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Best IOS recording solution suggestions? aka. leaving Garageband :(
Hi everybody,
First of all, it is a pleasure being part of this forum and catching up with all the fresh bells and whistles of this growing platform. I have been reading daily and posting occasionally for almost four months and as many before me, was caught up in discovering/listening/daydreaming/buying apps that open up so much creativity without making the next step: leaving Garageband 
GB is really a perfect app, being free, reliable and avaliable to anyone that owns Apple stuff but since everyone has their own “Jam”, after a while you start having a really clear view of what your personal pros/cons regarding GB are and what you want your workflow to look like.
After 4 months and almost 40 Garageband projects, this Is where Im at and with what I know I still dont know which app to move on to, so I am asking for your advice!
What is my Jam?
I play guitar, today I turned 33, am getting married on May 1st if covid lets me, and have a rock band on indefinite hiatus.
What I like to do whenever I open up a fresh project in GB is comming up with riffs and stacking takes left and right as many times as possible.
It is what I did while recording albums with my band - record 6 sometimes 8 guitars (4L/4R) all playing the same riff/lead/solo on 4 different amps/pedals/guitars/settings and have so much fun mixing it all together as one huge instrument.
Combining the wonderfull Nembrini or Gainstage guitar apps with reverbs and delays, IRs, eqs and compressors of all devs makes me very happy. 
Mixing all those guitar takes on the fiddly GB UI sometimes makes me not so happy 
I need a daw/mixer that can carry all that weight and enable me to at least group my LR combinations separately or if possible have a nice big fader to get those levels where I can hear/feel what Im doing.
Sometimes I would like to have more than 4 auv3 ports per track without having to merge tracks and get lost looking for the copy of the copy of copy 2 of my new song 3! 
I would also like to be able to try and master a track if I like what I did with the mix without the need of a macbook.
The 2 things that still got me hooked on GB are:
drums/drummers/smart drums - Its so easy to get a beat rollin and start riffing
With the help of one or two third party drum apps I guess I could do the same thing.The switch control blueboard trick, which is how I found this forum - Having the rec stop rev controls at my feet makes pumping out takes and getting the best out of my playing really what I always wanted while shouting “Again!” at my producer or obsessively hitting that ctrl+alt+z on cubase. So bt midi transport controls are also what I need.
So with all that said what app or combination of apps you think is best 4me?
Comments
Auria Or cubasis if you’re only on ipad. I have never used cubasis, but did mix an album on auria.
If you have a mac, then garageband projects open in garageband or logic on the mac. In garageband on mac, even though there’s not a mixer visible, you can use the logic remote ios app to control your mixing. With logic, you have everything good about garageband ios but much deeper.
Thanks @mrufino1 , I have a mac but prefer the ipad becouse its portable and more fun
While mixing in Auria, were you able to group tracks and assign audio units to the group and have a volume control assigned to a fader for the whole group?
And is it possible to midi map the rec/stop controls?
@NemanzgbKaj ... the slippery hole that iOS DAWs can send you down...
I started with GarageBand as well then went to Auria Pro. Did a pile of work in there and then have tried a few different ones since.
Auria Pro has group tracking (via assigning channels to groups), busses and submix channels. It has 4 plug in slots per channel that you cannot change the order of. You cannot MIDI map the rec/stop controls. You can use Audiobus to remote control Auria Pro. Auria Pro does allow the use of controllers that use the HUI protocol to control start/stop, record, R/W control data for a channel etc..it also reads and sends MTC and MMC.
Cubasis 3 has group tracks and 8 inserts per channels which can be re-arranged. Cubasis 3 is still a bit buggy though. Buyer beware.
I have used and still use Auria Pro, Cubasis, BeatMaker 3 and AUM primarily.
If you were really into experimenting with samplers and your guitar BM3 could be fun, but might not fit your current required workflow. I like the places you can get to with BM3 and it’s sampler engine. It’s not all about beatmaking...
Auria Pro has the most complete bussing capability at this time out of these three.
I use AUM a lot as well for jamming ideas, this approach leads to buying more apps though...
There is also Audio Evolution Mobile Studio https://apps.apple.com/au/app/audio-evolution-mobile-studio/id1094758623 which might be worth a look as well. I haven’t used it much, but it has had some very positive feedback on the forums.
Hope this helps.
