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Henry Ford and iOS
I have problems with Henry Ford, but it cannot be denied that he brought freedom of movement to the masses. Similarly, and without the anti semitism, Apple has brought the iPad and iOS music making apps to the musician masses. The Model T was affordable and led to the construction of a national highway system. iOS apps are affordable and egalitarian, but they have yet to create an infrastructure with significant impact on the global music super highway... or have inroads been made?
What are the shortcomings of iOS, at this point in time, that is holding back the Model T analogy?
Is it simply low RAM capacity, lack of a full feature DAW, authenticity of acoustics... or is it something else... a bias against the new, a refusal of producers to commit to a new modality, or what?
Certainly the world has turned. Hit singles and albums are regularly produced in bedrooms and hotel rooms on humble desktop rigs. The media talks about the shift and acceptance of this new musical reality. Is this an evolution that will ultimately lead to the capability and adoption of iPad
(or even tablet) based mainstream success?
I don’t expect to ever be a successful mainstream artist... that is not my purpose at all. But the Jacob Colliers of the world might embrace the iOS platform at some point. Will they ever, and what has to happen technologically first?
Comments
The Model T analogy would first have to have the worldwide musicians vs non musicians ratio reversed.
That's the charm of this forum: At times, one could get the impression that we're already there 😇
iPad is a motorcycle. Limited scale for moving people.
PC/Mac was the Model T and now it's configurable by the purchaser to corvette or school bus.
Sure the Formula One racing champ likes to ride bikes for fun.
Function follows form. iPads change the design criteria to mobility with power limitations.
Jacob Collier's MacBook can support 1,000+ tracks in Logic:
Agreed.
No one notices the orchard starting to grow except for the planter.
When the orchard has finally taken root and has started to flourish
that's when everyone starts to jump up saying ,'hi'.
Basic audio and MIDI editing is too cumbersome on iOS. Editing at the sample-level is impossible. Nudging clips in a mix makes me want to pick up cigarettes again. Getting audio files on and off the iPad is hell. Where the hell is that damn dongle?! Walk into a studio with an iPad, and the engineer says 'No.'
Logic Pro X or Ableton Live on a 12.9" screen is a masochists wet dream.
Apple. They encourage low prices. They make music software too. Who can compete with LPX at $200? Lack of documentation for developers. Apple's push to use their in-house software to build apps. Too controlling. No text boxes. No multi-threaded audio. And memory-management that only Apple knows about.
The big software developers. Until Native Instruments, Arturia, Celemony, Avid, etc. take iOS seriously, many of their customers won't. They sell desktop software, so they'd be competing against themselves if they sold inexpensive iOS apps. Eventide took the safe route, by selling single ancient algorithms. Or Korg, selling presets for Module, or porting ancient discontinued synths to the platform.
Maybe the MacOS and iOS merge will change things. There's a good chance that Apple completely blows it, like the Ford Edsel.
So the Model T was a game changer and the iPad was a new type of cricket bat?
Logic on Ipad is my wet dream too. Same as the 13” MBP. Need a new Mac desperately for Logic. Waiting to see how Logic will perform on new Apple Silicon Macs. Honestly prefer logic on an iPad Pro.
I’m not an engineer just an artist so I don’t need too many third-party plug ins. Just logic pro on an iPad Pro. Ios is a bit limited for me. Yes need to nudge those audio files left and right etc. Ipad pro needs lot more RAM too. Let’s see what happens in the next 6 months.
@Sequencer1, very compelling arguments. But Eventide, FabFilter and Toneboosters are big names, no?
Also, tho it is anachronistic, would the Beatles have given up their Ampexes for an iPad? If a modern artist produced the sonic equivalent of Sgt. Pepper on an iPad (I’m guessing that is possible now) wouldn’t it be just as relevant, acceptable and successful? Admittedly, huge projects won’t work... at least with today’s tech, but Sgt. Pepper didn’t require 1000 tracks to be earth shattering.
Jacob Collier is amazing, but he’s not John Lennon, and Collier doesn’t necessarily need more than a dozen tracks to make something great. I guess my question is, for projects that don’t require 100 tracks, or delicate clip manipulation.... say Bob Dylan complexity, won’t an iPad work right now?
You can get an iPad in any color you want, as long as it’s not black
@LinearLineman You are basically asking the artist to adapt to fit the requirements of the iPad and many will do that to gain mobility. But the deep tech nerds like Jacob Collier have
the same attachment that you have to the 88 key weighted keyboard. Can't you just use
the new MPE keyboards and expand your horizons? (Throwing away years of brain networks in the process). Jacob Collier got his first copy of Logic at age 11, I think. He can use the interface blindfolded using keyboard hot keys.
We develop a relationship with user interfaces and switching costs are very, very high. There are a few musical polymaths that add new interfaces to their repertoire like they change their fashion... Stevie Wonder comes to mind. Jacob Collier is also a master of learning new
instrumental controllers just to find new ways to be expressive.
