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iPad Obsolescence
Knew it was going to happen, but the AB3 release is the first thing to make me feel like my third generation iPad (2012) is outdated. Will still use it for musicking but it already sounds like it’s part of the past. For such an old device, it’s had a pretty respectful career.
Thing about this, though, is that my iPhone 6S Plus is recent enough for most things. Problem is, several AB3-compatible apps are iPad-only. Makes sense in terms of screen realestate, of course. But part of having smaller dedicated apps and AU extensions is also that screen realestate matters less.
What’s kind of funny about this is that, as there are so many more iPhones in current use than iPads, one might think that iPhone and universal apps sell better than iPad-only ones. But maybe our music creation apps aren’t meant for the largest numbers.
Again, none of this is meant as a complaint. Just think that other forum members might feel the same thing. @Master_Ascendant, for instance.
Comments
AU does make using an iPhone for music creation more viable. For some apps, the larger screen is needed to use the app. Some apps can be used on an iPad to create a setup and then can be played on the smaller iPhone screen when you don't need to acccess all of the app's features.
There are plenty of people that want every app to be universal, though for me that's not much of a consideration as most of my iOS music creation is centered around an iPad where I find the larger GUI easier to use. In general, I think developers are better off if they can design universal apps as it will minimize user discontent.
Any example? Got both SunrizerXS and Sunrizer and my guess is that this is the expected setup. But it’s not so clear to me what the difference is.
Might do the same as you do if my iPad were newer and if it had more storage. If my budget allows, will probably buy a new iPad at some point.
Still, there’s something to be said about an iPhone-based setup. The small size of the device can even help during performance. And 3D Touch is a very musical feature (recently added to Animoog, it sounds like).
In other words, can understand why devs focus on the iPad so much. (Several of them talk about their app at length without mentioning that it’s iPad-only.)
Maybe there’s a thread for us, iPhone musickers. Or a support group.
IMHO, the iPhone has a bright future in terms of musicking. Especially if devs get on board.
I´m more scared that a hardware device from 2012 is called "old" these days. My notebook will still work for 10 years
The iPhone 6S has a HUGE plus, over the iPads 3D touch. Sadly not much developers use it.
I also like still having a headphone jack.
Thanks @Enkerli! Yeah.. I defiantly feel a bit left out.. all the cool kids are getting AB3 today and I don't have a device 'yet' to support it. It kind of feels like Christmas... all the tension and excitement. It's been great. I love new releases. lol. I just can't decide if I should go ahead and get it.. In my head going "launch price, get it!" but I think I have to wait. lol. I'll be just that more excited to get my new iPad Pro second generation when they come out... hoping they'll come out this month but not holding my breath.
I'm hoping AB3 won't go up from $9.99 but I wouldn't blame them if they did. Great work guys! Thank you! And thank you for these forums too. It's been a great experience. It's a wonderful place to come hang out, meet cool new people like @Enkerli over here and to be kept up on the latest and greatest out there in the iOS music world.
Thanks again!
Keep musicing!!!! Peace.
-MA
Right!!!! WTF! :P
Good point. But universal version of orginal iPad apps that are sometimes just ridiculous small on 5/5c/5s or 5SE screens so you can't even handle them, like for example Fieldscraper. On the other hand there are apps they were specially made for iPhones and became universal and also totally out of balance (like TriqTraq). My opinion is let iPad apps just iPad apps and iphone apps just iPhone apps.
Good points. Unlike Android, iOS really pushes the distinction between the two. Some apps work quite well in both versions, but it’s not as simple as shrinking an iPad app to fit on the iPhone. As for blowing up an iPhone app to fit the iPad, it’s far from ideal, but it’s much more functional.
My hope is that, with the broadening of AUX, developers will perceive value in creating apps with a small screen in mind, even if they eventually add a bigger screen later on. On the iPad Pro, it could probably help for multitasking as well.
One could say that many of our music apps are really crowded, with knobs and sliders and buttons and pads and such. Sure, they’re very powerful. But if we’re getting apps which do “one thing well” and we pipe them into one another (à la Unix), maybe we don’t need nearly as many knobs in each app.
I think in terms of processor.
I feel like the A8X is going to be around for awhile.
"obsolescene"always sounds to me like something is broken but it still works or not?Freeze it in the state it is and use it for a lot more years.Like a hardware sequencer or hardware synthesizer... they rarely got updates in the past
But if people always want to play with the latest toys...then yes,an ipad might not last THAT long.But the difference from 3rd gen ipad to current ones is massive anyway.Definitely worth an upgrade.
Completely agree!
It's the problem of so many iPhone apps... most of them iPad apps crammed into a 4-5 inch display.
The other way around it's more workable...mainly there is of wasted space.
