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If you knew then what you know now
Hi there,
I am a complete newbie. I was a singer songwriter for 15 years but never did I once get involved with recording or production. For the last 5 years I have been busy growing up. I left my band, got married, bought a house, had a baby and havent been anywhere near a guitar for a couple of years.
I want to (attempt) write an album where I do everything. Guitar, bass, drums and vocals.
My wife bought me an Ipad last week for my birthday as I have been considering starting the project for quite sometime.
I am a complete newbie, starting from the beginning and looking for some good advice. If you knew then what you know now, what would you have done differently. What apps would buy ? Whats the best interface ? What Daw would you recommend ?
Pretty much, I have a ipad and a guitar, what are the next steps ? What equipment do I need to buy ?
Thanks in advance for your advice
Comments
Sorry should also mention that this will be rock, hopefully with a vintage feel to the music, riff based Led Zep, AC DC.
Thanks
My advice is to search and read through this forum. There is A LOT of good info here. Here is a recent thread on most inspiring app. Look at threads like this for recommendations.
People are going to have different opinions on what is best. Cubasis, Auria, Beatmaker 2, and MultiTrack DAW are all good DAWs. I would say start with GarageBand. It doesn't get much respect here, but it is a good place to start to get your feet wet, figure out what you want to do, or if you want to do it. Spend the $5 on the Complete Collection IAP (in-app purchase).
There are other good sources of info such as musicappblog, discchord, and palmsounds.
Last, but not least...Welcome!
Excellent advice. I think garageband is often simply forgotten, but especially for the price it is a great starting point. As far as interfaces, a lot will depend on your top priorities (e.g. small and portable, # of inputs, pre quality etc). Maybe have a look at the focusrite scarlett series as a starting point.
I'm a Garageband fan too, so I'll second using it - at least for starters. I think most apps have a steep-ish learning curve (GB no exception), but a couple of us know most of our way around it, so feel free to ask about it.
I'm not a guitar player, so I pay minimal attention to the threads here involving iOS guitar interfaces; but there are a number of options there (along with a great selection of guitar apps and the like) and every single one seems to have some sort of shortcoming or trade-off that gets hackles up around here when discussing them, sometimes...
Beware of being an appaholic! Or not... all-in-all, they're cheap (mostly), and you'll want to only worry about the Audiobus-compatible ones, anyway. And probably not all of them... if you're lucky!
And welcome, as well.
I use the apogee jam for guitar input, and irig midi for connecting a keyboard controller. There are alternative all-in-one docks, the focusrite idock seems to be a new popular choice.
Apps...I assume you've bought Audiobus. Next stop is AUDIOSHARE. This will be your main hub/library for your audio and midi files.
You didn't mention synths, but a great place to start if that's on your list is SUNRIZER.
For amps... I prefer JAMUP over AMPLITUBE and AMPKIT. Checkout BIAS too.
For fx apps, you'll get great stuff from the developers Kymatica.... AUFX:SPACE and AUFX: DUB, and from Holderness Media.... ECHO PAD and CRYSTALLINE.
DAWS....GARAGEBAND would be a great place to start and then aim for another app that will address the main limitations you find you have in GB. Everybody has their favourite...AURIA, CUBASIS, MULTITRACK DAW.
Definitely get THUMBJAM. Google it to find out why.
My favourite midi controller is SOUNDPRISM PRO.
Just a few tips for you.
Enjoy yourself...you're on a fun new road.
Lots of good advice in this thread already. My favorite combo after trying everything is Auria for live instruments/effects/mixing, Beatmaker 2 for drums/samples/midi work. I use an Apogee Jam as a guitar interface.
Everyone's different, definitely start with GarageBand and read away on the forum. Lots of fun anyway
One thing that I would do differently if it would have been possible back then, would be to find a way to avoid buying apps that I would immediately regret buying. I have purchased probably a couple hundred apps for audio, yet only feel that 40-50 apps are worth keeping and using. @telecharge has great advice--research before you buy, so that you get the best of the best of what you need, and don't end up purchasing junk. That said, I think I can safely say that you will be making good choices if you start with the following:
There are many other great apps available too, but I would list these as my top 20 essential apps as of today. If you were to get everyone's top 20 list and buy only the ones that are most popular and would you would likely use, you'll reduce the chances of making the purchasing mistakes I've made. :-)
A few other great apps:
There are lots more...
