For Sample Based Hip Hop Production Which Is Better?: Beatmaker 3 vs Nanstudio 2 vs Cubasis

AudioGus

I agree with the old guys but dayum gotta say the BM3 and NS2 combo is pretty potent.

kobamoto

we have all of the capabilities we need to do whatever we want now (minus samplr's panning and Playground's sample import) ... but the issue now is workflow... when Intua extracts it's sample slicing beat machine out of BM3, turns it into a separate app and turns what's left into a daw to sell separately they are going to make a lot of money.

MarkySo

@Eschatone said:
If I were starting fresh, I’d probably start with Stagelight ...and Nanostudio 2.. Cubasis 2 is great for what it is and was my goto daw when I got into iOS production, but it has been surpassed in nearly every area since then.
I actually enjoy using quite a handful of different daws, picking the best tool for any particular job. Recently picked up Audio Evolution to use just as an audio editor, which works great. I’m starting to feel like everything is coming together, not missing my PC tools anywhere near as much anymore.

Can you chop samples in Stagelight?

MarkySo

@dendy said:

@MarkySo
I appreciate it though it's sad to know Akai still has not got it's act together with impc 2. I'm also really thinking about NS2
I need something with real chopping like the bm3 sampler. To have to copy the sound to each pad and individually edit each would suck lol.

I think in this case NS2 isn't good choice for you... Curretnly there is not chopping/slicing functionality, no timestretch. Most important if you're into MPC-like workflow and you want things like FX per pad, ability to play pad chromatically - this is not possible in NS2 and even not planned as future feature for now - pad sampler is NS2 more like lightweight version of Native Instruments Battery drum sampler, than MPC-like sampling workstation ..

There is no better choice than BM3 for this kind of workflow, it was designed from the ground for this, lot things there are inspired by MPC or NI Maschine. Actually if you ever used NI iMaschine 2 on iPad, you will feel familiar in BM3.

Interesting I might get NS2 and try that out where I pretty much sample in BM2/BM3 and use NS2 for it's sequencer and synth.

Yes, this seems legit. If you look at BM2/BM3 just like on external HW sampler, feeded by MIDI from NS2, then this method show work pretty well. In area of midi sequencing capability Nanostudio really shines with it's super intuitive and fluid workflow.

Regarding me, i would prefer in this case BM2, for me it looks more straightforward, easy to use, with almost no learning curve - but i may be biased because i did lot of full tracks with BM2 :-)

Btw - NS2 is of course capable also sampling - Obsidian is not just synth, each of it's 3 oscillators can work as sampler with up to 24 zones, capable of playing up to 32bit/96khz samples (and you can automate in sequencer things like sample start, loop start, loop length).
But as i said - no MPC-like workflow, this more like traditional sampler approach.

Thanks a lot for your advice brother, the more I look into things the more it looks like I'm better off just learning BM3 and maybe getting some plugins and synth apps to use alongside BM3.

Can NS2 be used with Audiobus currently? How can I use NS2 to play along with BM2/3? I noticed you mentioned Midi but how would that work?

MarkySo

@klownshed said:
BM3 is undoubtedly powerful but the interface can be very confusing.

I think this is partly because of the dark UI scheme where everything is the same shade of very dark and there is no apparent layer structure to show you where you are in the interface hierarchy. Panels leave ‘X’ close buttons all over the place and it’s sometimes hard to know where to find parts of the interface. There are too many panels and it isn’t always obvious which tab/panel houses what.

If the panels were differentiated better (a different shade perhaps?) you could see where you were more easily. Often the panels hide essential parts of the UI (for example the track helper button) and it can take a minute to realise it’s ‘beneath’ a panel.

Also, the pads get in the way when they’re not needed. The UI could be significantly simplified for using keyboard based auv3s for example. The BM3 method for inserting an AUv3 instrument is a little bit too convuluted. You shouldn’t have to skip around the pad UI unless you want pads specifically.

The scenes mode is also half baked. There’s no easy way of recording a scene mode jam into the song mode timeline which kind of makes it pointless. The benefit of scenes is being able to jam an arrangement. Not being able to save your arrangement for further tweaking is disappointing.