Figure on the iPad (12.9) it's the most ridiculous thing ever, an iPhone app stretched massively. even on a 9.7 iPad it's kind of dumb... the interface doesn't take advantage of the screen at all...
I lament that a number of seemingly great apps are still only available for iPad. @Enkerli is right - so many more iPhone users and still I encounter 'iPad only' pages on the App Store! What gives? Is it the coding? A skewed impression of who's using what?
Granted - I may never use these apps to a level that matches my fervor, but I'd like access to them without having to buy a new goddamned piece of equipment I really don't need BECAUSE I HAVE AN iPHONE! I'm invested! Cut us iPhone users some slack! I keep downloading old apps to play with and delete again!
Stats indicate that ~25% of the sales of my universal apps are from iPhone, 75% is iPad. Add to that that iPhone comes with more screen diversity and is more difficult to design for. It may not be worth the extra effort to many developers.
Can understand where you’re coming from. Maybe another title would have made more sense. But there is something about a decrease in perceived value when new devices finally do something extra that yours can’t do. It’s true that old synths didn’t necessarily get much in terms of upgrades, and they were usually more expensive than an iPad. But it feels a bit like having a DX-7 as the Korg Kronos comes out.
So, my iPad 3 isn’t broken, but it does feel obsolete today in a way it didn’t, yesterday. Will keep using it with AB2 apps, but will focus my purchases on iPhone apps, as much as possible.
Interesting datapoint, especially given the number of iPhones that Apple currently sells. Doesn’t mean that there isn’t room for iPhone-first musicking apps, but it does say something about the “Pro music” niche. Wonder what figures are for Figure.
Fair enough. It might not be the kind of challenge you enjoy. But those apps which do embrace the smaller form factor have their place. What’s surprising to me is how few of those are AU.
Was sad to see I couldn't get Audiobus 3 for my iPad 3. Well, it was nice while it lasted. Having Audiobus, Auria and all those neat audio unit sounds nice, but what kills me is how useful this would be to use with Cubasis.
Won't upgrade from iPad3... unless Samplr crushes my soul with a 10.2 or later update.
Missed out on my ten bucks today.
Looks nice though.
And also don't forget that apps for iPhone are designed for portrait mode only. TriqTraq is one of my personal favorites. It's even universal but it has only portrait... wish it had landscape mode too.
I think @brambos makes a good point that it can be a lot of work to make a GUI that will work for the different flavors of iPhones, not to mention the iPad Mini, iPad, and the original large screen iPad Pro. Depending upon the nature of the app, this can be even more of a challenge.
I'm amazed how the Beathawk developer was able to load the AU version of their app onto an iPhone (they've still in the process of refining their app to autoscale into the AU window). I think there can definitely be a place for iPhone music as many people are able to and do update their phones more frequently than their iPads so you can easily find yourself in a situation where your iPhone can run more complex setups than your iPad and it can be nice to have the option to develop patches for individual apps on the iPad and then combine these apps together in a setup on the iPhone that is cabable of running them all simultaneously.
There also some MIDI apps like ThumbJam and AC Sabre that actually function better on the iPhones than the iPads. Plus there are apps that take advantage of the pressure sensitive screens of the newer iPhones. People can also carry their iPhones with them everywhere and take advantage of spare moments or inspiration to work on their music.
Networking multiple devices together can also add additional capabilities to the process of making music and the older iOS devices sending MIDI control to the newer devices can work very well. For example, having a complex setup on an iPhone that you can play with a MIDI controller app(s) from an older iPad that wouldn't be able to run the complex setup but does have the space and power to control the setup via MIDI.
Agreed. It’s been increasingly challenging over the years, of course.
One part of this is that, for simpler apps, it’s probably more difficult to cram an iPad design into an iPhone than to start with the smallest size screen (iPhone SE) and carefully expand to the larger sizes.
Not question the @brambos mix in the least but, for all we know, it might say as much about marketing and than it says about potential difference in userbase. (Still confused as to which @brambos apps are iPhone-compatible. Mostly saw iPad screenshots.)
There might indeed be a huge difference in userbase. For instance, iPhone users may be much less likely to get any app which costs more than 3USD upfront than any iPad user. The IAP model might work best on the iPhone, which probably wouldn’t make sense for that kind of app. But one could think of some models which would work well with a very large base of very casual users. Hence the Figure refeerence.
Still haven’t tried it, despite all the hype. Might give it a try, now that you say this.
Yep. Pretty much my thinking. We keep talking about “modular” stuff. Having a few simplistic modules could work.
And, yes, it’s deeply challenging to create something that simple. But that’s a challenge which can bring great reward.