I was just thinking after re reading what you were asking....maybe AUM with a couple of decent AUv3 apps would allow you to build a very flexible fluid jamming rig..as MIDI mapping in there is much easier. You could use something like the 4pockets multitrack or the inbuilt file recorder/player in AUM...one or two decent drum machine apps...kind of exciting.
Being a fellow guitarist.. have you explored group the loop especially if you want to experiment with multiple takes?
FYI it can load auv3 fx
Auria is good to mix down and master , not a great playground wherein you can quickly experiment with various fx .. you will end up with a bug or crash
That having said I find aum the most stable while recording guitar
Wow @arktek & @hisdudeness thanks for the input!
Having read your posts Im thinking AUM + multitrack with everything I have for the guitar and some additional drum apps (maybe the 4pockets drum app avaliable bundeled with multitrack?) might do the trick
How is it with Aum when you make something and want to save it for later, export it when you are satisfied, does it work like traditional daws or does it require tweeking and setting things up each time you open a project/file/song?
that’s where Auria comes in if you need the master or tweak specific parts .. Else it stays in AudioShare .. which is a great platform to move audio in and out
I mostly use aum/AudioShare
For drums lumbeat apps .. I go no further.. all locked solidly with ableton link especially helpful if you into dotted eight syncing
My choice strictly
I don’t like 4 pockets apps especially their GUI knob interactions
The only one which I was using .. I.e. shimmerfx is replaced by alteza
I love GarageBand, but I’ve finally ended up in Ableton on my old, old iMac. It’s just less of a pain. I still use my iPad for Blocs and Beatmaker, and a lot more besides. But for recording and arranging, it’s the Mac for me.
But I also have some guitar advice! Beatmaker is really good for stacking takes. You can just play them into the sampler, or any of a number of ways. Plus, you end up with loops that you can chop up easily.
Also, it’s super easy to use AU plugins and record the results. Stacking AUs is easy, way, way better than GarageBand.
Im still trying to undrestand this AUM Audioshare relationship
So aum doesnt have a timeline, but if you use it with Audioshare you can see the timeline in audioshare?
Am I getting this or is it nonesense?
What happens when you recorded a bunch of guitar tracks and some drums, you set the levels you like using the aum mixer, all this is two and a half minutes long and you want to send it as one audio track to a friend via email or wifi. How do you export the track?
Sorry If these are stupid questions but I dont really understand and I tried looking it up on youtube but people mostly focus on the mixer and loading as many AUs you like
@mistercharlie I watched some videos of BM and as good as it looks for percussive stuff or beat oriented I dont see myself tracking guitars with it, maybe im wrong and would love it if I tried it but it looks even more confusing than aum audioshare I wrote about earlier, maybe im just a stupid guitarist
Was gonna recommend Blocs Wave for generating drum loops. Added to the fact that I can record up to 8 tracks per bar (with the unlock) which allows for easy stacking. What I then do is send projects from Blocs into Garageband/Beatmaker 3/Multitrack Daw to finish the mix.
I'll be honest...I haven't found anything as user friendly as Garageband, despite the "Optimizing performance" that I run through a lot whenever I have a lot of audio files in it. I'm testing combination of Multitrack Daw/Blocs Wave/Audioshare/AUM(don't have it yet) for audio, and RouteMIDI/Xequence/Nanostudio for MIDI but I haven't found anything concrete.
I'm working on a project that might help Garageband users a little bit but here's hoping I can finish it in time. But it takes a bit of testing, and learning something I haven't even done before.
Here's my workflow - Blocs Wave + Audio Bus + GarageBand (I should probably make a video to explain). I'm assuming that you have Blocs Wave unlocked to do this, and are using an audio interface or a microphone IN (yes, even the cheap iRig)
To do this,
(I've been testing out MultiTrack Recorder to have a clean sample, while I'm also adding effects; or I could have made a separate channel using the same input but recording to an output connected to Audioshare for the duration of the session for a "clean, no effects sound".)
Here’s a patch I made for AudioBus. Remove whichever one you don’t have, although you do need at least 2 of those apps to use this workflow.
http://preset.audiob.us/8HyIf91ok252eJY
Audiobus/AUM/Audioshare combination is very powerful.
BlocsWave is a good choice, you have a lot of options.
Loopy is amazing, especially if you go with Audiobus
Good luck!
