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Comments
There’s a lot of stuff that can be used, Pure Acid could fit in this category.
Oh and welcome to the forum, and iOS music @128BPM
Gadget has a free version. The London drummachine in the free version is nice.
Thank you, but I’ve been here a while and have become addicted to this forum - The friendliest place on the internet. I check several times a day 🫣 Have learned a lot - and bought too many apps.
I could maybe just have taken a look in my own appfolder to answer my original question, but it is so nice to get your ideas as well. I always switch workflow, so it is hard for me to choose 1 or 2 main apps.
I really don’t know if I should gift him an app or not. Today (after I posted my question) I met a group of pro musicians/producers. I told them (excited) about the latest iOS music tools, and they where just 🙄🥱😴
It isn’t for everyone
Justice created their "Cross" album in Garageband. 😉 It's a great way to get started and for free and with 3+gb downloadable content and so many great features!
This friendly wonderful forum has its darkside.....it often fuels GAS (gear acquisition syndrome). 😂
Best to get others' ideas as well, weigh pros and cons and then come to your own conclusions for sure.
Those "pro" musicians are a gaggle of pretentious idiots. 😆 Even before Logic Pro was released to iPad the iPad has been a professional tool that has constantly grown over the years since the Angry Birds days. Apps like Nanostudio 2, Cubasis 3, Zenbeats, Beatmaker 3, Loopy Pro, Audio Evolution Mobile, Gadget 2, FL Studio Mobile 4, AUM, etc have always made the iPad a viable tool for music creation. Just that the iPad workflow is more decentralised than in a desktop DAW.
(Then again, many "professionals" who use a desktop often float between DAWs themselves rather than using one DAW.)
Anyways, that same pretentious "professional" attitude towards the iPad reminds me of the days when FL Studio on the PC was considered "just a toy" back in the 2000s when such people still called FL Studio as "Fruity Loops" and couldn't care less to call the software by its proper name.
Right, I've remixed tracks for Sash! on my iPad that have seen public release on all streaming platforms, including Youtube. Here's one such example...
Yes, that's all in Nanostudio 2! Remember, a "professional" isn't defined by what tools they use. A "professional" is defined by making use of the tools they have.
Example - Justice created this album...
...100% in Garageband, which is not considered a "professional" tool. But Xavier and Gaspard are professional musicians who made use of the software they had on the Mac. (I think they use Cubase now, not certain.).
...
...yeah I had a strong drink tonight and am buzzed af what of it mate? 🥃😆
Not 100% but yes they use Garageband for some things. Cross just destroyed everything else at the time, what an album.
Gaspard’s album Escapades is also brilliant.
Trying to do microsampling like Justice in iOS Garageband would make me have a stroke. 😂
I think Cross was all in Garageband, but later albums incorporated GB for some things but were compiled in Cubase. I could be wrong though, but any further info I search for on Google I can't seem to find, so all I can do right now is speculate.
Facts!
Hahaha, same here! 😂 Would be a right pain, that. Would be easier to microsample in Logic iPad, Cubasis 3, or easiest of all...Beatmaker 3.
I would go go for apps that are fun to use as standalone and I would make sure that they are all AUv3 in case he wants to move on and dive in to a AUv3 host later.
But i would give him Pure Acid, Koala Sampler and Spacecraft and maybe Ruismaker Noir. All of them are great fun as stand-alone and great when used together in a host.
I’m a huge Drambo fan but if AUM is to complicated at the moment I would save my money till the time is right.
what is microsamoling ?
I would say it depends very much how deep he wants to get into beat making. Actually I find a bit confusing that he is a veteran producer but AUM would be too deep for him. Anyway, if the export-to-Mac feature is important you must choose an app with a Mac counterpart or with Ableton export and pair it with a free Ableton Lite version that is bundled with an app - Koala is a great choice for that reason. If he has no iPad and is limited to an iPhone many apps are not really fun. Based on these assumptions I can make some proposals with different depth.
