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Best Practices for Managing on iOS/iPadOS Limitations
This is a thread meant to explore common sense precautions against the limitations of this platform for making music professionally, for live work, or for those who are emotionally or otherwise invested in the music they produce.
We've all experienced those frustrations. Discussion usually gets heated and the complaints are often bitter. In the heat of the moment, suggestions about how to avoid or workaround these things are often not taken well, which is understandable.
Anyone that has performed live for any time knows if it can go wrong it will. The same is true if you're under deadlines, working professionally where time is money, or even if you just have great passion for your work.
Most people are used to dealing with other instruments limitations (broken strings, out of tune instruments, faulty wiring, electrical noise, failed cables, hubs, etc, etc, etc) and hardly think twice about working around them. But for some reason we expect this complex ecosystem of inexpensive apps on a device not primarily designed for performing to work flawlessly.
So ... here's a place to collect information that's meant to be proactive - to help us all learn ways to avoid those frustrations or at least recover gracefully.
Comments
I'll reserve this post for a list of the problems covered further in the thread. I'll try to keep it updated as new issues come up.
Starter list:
Going to be a long list (I suspect) because problems usually stem from factors which were never considered before encountering them. The number of things which could go wrong due to unforeseen circumstances are vast.
True. But there are definitely recurring issues that come up all the time here. The point is, learning as much as possible in advance what can go wrong and what to do about it is helpful.
Backing up Logic, my advice:
Don’t rely on a single solution - while having a backup of each project on your iPad and iCloud may seem adequate, things can go wrong with that as your only sources of your precious material.
As we have seen of late, apps may change or disappear completely, so if you don’t or can’t back up the apps, at least save the project in as many forms as possible.
Answer: buy a decent card reader and quality back up media cards.
Back up the following:
The Logic project file.
Finished projects as audio stems.
Midi stems if possible - keeping aware that unfreezing some AuV3s can be problematic and may be better saving the midi stems before freezing if needed.
Save any audio files you add to the project.
Any AuV3 presets you make or change if possible.
If a project is really important or possibly financially important, you may want to consider making a copy project and making stems from an unmixed version, keeping reasonable levels for later mixing and possibly dry versions of tracks in case you want to remix with different fx. Screenshots of project automation and other complexities may be helpful later on. Keep notes.
Make a copy of your backup.
Don’t use cheap memory cards.
Don’t rely solely on one backup.
Don’t rely solely on online storage.
Please add to this if needed.
What a great thread idea. Yeah, have backups.
As far as using an iPad/ipod for live gigs, I’ve only used them so far for playing pre-recorded tracks, or for sheet music (chord changes/lyrics). I make sure they are fully charged, and I test the volume before the gig starts if I can. I haven’t yet fully trusted a gig to ipad yet, so if it fails I can go on with the performance (mostly an acoustic musician here).
The other day I couldn’t get my iPad to connect to my PA via Bluetooth to play a background track to play a trumpet solo with, but had a cord connection ready to plug-in to the headphone jack, with the aux input volume already set right, so it went ok
Have a backup plan for everything. Backup mic, cords, speaker, keyboard, etc. I even keep a portable power unit in my car in case the gig place power goes off.
I like the initiative.
Do you want to keep the list of problems on the post or maybe create an online document to assess them and add solutions proposed in the comments ?
Anyway, if you have the $$, a second ipad used as a backup would be solving a lot of problems updating the system or the apps themselves. For production deadlines or live gigs.
I know I will, breaking one string on stage without a backup guitar is a mistake I don't plan to recreate with the ipad
I'm planning to eventually make a wiki page, or a series of them to consolidate tips.
The idea of that second post would be maybe to maintain a list as things come up, and hopefully add some links to jump to those parts of the discussion. We'll see if my attention span holds up to making that happen. 🙄
Ahahah, you took on some overtime. Take it slow @wim
One more interesting subject : overheating
Dealing with app disappearances and breakages using iMazing.
If a developer stops paying their yearly Apple Developer fee, and in certain other circumstances, apps can become no longer available for new installs. Also, app updates can sometimes break things or otherwise change in ways we don't like, such as moving to a subscription model. If one has access to a PC or Mac, iMazing can back up and restore apps, even previous versions, provided they were backed up prior to the new versions being released.
Overview
iMazing can pull individual apps from the App Store and store them on a PC or Mac. It does not pull the files from your device, it downloads them from the App Store. This is important to keep in mind because if an app has disappeared (completely) from the App Store, it's too late. If an app update has been released and it breaks something, even if you haven't installed it, if you don't already have a backup, it's too late.
iMazing does two types of backups - data or "full" backup, and app backups. It's app backups that we're concerned with here. Note: at this time the free version of iMazing is all you need for this type of backup.
When you back up an app, a copy of it is stored on your PC or Mac. You can keep multiple versions of the same app. So, if you need to revert to an older version and it exists in your backups, you can do it as long as it will still run on your current operating system version.
Backing Up Apps
Select Manage Apps, not "Back Up".
There will be Device and Library tabs. Go to the Library tab.
Restoring Apps
Notes:
You or the iPad? 😉
Thanks for the detailed guide.
In the case of multiple devices (e.g. owning various generations of iPads/iPhones), do app backups need to be made per device?
