Your favorite iOS DAW in 2025?

pricklyrobot

Still NS2 for me.

The workarounds for what it won’t do—using 4Pockets Multitrack when I want audio tracks, and using the built-in fx or something like Effectrix when I want some fx automation—end up being less clunky than the entire interface of anything else I’ve tried.

Though I mainly view NS2 as the “world’s greatest MIDI sequencer”. Any DAW-like functions beyond that are mainly just gravy for me.

I used Gadget before I discovered NS2. Liked it a lot, but lack of a Song mode and/or any way to sustain notes across Scene transition eventually killed it for me.

Guess Cubasis would be my second choice if I couldn’t use NS2 for some reason. It does everything, but it’s definitely not as intuitively laid out. I’m always searching around for features/functions.

NS2 I could not use for 6 months, pick it up and everything’s right where I think it should be, even if I don’t actually remember it.
Just jibes with how my brain works I guess!:)

jwmmakerofmusic

@pricklyrobot said:
Still NS2 for me.

The workarounds for what it won’t do—using 4Pockets Multitrack when I want audio tracks, and using the built-in fx or something like Effectrix when I want some fx automation—end up being less clunky than the entire interface of anything else I’ve tried.

Though I mainly view NS2 as the “world’s greatest MIDI sequencer”. Any DAW-like functions beyond that are mainly just gravy for me.

I used Gadget before I discovered NS2. Liked it a lot, but lack of a Song mode and/or any way to sustain notes across Scene transition eventually killed it for me.

Guess Cubasis would be my second choice if I couldn’t use NS2 for some reason. It does everything, but it’s definitely not as intuitively laid out. I’m always searching around for features/functions.

NS2 I could not use for 6 months, pick it up and everything’s right where I think it should be, even if I don’t actually remember it.
Just jibes with how my brain works I guess!:)

Oddly enough, Cubasis 3 was the DAW-like environment I ended up jibing with after spending most of 2024 hopping between DAWs and creative environments. This year, I still tend to hop from app to whatever app tickles my fancy at the time being, but the unmastered music I make always ends up in Cubasis 3 for the final polish.

Gadget is simply wonderful in so many ways. It does have a song mode (just disable the looping in the transport on the main page), but yeah, no way to sustain notes across scenes is definitely a limitation. But all the sounds it comes with makes up for that limitation. That, and the fact Gadget is stable like a rock!

alexwasashrimp

@Edward_Alexander said:
@alexwasashrimp ”a couple dozen plugins”?? Dang sir, I’ve never needed more than a handful of plugins in Drambo, that’s if I’m even using third party AUV3s in my projects. I’ve been discovering the more I learn about Drambo, the less and less I need those AUV3s. Now it’s only when I have a taste for a specific instrument like for example; a piano or saxophone. (Those traditional instrument sounds that can’t be just thrown together using synthesis quickly)

You must be making super elaborate scores. Got any examples or demos?

It's mostly mixing plugins, like multiple instances of Pro-Q 3, MDES, NoLimits2 etc. As for the instruments, I usually use either my own Drambo creations, or Dagger and Zeeon.