I would always buy Koala since it is a great pocket sampler with a free Mac version and comes with a Ableton Lite license. Additionally:
The easy peasy: The Ampify apps Launchpad, Groovebox and Blocs Wave. Free but some important unlock IAPs. All work well together on the iPhone. Great soundpacks and very intuitive handling. Productions can be integrated in the Launchpad app and then performed. Exported to Ableton Lite on the Mac and then further mangled with Ableton‘s devices. Thanks to Ableton Link support everything can be easily synced with Ableton on the Mac.
The ambitious rabbit hole: Drambo. TBH I think for a former producer, Drambo shouldn’t be too difficult if you don’t want to create your own devices. It works well with Koala and is available for M1 Macs. Last but not least Drambo can run inside of Ableton.
If you want an app that you can just open and immediately start making music, especially electronic music, then Gadget is by far the most obvious choice. In your shoes that's definitely the app I would suggest.
For something a bit more flexible, that can also use external instruments, then NS2 is the next best choice.
Drum Computer + Cyclop + AUM
Good times
(If you’re feeling generous, throw in Future Drummer too)
This thread made me thinking: what would be a recreation of setups from back in the day: some apps glued together in either AB or AUM. Say one to two drum/ percussion apps and some melodic apps - all with their own sequencer. Levels and Fx applied in AB or AUM…
Thank you, and Yeah, I understand your confusion.
Let me explain: He is a very very good DJ (local legend) and 15 years ago, he owned a record shop selling club vinyls. I made several tracks with him in my studio. He had exceptionally good ideas and taste but never touched the machinery,
and he was more like an Old School producer than a (app) nerd.
He is the type that would rather pay someone to setup everything - ready for making Music - than spending valuable time on setup.
Now he works in a totally other business, but it could be fun to reconnect through Music again.
I guess I could teach him AUM, but I’m not sure it is the right path.
I think I’m going for Koala + a Bram Bos app. I don’t own Hilda or Ruismaker, so I’m afraid I have to get them myself to test if he would like them 😜
Spacecraft could be fun as well 👍
Yes, this thread made me realise how important AUM is for me…
Drambo is completely unintuitive for anyone unfamiliar with modular synthesis.
Microsampling is using a lot of small samples of music to make something new from it.
Justice, Daft Punk and a lot of the other French house producers use it. The Avalanches “Since I left you” is a master class of the technique.
Well I admit I understood modular before I used Drambo but I think at it’s core, it’s still a very simple easy to use Groovebox. I would never be able to make sense of something like Audulus for example.
Yep I think people underestimate how many people have used iPads and GarageBand for projects. Steve Lacy made all of his early work in GB and I think still uses it to this day. Madlib, one of the best producers ever, has been all iOS since 2017/18 and made multiple Grammy nominated albums and singles with it. Gorillaz made most of an album with an iPad. Bon Iver, Dua Lipas producer, the list goes on. It’s nice to see and I think that list is gonna grow and grow.
I think the distinction needs to be made between using an iPad and doing everything on the iPad.
Steve lacy tracked ideas into Garageband, which later got turned into something real in a studio.
Madlib puts samples together on an iPad which is infinitely more powerful than the Akai samplers of yesterday. His stuff is great but again, it still gets edited, mixed and mastered in studios.
Gorillaz, the iPad was a part of it, with a lot of great players and instruments. It was then edited, mixed and mastered in studio.
I am not saying that to diminish the talent of those people or what you can do with an iPad. These are professionals with a large amount of resources and I get sick of the mythology. The cool thing about The Fall is it represents the birth of iPad music making. I wanted to start an iPad only band back then!
I think the best evidence of what can be done with Garageband is on Dan Baker’s youtube channel.
A bottle of decent tequila and a kiss on the cheek.
Oh yeah! That’s why I said “have used” so as not to insinuate it was all completely iPad. That said, I did read that Lacy and Madlib did the vast majority of writing and editing before sending stuff off to be mastered separately which is still a pretty big deal for iOS. I think Lacy’s first release actually was all on iPhone though. But that’s like early early stuff.
