General question for everyone

qrtzn

Hi y’all and thanks for humoring me here I’ve been addicted to this forum for a cou-le months now.... have been a laptop musician for 17+ years... and I’ve been trying out so many apps and I’ve found a lot of g9od audio units but am having real trouble finding a way of sequencing them that gels with me. So you see: I don’t want to record any external audio... just record layers of my nice aus, but in a good and intuit8ve way .... I prefer a well-thought -out piano roll to anything xox style... I. Started on fl2.5 and have migrated to Ableton but basically I find a lot of these iPad DAWs to be over fiddly and cumbersome and ...well... :Sticky” for lack of a better word. I’m ya Ed to the notes just flying out like magic, you know? So I’m wondering what y’all. Would recommend... something with a nice UX and UI that allows for multiple tracks and possibly track freezing or at least flattening.... that makes it easy to set up , like a drum au w fix on it, and then on top of that another au with fx.... and automation of Paramus within the au (Which is where flattening would come in useful.... and multiple lane of param automation done inns0me kind of graphical intuit8ve way that can 9possibly) be hidden maybe? So it attaches to that instance of au? Is there anything like this? I don’t mind flstudio-like pattern blocks 9representative of patterns as a way to sequence full songs... or even numbers+ number chaining ... but I’ve tried Cubasis, and some others

Thanks y’all!!!!! Hopefully this bears fruit...... love this forum

I’m a fan of : old warp / rephlex stuff as well as asphodel and stuff... I used to record as khonnor and I cactus and grandma and some others anywayglitchy techy IDM TYPE STUFF WITH MELODY AND INTERESTING SOUND DESIGN IS WHAT MY END GOAL IS

Thanks for your patience!!!

BlueGreenSpiral

Load BlocsWave in the output slot of Audiobus 3. Hit record in Blocs when you have something tasty. You can repeat this 7 times to fill the remaining blocs if desired.

Export -> Ableton Live Set

AudioGus

@qrtzn said:
but I’ve tried Cubasis, and some others

Was BM3 one of the others?

audiblevideo

Answer:
BeatMaker 3 and AUM/Audiobus

Request:
Less l33t speak, and more King's English please.

qrtzn

I tried bm3 and actually found it very navigable but found the way it handled AUs cumbersome unless I’m missing something .... is there a way to automate au Params within bm3??

AudioGus

@qrtzn said:
I tried bm3 and actually found it very navigable but found the way it handled AUs cumbersome unless I’m missing something .... is there a way to automate au Params within bm3??

Yes.

AudioGus

audiblevideo

Gus is good

@AudioGus is better.

auxmux

AUM or Audiobus with sequencer AUs is the best / easiest approach. Start with Rozeta sequencer suite.

McD

@qrtzn said:
Thanks for your patience!!!

You are also going to need to have a lot of patience if you stick it out.

IOS comes with 100 inter-operable pieces. The DAW all come short of the type of music
making experience you're used to. I think BM3 is the closest to the Ableton, Fruitloops
approach but as you've figured out... close but no cigar.

But playing with those 100 inter-operable apps is challenging and fun if you like puzzles.
If there's a sound you like... there's an app (or a dozen) that can provide it.

Sound design in available in deep voodoo. IDM is probably best made with "Xequence 2"
feeding app loaded in an AUv3 Host like AudioBus3 or AUM and there's a good reason to use both for extra sync and interoperability coverage. There are some videos showing how that works you can find through the AudioBus Wiki.

There are some YouTube teachers that might show you some great combinations of Apps.
Just search for IOS Musicmaking in YouTube and see if someone inspires you to learn more about IOS possibilities.

I hope you figure it all out and stay around to train the army of laptop music makers behind you.

wim

From your original post, I’d have to say that iOS just isn’t going to meet those expectations in general. There’s a lot more do-it-yourself, wiring things together, working around limitations, and figuring things out than it sounds like you’re hoping for.