However, it is very good as it’s core features. The sample slicing and pad based UI are great if that’s what you want. I just feel they tried to make BM3 too many things for too many people and it doesn’t fit all those different styles as well as the MpC based workflow.

It seems to me that BM3 is well suited to a sample based workflow but not quite so well suited to a more traditional linear style DAw with Au instruments.

Indeed and that's the problem. I guess my best bet will be to do a bulk of sampling in BM3 then export it to Nanostudio 2 when they get audio tracks or Cubasis 2.

dendy

Can NS2 be used with Audiobus currently? How can I use NS2 to play along with BM2/3? I noticed you mentioned Midi but how would that work?

Audiobus - at the moment no, but it will be in next update. For sure output (so you will be able to send NS2 output to other apps), input (for direct sampling into NS2, because for now NS2 doesn't have audio tracks, just samplers, audio tracks are planned later this year) is still being discussed (but i'm pusshing for adding it too :-))

Regarding midi - NS2 can send MIDI notes and CC to external HW (sampler, synth) or any other internal App wich supports virtual midi ports.

I'm not sure what are posibilities in BM3 for receiving MIDI notes and CC (maybe @AudioGus can help you more wih this), but theoretically you can use NS2 as sequencer which sends notes to BM3 - somyou will use BM3 just as sampler, all notes and sequences will be insidw NS2.

MarkySo

@syrupcore said:
Old guy alert: beatmaking started with two turntables and no mixer. Any of these will work. Use whichever one most inspires you to actually produce music.

Lol much respect man!

That's valid!

@senhorlampada said:
Was gonna name-drop a few other options (iMPC, Beathawk, iMaschine, Gadget, etc.) but people already mentioned it before. But adding other one: Caustic

Gotta admit I didn't read the why's in this discussion, but i'll read later to give a more informative (I hope) feedback

I remember "trying" caustic a few years back when my ipad was jailbroken and it was pretty good but pretty retro in it's approach from what I recall. I'll look into it again though. Thanks for the recommendation and to those who chimed in also recommending caustic.

@MrSmileZ said:
Caustic filters are just not good....and it’s a closed (no auv3) party, so it’s a no go if you filter audio a lot.

That sucks cause I like to use different apps and this is one of the negatives going against it for now imo

So I cant use audiobus with it or Inter app audio?

MarkySo

@dendy said:

Can NS2 be used with Audiobus currently? How can I use NS2 to play along with BM2/3? I noticed you mentioned Midi but how would that work?

Audiobus - at the moment no, but it will be in next update. For sure output (so you will be able to send NS2 output to other apps), input (for direct sampling into NS2, because for now NS2 doesn't have audio tracks, just samplers, audio tracks are planned later this year) is still being discussed (but i'm pusshing for adding it too :-))

Regarding midi - NS2 can send MIDI notes and CC to external HW (sampler, synth) or any other internal App wich supports virtual midi ports.

I'm not sure what are posibilities in BM3 for receiving MIDI notes and CC (maybe @AudioGus can help you more wih this), but theoretically you can use NS2 as sequencer which sends notes to BM3 - somyou will use BM3 just as sampler, all notes and sequences will be insidw NS2.

Oh I see, that makes a lot of sense. Thanks for the info and your explanation.

anickt

@MarkySo said:

@syrupcore said:
Old guy alert: beatmaking started with two turntables and no mixer. Any of these will work. Use whichever one most inspires you to actually produce music.

Lol much respect man!

That's valid!

.> @senhorlampada said:

Was gonna name-drop a few other options (iMPC, Beathawk, iMaschine, Gadget, etc.) but people already mentioned it before. But adding other one: Caustic

Gotta admit I didn't read the why's in this discussion, but i'll read later to give a more informative (I hope) feedback

I remember "trying" caustic a few years back when my ipad was jailbroken and it was pretty good but pretty retro in it's approach from what I recall. I'll look into it again though. Thanks for the recommendation and to those who chimed in also recommending caustic.

@MrSmileZ said:
Caustic filters are just not good....and it’s a closed (no auv3) party, so it’s a no go if you filter audio a lot.

That sucks cause I like to use different apps and this is one of the negatives going against it for now imo

So I cant use audiobus with it or Inter app audio?