I purchased an iPad for the first time 6 months ago and came from a rock band background as a guitarist. Since getting it I’ve gone a bit app crazy, but at it’s simplest I use iRig pro for guitar input, Bias or JamUp Pro for amp simulation and Garageband for recording. (finishing off in LogicPro X on the mac)
Flying Haggis is popular with guitarists.
Best advice is use the search box on this forum. So many discussions and so much input. Far more wheat than chaff and (almost) all of it in good spirit.
Oh, and Thumbjam.
@SpookyZoo really nailed it above with the recommendations - those are great essentials!
I will tell you what my experience has been over the past 6 months as a person at about the same place in life as you (guitar player for years, put it down, started family, picked it back up again) who has obsessed with all things iOS music. You have a very specific goal of using iOS to record full tracks and basically to augment your guitar playing into making finished products. That was initially my sole goal with iOS music as well.
But there's an intoxication about iOS music and the availability of affordable software that will have you saying "Holy crap, I can do THAT on an iPad" on regular basis. My devices are filled with synthesizers, drum machines, and effects apps that bear little relationship to my original goal of having a portable multi-track recorder for my guitar. Not that it's a bad thing - I didn't have any grand design of creating rock music to distribute to other people. But just be aware that you can spend so much time playing with apps and discovering new sounds that it will actually take away from the time you are playing and creating music.
But getting back to the original question, there is not much "equipment" you need, other than a good interface, such as an Apogee JAM.
http://www.amazon.com/JAM-Studio-Quality-Guitar-iPhone/dp/B004Z8VQ2O/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1404152482&sr=8-1&keywords=apogee+jam
They make a 96k one for a little more money, and there are other brands you can read about, but pretty much any of the popular ones that go through your 30-pin or lightning jack will do. Do NOT even bother with the headphone jack ones - tons of feedback and crosstalk problems. I felt a little crummy plopping down $100 for my interface, and that guilt was gone within 10 seconds of plugging it in. Crystal clear sound with virtually no "noise".
APPS - I won't relist all the ones mentioned above, but will point out that while there are hundreds of great music apps, the majority of them tend to work best for things other than straight rock music. I am primarily a guitar player - I do have one cheap bass that I've used to lay down some bass lines, and that sounds fine. I recently discovered iFretless Bass and that is the best $10 I have spent in awhile (https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ifretless-bass/id512929963?mt=8). There are literally dozens of synths and samplers that can do convincing bass sounds for use with rock music, but the touch and simplicity of that app is just fantastic.
Don't know how picky you are about drums, but you can go either with a loops (like you'd find in GarageBand, or an app like Drum Beats+ (https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/drum-beats+-rhythm-metronome/id461218759?mt=8), or a programmable app with a pattern grid (DrumStudio is a good place to start: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/drumstudio/id453405042?mt=8). If you want a virtually endless stream of content, get an app like EasyBeats 3 (https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/easybeats-3-drum-mpc-program/id643525506?mt=8) that allow you to import your own .wav files and set up kits. There are hundreds of free drum kits and vintage drum machine samples all over the web.
Finally, learn about MIDI (if you don't already know what it is). It's a big step to get from finding great sounds on iOS to figuring out how sequence and time things in a usable musical manner for recording. This becomes critical on iOS because the touchscreen controller can be tough to use rhythmically almost no matter how long you practice at it. Here's a thread I started where a few people helped me out before I had any clue: http://forum.audiob.us/discussion/4087/noobs-guide-to-virtual-midi/p1
Above all, stay patient. I had GarageBand on my iPad since probably 2010. I never really understood it. If you don't have a background in that stuff, simple concepts such as slicing, trimming, and looping aren't that easy to figure out. But you will get it, and once you figure it out, the possibilities are endless. Enjoy!
@telecharge said:
while there is a lot of great advice in the thread so far, this sums it up best to me. The only other thing I'd add is to keep it simple. Take your time to fully grasp a few apps in order to get to where you can focus on the music and not on figuring out how to do this or that on your iPad. Lastly, connect with local people and get them involved!
If you're patient you can use this site to keep track of when apps are on sale. One great thing about Auria is the add-ons, which are great bargains, particularly when they go on sale. Auria will probably go on a half-price sale again sometime this summer. The add-ons go half-price either around Thanksgiving or around Christmas. I might have spent $60 on FabFilter add-ons alone during the last sale, but the same FabFilters in their desktop versions would probably top $400.
GarageBand, Thumbjam, and also bs-16i, because you can find a lot of soundfonts for rock.
