it and take time to really know where I want to go and which DAW suits my needs. I will take a look at MultitrackStudio as well.
And regarding the OS, I'm not sure about this as the iPad I am waiting for is a reconditioned ipad mini 2 32G, it could be iOS8 or iOS9. I know the memory is not huge but I'm not planning on using it for anything else than music, could space be an issue? I am an hobbyist and will not spend more than 8 to 10 hours a week with it.
Hey,
BeatMaker 2 is great, very easy to work with and for sampling.
Auria is also a good choice, even if the app does not look sexy at all... (to me...)
Cubasis is also great, you may try Cubasis LE it's free !
I only hate the fact that you can't slave it from an external clock.
Then, I'll recommend Loopy Masterpiece when it will be released.
Garage band is also a very good idea to start smoothly !
Enjoy !
If you get Earhoof you can set it on the floor and pretend you're weighing yourself.
MultiTrack Daw is worth a look as well at £7.99
Best mention of a feature bonus. Evah.
Auria is great. Ran well on an iPad 1. (Still does on my iPad 1 ;-) ) However, it becomes resource intensive when one uses the FX - which can be heavy on CPU. (Track freezing is a perfectly acceptable workaround for that).
But, as has been said until Auria Pro comes out has no MIDI. Cubasis is IMO the best all-round tool with audio and MIDI until Auria Pro hits.
I've tried BM2 - don't get on with it. Many like it a great deal.
Mulittrack DAW is small and efficient, but no MIDI.
Multitrackstudio may be a contender worth looking at (I haven't because I'm happy with a mixture of Cubasis and Auria) but does not have the same FX suite available as Auria.
one word of advice I would give is dont worry too much about making a 'mistake' regarding app purchases. or rather, be prepared to make them and try not to beat yourself up over it. 8). everyone on this forum has apps they would have been better off not purchasing simply because they would have saved their money for something else. I tend to see my app purchases as just renewing a subscription to the new app club. What works great for one person stinks sweaty balls for another etc. and no one gets into this without dropping a few wasted coins, but starting here and asking questions is a much wiser method than i initialy employed. So good on you for researching.
+1 well said, though I am in app club denial.
@Vulcanor it might be a good idea to look at YouTube video tutorials of the various app DAWs you're considering to see which ones will suit you the best. There are definitely different work flows and similarities between the apps as well as the time it will take you to get up to speed with the DAW so you can get what you want out of it.
Cubasis LE needs you to have specific hardware from Yamaha /Yamaha subsidiaries.
@Paul thank you for the advice, I will check on YouTube for videos of the DAWs mentioned here. I already watch a bunch of videos, especially for Auria and Cubasis. But the vids are not talking about CPU issues or not always comparing the DAWs together, this is why your experience is precious
.
@Audiogus, thank you for the advices on the "mistakes". Being a guitarist gearhead (recovering), I know that part of the game is to buy and then try, evaluate and stick to it or move on. And something tells me that I may buy more apps that needed given the amount of cool synths, effects or other music apps available
Advice for conserving IPad space regardless of DAW is send your finished tracks out of you DAW onto Dropbox or a similar storage option. A few songs worth of WAV files fill a 32gb IPad up a lot quicker that a desktop. Common sense, but this sounds like it's your first IPad..
I have made note of your very prescient notion in your file and we shall no doubt refer back to it in your evaluation meeting before the General Council during your registration birthday celebrations in 12 months time.
More immediately, I would suggest that with the inevitable Black Friday sale madness upcoming your will and intentions will very soon be properly tested
What use is Black Friday when you already own every app though?
First, welcome to the forum Vulcanor.
Also, ^ this. Tell us more about what you wanna do with your iPad. I've heard guitar amp/fx modelling, sample fodder for your OP-1 and all-in-one workstation but not so much about what you'd do with them. What kind of music do you generally make? What does a "workstation" mean to you? Banging out booty shaking 'bangers' and making synthy prog opuses (opi?) in 13/16 are really different beasts, you know?
Shhhh. There's still time for him yet....
If you are at all familiar with the basics of multi-track recording (you know what DAW means, so that's a good indicator), I highly recommend Auria. You may find Garageband pretty limiting pretty quickly. @NoiseHorse has a great point though, if you only have 32GB - you'll definitely need to offload finished projects.
My current Auria storage usage is 48GB, largely because I have a lot of unfinished projects
Also, this google search trick might help with narrowing stuff down from the forum:
https://www.google.com/search?q=intitle:"best+app"+site:forum.audiob.us
That will search for posts on this forum with the string "best app" in the thread title. Change "best app" to whatever you're curious about. Or something like https://www.google.com/search?q=intitle:"favorite"+site:forum.audiob.us
Good stuff here too: https://www.google.com/search?q=desert+island+site:forum.audiob.us
We could really use a 'Best of AB Forum' page/sticky.
(This isn't mean to suggest you search instead of asking. Just trying to help!)
I'm somewhat in the same boat, though I've been messing with Korg Gadget for awhile. I like the app a lot for what it does, but it has some annoying limitations and is not a complete DAW even for someone who doesn't work much with audio recording. GarageBand is cool but also limited. How long does one wait on Auria Pro before going with something that actually is available? So I'm looking at the options, and it's a huge amount of research. I can't imagine someone being able to recommend the best DAW for me without spending the time to know what's important to me.
After much reading and watching videos, I've decided to go with MTS, but I won't know if I like it until I use it awhile. What's the interface and workflow really like for what I do and how I want to work? How does it function with the other apps I want to use with it? Could end up being just right for me, but not for someone else.
@Vulcanor - welcome to the forum.
Ha, I love your sense of humour.
In terms of the question, I have them all (pretty much).
Depending on what I'm making I use Gadget, MTS and/or Auria.
@syrupcore I am not sure how to name the music I am making, think John Carpenter, retrowave, 80's. Here is a link to one of my track: . So no ellaborate time signature or strange track structure.
Do you think that a DAW in particular may fit my genre?
@NoiseHorse and @eustressor I am managing my files from a computer anyway, the idea is to be able to work on a mobile platform and not depend on a PC until the piece is finished. I am used to this with the OP-1, you finish a project, you clear the tape and album. This is why I am not worried about 32GB being too small storage.
@Matt_Fletcher_2000 I can at most have an hour and a half per day dedicated to music so I think it is safe to say that I will not spend more time than this playing music. And given the fact that I spend a lot of time on a single track (I am slooooow) and work on a single project at a time, 32GB should be enough.
It looks like a lot of you are using MTS, it could be an interesting option that I will have to check!
Thank you again for all the help
@Vulcanor that was a cool track. I have an urge to watch Fletch now, which is never a bad thing!