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Please help me understand Gadget
Hi,
Please bear with me. I tried posting this over on the Korg forums but have received no help at all. I'm new to music on iOS and have been interested in Gadget for awhile. Most people seem to truly love it and I love that it's now an iOS Universal app as right now, I primarily have an iPhone to use. 
I know that Gadget is supposed to be sort of DAW-like but with a different type of interface that most people seem to feel is much more intuitive and conducive to getting thoughts out and recorded. It also seems to be biased towards electronic music sounds, from the little I know and have read.
I decided to download the "LE" version. I have a new Korg MicroKey Air (which I have to say, I wish came with either the full version or a coupon for a reduced cost full version - but I digress...) and decided that I could try it out by using Gadget LE. Well, I've yet to find it intuitive as I couldn't figure anything out but I'm certain that's my problem not the app's. 
I did find a synth sound that I love (though I couldn't figure out how to record anything I was playing). To be honest, after using it, I'm as confused as ever as to what Gadget actually is. I've tried to find some YouTube videos about it but yet to find something concise that explains it.
So I thought I'd ask here. What exactly is Gadget and what is it to you? It appears to have a collection of "gadgets". Are these different sounds? Different effects? Something else altogether? Does it has different instruments in each? Does it include instrument sounds like one would find in SampleTank or something similar? I'm really trying to wrap my head around it. It appears Korg added Audiobus and IAA compatibility, now, correct? Does it also support AU (Audio Units)? Or is that planned for the future?
Thank you so much in advance. I truly am looking forward to hearing your thoughts and perspectives on this. I'm considering upgrading to the full app before the price goes back up but I'd love to hear from seasoned users before I make that leap. It seems to be one of the few full featured music apps that is actually iOS Universal and will therefore work on the iPhone (most others won't work at all and the few that do often require purchasing apps separately on each form factor). Thanks a bunch!
Comments
No au. Each gadget is another device, you create a track, select the device, hit record and record. Each row is a "scene," and it plays scenes in order, each column is a track. Tap on the space in the scene to open that gadget. Hit the arrow on the gadget to minimize it, which shows you the piano roll. Hit function, that allows you to do all sorts of things, in the piano roll it lets you change the length of the loop. So like a Daw but rather than long tracks you have scenes of a certain length and then the next scene comes up. That's the basics. There are 3 really good concise guides on the gadget website that explain it really well.
Hope that helps a little.
Well, first of all, it’s largely a self contained music making app. Don’t get thrown off by mention of Audiobus and IAA. Audiobus means you can load it as an input in and play it alongside other apps, only. You can’t record into it via AudioBus. IAA means you can load it into a host like AUM, Auria, or Cubasis to send MIDI to it and record the main-mix output in those apps. It doesn’t meant that you can load IAA instruments inside Gadget. There is no AU capability, and isn’t likely to be.
What it is:
You can also send midi to Gadget from controllers or other apps to play it if you don’t want to be limited to playing and sequencing within the app. However, you can’t trigger patterns or scenes with a midi controller.
It has fabulous iCloud integration. You can start a song on one device and seamlessly pick up working on it on another.
It has a huge variety of sounds available via the various Gadgets, however, you can rack up quite a bill if you buy a lot of them. You can use as many instances of each Gadget as your device can handle (it’s like AUv3 in this respect).
It’s main advantage to me is the self contained nature. You have this huge palette of sounds at your fingertips with no hassle of wiring things together, getting midi to work, syncing tempo and start, etc. The barriers to creativity are very low. I also think the piano roll is pretty good, though people tend to differ (violently) over that. Most Gadgets are very good, and simple to learn compared to others.
The main disadvantages to me are:
All those disadvantages aside, IMO it’s one of the top-tier iOS apps, and one that just about anyone can get some great use out of.
+2 @wim, as ever. Awfully friendly breakdown right there.
Take my advice and stick with Gadget. You'll find a lot of music making apps on the market are limited compared to Gadget if you take the time to just learn it.
What kind of music are you aiming to make?
Like what you know about Gadget? Just kidding. Just got turned onto your YouTube channel. Your music is amazing!!!!!! Have you ever thought about a video walkthrough of some of your stuff? Your awesome with Gadget.
