iPhone Music Making App Future: Is there one?

icsleepers

Just my quick two pence. I use both an iPhone SE and 2017 iPad. I have the same apps loaded on both. Careful to make sure any AUv3’s I use are cross platform.

Why?

The majority of the time, my preference is to use the iPad. Like others here though I spend a good chunk of my day commuting to and from work. For the days I don’t feel like slugging my backpack around I can get on with the phone and pick up exactly where I left off. Is the SE screen real estate ideal? Hardly. Is the option of being THAT MOBILE alluring? You bet.

At some point in time (maybe), I suspect I’ll just go back to using Reason and forego mobile altogether. It’s been like this out of necessity (two young kids + you ever try using a laptop on a crowded train yeah no). Will see how it all shakes out.

But yeah, I believe there’s definitely a place for production and app compatibility on the iPhone.

[Deleted User]

I wish there would be a clever way for an A.I. GUI which automatic transform for every size.
I would have no problem to zoom in and out f.e. and could imagine every iPad on iPhone with just more tapping, scrolling or kind of a clever hot key switching between 4 screens where it would be on one on iPads etc.
We will see how it all goes with the maybe coming new iPhone and iPad sizes and developers still have to support the older and whatever.
Maybe time that resizable GUI´s are a standard with iOS 12.

icsleepers

@Cib said:
I wish there would be a clever way for an A.I. GUI which automatic transform for every size.
I would have no problem to zoom in and out f.e. and could imagine every iPad on iPhone with just more tapping, scrolling or kind of a clever hot key switching between 4 screens where it would be on one on iPads etc.
We will see how it all goes with the maybe coming new iPhone and iPad sizes and developers still have to support the older and whatever.
Maybe time that resizable GUI´s are a standard with iOS 12.

This would be ideal, I think Moog nailed it here with Model 15. Is it fun to use on the iPhone SE? No.

Is it possible, and does my work carry over between the iPad and the iPhone? Yes.

I'm not a developer, but I know enough to understand the complexities behind something like this. I think it's worthwhile for a dev to consider though especially on a new app. I can understand and appreciate how hard it might be to shoehorn this functionality into an existing app, but anything new should strongly consider this approach.

Bottom line - if it's not universal I'm not buying it. I'm sure I'm not the only person in this boat.

AudioGus

I have no problem carrying around my 9.7” iPad 10+ hours a week with my big old cans, boppin and groovin’ as i walk/train etc. In fact, it is a total delight for me. Something the size of a comic book that runs BM3, Cubasis, Synthmaster One, Egoist, the FACs etc... uhh yah, not a problem.

[Deleted User]

@AudioGus said:
I have no problem carrying around my 9.7” iPad 10+ hours a week with my big old cans, boppin and groovin’ as i walk/train etc. In fact, it is a total delight for me. Something the size of a comic book that runs BM3, Cubasis, Synthmaster One, Egoist, the FACs etc... uhh yah, not a problem.

....until you try to put it in your pocket

AudioGus

@Cib said:

@AudioGus said:
I have no problem carrying around my 9.7” iPad 10+ hours a week with my big old cans, boppin and groovin’ as i walk/train etc. In fact, it is a total delight for me. Something the size of a comic book that runs BM3, Cubasis, Synthmaster One, Egoist, the FACs etc... uhh yah, not a problem.

....until you try to put it in your pocket

Fits fine in my back pocket...

AudioGus

[Deleted User]

...like my notebook as well

AudioGus

@Cib said:
...like my notebook as well

...(swings dick) mine too... but I can't walk down the street or navigate the train stations while using it, or use it at my work desk covertly, or sneak off to the washroom with it etc. (I have to say it is so strange that not everyone is just like me or willing to convert to be just like me. )

JonLewis

“Something the size of a comic book that runs BM3, Cubasis, Synthmaster One, Egoist, the FACs etc... uhh yah, not a problem.”

Not coincidentally, a fantastic medium on which to read comics!

Nonetheless, I do 85% of my musicking on my iPhone while I’m not at home.

RUST( i )K

@AndyPlankton said:

@RUST( i )K said:

@AndyPlankton said:
For a phone to be as useable as an iPad for music it will take a UI design that suits both large and small screens, that is definitely a massive challenge and only the most dedicated dev will make that effort.
Phones are by quite a huge margin the most populous machines, unless this breakthrough in UI is made then music making will never have as much weight with the manufacturers as a photo filter app.
As I don’t have an iPhone I do not know which apps work well on a phone, anyone care to share thoughts on apps that allow you to make decent music with lots of control, synths, mixing environment, song building etc...that work on a phone without being fiddly due to tiny controls or lots of screen switching?

