My new album “OWN” - entirely made with my iPad

Rodolfo

Hi!
This is my new album entirely produced and mixed on my iPad Pro 1st gen.
I used a number of apps, but most songs were sketched with Korg Gadget and finally produced and mixed in Auria Pro.
I started my IOS journey about four years ago and at that time I wouldn’t believe a project like this was possible, but thanks to a lot of people on this forum and on the iPad Musician group in Facebook I learned how to make it possible.
So thank you very much!

Hope you guys enjoy it.

Spotify:
https://spoti.fi/38twqvf

Apple Music:
https://apple.co/2PxT7pu

YouTube Music:
https://bit.ly/2RGUYea

YouTube playlist:
https://bit.ly/2PdPN3W

Deezer:
https://bit.ly/2E9UXaN

Google Play:
https://bit.ly/2PdTA1a

Amazon Music:
https://amzn.to/2EflgMA

Tidal
https://bit.ly/2PECCIn

rtkeeling

I listened to it on Apple Music. Sounds really good!

Rodolfo

@rtkeeling said:
I listened to it on Apple Music. Sounds really good!

Thank you very much! 🙏🏻

[Deleted User]

sounds really good. That's actually guitar on there or something else? What apps did you use for the guitar tone?

Rodolfo

@SimonSomeone said:
sounds really good. That's actually guitar on there or something else? What apps did you use for the guitar tone?

Thank you very much! 🙏🏻😊
Yes, all the guitars you hear are actual guitars, a flamenco guitar in “Long Stone” (a hand-made flamenco guitar made by a luthier in Spain) and electric guitars in all other songs (Jackson Dinky DK3 and PRS Custom 24 Floyd).
The apps used for the electric guitars were Bias FX and Tonestack in all songs, since all guitars are doubled left+right. So I used Bias FX for one guitar track and Tonestack for the other, usually with similar Amps (Marshall in most cases) and similar overdrive pedals (Tubescreamer and some others), but as the apps sound different, I managed to achieve different tones even in the cases that the same guitar model was used for both tracks.

[Deleted User]

ah yes I hadn't got to the Flamenco guitar track. I think I would have known that was real

I'm just staring to do some iOS music, but I've used Amplitube on desktop for quite a while. I guess you're not a fan of it? I bought Tonestack in the BF sales but haven't tried it yet. The guitar tones here sound convincing.

Rodolfo

I’m not a big fan of Aplitube but I know some people would prefer it over other alternatives.
I personally like Tonestack on IOS very much, being Bias FX my second choice. I didn’t experience any restriction or sound problem while recording my album, all guitars sound pretty much as I felt they were meant to sound, but as always it’s a subjective opinion, of course.

Satie

Very nice Your album! I like Your guitar playing skills.👍🏽

Rodolfo

@Satie said:
Very nice Your album! I like Your guitar playing skills.👍🏽

Thank you so much! 🙏🏻

Jeezs

I just listen it on Apple Music,
Nice work, good to hear iOS music production.
What soft / sound livra t’y did you use fort he drums?

iammane

Dig it! The production is so clean, great job

mrcanister

cuscolima

Very very good. I am listening at it right now on Spotify. Amazing that it has been completely done on an iPad! Are you a professional musician or is it just a hobbit?

hogyard

Great job! Vertical Buffer and Long Stone were my favorite

Rodolfo

@Jeezs said:
I just listen it on Apple Music,
Nice work, good to hear iOS music production.
What soft / sound livra t’y did you use fort he drums?

Thank you! The drums are all from Korg Gadget (London, Gladstone and Recife) except in “Agnostic Zombie” where I used Rock DM with some additional layered snare drum samples for adding some human touch.

Rodolfo

@iammane said:
Dig it! The production is so clean, great job

Thank you! 🙏🏻

Rodolfo

@mrcanister said:

😎🎹

Rodolfo

@cuscolima said:
Very very good. I am listening at it right now on Spotify. Amazing that it has been completely done on an iPad! Are you a professional musician or is it just a hobbit?

Thank you so much! 🙏🏻
Well, I regularly play keyboards and guitars live with a couple of cover bands (funky, disco, 80s, etc) so I guess I could say I’m a pro musician, although it’s not my main income.

Rodolfo

@hogyard said:
Great job! Vertical Buffer and Long Stone were my favorite

Thank you! Glad you liked it! Vertical Buffer is also my favorite on this album 😉

[Deleted User]

The user and all related content has been deleted.

Slava

Great songs and production.

Gravitas

@Rodolfo said:

@SimonSomeone said:
sounds really good. That's actually guitar on there or something else? What apps did you use for the guitar tone?