An iPad for these desktop focused creators is like "Ableton Push" would be for you... not something you'd see as useful for your workflow. It would be like starting again as an infant.
Logic on iPad would be interesting. I tried many years ago but never gelled with it. Hard to imagine it would not be the most stable DAW at that level.
Me too. Though I also enjoy whipping myself while saying my prayers before bedtime.
Eventide took the safe route, by selling single ancient algorithms. FF and TB are just 1 developer, right? And they haven't been around very long. Have they made anything new for iOS? Or just ported desktop apps to iOS?
As far as pop music, imo, the Beatles would just be another band amongst millions nowadays. The best music today is heard by almost no one. Modern social media, commercialization, and social engineering is king.
Bob Dylan could make all his best songs with an iPad, audio interface, and guitar today. No engineer required. But it wouldn't get noticed. Totally different audience, and consumer, today.
Agreed. It seems to be getting harder to be heard but Bob would have happily recorded mixes that suited his needs on an iPad. Not sure how well he would cope with software instability though.
"Mr. Dylan, where's the drop?" "No drums?"
@LinearLineman I was speaking from a technical perspective. For musicians, iOS is already there. Bobby McFerrin made that song using just his voice and body, so the iPad is fine. But doing basic audio engineering work on an iPad takes a lot of patience.
@McD, not at all, my friend. I am not suggesting ios supplant desktop at all. For those who need it, that’s great. But not all musics require such elaborate rigs to generate totally acceptable finished product. I’m in murky water here, but Alanis Morisette, for example, does she need a Collier setup to make something wonderful? Would Coltrane have needed it? Or Keith Jarrett... or even Enya?
And I am not saying ios is there yet. But it’s on the road, like all those Fords, but folks act like they did to the VW Beetle in the 60s.. Never! Yet not so today. And I hadn’t thought about the mobile aspect with my analogy, but, indeed, an iPad is pretty mobile.
I don’t expect anyone to sacrifice anything, including a synth action, if that’s what works. I’m just suggesting that the economy of the iPad’s tools is like the afFORDability of a compact car, and that, like in economical autos, most of the bells and whistles trickle down... like antilock brakes, power windows and airbags.
Some known producers have released all iOS albums already. What is preventing more from doing so?
@Sequencer1, it quakes my bones to think that the Beatles would be lost in today’s mix, but you may be right. However, one thing the Beatles had was relevance. I’m assuming Lennon wouldn’t be writing about LSD and raccoons today. Giving peace a chance still sounds pretty good, tho.
Enya's early work is a good example of technology being crucial in an artist's signature sound. Her husband was a top-notch engineer and sound designer. He's the one who multi-tracked her voice, effected it with the old Lexicons, and spent a long time staring at a computer screen manipulating all those tracks of her voice. That's one of the reasons why she almost never toured. She was on Jay Leno years ago with a choir. Try to find it on YouTube - it's magical.
Maybe about hoes, Hennessy, and getting high. With a 🔥 beat.
I would venture that iPads are just another step or push in the direction of that Model T, what really changed is availability of quality software for next to nothing, and availability of hardware to run it.
20 years ago plugins and daws existed, but you didn´t get a completely usable version of Ableton lite or Garageband with your computer or with a cheap interface.
Said computers weren´t in every home yet, so instruments reigned king. Recording music meant having a lot of bits and pieces (to not say money).
Now with an accessible iPad or laptop and some limited investments you have access to a world of instruments, effects and tools to create.
Also Youtube, without it thousands could not learn without having someone in their vicinity who already knew how things worked and interacted. Now a quick Google search gives you access to all of it.
I see it as the total opposite. What makes iOS music exciting is that there’s place for small developers. I think we need more Samplrs, Drambo’s and NuRacks not a Native Instrument mega pack or a 2000€ waves bundle with the same old 1976 vintage compressor emulation.
AUM is superb. We need a (better) DAW and I’d be a lot happier and it’d mean a lot more for the future if it wasn’t one of the big players that did it.
I have mixed feelings about this thread. Yes the iOS music community is very exciting, there’s amazing stuff going on. Pricing is reasonable, and so on... BUT. We’re all at the mercy of Apple. The biggest company in the world. And when I say at the mercy, it’s not rethorical. So it’s hardly a poetical “resistance “ or indie kind of movement. It’s beautiful becasuse it happened to be, because Android was clumsy in developing their sound kernel or api or whatever.... I’m not gonna take it for granted and I’m certainly not going to fight for Apple. The minute the opportunity comes along, they’ll ditch every developer that has made the iOS music world exciting for a 120€ Logic-i without even blinking,
@tahiche and @Sequencer1
Both you arguments are totally valid. And it's a very personal choice except you're working professionally and you have to conform to certain standards that can't be matched without software only running on a desktop OS.
