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More Apps = Less Production?
I've played about with sound/music apps off and on for years, but I didn't get obsessed with it until almost 3 months ago.
At first, I got excite with my first couple of app purchases and was going nuts... learning and making stuff.
Then, I got obsessed and excited by all the amazing apps out there and started buying more... learning them... then playing with them... then digging deeper and deeper into more apps, etc.
Now... nearly 3 months and about 60+ apps later... it seems the extremely VAST array of sonic possibilities and endless possible choices... has resulted in me actually making less instead of more.
I was making much more and making much more progress when I had fewer options and less choice. Kinda funny.
Maybe this is what an "appaholic" hangover feels like? 
Comments
I think I agree. I spend a lot of time reading about new apps for music, ones I don't have. obtaining more and more........
I think it contributes to Less Production for me.
More so, I think having 2 little kids at home, and wanting to spend time with them. Then..........being to damn tired to stay up past 9pm to work on music.....Is probably mostly why I don't produce music.
I feel ya. Sometimes when your friends swing by and invite you to head out to the club, you've just got to decline. There'll still be plenty of partying to be had after you get some work done.
But one just hates to think one might be missing out, right?
I think it depends what your goals are, if it's just the exploration of these apps and their musical possibilities, then acquiring as many apps as you find interesting doesn't seem to be inappropriate. However, if the goal is to create a track / tracks then (personally), I found the time I spent learning all these apps as opposed to doing anything with them was somewhat frustrating.
Fortunately, I found an app that suited my requirements and I just concentrated on that one (Gadget) for the project I had in mind. I'm going through a similar process with photo apps and photo-editing apps currently - but they are a fair bit cheaper than the music apps (on the whole) and it's quicker to determine whether I'd use them or not
Option paralysis
This is why I sold all my OSX plugins last year & bought a select few 2nd hand synths & a mixing desk. I was overwhelmed with the choice available in the software realm & realised I was way more productive 15+ years ago.
Unfortunately (well, fortunately), I received an iPad as a present and, having never been previously interested in iOS for music, have started to get a little sucked in to software again. I'm trying, though, to maintain an approach of "one app for each purpose"....one FM, one wavetable, etc. My weak point is drum machine apps.
The trick, for me, is to focus on using only a couple of apps per project. When I had tons of hardware, I always thought I needed to use all of it, which had a terrible effect on productivity, so intentionally restricting myself is the only solution.
I think that's it right there. I'm so amazed at what so many of these spectacular apps are capable of, it's hard to just pick one and focus.
I learned a long time ago with graphic design & photography... edit what you present to the client to only 2-3 choices if possible.
If I think I'm doing them a favor by offering them 17 logo choices, or the best 200 images, etc. they'll have a hard time deciding. If it's a choice decision being made by committee, good luck EVER getting a decision.
I used to make trippy image composition mashups in Photoshop for fun. Still do, but tend to use the iPad more.
Having a huge library of 30+ years of my own travel photography to choose from as source... I'd say, "Tonight I'm gong to make something out of these 4 images only. And I'm only using this particular technique.
I should do the same now, as (like you) but with sound.
Limiting your options tends to enhance creativity too.
Reminds me of people who used to go out all night and all they worried about was what type of "e" pill they had and what color it was and what percentage of what chemical is in the such and such and then if you blank and blank and how much did you pay ......................................
and never enjoyed the music or the roll itself.
@skiphunt,
Not missing to derail your thread, but what do you use for photography apps ?
I'm oscillating between using Hipstamatic / Mextures for editing and Camera Pro / focus / HDR4 for shooting.
Yes
I tend to do 1 max 2 sequencers and 3 max 4 sound generating apps into AUM max
Then it gets synced to or sampled in my mpc and go from there
And I am starting to know not only the apps I like most for different applications but also the ones that work best with others
Eg. Last thing I did had a pad in gadget and 2 synths sequenced by patterning and 1 percussion sound inside patterning and a few sounds from ielectribe
Then I sampled some of the sounds into the mpc, tracked the rest into live with link and that was it. Now I am finished arranging and will mix ITB
So yeah, I don't limit myself on purpose but I do it because less is more anyways
Oh and now that I am really getting into modstep it wil be even more streamlined and integrated with my hardware, I will be using it to sequence my bass station as well now
I have many, many... But I'll list a few current favs:
Snapseed
IColorama
Union
Image Blender
Enlight
Handy Photo
Glaze
Decim8
Procreate
ArtRage
PhotoViva
Pixelmator
VSCO
Wow! Yes I am guilty of this.
Recently I sold 4 thousand dollars worth of gear (US dollars) to minimize my workflow and get back to making music. I now have 4-5 core hardware machines that I need to create and make music.
When I first started out in the 80s I had a couple of things and I made music daily. Over the years I amassed a lot of gear (nostalgic, "collector" etc) and ended up not using it. Hence the purge.
Now here I am getting into software stuff on this iPad and si0nce I picked up this iPad in November (first ever apple product) I bought 17 music apps (thanks audio bus members!
) and to this day I still have some apps I've not even opened up and used because of that quite right up top of my post...
For example, I have Auria pro and I picked up AUM because you cats lusted over it. They both can do the similar things... Which one do I use?? See.. Option paralysis...