Thank you very much! 🙏🏻😊
Yes, all the guitars you hear are actual guitars, a flamenco guitar in “Long Stone” (a hand-made flamenco guitar made by a luthier in Spain) and electric guitars in all other songs (Jackson Dinky DK3 and PRS Custom 24 Floyd).
The apps used for the electric guitars were Bias FX and Tonestack in all songs, since all guitars are doubled left+right. So I used Bias FX for one guitar track and Tonestack for the other, usually with similar Amps (Marshall in most cases) and similar overdrive pedals (Tubescreamer and some others), but as the apps sound different, I managed to achieve different tones even in the cases that the same guitar model was used for both tracks.

Production.

Wicked.

Crystal clear.

Listening to the first track now.

Yeah.

Liking it a lot.

Going to make a playlist on Spotify.

Thank you.

LinearLineman

Long Stone. Aces.

Gravitas

The way the bass drops on Extreme String?

Yeah.

That was the one.

thatguysmitty

Really digging this! Great work man!👊🏾👏🏾🔥

Rodolfo

@JonathanMac said:
Listened on Apple Music...I liked it! Long Stone was my favorite. I immediately liked the guitar, the subtle reverb on it, and how it sat in the mix. On all of the songs, I thought the electronic sounds sat well together with the guitar and piano parts. Nice mix!

How did you come up with the artist name Other Alien, the album name OWN and the song title names?
For the mix stage did you use Gadget? How about the mastering stage? Auria with Fabfilter?
Are you happy with CD Baby? I've used Amuse before (they are free).

Wow! Thank you so much! 🙏 And so many questions! 😁
The name Another Alien started with the idea of an alien and the eyes of the logo, and my bandmate said "oh come on, yet another alien..." and it ended up being Another Alien.

-OWN meaning all on our own, without any help, and at the same time it's a known acronym backwards...

-Vertical Buffer: suggested by Gadget, and I liked it.
-Esterwing: it was a joke in Spanish. A friend said that the song had a groove similar or that reminded him the old classic "Stayin' Alive", but he doesn't speak English well and said something like "esterwing alive". That made me laugh and decided to keep the name.
-Long Stone: we were discussing about the Oumuamua asteroid (also called long stone) and that night we jammed over a sketch I quickly prepared on Gadget and the song developed almost entirely as it is on the album. A friend was recording a video with his cell phone to which I later added the original audio recorded in AUM. We watch the video today and we still can't believe the song was completely improvised on the fly. The guitar track played by my bandmate is the original one, "first take" so to speak, just slightly edited for the final version.
-Arkan Blues: just a blues but with an "alien" sound, for some reason I thought of the Arkanoid video game and ended up as Arkan Blues.
-Agnostic Zombie: as you may have noticed the guitar riff is based on G minor over the whole song, playing G like a zombie, a zombie guitar player that doesn't believe or listen anything other that his guitar, an Agnostic Zombie.
-Extreme String: just a pun, meaning a very heavy guitar riff

I mixed everytning in Auria Pro, Gadget was only used for the basic sketches and the tracks exported as audio. Almost all songs are based on Gadget sketches that I quickly prepare when we jam together, and I trigger different scenes on the fly. Everything is recorded in AUM or Cubasis, and later exported as audio to Auria Pro for a more detailed production and later mix.

I mastered all the songs in Auria Pro using Fabfilters, PSP and DDMF plugins, but when the album was ready we liked it so much that we finally decided to send the tracks to a professional studio before uploading them to CD Baby. The differences are maybe subtle for a casual listening, but the end result was clearly better.

In regards to CD Baby, so far so good, but I entered a ticket related to the official YouTube artist channel a week ago and they haven't answered yet. We'll see...

Hope to have answered everything 😅

Rodolfo

@Slava said:
Great songs and production.

Thank you!!!

Rodolfo

@Gravitas said:

@Rodolfo said:

@SimonSomeone said:
sounds really good. That's actually guitar on there or something else? What apps did you use for the guitar tone?

Thank you very much! 🙏🏻😊
Yes, all the guitars you hear are actual guitars, a flamenco guitar in “Long Stone” (a hand-made flamenco guitar made by a luthier in Spain) and electric guitars in all other songs (Jackson Dinky DK3 and PRS Custom 24 Floyd).
The apps used for the electric guitars were Bias FX and Tonestack in all songs, since all guitars are doubled left+right. So I used Bias FX for one guitar track and Tonestack for the other, usually with similar Amps (Marshall in most cases) and similar overdrive pedals (Tubescreamer and some others), but as the apps sound different, I managed to achieve different tones even in the cases that the same guitar model was used for both tracks.

Production.

Wicked.

Crystal clear.

Listening to the first track now.

Yeah.

Liking it a lot.

Going to make a playlist on Spotify.

Thank you.

Wow! Thank you so much! 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

Rodolfo

@LinearLineman said:
Long Stone. Aces.

Thank you! 🙏🏻

Rodolfo

@Gravitas said:
The way the bass drops on Extreme String?

Yeah.

That was the one.

Thank you! Yeah, that’s a “heavy” one... 😎

Rodolfo

@thatguysmitty said:
Really digging this! Great work man!👊🏾👏🏾🔥

Thank you so much! 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻😊😊😊