Absolutely! Somewhat surprising that there aren’t more apps like this. Part of the iPad-centric dimension of iOS musicking might have to do with the fact that people expect a keyboard, a drum machine, a step sequencer, or a guitar. All of these fit better in a large screen. The two apps you name (along with Gyrosynth, Bebot, and a few other early attempts) broke free of those models. But, like the Buchla, they might be victim of practicing musicians’ expectations.
Great point! It could even work with non-iOS devices.
Already been having a lot of fun with TouchOSC and a Raspberry Pi running Pure Data, Processing, ChucK, or Sonic Pi. There might even be cool things to do with Android devices, despite the paucity of high quality music apps. Maybe an older iPad can be a sound generation device driven by an iPhone running a simple controller app linked to Ableton on a Windows machine and recording on an SD card on an Android phone. Or something.
The idea is, the emphasis on the iPad need not blind us to what is possible.
@Enkerli all four of the @brambos apps are universal and will work on iPad or iPhone so long as the iOS and iOS device are recent enough. In the App Store, universal apps have a "+" in the price/buy button. I don't think IAPs always work very well for developers other than for things like sound packs. In many instances developers have even abandoned an IAP approach as it can make app development more difficult. In addition, there is frequently a lot of backlash from users with IAPs (justified or not) which add to the difficulties associated with them.
Figure, Guitarism, Auxy, KRFT, ReSlice, and Seaquence are some other apps that work well on iPhones.
Cool. Was probably confusing with Klevgränd.
And, yes, it’s easy enough to check on the App Store. Just meant that most of the screenshots are iPad-based, even in the App Store page for the iPhone versions.
Having a tag for iPhone-compatible apps in the Audiobus list could help a whole lot. Especially if we get more AU options.
Maybe not for most apps on which this forum is focused. But soundpacks do sound like a neat model, for things like Remixlive and Blocs Wave. There’s a logic to this, which goes in line with the old cartridges sold with Korg synths, for instance.
Sure. It’s only appropriate for some things. Same with the ad-supported model which is so prominent on Android. Or the subscription model behind Adobe and Microsoft apps (part of my last job). People may hate each model, but there’s room for a lot of diversity.
If you think of the App Store as a whole (and listen to Under the Radar), it’s pretty obvious that “paid upfront” apps also have a whole lot of issues. Including the lack of upgrade pricing and, until recently, the lack of a subscription model.
Again, not saying that one model is better than others. Just that there’s something self-selecting in the ecosystem of apps this forum covers. Really intrigued by this selection.
Thanks for that list! Might help me bite the bullet. Haven’t done much with Figure or Auxy, but a list of “iPhone-optimized” apps is useful.
And, yet again, none of this is about taking people to task for focusing on the iPad. Just curious that this ecosystem is so different from the overall App Store. What’s even weirder is that Apple isn’t banging that drum, as they try to convince people that iPads make optimal devices for creative professionals.
I think there are a variety of reasons why music creation apps have focused more on iPads than on iPhones. There is a very strong link between hardware, software, and input devices for music software. On mobile devices, multi-touch is a primary attraction/method for controlling music creation apps. On a practical level, it can be very difficult to do multi-touch or have the level of control on a smaller iPhone screen versus an iPad. Music creation software involves input (e.g keyboard), controls (e.g. knobs, faders), and very often visual feedback so incorporating all three of these elements on a smaller screen can prove to be a tough nut to crack. Even non traditional controls benefit from control gestures better suited to a larger screen (easier to receive a wider range of input control values). In addition, there seems to be a relatively small proportion of women relative to men who use iOS devices for music creation and on average, men tend to have larger fingers which further compounds the difficulty of creating a GUI on an iPhone. The newer iPhones with bigger screens make this less of an issue but there are still smaller screen iPhones too.
Even the game app market shows a divergence between casual gaming and hardcore gaming. People aren't going to be trading in their PlayStation, Xbox or other gaming consoles for iOS devices anytime soon nor will professional musicians abandon their laptops/desktops for an iOS setup either.
I think up to this point iOS has been primarily media consumption oriented and the devices didn't have enough capacity to support more complex functionality. Apple has done some drum banging with trying to convince people the iPad Pro can be used for professional work but musicians didn't buy it because there is practically no file management, the level of reliability isn't at the professional level, the ability to share setups among people collaborating on a project is lacking, and it's very difficult to automate the process of saving projects so their settings can easily be recalled and shared (all of these functionalities have been available on desktop/laptop systems for years). Even their development of AU and IAA has been underwhelming and shown a lack of commitment to investing adequate resources to provide professional infrastructure. Where is Logic for iOS?
In the next few years, I predict Apple will begin to move beyond a media consumption model and giving lip service to providing pro functionality. Their investment in iCloud Drive, the introduction of the new file system, tighter integration with macOS, the phasing out of active support for 32 bit devices, and the acquisition of Workflow along with the iPad Pro line point in this direction.
