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Comments
@LinearLineman Well stated. I loved reading your post.
As teenagers, we got our guitars, amps, drums and whatever, set them up in the garage and played for fun. iOS devices let us do it wherever we want and by ourselves, but the activity is the same.
At some point, if we want to get into the business of recording music, we generally want what we've always wanted - good tools to work with. I think the DAW is still a great tool, but certainly not necessary for everyone wanting to express themselves musically.
The difference with iOS for me was that I could try a lot of apps over time, 5 bucks here, 10 bucks there. I already owned Logic, but at least to my knowledge, it was relatively expensive to get into all the various plug-ins I saw available. I believe iOS does offer amazing value for the money.
From the developer's perspective, iOS prices must be dirt cheap. I know people like to compare to free apps you can get on desktop, or big desktop products that offer in one purchase what is equivalent to a collection of iOS apps, but it's not the same situation. iOS devs are, practically speaking, forced to sell their years of work for a few bucks, even if the app is hugely popular.
I thought the article was a great read, and while there are real difference between the two areas of endeavor, it brought to my mind my own research into making my iPad into a workable environment for doing software development. In a desktop/laptop setting, the de facto “right way” to handle a software project of any complexity is in some kind of IDE (integrated development environment) - some languages and project types literally have one piece of software that is like “a DAW” and that is called an IDE, while others might have a really full-featured, special purpose editor for source code and then one or maybe two other tools that work closely with that editor; these are essentially an IDE but aren’t called that explicitly. What I’ve found looking into doing “real work” in software on my iPad is that here, too, that paradigm tends to break down into something much more “modular” and federated, but which works because you can focus on one task at a time much more effectively in a UI that is designed with the strengths and constraints of iOS in mind.
Whether it develops that most users end up needing a timeline to do their best, or fiddliest, or as one poster earlier in the thread put it (and I shall now paraphrase terribly) “work after the composition is done” work, I think that we will eventually see that trying to lift and shift the desktop workflow onto these weird, magical little slabs of computronium we all carry around now was a quaint, if effective, first draft of whatever the eventual folkways of music creation on touch devices end up becoming.
That was an awesome read.
Thanks man, yes I need midi recorded on separate tracks, it seems I really need to get a DAW to do this.
Certainly the appealing of workflows are bind to what popular artists are using (or showing / advertising). We need to dream ! Past years have seen modulars and « boxes » being shown by a lot of artists, so people are going modulars and « boxes ». And because there is some « geek » in those practices it is popular in forums and « communities ».
But a lot of successful music is still based on « song structure » from the 50s. So a lot more people are dreaming of making « pop » songs. And then need a timeline. Hence the majority of DAW being timeline based. Even in the modular world, the new trend is « advanced » sequencers with severals tracks and patterns and song modes...
Software can blur the lines though. Hardware is limited by several factors, not least its cost. Imagine being able to use the modular gear but still have access to that timeline if you want -it’s happening steadily.
@brambos
Thinking about the DAWless approach, I’ve come across a need that you may be able to help with (either suggestion of how or a product that does it).
I use my iPad stand alone often (only connected to headphones or monitor speakers). Often there is only room or ability to have one single keyboard on screen at a time, but I may be wanting to change the key of several different arps or sequences, but can’t use the keyboard as I’m playing a lead on it.
I could really do with a very simple AU midi note sender that lets me enter a key to send, then does a set amount of time before the next note send and so on. Or even one that sends chords as well. It needs to have hold and stop too. It just needs to be really simple so I can program a few key changes almost on the fly.
What do you think? Am I missing something already or is this a possible new AUMidi Gadget?
To add to this, could do with a little AUMidi keyboard too - having a seperate onscreen keyboard would be so helpful at times!
It’s for times when I’m just using a host without a timeline. I rarely use IAA devices so they are out - too many problems
Never say never lol.