Besides the general advice of saving everything often and saving backups there's not much advice I can offer that hasn't been offered by other Youtubers. Knowing the sound you're aiming for is important. If you can get the right sound then arrangement is a straightforward process of copying/pasting and muting.
Video walk through are unfortunately not immediately possible for me but others are out there doing a great job already.
The secret is time and dedication. When I got that channel going it got me more motivated than ever before to put out finished projects and to put them out regularly and that is why and how I learned and what I do to keep improving.
@LucidMusicInc I hope you know I was not giving you a hard time..... I Am just an old guitar player who cant play anymore..... I am totally wanting to be immersed into iOS music. Your album Memories of Marceille... is great right up my alley. Guess I really need to dig back hard into Gadget again Cheers
Re additional sounds:
Have you got AudioShare yet? With AudioShare you can import sounds into Gadget. The Vancouver IAP is essential because you can model your own synths with it. There are sample sources of other synths and real instruments that can be downloaded and imported or you can sample what you've got. For example you could sample a synth like Sampletank into AudioShare and play it in Vancouver in Gadget.
Gadget also has Module which is very pricey, big on storage and arguably inferior to other romplers but convenient. M1 is another good way to get started.
Marcielle is such a fantastic Gadget. There are several guitar prests on it that I can't find fault with. My last two releases feature the Marcielle guitars prominently as well as GarageBand (also free and IPhone compatible)
Another thread title that made me exclaim, “Oh No”, only to find out it’s one of the best ones ever on the subject . Thanks to all
It's a big question, what is Gadget. In my opinion to get Gadget you've got to look at other software like Propellerheads Reason, and Ableton Live and hardware grooveboxes like the Electribe, MPC or Mc909. Gadget offers scene based recording over the traditional linear timeline based (Ableton does both). Anyway what makes Gadget very unique is its visual beauty it's faithful recreations of vintage and modern synths and drum machines and it's piano roll which is near perfect.
This forum can really kick some generous ass. Well done.
One other thing that may be of use/ interest to the OP. This being the knowledge that Gadget modules can be used by Rozeta under AUM.
In other words, if you get the excellent bass Gadget Madrid, or the equaly lovely drum Gadget Gladstone, you can setup Gadget to run under AUM, and have Rozeta play those sounds.
For those who got frustrated with Gadget, this gives the app a whole new lease of life!
What you need to know about Gadget is that IT DOESN'T AUTOSAVE and also DOESN'T PROMPT YOU TO SAVE WHEN YOU START OR OPEN ANOTHER PROJECT.
Please don't forget this.
@Zen210507 : That’s GOLD! Thanks
Indeed, Gadget can be externally sequenced through the advanced midi setup option.
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You are most welcome. Be aware that for Gladstone Gadget to work properly under AUM with Rozeta you need to select the corrrect template.
Also, I very much like Hank Astral’s youtube videos on gadget: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-E_m_pn_fxjJbL6LF0f3Yw
Gadget is amazing IMHO,.one day maybe Korg decide to add full AU support...
I also liked this guy’s videos on Gadget. More overview than tutorial, but perhaps helpful.
This thread is so helpful, I could literally cry. I'm serious. I cannot thank you all enough for your generosity and time in sharing your knowledge and experience to help me (and thankfully others too!) to understand more about what Gadget actually is and does.
@wim , absolutely unbelievable explanation. I've not seen anything online come close to your description of what Gadget is, what it isn't, what matters and what doesn't. You are allowing me to walk into this eyes wide open and you clearly see the good and the bad in an unbiased way. I cannot thank you enough.
Glad I could help. I was going to add the suggestion that you ask more specific questions as you get into it (if you do). Those are easier to respond to in a meaningful way than something broad.
I was a long time holdout on Gadget (and smug about it too). When I finally caved due to a sale, I got hooked. Spent way too much on gadgets, and only recently broke my addiction to getting every new gadget. It’s an expensive addiction. Honestly these days I don’t use it that much - too distracted by other toys.
But when I do, every time something good comes out, and I wonder why I don’t use it all the time.