Elastic Drums
Flux Pad
Caustic
TC11
TricTrac
iElectribe
Bassline
Modrum
LP5
Animoog
Sabre
Spacecraft
Take
TF8
Cross DJ
Remix Live
Blocs

I also like using phone as a mic unit with into mixer or just to record vocals.

@u0421793 said:
The thing I’ll say on this topic is this. It isn’t a technical aspect, it’s a situational aspect.

I’ve had an iPad 2 since 2011 and did a fair amount of music on it, one instrument at a time, recording into one track at a time, and then moving it over to the Mac. I’ve also only ever had android phones, and like other android phone owners, had never paid for an app of any sort. When I bought my big iPad Pro I thought I’d be making more music, more instruments at once, more tracks into some sort of recorder on the iPad itself. I also got rid of my MacBook Pro at the same time (but retained my desktop Mac(s)). What actually happened was that I simply didn’t use the iPad Pro to make even a single note of music. It became the substitute for my MacBook in terms of browsing the web, but very little else. No music at all got made. None. I even bought a Circuit to look at, thinking that was what was needed (hm, that reminds me – I actually own a Circuit. I’d forgotten).

Since last summer I’ve now been working in a job and taking the train for over an hour across London x2 each day. I bought SnuVox and also used the basic Beatonal, on Android, and got into the habit of doing some sort of creation / output on the train, not just input / consumption. Over the winter, near christmas and my birthday I bought my first ever iPhone (a 256GB iPhone 8 Plus). Suddenly the productivity shot up. I settled back into Gadget, as the rest of the app system requires a level of stringing together that isn’t making music.

Since the beginning of this year I’ve created an album on my iPhone. The final vocal line melody was worked out by having a Bilbao set of samples of my own voice singing ‘baa’ through the chromatic scale. It worked quite well.

The creation was done on the iPhone, up to as finished a stage as necessary. The real vocals and final mixdown and mastering are all over on the Mac, in LPX (as there’s no sensible way of going either from Gadget to elsewhere on iOS, or from anywhere on iOS into Auria – it’s just far less hassle to use LPX on my Mac – it is indisputably top quality, I already have it and I understand it well). The point at which I moved over to the Mac was after I had considered the songs finished, in other words, after the point at which no further compositional changes are allowed. At that point I just treat LPX and the work on the Mac as an appliance, or as a separate studio process as if I’m someone else doing it.

The point is, though, that the tracks would never have been created and finished in such a production-workflow manner were it not for a] commuting, b] an iPhone (standing up in a train, hence, iPad not feasible) and c] Gadget being so self-contained. Even the lyrics were done on the iPhone, in Pages.

Stop it ! You are making me want to go and get an iPhone

Get an iPod

AudioGus

@JonLewis said:
“Something the size of a comic book that runs BM3, Cubasis, Synthmaster One, Egoist, the FACs etc... uhh yah, not a problem.”

Not coincidentally, a fantastic medium on which to read comics!

Tis! So nice not having to use a light and also not seeing the next page before you get to it is cool.

Nonetheless, I do 85% of my musicking on my iPhone while I’m not at home.

If I use my phone (and to a lesser extent even my mini2) for more than twenty minutes I feel pretty cross eyed after.

RUST( i )K

@JonLewis said:
“Something the size of a comic book that runs BM3, Cubasis, Synthmaster One, Egoist, the FACs etc... uhh yah, not a problem.”

Not coincidentally, a fantastic medium on which to read comics!

Nonetheless, I do 85% of my musicking on my iPhone while I’m not at home.

I sleep 80% of the time when I am not awake.

I like the ability to sleep and be awake.

Same for me.

Audiojunkie

@Dubbylabby said:

@Panthemusicalgoat said:

@paradiddle said:
I'm sure some of you heared that but what about the fact that Apple apparantly wanna remove every port on the iphone on the longterm. I guess bye-bye audio cards, Irigs and stuff like that. If that's the case that is.

Why don't they just remove the screen and make it audio only. That screen is really taking up a lot of space that could be used for something else. Actually maybe remove the speakers too. No power button either please. Really clunky having to power it on. Same goes for volume buttons. I want my future brick to be water proof and not be able to connect to anything.

Jokes aside... if you get all the things Apple is removing and put them in another product... raspberry pi, tadá!

If just Apple will release an embed platform supporting apps...

This is actually a project I'm working on as a hobby--building a touch screen Raspberry Pi tablet. The only problem with this is that I'm limited to the ARM architecture, so I can only use open source audio apps. But it's just a starter project for a bigger project that will use Intel Architecture.

brambos

@Audiojunkie said:

@Dubbylabby said:

@Panthemusicalgoat said:

@paradiddle said:
I'm sure some of you heared that but what about the fact that Apple apparantly wanna remove every port on the iphone on the longterm. I guess bye-bye audio cards, Irigs and stuff like that. If that's the case that is.