I recently received a reply from Klevgränd in response to a query I had about plans for universal versions of Esspresso and PressIt:
"Sorry to say, but there are no current plan making any of the mentioned apps universal. Maybe some time in the future though.
All the best
// johan, Klevgränd Produkter"
Sure, it might. But I'm getting very similar input from all other devs I speak with. Apparently people prefer using iPads over iPhones when it comes to making music.
Which is not that surprising. Ever since its introduction, the iPad was touted as a creation-oriented device versus iPhone, which is more for consumption of media. More screen real-estate (and a more useful screen aspect-ratio) all help make it easier to provide a more fullfilling user experience on iPads.
From a design perspective, it's simply more difficult to accurately translate the experience of a 10" iPad screen to a weirdly oblong 4" small screen of a 5S/SE (or vice versa). Making it unattractive (or at least a lot more effort) to do a universal design. Not to mention there are 3 different iPhone screen sizes/aspect ratios that must be supported (you can't exclude one) and the fact that you can't reuse your graphics assets on the Plus model, because it has a different pixel-point ratio (3:1, versus 2:1 on normal retina screens). It just makes supporting iPhones are real hassle, for a relatively minor part of the customer base.
This describes me. I have some favorite music apps on my iPhone but find myself rarely using them. I prefer to use my iPad. If I do have to use my phone for music somewhere, whether I’m actually so limited or not, I keep it real simple. One app is all, like Gadget or GB. I don’t even use Audiobus on a phone.
I wonder how many musicians are iPhone only. Despite there being zillions of potential buyers, is it actually a significant market for music apps that cost money? I don’t know, but I think many independent iOS music developers are investing loads of time to create apps because it’s an art for them. It’s not just about making money, what little can be made. So they choose to make apps for iPads because it’s the canvas they want to work on, like many of us musicians. It’s all relative, though. If all I had was an iPhone, I’d still be jazzed by all the music capabilities it offers.
I'm starting to think that my iPad Air is getting long in the tooth. It used to whizz along with a few Audiobus streams, but now it's crackling like crazy when switching between apps. Model 15 basically kills it!
As I think someone else mentioned about another app crackling, check your latency setting. That may be the issue.
This is a very good point. Besides me there are quite a lot more iPad users/ musicians on this forum that use Android phones as their daily driver. Using an iPad doesn't make you automatically somebody who's totally into everything Apple. iOS is the touchscreen platform to go for musicians because of the minimum lag en the great development there is at the moment.
From the audio lag perspective Android is getting there very slowly, but iOS still rules. There where discussions about Android vs iOS on this forum in the past, and if Android would solve the lag problem probably a lot of developers and musicians would make the switch to Android.
Trying to get at those reasons is very interesting as we often labour under unsafe assumptions.
That part could warrant an actual research project, with this forum as part of the fieldwork. Fascinating to me that (a certain type of) music creation would be so skewed male.
This is a very important point, and part of the backdrop for my own thinking about this.
The analogy to casual musicking is easy to make and may lead to fairly deep insight. Some of the apps you mentioned earlier could work well in this mode.
Of course, there’s a market for “hardcore synths” just like there’s a market for console gaming. But things are shifting.
This forum is part of fairly specific ecosystem which tends to exclude casual musicking. Not saying it’s a bad business decision. Just that there’s a gap.
This is the part which surprises me the most. That Apple has yet to commit to creative professionals in this way.
They won’t release a new pro desktop this year, but they might as well “double up” on the pro use of iOS, especially with the iPad Pro. One part would be to release new hardware, but the Workflow purchase might be part of a broader strategy.
Exactly!
Maybe Logic Pro X doesn’t really make sense on iOS but Mainstage would fit easily, methinks.
Agreed. And it’s a slow process. What surprises me isn’t really the lack of progress in that direction but the fact that Apple does little to showcase hardcore music creation on iOS. Maybe they do during keynotes. Stopped watching them a while ago. But the emphasis is so much on visual arts that it makes me think the passion for the music side of things may have gone with their previous CEO.
Having said this, Apple’s music creation apps are quite interesting. Even Music Memos. Don’t know anything about the people behind those things (apart from the “acquhires” like Camel Audio and Emagic before that). But they’re doing interesting work.
This may be commonsensical to you but it points to something very interesting. At the root of it is a distinction between “hardcore music creation” and “casual musicking”. Maybe very few people use Smule apps or Figure. But there’s “music making” in there too.
To me, it sounds like we’re talking about EA and Ubisoft while Candy Crush is being released. Coming from Montreal, can’t think that the conclusion of this episode is so obvious.