The Fall definitely opened my eyes to what can be done on the iPad. And once I downloaded Gadget when it came out, it was over with lol
Absolutely fascinating. I wonder if Gaspard or Xavier would ever experiment with an iPad in Garageband or gave it a go in the past. I mean, Koala would be the perfect app (both standalone and AUv3) for all that microsampling they do, and Hilda for those sick electro basses they'd come up with.
That Gorillaz album "The Fall" produced on iOS back in...I think it was 2010/2011...wasn't as good as everything else they've made, but at least they made a go of it back in the days before Audiobus came about, and it has Bobby Womack (aka "Across 110th Street") on it! And who doesn't love Bobby Womack?!
And yeah, Madlib did go all iOS (I forgot what his main DAW app is, probably Cubasis). Bon Iver is also a legend as well.
Bon Iver had the classic op-1/iPad workflow that I had for a while and now sorely miss. Of course it was just used occasionally but I know the OP-1 is all over that 22 a Million album. Hence I’m saving up for the Field 😂
The Gorillaz is one of my all time favorite bands. The Fall isn’t their best but I really really appreciate the effort.
As for Madlib I’m not 100%. I know the song he produced for Kanye, No More Parties in LA was gone in GarageBand. I think he uses it often. I feel like I also read Koala but I could be wrong. BM3 would make sense too.
Oh stop! You're gonna give me GAS for that blasted OP-1 Field again, and I honestly don't want that. 🤣 Lol.
I feel the same way about the Gorillaz! Just an amazing band, amazing musical output. I often played "Demon Days" when making digital art, although these days I listen to a bunch of Lofi HipHop playlists on Spotify when making digital art. But ah, Danger Mouse. 😎 One incredible producer.
BM3 would definitely make sense, and I could see Justice using that for their microsampling. And Garageband is such fun to work in on my iPhone and my Mini 6. Logic Pro is where I create some ideas, Garageband for other ideas, but all finished in Logic Pro these days.
Besides Madlib’s Tweet about creating Bandana on iPad I haven’t seen much info about it. Would be interesting to see what/how he uses.
I did spot a stock vocal sample from Korg Gadget in one of his tracks:
https://forum.audiob.us/discussion/comment/1179128/#Comment_1179128
Yup, it’s still something I’m constantly telling people how powerful it is… also it never hurts to ask, I often forget about things I have or what they can do, so no worries.
If he combines apps he'll have to use a host , so he will have to mess with connections etc , I recommend an All_In_One app and not dealing with a DAW at all .
1. GrooveRider seems ideal , I don't think it would be complicated
2. Maybe Korg Gadget but have no clue which IAPs worth , plus it's $$$
3. Also Groovebox has very nice sounds
4. Caustic would be my first choice but it's matter of time to be pulled form the Store (plus in current state it's pain to import samples)
5. Drambo would be the best choice if he wants to dive in deep
6. And MiRack for modular chaos
Let me add an alternative: Apematrix - Hilda - Ruismaker.
If you want to consider a host, I work with Apematrix, which cost just around 12. It’s really great, pretty straightforward, loads auv3 and IAA, you can assign lfo’s to every synth/fx you load into it, and you can record.
You then have the possibility to add Hilda and Ruismaker (or Ruismaker FM) for rhythm. That might all together be around +/- 30(?) I think.
https://apps.apple.com/nl/app/apematrix/id1378343729
https://apps.apple.com/nl/app/hilda-synthesizer/id6447191659
https://apps.apple.com/nl/app/ruismaker/id1122156899
The thing is that with these apps he will have an extremely cool starter setup, and the possibilities for adding more apps in the future are just endless.
And there are great free auv3 fx available, like reverbs, tape fx, compressors, equalizers and so on that you don’t have to pay for, completely free, just ask here and we tell you which ones are good. You don’t have to spend a lot for a great collection of apps.