Caustic does have a Multi Filter effect which is better than the filters built into the instruments. It also has a very complete wave editor with time stretching and pitch change. It is very capable and shouldn’t be so quickly written off. The Documents app from Readdle allows you to access all Caustic folders through the built in Caustic FTP Server. There’s a lot more going on there than people give it credit for. I’ve moved on th NS2 but still crack open Caustic when I’m feeling it. There is a free desktop version for Mac/PC to check it out.

Will

@anickt said:
Caustic does have a Multi Filter effect which is better than the filters built into the instruments. It also has a very complete wave editor with time stretching and pitch change. It is very capable and shouldn’t be so quickly written off. The Documents app from Readdle allows you to access all Caustic folders through the built in Caustic FTP Server. There’s a lot more going on there than people give it credit for. I’ve moved on th NS2 but still crack open Caustic when I’m feeling it. There is a free desktop version for Mac/PC to check it out.

Indeed. Doubling down on my old guy point early... Nothing available today should be written off. Compare the capabilities of even Caustic V1.0 on an old shitty android phone to the capabilities of an SP-1200 or an MPC-60 and iMPC2 and the differences are just goofy. Sure, the SP and MPC-60 had mojo but whatever. 1988 Pete Rock would have killed a school's worth of children for access to Caustic.

dendy

@MarkySo

Just want add - at least with BM2 it works like a charm, tried send notes and cc from NS2 to BM2 and it works perfectly, i can control even multiple sampler instances in BM2 on different midi channels, and parameters life filter cutoff on pad ...

MarkySo

@anickt said:

Caustic does have a Multi Filter effect which is better than the filters built into the instruments. It also has a very complete wave editor with time stretching and pitch change. It is very capable and shouldn’t be so quickly written off. The Documents app from Readdle allows you to access all Caustic folders through the built in Caustic FTP Server. There’s a lot more going on there than people give it credit for. I’ve moved on th NS2 but still crack open Caustic when I’m feeling it. There is a free desktop version for Mac/PC to check it out.

Yeah from what I remember Caustic actually was very good and capable but can it be used as IAA or with Audiobus as an input or output? Do you remember?

@dendy said:
@MarkySo

Just want add - at least with BM2 it works like a charm, tried send notes and cc from NS2 to BM2 and it works perfectly, i can control even multiple sampler instances in BM2 on different midi channels, and parameters life filter cutoff on pad ...

Thanks a lot man, good to know. This way you can build your track in NS2 around it and use the sampling ability of BM2. I hope it works in BM3 as well.

This may be a solution for me and once NS2 gets Audio tracks, game over as they say lol!

[Deleted User]

The user and all related content has been deleted.

dendy

BM2 is actually very intuitive and straightforward... Didn't open it for more than year (probably two years) - but after i run it today it tooks me 2 minutes to route NS2 midi -> BM2 drum samplers, every one ondifferent midi channel, map few CCs to pads cutoff filters in BM2 and chop loop to pads which i never did before

kobamoto

@syrupcore said:

@anickt said:
Caustic does have a Multi Filter effect which is better than the filters built into the instruments. It also has a very complete wave editor with time stretching and pitch change. It is very capable and shouldn’t be so quickly written off. The Documents app from Readdle allows you to access all Caustic folders through the built in Caustic FTP Server. There’s a lot more going on there than people give it credit for. I’ve moved on th NS2 but still crack open Caustic when I’m feeling it. There is a free desktop version for Mac/PC to check it out.

Indeed. Doubling down on my old guy point early... Nothing available today should be written off. Compare the capabilities of even Caustic V1.0 on an old shitty android phone to the capabilities of an SP-1200 or an MPC-60 and iMPC2 and the differences are just goofy. Sure, the SP and MPC-60 had mojo but whatever. 1988 Pete Rock would have killed a school's worth of children for access to Caustic.

this has got to be the worst and best thing ever said about Pete Rock..... classic

if only everybody else knew what caustic was I would have had to get your permission to find a way to work that into some lyrics lol

[Deleted User]

The user and all related content has been deleted.

dendy

@Max23 yes - total nightmare for me :-) Thats why i'm talking about BM2 :-) But of course there are people who like it... people are different

Will

@kobamoto said:

@syrupcore said:

@anickt said:
Caustic does have a Multi Filter effect which is better than the filters built into the instruments. It also has a very complete wave editor with time stretching and pitch change. It is very capable and shouldn’t be so quickly written off. The Documents app from Readdle allows you to access all Caustic folders through the built in Caustic FTP Server. There’s a lot more going on there than people give it credit for. I’ve moved on th NS2 but still crack open Caustic when I’m feeling it. There is a free desktop version for Mac/PC to check it out.

