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Sketchpad vs. Serious Product
I see a lot of different apps and even hardware being described as “sketchpads”. I always wonder what that means. Are people unable to finish music in certain pieces of kit/apps or are they underpowered for certain tasks, etc.?
Curious about the communities thoughts on this.
Comments
Well, Staffpad is both a literal and figurative sketchpad of sorts, because virtual orchestral music is normally a desktop sort of thing, and you have more options for libraries on desktop. The writing detection system was not very advanced when I last checked, and two of the buttons that I accessed most often required me to navigate to a different tab, which was annoying. Desktop is more powerful for virtual orchestration, but Staffpad does have a unique algorithm where it renders the samples when you press play, so it can handle large projects much better than any standard iOS DAW. But yes, iPad is better as a sketchpad for orchestral composition, if used at all.
I also do enjoy coming up with sound design ideas in AUM on iPhone. Most of my finished iOS projects are done in Drambo or Nanostudio, but I do more tinkering and drafting ideas on iOS than anything else. The form factor allows me to design ambient pads while laying in bed, and bed is a great place to do that. But if I could use a library like Metropolis Ark on iOS, I certainly would.
Is difficult to have a full workflow on iPad, I blame it to the touch interface.
Once you add a keyboard and a mouse you just can't compete to the full DAWs that are on desktop for decades
Surely this is largely a case of familiarity and/or what input method you first learnt to use such tools with? Personally, I much prefer using a touchscreen (admittedly with an Apple Pencil) and find desktop (mouse/keyboard) setups a real chore to use in comparison.
Having the possibility of pointing without clicking is what makes a mouse superior for me.
Funnily that could be implemented on touch screen, point with one finger, “click” with a second one, it could make daw timelines way more usable I think
Yeah, it’s weird how the mechanics of the touch screen interaction are, seemingly, treated as a done deal by the OS developers - there are surely improvements and additions which could be made but there doesn’t seem to be much innovation or refinement going on unfortunately. Maybe things will evolve with the next generation of touchscreen technology (whatever that will be)?
For me a sketch pad app is for when I have an idea I want to just get down real quick or coming up with a whole song with chord progressions and lyrics and if I like it then I’ll take it to another app, sometimes I might not feel like it’s something worth taking to a full Daw. These days you really have to be a musician and your own engineer and with a full blown Daw you can sometimes or a lot of times have to focus what your doing in the Daw as well as being the artist. With a sketch pad I can be a little less of an engineer and focus more on the idea.
“Sketchpad” apps (eg the recent Ableton and ProTools apps) are seemingly aimed at people who think you can only do “real” or “professional” music on a desktop DAW, usually because they are familiar with that environment and hooked on a particular workflow.
Which is fine, but ignores (or is ignorant of) the potential for doing things differently.
Personally, I’m for whatever floats your boat/makes it easy to be creative.
But I do confess to getting a tad irritated when people say you can’t do X or Y on iOS, so therefore nobody can make finished music on the platform. What they mean is that they can’t, or won’t adapt in order to do so.
I remember when “they” used to say that about computers.
Interesting answers and I appreciate the insight.
Could anyone give any more examples of "sketchpad" apps vs apps/software they would finish a song in?
💯 I make finished music on my iPad all the time even if I don’t release it 😂 but I do have an all iOS album coming out soon. It’s more than possible.
Reminds me of one of my grandma’s favourite sayings; “Can’t means you won’t, and won’t means you’re lazy “ 😅
Many many years ago a bunch of cool hipsters made a compilation album using only the Roland MC 505 groovebox, which was very primitive compared to today's all in one hardware. You can make a whole song with anything. I've made a whole album using only koala sampler. Where there's a will there's a way.