It will most likely be sort of electronic "new-agey" type stuff that might go some towards trance(?) type stuff (adding drum loops etc to the first type). The other type of music I would be interested would be more folk type.
I'm not afraid to learn a program at all or unwilling to invest the time to do so. I purchased Cubasis 2 last year on its initial sale (with the intention of investing time to learn it well) not realizing that (unlike Android, which is my primary background) iOS apps that work on a tablet don't necessarily work on an iPhone. So, I'll have that option if/when I get an iPad later this year. One (smaller) concern is that what background I do have in music creation (which isn't terribly extensive) was as a sound engineer in Nashville for a time 15+ years ago and the programs at the time were most definitely traditional linear DAW. Is it hard to make the switch to the "scene" based style of Gadget?
Thanks @wim . This definitely makes sense. I just desperately needed some broad idea of how it actually worked/what it is/what it can be/how it might be used. Honestly, from a newbie perspective, Korg hasn't done the best job of explaining this. The concept of multiple available gadgets just isn't very clear without more information which is exactly what you gave me.
I don’t think gadget is user friendly at all from a composing aspect.
I’ve only ever used its sounds - triggered by pre written midi parts in Cubasis. It’s good for that when you want a new sound to try.
I've been going back and forth on whether to try this or not but this thread has helped immensely. Some of these responses have been nearly like "reading my mind" - offering information that was exactly what I was worried about. In this case, I was thinking about purchasing some of SampleTank or perhaps ThumbJam or similar to have some general "sounds" app but from some of what I read here, I didn't think I could use these in Gadget since it doesn't work as an IAA or Audiobus "host". I thought I was limited to only the sounds within Gadget (which granted appear to be quite a few with a lot of add on option) but nonetheless, it felt very limiting for the future if I couldn't bring additional outside sounds in. Finding out there is a way to do this changes everything about how I feel about the program. Not to be thick but does this mean it can be used with other outside synths this way too (say ThumbJam, Poseidon Synth, and others)? Could it also be used with other "effects" this way too?
Interesting! I wondered about this. I know some folks find it very intuitive but thus far, I'm not one of them. I don't mind learning but it's interesting to hear that you find a linear DAW easier. I was wondering that for myself since what little experience I have is with linear DAWs on the desktop years ago.
If it was the only thing you had and you had plenty of time, I’m sure you’d get to grips with it, but yes, I’m used to linear daws and a timeline kind of composition.
Gadget does have some really good sounds but I prefer another daw to trigger them.
@Zen210507 - Wow, wow and just WOW. This is freaking crazy - mind bending awesomeness. I'm just trying to get my head around what this means. For one thing, it definitely changes my perspective about it working with other apps. That was one thing that has had me hesitant about Gadget, especially since I can't use it as an IAA/Audiobus "host". But with what you shared, the sounds within the "gadgets" themselves can be used within another program. So (again, bearing with a newbie trying my hardest to "wrap my head around this" new stuff), does this mean that I can use the sounds I find and love (and the alternate scales, etc) in a more traditional linear based DAW (being Rozeta) if I don't find I'm loving the scenes type of setup? Sorry if this is absolutely plain to everyone else but I've not heard of Rozeta till your post and the iTunes description isn't as clear for me as I need it to be, probably just because of my newness to this stuff. What else can Rozeta do? The reason it's immediately of interest to me is that it's one of the few (apparently powerful) music apps and possible DAWs of a type that actually iOS Universal compatible. I'll likely use MIDI quite a bit as I just switched my large keyboard for a Korg MicroKey Air (to get a smaller footprint) and I also have an Artiphon. Given that Rozeta seems to be highly MIDI based, from what little I've learned thus far, it may be a good fit. Any additional info about these would be truly brilliant. I've learned much more about stretching the capabilities of Gadget in this thread than I ever could have hoped. I'm so grateful!
Any in particular that are iOS Universal? As I mentioned above, I have Cubasis (bought on early sale) before I understood that iOS isn't like Android where tablet apps work on phones scaled down. I'm hoping to get an iPad this year but until then, I'm stuck with a iPhone to use (hence my need for a Universal app option).