Indeed. Doubling down on my old guy point early... Nothing available today should be written off. Compare the capabilities of even Caustic V1.0 on an old shitty android phone to the capabilities of an SP-1200 or an MPC-60 and iMPC2 and the differences are just goofy. Sure, the SP and MPC-60 had mojo but whatever. 1988 Pete Rock would have killed a school's worth of children for access to Caustic.

this has got to be the worst and best thing ever said about Pete Rock..... classic

if only everybody else knew what caustic was I would have had to get your permission to find a way to work that into some lyrics lol

My comment is 100% open source. Go nuts

You're probably one of the few who needn't look up Pete Rock on Wikipedia first! Someone pass me by back pills.

ksound

@syrupcore said:

@kobamoto said:

@syrupcore said:

@anickt said:
Caustic does have a Multi Filter effect which is better than the filters built into the instruments. It also has a very complete wave editor with time stretching and pitch change. It is very capable and shouldn’t be so quickly written off. The Documents app from Readdle allows you to access all Caustic folders through the built in Caustic FTP Server. There’s a lot more going on there than people give it credit for. I’ve moved on th NS2 but still crack open Caustic when I’m feeling it. There is a free desktop version for Mac/PC to check it out.

Indeed. Doubling down on my old guy point early... Nothing available today should be written off. Compare the capabilities of even Caustic V1.0 on an old shitty android phone to the capabilities of an SP-1200 or an MPC-60 and iMPC2 and the differences are just goofy. Sure, the SP and MPC-60 had mojo but whatever. 1988 Pete Rock would have killed a school's worth of children for access to Caustic.

this has got to be the worst and best thing ever said about Pete Rock..... classic

if only everybody else knew what caustic was I would have had to get your permission to find a way to work that into some lyrics lol

My comment is 100% open source. Go nuts

You're probably one of the few who needn't look up Pete Rock on Wikipedia first! Someone pass me by back pills.

Mentioning Pete Rock is a good way to get the aging Hip-Hop folks like myself out of their easy chairs. I spent a lot of time trying to recreate that high hat...

[Deleted User]

The user and all related content has been deleted.

SlowwFloww

gusgranite

@Max23 said:

@dendy said:
@Max23 yes - total nightmare for me :-) Thats why i'm talking about BM2 :-) But of course there are people who like it... people are different

I liked BM2 too, bm3 doesn't click with me

@Max23 @dendy - but are you making 'sample based hip hop production' as that's what the OP is asking and BM3 seems like the best fit for that task on iOS, I reckon.

dendy

@gusgranite said:
@Max23 @dendy - but are you making 'sample based hip hop production' as that's what the OP is asking and BM3 seems like the best fit for that task on iOS, I reckon.

Because he wrote this in first post:

I'm kind of leaning more on Nanostudio 2 and Cubasis because Beatmaker 3 has an interface I find annoying. I also considered going back to beatmaker 2 which is one of the app I started with.

So my reply was that pure NS2 isn't good solution because it lacks some crucial features for this type of music, but NS2+BM2 combo should work pretty well...

bcrichards

@dendy said:

@gusgranite said:
@Max23 @dendy - but are you making 'sample based hip hop production' as that's what the OP is asking and BM3 seems like the best fit for that task on iOS, I reckon.

Because he wrote this in first post:

I'm kind of leaning more on Nanostudio 2 and Cubasis because Beatmaker 3 has an interface I find annoying. I also considered going back to beatmaker 2 which is one of the app I started with.

I've also really struggled with BM3. It seems like it should be perfect. But I find it unstable, even in the most recent update. MIDI functionality has been a chore for me, both with setting up other apps to play nicely and with timing itself from the in-app pads. NS2 on the other hand has been a dream using Egoist/Reslice/Beat Hawk. I might try BM2 if it's that easy to set up with NS2. If only we had Inter-app audio or an auv3 of the Bm2 or BM3 samplers

AudioGus

@dendy said:

@gusgranite said:
@Max23 @dendy - but are you making 'sample based hip hop production' as that's what the OP is asking and BM3 seems like the best fit for that task on iOS, I reckon.

