Caustic or Gadget

raz

After looking at them more closely I've changed my mind and I don't think these apps are competing, at least not right now. Caustic is a DAW, like BM2 or Nanostudio with a focus on electronic music production. These three apps dominate this niche, but which of them you'll want depends on your specific requirements...

Gadget is a sketchpad, an expansion of the iPolysix concept, where you had three synth engines running in parallel (automation included) and then you could build patterns and arrange those into songs.
It's basically the sequencer with a good UI I was looking for a while ago except all the sounds are internal and it has no MIDI out.

Of course if Korg add the right features it could become more of a DAW, really interesting to see what they'll do with it.

shortbus

@raz said:

After looking at them more closely I've changed my mind and I don't think these apps are competing, at least not right now. Caustic is a DAW, like BM2 or Nanostudio with a focus on electronic music production.

Gadget also has a focus on electronic music production. Korg has already announced audio tracks and audiobus support, so I'd say it makes sense for Gadget to be compared to BM2/Nanostudio/Caustic. What Gadget seems to have over others is the ease of use from its intuitive interface that really feels like it was designed for the touchscreen and not just adapted to it from a desktop software interface.

Artmuzz

Caustic.

To be honest it is quite hard to vote because both are very good. The graphics are much better on Gadget but because of the lack of sampling on Gadget my vote has to go to Caustic. Once Gadget gets sampling and audio tracks with audiobus and IAA then my vote will go to Korg.

Halftone

Does Gadget sound THAT much better than Caustic3 - or is the difference minimal? Seems like many are raving about the awesome "Korg" sound, but haven't read much praising Caustic beyond generally saying it sounds very good.

(... just spent an hour watching a few Gadget videos and then a few Caustic3 videos and I do have to say that Caustic's sounds aren't making me feel warm and fuzzy, but Gadget does sound pretty great - hard to tell though from video.. Any more opinions on overall sound quality for these 2 apps? )

djjuniorpops

I love Caustic but had to vote for Gadget. I was holding off from purchasing it until today I push the button to buy. I was so blown away on the quality of sounds and the graphics on instruments, the app is so easy to produce a flow, the UI is in a class by itself.
Once KORG update with AudioTrack , AudioBus and IAA the rest would be doing a catch up act. Also a welcome would be a FX slot where you could adjust the FX when needed .
Didn't get that far but could you sidechain as yet, if not that's another must.

shortbus

It's interesting how some people declare allegiance to certain apps/developers/platforms, especially when it comes to Android vs. iOS. I've only known about Caustic as one of the only serious music apps on Android. I guess it says a lot about the developer if it's somehow able to achieve actually usable low-latency with realtime audio on Android. It's not too surprising that on the Caustic forum, the announcement of Gadget was met with mostly how it's a "Caustic wannabe at three times the price for Apple/iOS users with eye-candy graphics developed by 100+ people and nothing that can't be done in Caustic with just one developer": http://www.singlecellsoftware.com/node/3731

skogredd

@shortbus said:

@raz said:
What Gadget seems to have over others is the ease of use from its intuitive interface that really feels like it was designed for the touchscreen and not just adapted to it from a desktop software interface.

Caustic does not look fancy at all, but it is more than intuitive. I find it easier to use than the Gadget app. Very snappy and less back and forth clicking.

skogredd

@Halftone said:

Does Gadget sound THAT much better than Caustic3 - or is the difference minimal? Seems like many are raving about the awesome "Korg" sound, but haven't read much praising Caustic beyond generally saying it sounds very good.

(... just spent an hour watching a few Gadget videos and then a few Caustic3 videos and I do have to say that Caustic's sounds aren't making me feel warm and fuzzy, but Gadget does sound pretty great - hard to tell though from video.. Any more opinions on overall sound quality for these 2 apps? )

Caustic can be tuned to pretty much any sound needed it seems. It also has some mastering. (It also exports perfect midi. It does not look iOS, more like windows 3.1, but is a really nice app.)

Tritonman2

Caustic is pretty darned good and but I liked it a lot more before I was exposed to Gadget. It is not only how much better Gadget sounds though. Gadget makes for an extremely easy and smooth workflow in comparison to Caustic also.