Why don't they just remove the screen and make it audio only. That screen is really taking up a lot of space that could be used for something else. Actually maybe remove the speakers too. No power button either please. Really clunky having to power it on. Same goes for volume buttons. I want my future brick to be water proof and not be able to connect to anything.

Jokes aside... if you get all the things Apple is removing and put them in another product... raspberry pi, tadá!

If just Apple will release an embed platform supporting apps...

This is actually a project I'm working on as a hobby--building a touch screen Raspberry Pi tablet. The only problem with this is that I'm limited to the ARM architecture, so I can only use open source audio apps. But it's just a starter project for a bigger project that will use Intel Architecture.

Sounds like a cool project (I've done a fair bit of audio coding for RasPi, it's a great platform for audio)! But if your goal is a touchscreen tablet, wouldn't it be more effective to hack a cheap Android tablet and install Linux on it?

[Deleted User]

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/35410622/raspad-raspberry-pi-tablet-for-your-creative-proje?lang=es

ITOH...
https://ccrma.stanford.edu/~eberdahl/Satellite/

http://bela.io/

Drawbacks?
None of these are cheaper and powerfull like iPhone 4s (with all the awesome apps you well known)

Audiojunkie

@brambos said:

@Audiojunkie said:

@Dubbylabby said:

@Panthemusicalgoat said:

@paradiddle said:
I'm sure some of you heared that but what about the fact that Apple apparantly wanna remove every port on the iphone on the longterm. I guess bye-bye audio cards, Irigs and stuff like that. If that's the case that is.

Why don't they just remove the screen and make it audio only. That screen is really taking up a lot of space that could be used for something else. Actually maybe remove the speakers too. No power button either please. Really clunky having to power it on. Same goes for volume buttons. I want my future brick to be water proof and not be able to connect to anything.

Jokes aside... if you get all the things Apple is removing and put them in another product... raspberry pi, tadá!

If just Apple will release an embed platform supporting apps...

This is actually a project I'm working on as a hobby--building a touch screen Raspberry Pi tablet. The only problem with this is that I'm limited to the ARM architecture, so I can only use open source audio apps. But it's just a starter project for a bigger project that will use Intel Architecture.

Sounds like a cool project (I've done a fair bit of audio coding for RasPi, it's a great platform for audio)! But if your goal is a touchscreen tablet, wouldn't it be more effective to hack a cheap Android tablet and install Linux on it?

Maybe, maybe not. But where's the fun in that? Where's the satisfaction? And more importantly, what will I have learned?

noisefan

I think that making music with an iPhone doesn’t have to mean “I need to all aspects of playing, recording, mixing, mastering all at once without other helpers. I use an iPhone with a little MIDI keyboard quite often. Sometimes I add a second, older iPhone. I use my main iPhone and iPad together too. Bluetooth MIDI!

That being said, I’m eagerly waiting for BM3 to go universal so I can make noise anytime, anywhere, with just the iPhone.

RUST( i )K

Def feel more in control in an organic way at times with phone.

I don't know why but I do.

AudioGus

@noisefan said:
I think that making music with an iPhone doesn’t have to mean “I need to all aspects of playing, recording, mixing, mastering all at once without other helpers. I use an iPhone with a little MIDI keyboard quite often. Sometimes I add a second, older iPhone. I use my main iPhone and iPad together too. Bluetooth MIDI!

That being said, I’m eagerly waiting for BM3 to go universal so I can make noise anytime, anywhere, with just the iPhone.

Gah, that would be the one to make me break down and upgrade my plan for a ‘free’ cough/wink/scam new iphone.

Matt_Fletcher_2000

@lukesleepwalker said:
I think there are probably many like @u0421793 out there in the commuting world... There is so much power in habit and I admire anyone who can turn commuting into productive time. I still think there is a place for an app that will nail the iPhone workflow for mobile music making. I don't have a long commute but I find myself when I'm out/about with time to kill--waiting for an oil change, etc. These are the times when I'd love an iPhone-centered music making experience that just does the stuff I want to do on the go--not a full-featured DAW! Just give me the ability to quickly/easily come up with little bits and bobs that I can put together later. And not just MIDI based sequences--get a real sampler in there, audio recording, etc.

Yep. For me Gadget on a nice big iPhone 6S plus screen normally does the trick. There are limitations, but I can start and finish a whole track, and make use of those small pockets of 30mins to do it.

[Deleted User]

@Matt_Fletcher_2000 said:

@lukesleepwalker said:
I think there are probably many like @u0421793 out there in the commuting world... There is so much power in habit and I admire anyone who can turn commuting into productive time. I still think there is a place for an app that will nail the iPhone workflow for mobile music making. I don't have a long commute but I find myself when I'm out/about with time to kill--waiting for an oil change, etc. These are the times when I'd love an iPhone-centered music making experience that just does the stuff I want to do on the go--not a full-featured DAW! Just give me the ability to quickly/easily come up with little bits and bobs that I can put together later. And not just MIDI based sequences--get a real sampler in there, audio recording, etc.

