Apple Pencil for Mobile Music Production? | haQ attaQ

jakoB_haQ

I've tested both the 1st and 2nd generation Apple Pencils to find out if they could be useful for mobile music producers. Here's what I found out.

PS. I definitely hate one of them …

catherder

Why not use a third party pencil for music work? A much cheaper alternative to the in my opinion overpriced Apple pencils. I got myself a Ciscle stylus for £25. It is tilt sensitive, has palm rejection and works perfect for pianoroll editing, sample and envelope manipulation and all other audio tasks.

Samu

Nice One

When I got my 11" 256GB M1 iPadPro WiFi I wen't 'all in' and got the Apple Pencil 2, USB-C 3.5mm dongle, Smart Cover, a USB-C 7-in-1 dongle (LinQ thing).

The pencil is really nice with Pro Create (that was the first 'new' app I got for the M1). I just love painting with it.

Other use-cases I have for the pencil is when UI elements of apps are too small to touch.

The 'problem' I see here is that when more people start to use alternative input methods (Keyboard, Mouse, Pencil etc) with the iPad the 'focus' is drifting away from 'Touch First' which is what the iPad and iPhone are all about.

I do admit that I 'cheat' sometimes by sharing the Keyboard and Mouse from my MacMini to the iPad using Universal Control especially since it makes it super easy to drag'n'drop files and audio and other files between the devices (ie. I can drag a piece of audio from Logic's time-line straight into a 'Flexi Sampler' in Drambo or vice-versa from Drambo's recorder or file-browser straight to Logic's time-line).

I will take the plunge and install iPadOS16.1 on my iPad monday evening and will also update my MacMini macOS Ventura as the integration between devices gets even more seamless.

Cheers!

NeuM

Let us know which apps and plug-ins suddenly refuse to work in iPadOS 16, @Samu.

amethystswitch

Funny I have been using an Apple Pencil since 2018 because i also do painting in procreate but I never thought of using my pencil for music apps although they’re often are very fine controls where I struggle with my fingers especially as I am visually impaired

catherder

@zah said:

@catherder said:
Why not use a third party pencil for music work? A much cheaper alternative to the in my opinion overpriced Apple pencils. I got myself a Ciscle stylus for £25. It is tilt sensitive, has palm rejection and works perfect for pianoroll editing, sample and envelope manipulation and all other audio tasks.

How long have you had your Ciscle stylus? I'm reading lots of reviews saying that it was great for a week or month and then problems.

No problems at all. I bought it four months ago. Still works well. The only problem some people might have is that it comes with a standard USB charging cable and not USB-C or Lightning. Otherwise I can fully recommend it.

Samu

@NeuM said:
Let us know which apps and plug-ins suddenly refuse to work in iPadOS 16, @Samu.

I'll most likely be quite vocal if my favorite stuff doesn't work as expected
As long as Drambo and BM3 behave as expected I'l all good haha.

jakoB_haQ

@zah said:

@jakoB_haQ said:
I've tested both the 1st and 2nd generation Apple Pencils to find out if they could be useful for mobile music producers. Here's what I found out.

If it's just for music work and dragging and dropping in design/photo apps, you could just use a cheap dollar store stylus. Here in Canada, an Apple pencil including taxes is almost 200 dollars. And then you buy another one when the battery dies in a coupla years.

I wanted to test the original.

I purchased both pencils used on an auction site. I paid about $50 for the 1st gen and about $70 for the 2nd gen.

ecou

@jakoB_haQ said:

@zah said:

@jakoB_haQ said:
I've tested both the 1st and 2nd generation Apple Pencils to find out if they could be useful for mobile music producers. Here's what I found out.

If it's just for music work and dragging and dropping in design/photo apps, you could just use a cheap dollar store stylus. Here in Canada, an Apple pencil including taxes is almost 200 dollars. And then you buy another one when the battery dies in a coupla years.

I wanted to test the original.

I purchased both pencils used on an auction site. I paid about $50 for the 1st gen and about $70 for the 2nd gen.

I had my first gen Canadian Apple Pencil for many years and the battery is still good. I had those dollar store stylus, not at all the same experience.

bygjohn

I bought my Pencil when I bought my iPad 6th gen new in 2018. The battery is fine in the Pencil, though it only gets light use. Mainly because at the moment I seem to have stopped drawing/painting and I’m fully concentrated on music. I know exactly what Jakob means in the video about small parts like the cap and charger adapter (my adapter developed a crack in the case, so it’s taped up to stop that getting any worse). But basically you can’t choose which one to use, you can only use the one your particular iPad is compatible with.

What I can’t get my head round is the new base model iPad, which only works with the Pencil 1, but doesn’t have a lightning port, so you have to use a dongle. While you could charge it using a separate charger, I assume you need said dongle to pair it. Just bizarre. The only explanation I can think of for this is that they have a warehouse full of unsold Pencil 1s they want to shift, but have switched the base model to USB-C due to upcoming regulations in multiple countries re universal charging ports. As a user experience it’s hopeless - I expect better from Apple, frankly.

ecou

@zah said:

@ecou said:

@jakoB_haQ said:

@zah said:

@jakoB_haQ said:
I've tested both the 1st and 2nd generation Apple Pencils to find out if they could be useful for mobile music producers. Here'ls what I found out.

If it's just for music work and dragging and dropping in design/photo apps, you could just use a cheap dollar store stylus. Here in Canada, an Apple pencil including taxes isalmost 200 dollars. And then you buy another one when the battery dies in a coupla years.

I wanted to test the original.

I purchased both pencils used on an auction site. I paid about $50 for the 1st gen and about $70 for the 2nd gen.

I had my first gen Canadian Apple Pencil for many years and the battery is still good. I had those dollar store stylus, not at all the same experience.

Yeah, I get that the experience is not at all the same with tilt, palm reject etc. But for his uses, which was just touching knobs to tweak and dragging points in a designing app, a simple battery-less touch stylus is all you'd need, imo.

The big difference is that the tip is very small compared to those black rubber stylus. Easier to see what you are doing on small controls. The Apple pen also glides over the surface a lot easier when dragging the controls vs those rubber tips.

I had a bunch of battery-less stylus and I would never got back.

dendy

@jakoB_haQ i have first generation .. the disadvantages you mentioned are definitely there but don't think its that bad.. it very quickly (literaly minute or two) charges when i connect it to my ipad just bofore i want to use it ..