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Tips for Digging Deeper into Apps?
It happened - my iPad 4 is too old for new apps. I want to try to commit to the apps I have. I always find I'm preset cruising, some of the apps are so wild and complex it can be a lot to see what's really going on. I've gotten to know Animoog and Turnado well, but that's been years of videos and hours of playing. There are - easily - two dozen other apps that I'd like to be able to play with as much awareness of how the sound will change. Audiobus is great, but I feel like it distracts me, splits my focus and I'm only paying half attention to either the FX or the preset.
I think my process goes like this -
1) Read the manual
2) Buy the app, cruise presets
3) Ignore the app for months
4) See app in Audiobus, give it a shot, get confused, close it quickly
5) See a new video/post about the app, try out new trick
6) Realize app can do another cool thing I've wanted to do
7) Repeat only doing that cool thing
8) Feel guilty about not using other apps, try them
9) Re-open app later, having forgotten everything
10) Re-read the manual
What do you do? Any advice for focusing my attention better? Do you learn an app inside and out or do you learn as you try new sounds?
Comments
Use limitations to focus your creativity. Like do a whole song with just animoog or another synth and whatever audio sequencer you have. Try routing a virtual midi controller like Soundprism to control a bunch of different synths at once and jam out, make a track that way. But in general I try to limit the number of apps I use, to get the most from less, and to learn the apps well.
This really made me smile. I'm totally in the same boat! I'd like to be systematic about learning these apps on a deep rather than broad level. It seems I've purchased so darn many of them that the distraction factor is always there along with the guilt of low output in terms of productivity. Looking forward to other's comments..
@thesammiller Song of the Month Club. Feet to the fire etc. Apart from that, best of luck to you, but find some solace in the fact that there are many of us wrestling with these same matters...
What I find myself doing is, rather than open my AB presets, which consist of more complex presets using multiple apps, I often open just one app at home and devote 4-5 days to just playing that app. Also, for acoustic or more stripped down trio gigs, I've found it useful to force myself to stick to one app through the whole gig. This forces me to tailor the sounds and utilize the features more thoroughly.
These are great, thanks. I really like the idea of spending a week with just one app, making a song with one app, or restricting myself to one app for a set/recording session. That's a good way to look at it.
I tend to dig in very deep into most apps I have, what app and when depends on the 'mood'.
Knowing how different synthesis methods work and what kind of sounds they are expected to produce is a real time-saver and helps in exploring the apps deeper.
Reading the manual and technical specification usually(but not allways) gives a good idea of what the app is capable of.
Most of the apps may feel very complex at first sight but detailed analysis of the functions usually get clear after a while. It's all about 'getting the basics' and after that dig deeper.
Sometimes people bring up SunVox as being a complex app but it's childs-play compared to the likes of Audulus 3 and AnalogKit.
For me the challenge is more about grasping the logic behind the developers intended usage of the app, once that is 'clear' the apps becomes useful.
At some point the 'digging' will be at such level that it will be easy to pick the right app for the job and produce the type of sounds that one is after.
Delete loads of apps, limit yourself.
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I have been trying, more or less successfully, to only pick up things that fulfill something I don't have. It does keep things under control.
Back in the days of hardware, things like synths were so expensive, you could only afford to buy one, or maybe two. And you had to get all the sounds you wanted from that, so you learnt them inside out. We are so spoilt for choice with cheap IOS apps that it is easy to skim over things. I would recommend choosing one that you really want to learn, and use that exclusively (more or less - you see, my resolve is weakening already!). Use that one synth (or whatever) for all the sounds that you need, get to know what each control does, and how to combine them for various effects. If you do that for perhaps a month, you should have a pretty good feel for it, so can then move on to another, but select carefully and keep the range small.
One good exercise to learn a piece of music software is to attempt a cover song (or even just a part), to get you out of merely being stuck in happy accident land. Handy for learning how to edit the sounds and use the sequencer with intention. It doesn't require creativity when it comes to the music, but it will sound good while you learn, which can be a relief, because learning equipment is generally a pretty left brained activity.
If preset building feels too much like a burden, try creating variations of existing presets. That way you can learn, without being saddled with having to fully understand an app inside and out.
Man these are all fantastic, thank you! I do a little preset variation now though I could probably organize them better.
Intention is an interesting theme here. I do tend to noodle and just play around. But trying to accomplish specific objectives and understanding how an app can or can't do them would certainly open some doors for learning.
Here's maybe an app training schedule..
1 - Manual, tech specs, detailed evaluation of individual functions
2 - Get the basics, preset variations
3 - Compare to similar apps - are they more or less complex? what are the limitations or unique features?
4 - Copy a sound, cover a song - discovering practical applications for a range of sounds
5 - Do all parts of an original song with app
This makes sense. Thank you all!
I pick an app that embarrasses me and for a week or so ignore all others. If I have difficulty synthesising whatever comes to mind, I ignore everything else and stare at this app until one day from my usual torpor I make a cup of tea and stare further at the app. Then I have a few cups of coffee, and check the internet to see how many people have acclaimed me as a genius or else are in need of my help because they are incorrect.
When I actually do dig in, I’ve noticed it never happens as a result of “needing to” do i, for example, making a song with it. In the rare situations I have something specific to do I’ll gravitate to a workflow I know, with tools I’m familiar with. If it’s playtime, I can learn a thing without penalising myself for not being productive by having an entity as the end result. Noodling, then.
I’m not one to use presets. Presets for me are the thing you make so you can call up your previous work. Or else, the built in ones are for selling the synth in the shop, but never to actually use yourself, that’d be disgraceful. If I find I can’t easily make a preset that represents the range of freedom I’d consider acceptable, then I don’t understand the synth. Personally, I understand synths. I understand synthesis. I don’t understand “music” whatever that is, but I do know how a sound is constructed, and how a synth should make that. Yet, there’s a few complex synths that I thought I’d be at home with, but got lost immediately.
This is embarrassing. For months I prod at it, go through a few built in presets and be impressed at them, then try my hand at it and get nowhere, and close the app again. In most cases, it’s because the synth offers the correct range of facilities, but has presented them in an unusual or occluded manner that I’m not familiar with. In some cases, the actual architecture was mistaken for something I thought it was but it wasn’t. In other cases, it’s terminology. In yet other cases, it’s because the paradigms are different enough at the level of working granularity to be unfamiliar. Once I’m inside, as it were, everything’s back to normal.
If you know synthesis, the thing that can fox a person is the way the tool does its job. If you don’t know synthesis, or the specific form of synthesis, then your task is multiplied — you’d be trying to learn a bit of synthesis theory, and also learn the idiosyncrasies of a particular tool’s way of doing things, and that is doubly difficult. Another thing that makes this difficult is the low cost of switching. With a real synth, you stick with it a bit longer. With an iPad full of apps, and only a few minutes to try each one, if it doesn’t instantly gratify, you close it and try another.
great thread!
Perhaps try developing a relationship with the dev or some power users to get more insight. No sense in going it alone if others are willing to help, which many are, especially if you bring something to the table as well.
Discussing apps with other users is a really good way to dig deeper into apps.
Where one user 'hits the wall' other users may already have found a 'work around'.
I do sometimes 'hit the wall' too...
I'm by no means a proper 'musician' but more of a 'tech-geek' and an 'app-a-holic' with deep interest in all things that make noises and bleeps and can quite easily get annoyed by 'limitations' in various apps.
Guilt, shame, and self-disgust are my strongest motivators for deeper exploration of apps that I own.
Wow
I keed! I keed!