As long as the devices all use the same Apple ID, the backups can be restored on any of them. You don't need to back them up per device. The only exception I can think of would be an app that had only an iPad version and later went universal. You couldn't restore the iPad only version to an iPhone.
While we're on the subject of iMazing backups, does anyone have details about how IAPs work (or not)? Say, for something like Pure Synth Platinum that has a ton of IAP content?
I was thinking about how Apple moved to app thinning a while back, where rather than a monolithic package containing resources for all devices, the ability to have tailored builds for different devices was added on their server backend.
I'm wondering if iMazing downloads the app version based on the connected device, in which case it may be the thinned version and not universally applicable to all devices.
Overheating, battery dying, dropping something and the damage making it unusable, unexpected rain, electrical shorts... like I said before, the list is almost endless.
Good question @busker - I have no clue nor way of finding out.
I'm pretty fatalistic about old apps deteriorating to dust. If something gets lost and I could have done something easy to prevent it, I might feel bad, but if that fails, I'm not one to dwell on it.
And your point vis a vis this thread is? "Don't bother there's too much to cover?" "Go live in a hole somewhere?" "Never do anything you care about on a device?" What?
Got anything useful to contribute? 🤷🏼♂️
Please don't take my observation the wrong way. Actually, I think the thread will produce a lot of good advice. I'm not trying to stop anyone from contributing and I applaud your efforts.
Have spare cables especially lightning cables if you're still using lightning idevices like I am.
If you're using bluetooth have a wired solution ready just in case
there are any issues with pairing devices.
If you're using Ableton Link between devices then create your own hotspot
via your mobile or use your own password protected router at the venue.
Best to use your own router.
When practicing make mental notes of things that make your ipad crash
so that you can find a solution if a crash happens when you're about to perform.
Here's hoping you have some contributions too. You know GarageBand probably better than just about anybody. If you have some ways to avoid trip-ups there or anywhere else, bring 'em. 😎
Excellent post and in line with the next thing I was mulling over. I've always been curious whether wireless of any kind is practical for venus where there could be dozens or hundreds of devices all crowding the wireless spectrum. It gives me the shudders. But then again, so does the distinct possibility of tripping over or ripping out a cable in the middle of a performance. 😬
I often wonder which is the bigger risk. The answer is probably "both". In which case your answer is perfect.
"Have a backup. (and a backup of a backup if possible)."
For the former, as a live sound engineer it's a must.
Everyone in the audience or almost everyone in audience will have their mobile phones switched on
and the venue most proably will have their own network going as well.
That's a lot of signals.
When we're out doing live sound engineering we carry our own router.
and as for the latter, it goes without saying so there are loads of spare cables lying around.
Ahh yes, check if the venue has a sound limiter.
A power cut to the stage is not a fun thing,
Yup.
@Gravitas - what's your feeling about Bluetooth for MIDI on stage? It seems to me like that could be an issue but less than wifi would be. Part of me wants to think it's local enough and protocol specific enough to be low risk, but part of me screams "no way". I don't think I've ever read of anyone actually having a BLE Midi problem onstage. Doesn't mean it hasn't happened. On the other hand, who hasn't kicked a f*ing cable out a time or two? 😂
Here's one: Storing samples in iCloud, then having them not be available because the OS has decided to offload them, but you're without internet.
Until now, there hasn't been a solution other than "Don't do it". However, apparently iOS 18 has the ability to make samples stay local. I haven't updated yet, but if there's only one feature of 18 that will cause me to do it, this is it!
Putting this out there in case anyone else has run into this frustration.
I wouldn't risk it.
Bluetooth has to much latency for playing or I haven't come
across a bluetooth device that's fast enough in that regards.
I've had more issues with connecting Bluetooth than anything else actually.
Once it's connected it's okay however it's getting them to connect is the issue for me
and Bluetooth latency is unplayable for me or I haven't played a Bluetooth device that's fast enough yet.
I do like echo however only as an effect.
Agreed, who hasn't, I do that all the time.
That's why I carry spares.
"Keep Downloaded" is such a great feature. Keeping my Air 3 on iOS 17, but i've used it on my iPhone and it works well. No issues so far.
This is a great idea. I ❤ good documentation. Thanks for putting in the work, Mike.
Here's one for the "Has anyone figured out workable solution?" files: Working successfully with the Lumbeats Drummer apps in a live set.
There must have been half a dozen threads about this over time. I don't recall any ending up as a full success. If anyone has cracked that nut, describing how you've done it would be grand.
A short one:
Some apps freak out with buffer sizes outside of the range 64 samples to 512 samples. This is related to defaults in the Apple libraries. Avoid buffers outside of that range - or check that first if you get weird audio behavior or crashes in particular apps.
Koala pads mapping trippyness:
Koala works by design in such a way that pad locations change in unexpected ways in portrait (4x4 grid) vs landscape (2x8) layout. This makes many people think their device or controllers are acting up. All you have to do is flip your device's orientation or resize an AUv3 window and things can get confusing real quick. Understanding how Koala works can help.
Without custom MIDI Mapping
If you're driving Koala from an external controller or sequencer, this is completely unworkable.
With custom MIDI Mapping
Notes