Solution
You need AudioShare .. it’s a must have .. thank me later .in AudioShare aum folder will appear. From AudioShare you have variety of options to export
You can record individual tracks and also the combined mix of all tracks
All depends on how many tracks you record enable
See example set ups
From your description of your workflow Cubasis is probably the best fit that I know of - certainly if the GB timeline is important to you. Cubasis 3 is still pretty buggy, but they’re definitely working on it. AUM, as suggested by others, is a phenomenal piece of software, but I still can’t find an AUM workflow that fits my timeline focussed brain.
Thank you guys, all your posts are very helpful, afrer reading everything, my heart wants it all
My wallet says listen to @hisdudeness get Audioshare now, thank him later
Cubasis would probably be the closest to what I described and maybe I should wait until the bugs are fixed, and until then get AUM + Audioshare and play with it. Since I started with this Ipad stuff 4 months ago, every post I open is AUM this, AUM that so I guess its something essential if I want to call myself an Ipad musician
And I do like those big faders... but I also like timeline
Great freaking thread
Not a single mention of NS2? Is it because there are no audio tracks yet?
Thanks dude
my first ever can you believe that
I read a few threads about NS2 here and Im pretty sure the whole audio tracks comming soon is a hoax
Thats what they want you to believe
Also as I said earlier ...if you are into stacking takes... (without taking a break) ...check out group the loop .. you can go on and on with it... and above all a super responsive developer
I have all Cubasis Auria pro and nano studio
I recommend AUM bcoz sometimes as a guitarist you need to figure the sound in your head and aum is the perfect playground to play with effects in and out to your heart content . No limitations or fx order nonsense.
If you know what you are going for and want to master a take ...then auria and cubasis will suit your needs
I still love and use GarageBand ... but does not play well with 3 rd party fx especially while exporting
@NemanzgbKaj Audioshare is one of those core apps that come in very handy when moving files around between apps and recording direct jams from AUM. It is not a timeline app as such, more of a file storage area (and you can edit files in there amongst other things). You have to load those files into a file player in AUM if you want to then jam with what you’ve recorded hence why the suggestion for something like Group the Loop or multitrack recorder.
AUM gives you a lot of freedom, but in that freedom then comes a little trial and error to work out what will work for your particular workflow. You can also set up a jam in AUM and record separate tracks directly into somewhere like GB or Cubasis etc.
What a great thread this is you guys. Really good stuff.
I tried 4Pockets Multitrack Recorder in AUM for the first time today. Observations:
I was pretty discouraged. I may just stick to using AUM and its internal audio recorder for capturing AUM sessions.
But now I'm at a loss which app to use for arranging recorded stems into a more finished piece. Cubasis 2 has been replaced by a reportedly unstable version 3. Meteor is also from 4Pockets and looks just as difficult to use as the plugin. So I guess that leaves Beatmaker 3?
@GovernorSilver after all the advice given to me in this thread I just went and bought everything, now I don’t even make music I just fiddle with apps
@Samflash3 had some pretty cool ideas on what you are talking about, using Blocks wave and Launchpad.
I came to this thread because I need help myself.
If I can figure out how to more easily move AUM recordings into Garageband I just might use Garageband to arrange my audio recordings by a timeline.
The AUM audio files are not showing up in the On My Ipad view when I open the Loop browser in Garageband.
Free Roland Zenbeats has audio tracks. Plus more. Use the linear mode. For arranging clips on a timeline I wouldn’t bother with anything else. Did I mention it’s Free?
@RolandiOS @MatthewAtZenbeats
I believe AUM files are stored in thebaudioshare folder. You need to enable yi > @anickt said:
Also free on Android.
Glad to hear .
Thank you. This looks promising. I already have a Roland account, which I had to create to register my Go:Mixer Pro, so I'm able to use that to save songs.
I also figured out how to import the same audio file into Garageband. I also tried importing into BM3 and couldn't find the file I just imported so... I'll have to leave BM3 on the shelf despite its sample handling capabilities.
Will probably alternate between Zenbeats and Garageband to figure out which to use for audio track arrangements. Slight edge to Zenbeats because Garageband's process is a little more convoluted - you have to add a "Lead Vocal" track (?!?!), add the audio file to the Loops library, then the process of dragging the file onto the track is not intuitive either - had to Google just to find out you have to hold down the file icon, otherwise it keeps asking you if you want to delete the file.