That said, I recommend GarageBand. It’s limited in some ways, but still powerful while remaining easy to use and relatively hassle free.

Gadget too, but forget about your investment in lots of apps, they won’t work in Gadget.

cloudswimmer

Pretty much what McD said above. I’m partial to Cubasis and Auria Pro .. but I’m an old skool piano/organ/synth player who started out with Opcode Vision on a Mac SE30 40 years ago .. Cubasis gives me that vibe.

rs2000

@qrtzn said:
I’m a fan of : old warp / rephlex stuff as well as asphodel and stuff... I used to record as khonnor and I cactus and grandma and some others anywayglitchy techy IDM TYPE STUFF WITH MELODY AND INTERESTING SOUND DESIGN IS WHAT MY END GOAL IS

I was about to write "learn how to use BM3, it's worth it" but when it comes to actually writing music, I'm always sooner or later falling back to Gadget. It feels like it has the least roadblocks of the iOS DAWs available and it's rarely in the way of what I want to realize.
It doesn't include all the bells and whistles of all the AUs available but there's almost always a way to do what I have in mind.
If not, I'll record an audio clip and load it (which I like to do with VCV Rack from desktop).
Funnily, from just looking at the features provided, I'd always choose Nanostudio 2 or BM3 over Gadget.

icsleepers

@qrtzn I spent quite a bit of my youth having your stuff on repeat, namely

There was also another released through 8bitpeoples as I, Cactus but don’t 100% recall the name

For your question, I don’t know. I’m still struggling with this myself.. I agree with others that Gadget is a good self contained package, but I also enjoy the weirdness I can get out of various AUv3’s.. and getting those working with Gadget isn’t really fun (record something in AUM or Audiobus in tandem with Gadget and then stuff into Zurich? For example?). It’s just not intuitive...

Best of luck figuring it out! It’s a rewarding platform when it aligns with what you’re trying to do. When it doesn’t, it’s a little frustrating, but the portability factor cannot be beat (I’ll take using an iPad on a crowded train over a laptop any day of the week).

richardyot

I would suggest NS2 is worth a look - even if it's still missing some features such as audio tracks and AUv3 effect automation.

The piano roll is surely the best on iOS, and it rivals Gadget in terms of ease-of-use while being way more open.

icsleepers

FWIW I always bounce between NS2 (top notch sequencer overall in iOS land), Gadget and you’ll all laugh but GarageBand. Not that others aren’t any good, these are the just ones I know

ecamburn

What @McD said. Trying @BlueGreenSpiral’s method next time I pick up the iPad.

dendy

@qrtzn
I don’t want to record any external audio...
just record layers of my nice aus, but in a good and intuit8ve way ....
I prefer a well-thought -out piano roll to anything xox style...

So looks like layering of synths is your main workflow. This looks like very much similiar worflow like mine My suggestion would be Nanostudio 2, especially because of build in Obsidian synth (which can replace a lot of AUs with significantly smaller CPU footprint, so you will be able to use more synth layers without resampling to audio, which is for me personally instant creativity killer), but also because of advanced grouping / audio routing possibilities - unlimited umber of group channels and also unlimited LEVEL of grouping (you can always group any number of other channels evern if they are groups too - pretty amazig for advanced synth layering)

As i said - Obsidian synth/sampler + bundled FXs are super CPU optimised and still very good in quality, in my experience they can easily replace 80% of AU plugins with preserving quality but significantly lowering CPU needs ..

and automation of Paramus within the a

Here is small limitation - in NS2 you can automate instrument parameters, but not effects parameters. However you can automate most of bundled FX parameters ..

INTERESTING SOUND DESIGN IS WHAT MY END GOAL IS

Then i think you will love Obsidian 3 oscillators, every one multiple types (VA,FM,PD,Wavetable, Noise, Multisampler), versatile filter section (3 routable filters), 5 env, 5lfo, advanced mod matrix (every mod source can modulate even own parameters, so for example LFO can modulate own rate and amount of this modulation - insane stuff )