Because he wrote this in first post:

I'm kind of leaning more on Nanostudio 2 and Cubasis because Beatmaker 3 has an interface I find annoying. I also considered going back to beatmaker 2 which is one of the app I started with.

But then the subject does say 'Beatmaker 3 vs Nanstudio 2 vs Cubasis' so...

...imho, use any and all but be sure to give BM3 an honest shake and at least try to get over the hump especially for hiphop. I find I can get the best results in BM3 but yes at times it takes more work. But if you are honestly thinking 'production' and not 'hobby' I mean, sheeit dawg etc. Go BM3. Is NS2 more fun and easier? sure but so is playing video games and eating chicken wings. BM3 is overall way more capable for the genre hands down. But yah there are a couple extra taps (particularly with AU instruments embedded on pads/sigh) and the automation is clunky as hell and even balls out buggy/ kinda broken compared to NS2. But yah for me it is either 'all BM3', or 'BM3 for making kits and clips for Slate in NS2'. Just don't forgo the raw power of BM3 completely.

bcrichards

@AudioGus said:

...imho, use any and all but be sure to give BM3 an honest shake and at least try to get over the hump especially for hiphop. I find I can get the best results in BM3 but yes at times it takes more work. But if you are honestly thinking 'production' and not 'hobby' I mean, sheeit dawg etc. Go BM3. Is NS2 more fun and easier? sure but so is playing video games and eating chicken wings. BM3 is overall way more capable for the genre hands down. But yah there are a couple extra taps (particularly with AU instruments embedded on pads/sigh) and the automation is clunky as hell and even balls out buggy/ kinda broken compared to NS2. But yah for me it is either 'all BM3', or 'BM3 for making kits and clips for Slate in NS2'. Just don't forgo the raw power of BM3 completely.

I will happily sing BM3s praises where it's due, and it's due in a lot of places. For example the slicing is top notch. It's a phenomenal app in many ways and some of my frustrations may be stemming from a lack of fully committing to it.

MarkySo

@AudioGus said:

@dendy said:

@gusgranite said:
@Max23 @dendy - but are you making 'sample based hip hop production' as that's what the OP is asking and BM3 seems like the best fit for that task on iOS, I reckon.

Because he wrote this in first post:

I'm kind of leaning more on Nanostudio 2 and Cubasis because Beatmaker 3 has an interface I find annoying. I also considered going back to beatmaker 2 which is one of the app I started with.

But then the subject does say 'Beatmaker 3 vs Nanstudio 2 vs Cubasis' so...

...imho, use any and all but be sure to give BM3 an honest shake and at least try to get over the hump especially for hiphop. I find I can get the best results in BM3 but yes at times it takes more work. But if you are honestly thinking 'production' and not 'hobby' I mean, sheeit dawg etc. Go BM3. Is NS2 more fun and easier? sure but so is playing video games and eating chicken wings. BM3 is overall way more capable for the genre hands down. But yah there are a couple extra taps (particularly with AU instruments embedded on pads/sigh) and the automation is clunky as hell and even balls out buggy/ kinda broken compared to NS2. But yah for me it is either 'all BM3', or 'BM3 for making kits and clips for Slate in NS2'. Just don't forgo the raw power of BM3 completely.

What in your opinion are the strengths of Nansotudio 2 and also Cubasis? I get from what most of you are saying is that BM3 is best for sampling and that it's best I try to learn it and try to overcome the learning curves that come with the app. With that said I was just wondering what are the benefits of the other two apps?

Also do you think if Nanostudio 2 gets audio tracks and sample chopping it would be able to compete with BM3 when it comes to sampling?

Paa89

@MarkySo said:

@AudioGus said:

@dendy said:

@gusgranite said:
@Max23 @dendy - but are you making 'sample based hip hop production' as that's what the OP is asking and BM3 seems like the best fit for that task on iOS, I reckon.