Yep. For me Gadget on a nice big iPhone 6S plus screen normally does the trick. There are limitations, but I can start and finish a whole track, and make use of those small pockets of 30mins to do it.

Here here

RUST( i )K

@DaveMagoo said:

@Matt_Fletcher_2000 said:

@lukesleepwalker said:
I think there are probably many like @u0421793 out there in the commuting world... There is so much power in habit and I admire anyone who can turn commuting into productive time. I still think there is a place for an app that will nail the iPhone workflow for mobile music making. I don't have a long commute but I find myself when I'm out/about with time to kill--waiting for an oil change, etc. These are the times when I'd love an iPhone-centered music making experience that just does the stuff I want to do on the go--not a full-featured DAW! Just give me the ability to quickly/easily come up with little bits and bobs that I can put together later. And not just MIDI based sequences--get a real sampler in there, audio recording, etc.

Yep. For me Gadget on a nice big iPhone 6S plus screen normally does the trick. There are limitations, but I can start and finish a whole track, and make use of those small pockets of 30mins to do it.

Here here

I second the chap Magoo !

Here here

RUST( i )K

@Matt_Fletcher_2000 said:

@lukesleepwalker said:
I think there are probably many like @u0421793 out there in the commuting world... There is so much power in habit and I admire anyone who can turn commuting into productive time. I still think there is a place for an app that will nail the iPhone workflow for mobile music making. I don't have a long commute but I find myself when I'm out/about with time to kill--waiting for an oil change, etc. These are the times when I'd love an iPhone-centered music making experience that just does the stuff I want to do on the go--not a full-featured DAW! Just give me the ability to quickly/easily come up with little bits and bobs that I can put together later. And not just MIDI based sequences--get a real sampler in there, audio recording, etc.

Yep. For me Gadget on a nice big iPhone 6S plus screen normally does the trick. There are limitations, but I can start and finish a whole track, and make use of those small pockets of 30mins to do it.

Size matters!

RUST( i )K

Perfect example these 3 songs

All done on treadmill at gym on Gadget or iMaschine.

Actually treadmill is listed in ones title.

So I love iPhone I use piano roll where as with iPads I play most things outright.

As for the songs they are upbeat to say the least......

[Deleted User]

@RUST( i )K said:

Perfect example these 3 songs

All done on treadmill at gym on Gadget or iMaschine.

Actually treadmill is listed in ones title.

So I love iPhone I use piano roll where as with iPads I play most things outright.

As for the songs they are upbeat to say the least......

I think I would injure myself or destroy my phone if I tried composing on a tread mill!

RUST( i )K

@DaveMagoo said:

@RUST( i )K said:

Perfect example these 3 songs

All done on treadmill at gym on Gadget or iMaschine.

Actually treadmill is listed in ones title.

So I love iPhone I use piano roll where as with iPads I play most things outright.

As for the songs they are upbeat to say the least......

I think I would injure myself or destroy my phone if I tried composing on a tread mill!

Ironically I have more ease of creativity on the treadmill.

Almost like a chemical, the repeated motion of my brain having to handle coordination some how helps disassociate from the normal DAW music creation narrative.

[Deleted User]

@RUST( i )K said:

@DaveMagoo said:

@RUST( i )K said:

Perfect example these 3 songs

All done on treadmill at gym on Gadget or iMaschine.

Actually treadmill is listed in ones title.

So I love iPhone I use piano roll where as with iPads I play most things outright.

As for the songs they are upbeat to say the least......

I think I would injure myself or destroy my phone if I tried composing on a tread mill!

Ironically I have more ease of creativity on the treadmill.

Almost like a chemical, the repeated motion of my brain having to handle coordination some how helps disassociate from the normal DAW music creation narrative.

It would make for an epic live performance increasing the speed and incline as the set builds etc

vitocorleone123

I know it's just me, but for me, the iPad has no place in music. I create ideas or whole songs (Gadget) on my iPhone - truly mobile. Or I'll do them on my PC. An iPad is just a big screen to me, and I have a bigger screen for my PC. Again, I know I'm in a tiny minority vs other "mobile" music makers.

I suspect that there'll still be music apps for iPhone due to "universal" development more than any specific desire on the part of developers (which makes financial sense).

NoiseHorse

Just saw this post. Ok I use n-Track studio because I can record on my iPad studio, add automations, effects, eq, etc and then airdrop it all to my iPhone and have it all in place on my iPhone n-Track for listening and tweaking in my car on my lunch hour at work. There’s currently plenty of universal apps I can use on both. I prefer iPad for studio type stuff, but I don’t always have time to devote studio only. iPhone is very helpful in my case.