Ipad for Music

t1000

Hi All
Im not very up on apple products as Im an Android user but it appears Android will never catch up with Apples music ability so Im looking to get me an ipad mainly for Garageband and developing my useless musical ideas. So there seems to be a vast array of differing ipads im a cheapskate so dont want to spend loads to find out that Its not for me. Can you guys recommend what sort of min spec ipad i should be looking for ideally around 300 max. I know the new standard ipad is 32gb is that enough storage for music production? I have also looked at refurb air 2's as they appear still fairly upto date could i get away with a 16gb model and use cloud to save the music?
thanks
rich

spark240

In any iPad I would get the largest possible storage....ultimately you will run out whatever.

shefguitar

I would go for the largest screen size you can afford. Will make make editing tracks easier. Large storage is a bonus but like you say you can store the tracks in the cloud.

Funkfingers

The current iPad Pro will be able to host the most recent iterations of GB further into the future than earlier models. My brother bought one. Unfortunately, the machine seems to been more talented than its owner. 

spark240 said:

ultimately, you will run out whatever.

Built-in obsolescence. 

wave100

I got one of the 2017 Ipads in er 2017, however I just use it as a synth station (and for listening to the radio in the kitchen) for which purposes it works well. For DAW  use I think it is underpowered and the arcane file management is horrible - I use a proper computer for the DAW  and record the headphone output of the iPad using MIDI over Bluetooth from my laptop to control it. I suspect the iPad Pro is more powerful but is, in my opinion, outrageously expensive.

TTony

Although I'd always recommend getting something with the most storage possible, there are other options for storage - including iCloud, but also the various wifi enabled external drives.  Cheaper and more flexible than getting all your storage built into the iPad.

Don't forget to budget for your guitar interface too.

Apps are plentiful and many are silly-good value, but many also have some gotchas in their in-app add-ons that can be quite pricey.  Watch out for bundle deals on those that happen periodically.

I'm currently using a really old (gen2) iPad as my main music recording machine.  It's not running the latest iOS, but most apps are still running quite happily and I don't need the latest iOS features for its purpose.

thermionic

spark240 said:

In any iPad I would get the largest possible storage....ultimately you will run out whatever.

I thought this as well, and bought a 128GB one... however, in practice, GarageBand and other apps default to storing everything in the cloud. Changing the settings so that I have stuff stored in the machine has not been as straightforward as I’d like. Apple like to make things like that difficult.

The Focusrite iTrack Dock I got is pretty good though, I got one of the pack deals with a condenser mic and a pair of headphones for £100 (I’m under no illusion as to the quality of the mic and phones, but for something that was basically free they’ll come in useful).

jamesguitar

I'm running Auria Pro on an iPad Pro (12", 128gb). It's the closest DAW in quality to Logic/Pro Tools and there's FabFilter Pro plugins that you can buy for around £15-25 each as in-app purchases (they're usually around £100-£150 each when you buy them on Mac for Pro Tools/Logic etc. 

Im mostly recording straight to internal harddisk, but you can also record/send sessions or stems to Dropbox.

I'm using Apogee Quartet to record to iPad - it's nice and portable with great converters, but am sure there's other good options out there. Have got a Behringer XR18 that should also be able to do the same with more channels.

Heartfeltdawn

wave100 said:

I got one of the 2017 Ipads in er 2017, however I just use it as a synth station (and for listening to the radio in the kitchen) for which purposes it works well. For DAW  use I think it is underpowered and the arcane file management is horrible - I use a proper computer for the DAW  and record the headphone output of the iPad using MIDI over Bluetooth from my laptop to control it. I suspect the iPad Pro is more powerful but is, in my opinion, outrageously expensive.

Pretty much my experience with the 2017 iPad that I also bought in 2017...

If you're simply recording some guitar in, it's fine. For MIDI editing, touchscreens are piffle. Using the Apple Pencil on an Ipad Pro would be a solution but once you've paid out for the iPad Pro, the pencil, a mouse, and a keyboard, you're into more than decent laptop territory. Totally agree on the shitty file management as well. 

I really should sell mine. All it's used for now is Minecraft and music. 

t1000

I already have a zoom r8 so i think following the comments im going to stick with that and then editing etc on my laptop.