Touch screen used well could give a similar experience. The eyes can basically look at one area at a time, but use peripheral vision and memory to compensate. The difficulty is not replicating this in a graphical touch UI, but then replicating stretching to two distant areas and then altering two knobs at once.
The peripheral vision could be compensated for by a area slide box that one finger controls taking you to the box you want to alter. This could be quick, but you need to really be constantly in touch with it to move to devices quickly. It’s the devices themselves that need to be designed well for the limited size of the iPad screens.
The altering in more than two different areas at once, is actually quite rare even for those more tweaking of live modular players, so it’s pretty much how do we combat this two area tweak problem? Well, how about a seperate controller surface on another iPad and two periphery controllers? Could work - basically one iPad still runs all the audio so no delays, but the other one is just a midi controller and exact copy of the main iPad control (without the directional controllers.
If done right, you could control where the iPad screen points to device wise by your thumb and fore finger on one hand. Your right hand then changes controls. Yes, there is still the problem of using one hand to find the area then moving to dial the change - this could be done by foot controllers though!
Yeah it’s unlikely to happen. In some ways it’s easier to just buy lots of iPads, but that makes communicating between them in a modular way far more difficult. But it’s not impossible and that’s why I love thinking of ‘what if?’ Lol
I’ve said before and I still mean it - I would pay a non-trivial sum for the Animoog ribbon keyboard as an AUv3 MIDI controller.
Someone will surely do one similar at some point. AU Midi controllers definitely are a development potential just waiting to be tapped.
What about an analogue joystick?
@brambos great article and congrats for having it on Medium. That site is a great place to just go poke around & learn stuff; it’s almost like Wikipedia in that regard, you can go down a rabbit hole of different topics but of course Medium has a narrative aproach with great writing, not just encyclopedic entries.
I agree with you about the process that iOS can inspire one towards, but as @Dawdles said sometimes a vocal-less electronic music jam is more fun for the performer than the listener. I hear a lot of club, DJ, EDM, etc music and it can get redundant & indulgent.
I feel what you’re describing is best applied to a “jam” being put together by the musician/producer and then the best bits or motifs are developed into more of a meaty composition; very much like U2 and other bands write. Of course, that’s just my view.
I love the fact that we can use iOS apps & plugins in a modular Frankenstein music machine but I also love that you can still work in a more “traditional” DAW/timeline/tape machine format as well. I prefer to work in a linear fashion with song structure so for me a DAW like the ProTools-ish Auria Pro is better than the Ableton like scenes workflow of BeatMaker 3.
I will say this however, in the three years I’ve been using iOS as my main music production format I’ve spent more time than ever tinkering with sounds, building up multisampled drumkits, setting up the various guitar amp & effect emulators with custom setups and of course, as most of us do here, amassing an incredible amount of synths, Drum Machines & plugins.
I do subscribe to the “paralysis by analysis” & too many options can be dangerous axioms but there’s so much quality stuff on iOS that’s not only top quality but extremely affordable it’s VERY difficult NOT to experiment.
Indeed, very well said!
It’s rare that something on Medium is so well-done.
Oh, no...you didn't!
That's a meaty observation.
What I find interesting is that with all the technological developments over the many years I have been doing this, it is still MIDI that makes it all possible, only recently was MIDI updated to include CI and MPE, just shows what a great job those original pioneers did when defining the original MIDI Specification.
Wait until Apple remove it
Why? Because they can! Lol
...and make you buy a $45 dongle if you want to ever use it again.
"Dongle. Dongle. Dongle. Dongle....." - JH
I prefer "Modular music-making" as the way to describe iOS music making. A multitrack recorder that allows one to patch together musical parts is an essential for putting everything together (whether on a desktop or on an iOS device, unless the music is played and recorded live. Aside from that, everything else can be used to compose with phrases and loops that are created with the numerous apps that are available.
This is essentially how I work: I create loops and phrases, and stitch them together in a Multitrack recorder. Each instrument or component is a module, that when put together makes a good whole. Just like you stated in your article!
Not DAWless, "Modular".