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Music production on iOS
There are a BUNCH of forum members that have way more experience with general music production (let alone doing it on iOS) than I could ever boast of. I bow to your expertise... and hence the reason for this thread (which may cover some esoteric territory, at least I hope!).
At 56 I've heard a fair amount of what would be called 'modern music', although - as I believe any musician should be - I have affinities for history & how it applies to the transformation of music over the years.
I can like a lot of what I've heard, and except for a few techniques that I've managed to grok (more or less) I know that it's more than the raw sound a synth or guitar might produce and has a LOT to do with how you process it.
That is my grey area.
I have seen a number of comments on this forum over the years from members who obviously know what they're talking about when it comes to music production. I sometimes feel that I have not had (or taken) the opportunities to apply myself as deeply as others have and as a result I'm missing out on essential info.
And then there's the subjectivity of it all.
To wrap up: Don't let me be the only one who posits a query here about the subject, but I wanted to have a go-to thread to ask about the esoterica I want to get insight for.
Comments
I think learning the basics of composing, mixing, and mastering would be the most significant aspects of music production on iOS or elsewhere. The esoterica will have little effect if the basics are not covered. In general the more esoteric a question is, the more limited in scope the answer will be, nevertheless it is useful to have a place to get answers to these questions when you've reached a point where esoterica comes into play.
It's all in getting levels right, man
I'd try to find and read as much as I can from Craig Anderton on the subject of home recording. Easy to understand, and he covers a lot of important territory in his articles, forum posts, and book(s). I think it's important to understand the basics of level setting, EQing, compression, etc before really delving into the iOS specific esoterica.
Recommendations for the best of the literally hundreds of online sites that purport to teach all the basics? They all promise to make you a hitmaker, er, or at least, better... Anyone?
In addition to anything you can find that Craig Anderton has written, I really like what I've seen from recordingrevolution.com. Ton of really useful YouTube vids and the guy (Graham) has a vibe and teaching style that really works for me. I've read a lot of stuff from a lot of magazines, books and sites, and, when it comes to the basics, I don't find a ton of conflicting information. Proper gain staging and level setting, leaving yourself some headroom, cutting rather than boosting EQ, and so on. Obviously there's some conflicting info out there, and exceptions to most every rule, but I've found that by and large, the fundamentals tend to be the same.
Techniques first, tools come second. I have many years' experience but am improving all the time.
So this was 99% produced on my iPhone with iPad Auria covering the mastering stage. (Thank goodness for Airdrop and Documents 5!)
https://www.dropbox.com/s/tocqt26ai8z1dqd/auriapro - 0425171926 mastered.m4a
Most sounds come from Leviathan 2 sample pack, the others being the built-in music instruments in Xewton Music Studio. Yes, that's my voice, cleaned up with Hokusai, and vocoded with Sparkle cross synthesis with a synth sample from Leviathan 2.
Believe it or not, the mixdown was in Xewton Music Studio. It's more important to be able to choose the right sounds, to put the master channel into monaural for monitoring, and adjust levels than it is to have the most accurate EQs in the mixing stage. Accurate EQs are more often used for mastering, and when producing in ProTools or Cubase on PC, Auria or Cubasis on iPad, hell even in Beatmaker 2 or Music Studio on iPhone, for freaksake pick the right sounds first!
Also, even though modern music is often in your face, never forget the most magical mixing technique of all - "contrasts"! Hard vs soft, loud vs quiet, bright vs dull, super compressed vs breathing (aka pre-gain automation on the mastering effects chain, making Auria the superior choice for mastering, whether you use the Fabfilter plugins or slap on Final Touch), chaotic vs calm, etc. Contrast sounds, contrast the mood of sections, keep it interesting enough.
kadenze.com has an Ableton production course than you can take for free.
Highly recommend.