ChrisG

Both are great apps...no need to pit'em against each-other IMO. They basically achieve the same thing, they both boot up fast, let's you add synths/modules fast and just pick some presets and start making music (without worrying about any iOS IAA/AB/MIDI hassles). They both sound good, different "flavor" to the sound for sure, but still good sounding stuff in both apps. But the fact that they both are just really really fast to get stuff going with (despite having so much complexity under the hood) is what makes them such great mobile music production applications. Gadget got the eye candy for sure, and that will unfortunately have an impact on hyperbole etc..

By the way, really liking that someone made a 3D render for some of the "gadgets" in Caustic, really cool:
http://www.teotigraphix.com/caustk/screenshots/CausticMess01.png

EIPStudiosOhio

Caustic ALL THE WAY...

Tritonman2

Excellent work!

WMWM

Caustic, prolly because it's the underdog. It's like that scrappy small gie you can't discount.

Crabman

by the way,in Gadget you can record notes/automation over the whole song and not just one clip/scene.Is this possible in Caustic as well?

joegrant413

Check out Looptical. IPad version just released today. Very innovative way of creating songs. I own BM2, GB, Gadget, Loopy, and Looptical may end up being the most intuitive way to get ideas out and put them together into Verse, Chorus, Bridge, etc.

Cheers,

• Joe

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

dwarman

@Crabman - yes, Caustic has full song sequencer for everything too. It's the last device. Be sure to be in song mode to use it. You record he automation from the device panel.

Tritonman2

I find gadget to be much more intuitive to work with and more enjoyable but they are both really good at what they do no doubt!

MrSmileZ

Things important to my workflow followed by the winner as of now.
SAMPLING:
1. Ability to load...caustic
2. Ability to record...caustic
3. Chopping to pads....NEITHER
4. Ability to edit...caustic
5. Pitch/time/formant....NEITHER
6. Import and export options...caustic, but not reigning

AUDIOTRACKS:
1. Ability to record basic audio as a track (not sample)...NEITHER
2. Edit of audio material such as fades etc....NEITHER
3. Ability to use IAA or audiobus in or out on audio track....NEITHER
4. Advanced audio such as parallel tracks etc...NEITHER

SYNTHESIS:
Subtractive...Both (Korg better)
FM...Caustic
Additive...NEITHER
Wavetable...Both but in a limited way, more vectorish really
Modular...Caustic is better, as it's very very weak on korg
Karplus...KoRG

SEQUENCER:
These two really are a lot the same...there are minuses and pluses to either.
I shall give it to Caustic due to screen orientation at the moment

RENDERING
STEMS...? NEITHER
TOTAL TRACK....BOTH

PRO FEATURES
IAA...NEITHER
AUDIOBUS...KORG

EFFECTS
types: Ima give this to Korg
flexibility: Caustic
...korg does not allow effects on everything...

OVERALL PERFORMANCE
Korg simply sounds much better at the end result...it's night and day
(I don't know if this is an engine problem or an effect problem)
Caustic can do more work than Korg, and it can do this lighter on the CPU, but it may take more mixing and effects routing knowledge to pull off a comparable sound.

This is of course an opinion...you don't have to agree.
I own both, I like each for their strengths, I find myself making better stuff in beatmaker2...
As the sequencer, IAA, audiobus, exporting, sampling is just way better on intua! If bm2 had time/pitch/formant...synthesis...better effects....this wouldn't be a competition.

MrSmileZ

Even though it hurts me to say this...Intua Beatmaker 2 is the ultimate Daw on ipad...period, it owns everything...it does the most work, it sounds good, it's has bussing and routing, it has Audiotracks, it has the best standard and chop sampling going...it has IAA and audiobus, it renders separate stems...

Emmitt

@skogredd said:

@Halftone said:

Does Gadget sound THAT much better than Caustic3 - or is the difference minimal? Seems like many are raving about the awesome "Korg" sound, but haven't read much praising Caustic beyond generally saying it sounds very good.

(... just spent an hour watching a few Gadget videos and then a few Caustic3 videos and I do have to say that Caustic's sounds aren't making me feel warm and fuzzy, but Gadget does sound pretty great - hard to tell though from video.. Any more opinions on overall sound quality for these 2 apps? )

Caustic can be tuned to pretty much any sound needed it seems. It also has some mastering. (It also exports perfect midi. It does not look iOS, more like windows 3.1, but is a really nice app.)

Emmitt

When you say "exports perfect MIDI", what exactly do you mean?