iOS Music Wiki

jesse_ohio

So I started a wiki for iOS Music. It can be found at http://ios-music.wikia.com/

The idea is to be a comprehensive go-to resource to learn how to use iOS to produce music, from an overview for beginners to advanced tips and tricks for specific apps. As of now there is not much content... I just started laying out the main navigation and basic categories. I'm working on getting some basic articles in place so there will be some actual content there and not just an empty shell.

The long term goal is for anyone to be able to add and edit content - that's the point of wiki's in general. But for now I'd like the help of any volunteers who can write decently and wouldn't mind contributing a little time to get the ball rolling.

Topics that could use some attention out of the gate:

• "Why iOS?" - an article outlining the reasons for considering iOS as a music production platform, including pro's and con's to as compared to traditional desktop production
• List of audio interfaces that work well for iOS music production, and basic feature descriptions
• List of MIDI interfaces like above
• Overview of available apps broken down by category. My top level categories for apps right now are DAWs & Studios, Recording, Mixing, and Effects. So I need to get a comprehensive list of these, and we can fill in features and tutorials as time goes on.

Or whatever other articles you'd like to add. This is going to be a pretty comprehensive resource so just about anything iOS music related will have a place. I would just like to be involved in the structure and formatting at this point so we can get it off to a consistent start.

So if you have something you'd like to write up, let me know and we'll figure out where to put it, or you can send it to me and I'll post it.

Feel free to use this thread as a discussion point for all things related to the Wiki... ideas, suggestions, comments, questions, whatever.

Thanks!!

RockingGarage

This is nice... but seems like I am too new to contribute... haha....

mgmg4871

Never too new. Lol

funjunkie27

Nice add to the ios world @jessie_ohio. I registered and will contribute as much as possible.

CSwinn

Great idea!

mgmg4871

Ok, I'm registered and will do all I can to help.

JMSexton

Tried something like this at my time with iOS Mars....long story short....it takes a ton of work but I'm confident if enough members (prob at least 3-4) stay active on it and keep it update it should be fine anything under 3-4 and it'll become a task and you'll get burned out. I love the idea and hope you're successful because it would indeed be a great resource which is why I brought it up for iOS Mars but it was too much for one or two to handle.

dwarman

Signed up too. I'm thinking some MIDI articles. On the ferry at the moment but I'll get there soon.

apptronica

Hey, Jesse. Like @JMSexton I started down this same path as a precursor to setting up iOSMusic.org and I agree that it is an enormous undertaking. I put well over 100 hours of work into an iOS music wiki site before abandoning it for several reasons. I'm not trying to discourage you at all; rather I think I have some insights that may be useful to you if you're going to be successful.

I can't commit to contributing directly to your project, as writing for and managing iOSMusic.org takes up all of my available time for such things. However, I would like to consult with you initially if you're interested and maybe help you avoid some of the initial hurdles. Someone graciously did the same for me when I was getting started, and I'd feel good about paying it forward.

If you're interested, shoot me an email at [email protected] .

Thanks and good luck

[Deleted User]

Good man Jesse.

I'll find what discussion I know of on here and post the links.they may help as starting points.

jesse_ohio

Thanks for the comments and insights all. I totally understand that this is a daunting and perhaps unrealistic hope, but I truly feel that if the community can contribute it's possible.

@JMSexton:

I'm confident if enough members (prob at least 3-4) stay active on it and keep it update it should be fine anything under 3-4 and it'll become a task and you'll get burned out

Exactly this. I have no interest in writing a comprehensive iOS Music Wiki on my own, I don't have the time or the knowledge (I still have tons to learn). But I'm pretty good at writing and technical documentation, and I'd love to help share knowledge of things that I had difficulty figuring out on my own.

This forum is really the key to making this work, I think. We're very active and the users are extremely knowledgeable. If enough of us wrote even a few articles, then the Wiki would be a useful resource and hopefully have enough momentum to continue on. Even if the articles aren't long and extremely detailed, having a central documentation repository of the little tips and tricks and instructions that are shared every day on this forum would be huge.

With that in mind, even if you personally can't or don't want to write entire articles, please at least post to this thread if you see a tip, trick, or answer in a thread or on the web that helped YOU when you were stuck. Then I (or someone) can take 5 minutes to quickly add that to the Wiki. Every little bit will help.

@iClifDotMe

If you're interested, shoot me an email at [email protected] .

Absolutely. Thanks man!

Jesse

JMSexton

Here are some of the major points I learned during it....

Wiki's run on "templates". You need a template to keep it looking professional, clean, simple for the user, and to keep uniformality for when you have multiple ppl posting for the same wiki. Building a template can be tough but once they're made that's it, it almost becomes data entry. You'll need an App template, Developer template, Website template, Resources template. If you want to make it even better once you've got a great base built, build more specific templates, for example, Synth template, Effect template, etc etc this tells users how to enter data to keep the wiki looking like a wiki.

Another big part of wikis are "linking", link everything. Short example: I'm gonna make a wiki page for iMini. It will show the developer name, Arturia, which will be a link going to the Arturia page to tell a bit about Arturia, a link to their site, when they started...blah blah. Back to iMini, it will say what type of app it is, a Virtual Analog Synthesizer, this too will be a link to take you to a description and facts about Virtual Analog Synthesizers, their history etc etc. It will have a bunch of other info but I think you get hint. Link-Building.

Also a major point, everything written has to be factual and never opinionated or you will lose all credibility

Will

Would be great if anything written was cc licensed so that others could use the contributions with (or without if you decide) attribution.

jesse_ohio

Thanks @JMSexton. I'm pretty familiar with wiki's in general as I use them often, I maintain one for our department at work and I'm pretty good at cross linking, etc. Wikia, the wiki platform I chose for the iOS Music Wiki, handles the overall formatting on its own and I'm satisfied with how it looks out of the box. But the content-specific templates are definitely something I need to get worked out.

Here's a couple example pages I wrote that you're welcome to review and critique (for content, accuracy and style):

Audio Interfaces - pretty much complete

Beginner's Guide - very much a work in progress, but lots of info and future internal links added

raz

Nice initiative, but to be honest I really don't like the wikia ads. They seem intrusive and they probably use more bandwidth than the entire page. Are there any alternatives?

Keebo

I agree with raz, especially the video ads that drain my pour little ole 1.5 connection.

Other than that, I really like what is being done with a central information location.