Like most people here I've also bought a fair few apps, too many if I'm being honest, but actually I don't really regret any of it. It's an essential part of the learning process, and really it's bound to be down to personal preference - what rocks my boat is not the same as what rocks someone else's, and there's no substitute for finding out things for yourself.
My personal favourites are Auria, Flying Haggis and BIAS, but there are other apps that I also like and use a lot, although not as much as those three, so Animoog and Sunrizer are my favourite synths, with Magellan not too far behind.
I learnt early on that I wasn't really into making sequenced music, so I've avoided a lot of the really popular apps that are in that genre, such as Korg Gadget or Electrify NXT, so at least that has saved me some money. But of course for those who are into that kind of approach to music those apps are obviously really worthwhile. Horses for courses.
The biggest expense for me has been Auria and all the plugins, but I definitely have no regrets on that front, because it's given me the power of a desktop DAW at a fraction of the price.
Other than apps already mentioned it might be worth having a look at DrumPerfect for realistic sounding drum patterns. There's a learning curve, but i think it's worth it. Also, if the kits don't sound perfect you can finish off in Auria by replacing the drum sounds with Drumagog. This might not be next steps from absolute beginner, but if you're going to make an album use the above for your drums, iFretless for bass and put your guitar through bias/jamup and you would be half way there.
Thanks so much, wasn't actually expecting to get a response. I have a beringer UCG102 that I bought months ago and forgot about, will this work with the IPad camera connector ? If so I will buy one of these. Thanks for all the recommendations, I plan to keep posting to let you know how I'm getting on. Just realised I am going to need headphones, how do I go about playing guitar and listening through headphones ?
According to Sweetwater yes the UCG102 works great as an iOS interface. Like you said you need the camera connection kit but make sure to get the real one from Apple not a 3rd party cck which don't always work.
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/UCG102/
@Houseofhounds said:
You mean while using the UCG102?
I haven't used it but it looks like it has it's own headphone out?
Check YouTube for demos of all aforementioned apps and more. See what tones inspire you. Let your own ears be your guide.
(For the record, I'm a guitarist as well.)
Just to add my 5p. The apps that never left my ipad since purchase are:
Beatmaker 2, animoog, sunrizer, audiobus (of course!), gadget, impaktor, isem, loopy hd, magellan, xynthesizer, effectrix, turnado, thumbjam, Chordion, live fx and ampkit. I'd say coming from your angle best straight out guitar fx IMHO is ampkit, possibly jamup, for recording garage band is ok but you'll soon want to change it for something more flexi. Beatmaker 2 is very stable for audio, sampling and midi but has its learning curve. Many people swear by cubasis and Auria but the latter can be expensive with plugins etc. beatmaker is a much cheaper option but you will need to spend time learning it and it is rather large 800mb. Mt daw is ok but I'd rather stick with garage band and save up for something better. For mastering final touch and audio mastering get good reviews. The cheapest audio interface with a decent quality you'll find is behringer uca 202/222 that should do you for starters (you may need a small mixer with it). Alternatively you have all of the fancier meter faces such as apogee one (compact) or focusrite itrack but watch out for dock style gizmos as iPads form factor may change. I'd give the irig style guitar dongles that go into the headphone jack a miss, waste of time, too much crackling/spill. Ah, and get yourself a genuine apple camera connection kit CCK. Hope this helps.
That stuff and everything @spookyzoo said.
I'll add that for authentic sounding natural drums to put DrumPerfect in your wishlist. Skip it for now and just get to the rocking with GB. You'll know when you're ready.
Searching the forum to get started is probably overwhelming. But once you get started you'll run into specific problems like "my drums sound flat". Search the forum for those at that point and you'll find lots of stuff.
I'd skip all of the synth apps for now. LZ or AC/DC hardly used them and the ones in GarageBand will get you going.
So you're getting some pretty good advice so far. I'll consolidate some of the suggestions here based on my own personal experience.
GarageBand - great app for starting out and getting your feet wet, just as everyone has suggested, but...it also has some features that are pretty amazing that you won't find in the other DAWs mentioned. SmartStrings for orchestral sounds is pretty much unmatched in any other app I've found, even ones dedicated to that genre. You'll also get some basic guitar amps in there as well, but they're nowhere near as flexible as some of the standalone apps like JamUp, my personal fav among the guitar modelers/ It's a great app and an awesome place to start as others have mentioned.