Because he wrote this in first post:

I'm kind of leaning more on Nanostudio 2 and Cubasis because Beatmaker 3 has an interface I find annoying. I also considered going back to beatmaker 2 which is one of the app I started with.

But then the subject does say 'Beatmaker 3 vs Nanstudio 2 vs Cubasis' so...

...imho, use any and all but be sure to give BM3 an honest shake and at least try to get over the hump especially for hiphop. I find I can get the best results in BM3 but yes at times it takes more work. But if you are honestly thinking 'production' and not 'hobby' I mean, sheeit dawg etc. Go BM3. Is NS2 more fun and easier? sure but so is playing video games and eating chicken wings. BM3 is overall way more capable for the genre hands down. But yah there are a couple extra taps (particularly with AU instruments embedded on pads/sigh) and the automation is clunky as hell and even balls out buggy/ kinda broken compared to NS2. But yah for me it is either 'all BM3', or 'BM3 for making kits and clips for Slate in NS2'. Just don't forgo the raw power of BM3 completely.

What in your opinion are the strengths of Nansotudio 2 and also Cubasis? I get from what most of you are saying is that BM3 is best for sampling and that it's best I try to learn it and try to overcome the learning curves that come with the app. With that said I was just wondering what are the benefits of the other two apps?

Also do you think if Nanostudio 2 gets audio tracks and sample chopping it would be able to compete with BM3 when it comes to sampling?

The reasons why I’d choose Cubasis is the GUI, stability and ease to use.
Everting you need while producing is right in front of you.
You have the wave plugins you could purchase as IAP and are fantastic.
Love the keyboard layout and the Chord option.not like in BM3 where you are stuck with one chord.in Cubasis, you can choose different chords to be played on the pads.
Or even use the numbers above the keyboard to make up your own chords (how brilliant is that 😍)
I could go on and on about Cubasis.the piano Roll is just so beautiful.the colours in Cubasis help me keep my eyes on the screen.while with other iOS daws it’s hard to focus on the screen at night because of the dark skin some of them chose.
I know the lack of real send tracks is a bit of a pain, but hey, music ain’t all about send tracks.you could definitely work around that.(I hope one day an update comes it)
The mixer channel is just one tap, and opens up under your tracks; meaning you can see you tracks while messing with the faders and gives you a better tracking option in my opinion.for example, if you want to automate the volume of a track, you can see exactly where you want the automation to be recorded.while in BM3 you’d have to look at the mini screen next to the transport bar.
For hip hop Beats, have a look at my instagram.this is a beat I made entirely in Cubasis using Zeeon, SynthMaster Player and AudioLayer for my drums and 808bass.

For sampling, Cubasis in my opinion combined with AudioLayer you could get almost the same out come you’d get in BM3.just a little bit long.
Let me explain
1 Get your sample, chop it up on the Cubasis timeline, time stretch them to the project tempo, change the pitch if you like and save every chop to media bay.
2 Then load AudioLayer as an AU instrument.
3 Go to Cubasis media bay and look for the sample chops you just saved, click on the share option and choose AudioCopy.
4 Then go into AudioLayer and choose import sample, it will import the one you just uploaded to The pasteboard.
5 Set the key/s you want the sample to play on. for example, first chop on c3
6 Create a new layer in AudioLayer for the next chop.so you can be able to mess with the pitch, Lfo and the envelops of each chop.
Just redo the from step 3 to 6 for all the chops and that’s it.
You can now use builtin in effects for each layer.
Or just duplicate the AudioLayer tracks if you want to use Au effects each chop.
If you want to choke some samples, all you have to do is set the layers the samples are in to mono in AudioLayer
BM3 is still a beast tho.i use it from Time to time.
Can’t speak for NannoStudio I don’t own it.
If I could go back to when I purchased Cubasis I would do it again.

AudioGus

@MarkySo said:

@AudioGus said:

@dendy said:

@gusgranite said:
@Max23 @dendy - but are you making 'sample based hip hop production' as that's what the OP is asking and BM3 seems like the best fit for that task on iOS, I reckon.

Because he wrote this in first post:

I'm kind of leaning more on Nanostudio 2 and Cubasis because Beatmaker 3 has an interface I find annoying. I also considered going back to beatmaker 2 which is one of the app I started with.