The key is to figure out what sounds are essential to you and try and focus down on using those core sounds. It's just a matter of perspective, if your attention isn't focused on what your core is it's split up amongst everything you have, but once you focus on the core things that make up your sound all those extra apps just sort of sit in the background and they're there when you need them. Eventually you'll be glad you had them when you find the right use for them.
What I like to do is put my really core apps down in the permanent task bar at the bottom of the screen, however I use multiple ios devices in my setup so that's still a lot of apps, lol.
@JP-08 Auria and AUM can compliment each other well. The latter can host AUs and is great for bring Link & IAA sync apps together.
Well after my iPad feck up last night and spending all day today reloading my iPad, I've figured out I've lost roughly 9gb in music files - song ideas, my own loops and presets.
Considering I don't keep all my files on my iPad, I must be spending some time making music.
Ive loaded back 190 music apps on my iPad:
A large selection of FX apps
A large selection of synth and keyboard apps
A few select loop making and playing apps
A few host apps - Auria, AB, AUM etc
A few midi apps
The rest are made up of beat making apps
Grouped up, I can get to what I need quickly and have a purpose for most of the apps. The most overkill really is my beat apps and eventually I want to strip the sounds off most of them and delete the apps.
I find the worst time killer with iOS music making is to keep files cleaned up. O and spending too long on these forums
I feel very guilty I haven't spent more time with some of my apps , in particular Gadget , which is a beast of a powerful thing , but I just get distracted by the latest thing , and also my default ' dark ambient live ' mode . I should really knuckle down and ....... What's that ? Noatikl did you say ? Audulus 3 ? Well if you insist ....
Nice! My mom used the term "analysis paralysis."
Once had a roommate who told me I analyzed everything too much. So I went into my room and thought about that for about an hour, came back out and told him he _might_have a point
Absolutely the case with me.
I haven't made a track for a couple of months now, but have still bought the odd app, thinking I may need it, but knowing deep down I don't.
When I first got Nanostudio on my phone many years ago, I stopped using the PC with a whole plethora of options and was creating and finishing tracks prolifically.
Now I've built up a large selection of options again and the slow down is in full swing.
There a lot to say for the all in one solution!
I realised a while ago that the real fun with iOS music is its unpredictability.
Just when you think the next thing will be Korg adding audio tracks to Gadget, all the major synths releasing AU versions, all the standard DAWs becoming AU compatible, we get AUM, Shoom and it goes off in a whole different direction, and all for the price of a few beers a week.
I'm forever culling my apps to keep things manageable but it's not as if they're lost forever, they're just a re-install away.
Never heard Norm Abrams say that more tools made him less productive.
Ha!
I think you can find a happy medium between messing around with new apps and actually writing music. I like to go back and forth to prevent burning out. I'll spend a week just writing a song in Gadget, then I'll spend the next week trying out other apps just to have fun and learn how they work.
Peace \/
chisel316
For me, so very ^ this. When I decide to focus on a single app, I'm way way more productive.
Always remember though that trying to take a car apart with a screwdriver is not the quickest or most sensible option
I can make a passing piano sound with most synths, yet it is quicker and sounds better to use my piano sample apps in most cases.
I can get some industrial noise with most synths, yet it is quicker and often sounds better if I use certain apps such as SynthQ, DRC or some fx apps.
I think a garage is a useful analogy here - Have the tools ready for any job that may come through that door, but it is knowing what tool to use that will get the job done.
I also find that it's essential to find out how you work best. I set out time for doing certain things in my day, but music making is allowed to happen at any time that ideas strike - well within the bounds of not upsetting the Wife
It depends what was meant or implied by “everything”. Does this exclude the set outside of everything, or is that included too?
At the start of 2015 I decided I would write and record/produce a song every month, come hell or high water. I have stuck to this so far, and as result I've recorded 16 tracks in the intervening period, compared to about 4 in the 12 months preceding that decision.
Not all the tracks were that good, but you have to get the bad songs out of you first, for the good ones to emerge. Also, as an accidental bonus, the Song of the Month Club was started (it wasn't planned, it just kinda happened).
Set yourself productive/creative goals and stick to them. You can still buy apps, but if you have a schedule you have to stick to then you'll find that you won't get so easily distracted.
Yes. This is a real problem, especially for iOS based music. iOS isn't designed for professional production. Being able to organise the apps you have on your device better would really help along with a better file system for organising your output.
Apple have engineered iOS to be really good for constantly buying new things rather than using what you've got. It's a clear manipulation. I'm hopeful that they'll see that people do want to use them for serious production and develop more in this area.
I've been trying to focus more on hardware via AUM and Modstep with only a few ipad audio based apps to help with productivity. It's good to read and hear of other people focusing techniques
The problem we all face is too many choices. When you have so many choices it is hard to know which one to try first and then it is even harder to commit to what you choose.
It is better to have in depth knowledge of a few tools that you can work with quickly because you know them so well.
A theoretical example,
You have a bass line that you want to compress.
You have 3 compressor AU's, which one do you use ?
If you only have one compressor AU, which one do you use ?
Less decisions = more work.
I don't seem to have any problems with choice , I've got to know which apps are best at each job , and I just load up the ones that are relevant for the track I'm working on lol