Beatmaker 2 - Super powerful little app, but probably geared more to folks who are doing more electronic music originally. That being said, as you can see from the other folks comments, it's outgrown that limitation by a long shot. Once you get past the quirkiness of the UI, you'll discover the same thing countless others on here have. This is one powerhouse of a DAW.
Cubasis - I own it, and it's got a great UI. It's not currently installed on my iPad, though, because I have BM2 and....
Auria - Simply the best sounding DAW you can get on iOS in my humble opinion. Understand that a lot of that has to do with use cases though. I don't really use midi much for anything. If I did, Cubasis would probably have a bigger footprint in my workflow. Via Auria you have access to some of the most powerful audio plugins available on the platform. The UI is very "desktopy" (copyright pending), but for your money, you can't get better effects on an iPad. And you'll be dropping a lot of money on those considering the "good ones" will start around 30 bucks. Let this be your final destination for DAWs once you've mastered the recording process and are ready to take your sound to another level. This is probably the best app I own, and i'm not just saying that because I've spent a small fortune on it. It's earned every dime I've dropped on it.
Apps
Thumbjam - just get it. Like right away. This is the definitive app for touchscreen devices, hands down. Folks might argue some of the points I've made above, but I'm pretty sure you'll find 100% agreement across all members on this one.
Guitar modelers - get them all. They're ridiculously cheap. For the price of a good Big Muff pedal you can own all the major players. Most of them have free versions you can play with to decide which you like the best. I prefer JamUp, but I honestly couldn't tell you if that's really because it sounds so much better or if it's just because it's the one that got the features I wanted the fastest (hello audiobus). They all have feature parity on that front at this point really.
Drum apps - there's just so many. Like others have said, read the forum to decide which is best for you. For me, I use a combination of BM2 (for a bass kick and snare typically) and then DrumJam for fills and transitions. Drumjam is made by the same developer who makes Thumbjam. It's a great app by a visionary of a developer.
There are so many great apps out there. Samplr is awesome and another touch screen wonder, but it might not be for you. Fortunately, you've got a great resource right here. Nearly every app out there has been cataloged here with more details than most of the developers who made the apps could tell you in one sitting. Take the time to read the forum. It's going to be a great resource for you.
And obviously you're going to want Audiobus. Surely that goes without saying.
I think you're about to embark on a really awesome journey. Please stop back in and give us periodic updates on your progress.
Finally, welcome to the forum.
I've been doing this (with a computer) for some 30 years. If I had it all to do over, Honestly, I'd get an iMac, Logic Pro X and Reaktor. I'd get a midi controller like Midi Designer Pro, TC-data or Lemur. I'd buy an nice new Stratocaster and use it with Jamup Pro XT or the amp designer in Logic. I might be inclined to get Animoog and Samplr or another primary granular app (besides Reaktor, in which are hundreds) like the Mangle and or Sliver. That would be it! for me. if I had it all to do again. O, and I'd get a iConnectMIDI2+
That sounds like a pretty sweet plan @gkillmaster.
I'm pretty new to the forum, but it's a thread like this that makes me realize why -weird as they/we are- I've spent so much of my time hanging around with musicians all these years. Excellent comments and generous with them folks. Good stuff.
@boone51 said:
This. 2013 was my year of being addicted to all things guitar - especially effects pedals. I was pretty good about trading in old gear to get new, and buying reasonably priced options instead of $100+ boutiques. But...
Being addicted to apps, which is my 2014 habit, is way cheaper than a hobby like that. And like someone else said above, I don't regret 90% of the purchases but it's just so damn fun to bust out a new music app, and create some sound that maybe reminds me of some recording I'd heard, or might be something new that I really like.
You can own virtually an entire wall of amplifiers and several pedal boards for probably $50 total in IAP's through JamUp and AmpKit. Does it sound 100% authentic to the "real thing?" Probably not, but it sounds really, really good, and the entire package is contained in one place no bigger than the size of an iPad.
Also, shout-out above to the guy who mentioned Flying Haggis. It was a late addition the guitar modeling game, but at $6.99 (I think) it is crazy good. Love the simplicity of all controls on one screen, and it has great vintage tones.
Finally, since you're a guitar player, note that we are anticipating a brand new app from developer Yonac called "ToneStack". It should be out in the not-too-far future and while it doesn't look revolutionary, it has a heavy emphasis on effects and 24 cabs/amps.
@SpookyZoo said:
And don't forget DrumJam!
Both definitely worth it!
As a guitar player you definately want Bias & Jamup!