Going iOS means making yourself dependent on Apple with all the pros and cons, an ecosystem that generally works smoothly together but just as much you're stuck if Apple release a f**ked up iOS release and Apple stopping to sign iOS versions that still work, before numerous issues are fixed in the new version.
But it also means reducing your apps to the minimum feature set necessary to make music, often in a more focused and productive way than on desktop software.
Going desktop won't free you from being totally tied to the OS manufacturer, only with Microsoft added to the game but that doesn't make too much of a difference to me 😉
i think most of desktop, and surprising also lot of people here, doesn't really understand iOS platform... they're expecting to have 1:1 same feature set like desktop apps (especially in terms of DAWs) just on (relatively) small touchscreen.
dam, Logic X is on the edge of usability even on 15" screen using mouse ! Some controls are really tiny. Scaling down this one to 12.9" or even 10" would be nonsense... And btw Logic control inteeface iOS app is in my option absolute crap, switching between screens all the time. In case Logic iOS would go this way, then it would be horribly unusable app for me.
Same would happen to Live.
There is simply too much features
to make it usable on small touch screen.
IPad is different paradigm. There is already everything available which makes sense for this platform. If you're missing somethimg which is crucial for your workflow, you cannot adjust your workflow to fit the platform, and youn cannot really make music becauss of that - then you simply picked wrong platform. There is desktop, there is iOS and there is HW. Use any of them for making music, use any combination of them to make music but don't expect that one will fully replace other. That doesn't make any sense.
example: HW grooveboxes are there for years and nobody expecrs they will replace desktop DAW. Look at iOS apps in same way. It's different alternstive universe, it's not mentioned tombe just scaled down copy of other one...
Btw Henry Ford of iOS were for me 3 persons:
Not sayin there were not some apps even. efore these three, but i cannot see any of them revolutionar like these 3 in any way. These three were simply huge leap forward, they made from iOS serious music production platform (which is use exclusively since 2010)
This is an interesting point @dendy. You’re right, it doesn’t make sense to expect the same desktop daw in an iPad. But, are we users to blame?. Let me explain.
If we’re not to expect the same funcionality and workflow as in a desktop, they shouldn’t give us daws that are a cut-down version of a desktop daw.
On the ui side... Do you want tiny faders on an iPad?. I’d say no, so don’t put tiny faders. Don’t give us the same layout as if we were using a mouse instead of our fingers.
On the most demanding functional side... if you don’t expect the daw to do it all, make a Daw that’s open and make it truly modular. That is, make a Daw in the same spirit as Audiobus or AUM. This modular aspect is, in my opinion, the absolutely best thing about iOS music. You choose your sampler, your piano roll, your sequencer, your randomizer, your effect chain, your modular pieces. And you have a box with connectors to chain and connect them. Just like AUM or AB.
Daws are getting there in some ways but are “stuck” in a “i wanna be like the desktop beast”, and that is holding them back. This is true for Cubasis, BM3, Zenbeats... They are closed systems. Yes, they keep some windows open but rather reluctantly and in a not very straightforward way. Say you want to trigger external hardware from Rozeta in a channel of your daw... good luck. I’d like an AUM or AB mindset in DAWs. Provide a frame, a master sequencer, tracks and audio, but keep the routing open. Why a DAW then?. Because you need a valid framework. AUM does that for live performance, but not for timeline or clip recording. I’ve tried...
So don’t try to build a monster daw, build a solid frame. A Eurorack daw. Let me Route midi from and to whatever (AUM midi mapping or ApeMatrix are a solid example). Let me Route audio between tracks, record the output of a channel (AUM). Provide automation, a lot of it, multitrack outputs, sidechaining... Wouldn’t you trade 88 daw native plugins for these?. A modular daw it should be, me thinks.
it really depends on your needs / workflow, your overall approach to music making ... for example i'm totally out of this AUM - modular approach. Based on my observations, i'm different from most people here at this forum :-)) - connecting tons of apps in between and still thinking what happened wrong if something somewhere stops working - that's not for me, that totally kills my flow .. I hate cables in real world and i hate also "virtual cables"
)) i need one complete self-contained rock solid solution, app with unified UI which provides me all tools i need for make my music in standardised UI. Single app approach, that's my way 
Also limited posibilities and need for searching workarounds and smart solutions with limited set of tools works for me as huge creativity booster. I literally love limitations and "missing features" :-))
Ironically recently i moved from iPad to HW - using DT+DN for my music, but because they have almost identical "UI", it's basically same case - it's like using single tool.
I think ios is demonstrating that re DAWs it can encompass both an old world and modular approach. More development in both formats, I imagine.
Ios music making is all u could ever ask for as a regular joe...The only shortcomings are imagination and creativity...i think u can do as much with a phone, an irig and a good mic as u can in a studio...u just need a shot of curiosity with a chaser of desire...ask Gavinski😎
Absolutely. For me, embracing the limitations and using what's available today is key. That already opens up more possibilities than the average human would ever have time to explore for.
Exactly