But then the subject does say 'Beatmaker 3 vs Nanstudio 2 vs Cubasis' so...

...imho, use any and all but be sure to give BM3 an honest shake and at least try to get over the hump especially for hiphop. I find I can get the best results in BM3 but yes at times it takes more work. But if you are honestly thinking 'production' and not 'hobby' I mean, sheeit dawg etc. Go BM3. Is NS2 more fun and easier? sure but so is playing video games and eating chicken wings. BM3 is overall way more capable for the genre hands down. But yah there are a couple extra taps (particularly with AU instruments embedded on pads/sigh) and the automation is clunky as hell and even balls out buggy/ kinda broken compared to NS2. But yah for me it is either 'all BM3', or 'BM3 for making kits and clips for Slate in NS2'. Just don't forgo the raw power of BM3 completely.

What in your opinion are the strengths of Nansotudio 2 and also Cubasis? I get from what most of you are saying is that BM3 is best for sampling and that it's best I try to learn it and try to overcome the learning curves that come with the app. With that said I was just wondering what are the benefits of the other two apps?

Also do you think if Nanostudio 2 gets audio tracks and sample chopping it would be able to compete with BM3 when it comes to sampling?

Nanostudio2
Pros
-fast and smooth midi workflow
-Fast and smooth automation.
-ui navigation is lovely with minor niggles that I imagine will be fixed or not eh, its awesome
-it is very optimised and setting up macros for AUs, while a a small bump/hurdle I think pays off with faster and more efficient performance than regular AU automation in most hosts
-very nice for midi out. I like using my laptop/vsts as sound modules.

Cons
-no AUfx automation, eek! Fix!
-this is personal/subjective but people rave about Obsidian but it just doesnt do it for me and i have not heard much from it to really float my boat. I stick with Synthmaster One and Aparillo primarily. Sure they eat the cpu but that is why I have a cpu.
-Slate is... ok but limited. Not too thrilled by it. it does not allow you to select ranges of wav files, you are forced to trim. Ugh, primitive! Exporting from BM3 to NS2 has been ok and is really the only way I can use slate, zero patience for that audio editor.
-slate does not have export tracks per pad like BM3 which instantly puts it in the hobbiest slot to me. (Really? Solo/export/solo/export/solo/export/solo/export etc etc like it is 2012? )
-No internal recording of AUs etc, only line in, AB support coming one day though
-Mixdown timeouts. I am having tons of issues with doing mixdowns with AUs but have not heard nearly as much complaining about this from others. Maybe it is something i do that is wonky? This has actually been my biggest con.

Audiotracks?
-will have to wait and see. Anything is possible and I have learned not to get my hopes up for this on iOS (...). Track freezing may/should be nice cause dayum my AUs eat a lot of CPU! )

BM3
Pros

-That sampler is a powerhouse for me. People rave about the slicer but I mostly just copy and paste pads and modify ranges of the wav each time but yes the slicer is good too of course. Transient detection is nice for small jobs but the real goods for me is dropping in a 10-20min wav of just previously mucking around with stream of conciousness sounds and external fx as a starting point for sampler modulation etc. Yum yum so good. Also for real cool drums (not that I have achieved this yet) you need the layering and routing potential of BM3 for sure. Can’t just drop stock sample libraries in and leave em at that. Gotta tweak and polish those bits. All those per pad/per layer tweakables? Insane!
-mixer and routing for plaback and recording kick ass
-export per pad is beyond awesome.
-file structure and perks (zip, dropbox etc) is baller

Cons

-UGH!! Splitting patterns on the timeline kills automation. Merging patterns kills automation! UGH! This is actually what I think I love doing most in NS2.
-automation has bugs with automation ranges being displayed improperly.
-audio tracks are somewhat bare bones. Could use classic fade in/out, level, start/end controls on audio clips.
-more flat out crashes or audio deaths than any other anything I have used on iOS. Much better than it was but can still get a couple in a bad hour on a bad day.
-AUs on pads probably makes things a little clunkier than they should be. Should just have the option for an AU track. Would reduce overall tappage

Cubasis

Pros-
-simple and easy

Cons-
-too simple

Anyway, ramble ramble...

kobamoto

daw based hiphop and beat machine /groovebox based hiphop feel different...