Your Ipad recording setup/apps

MagicPigDetective

Recently purchased an Ipad and a focusrite itrack solo to start recording. I have headphones but yet to get monitors or a microphone. Progress is a bit slow, I’m using garageband which is fine but I find some things a tad annoying and I’m wondering if I should persevere with it or try alternatives, such as cubasis 2 (expensive but looks impressive, but perhaps to complicated for the novice?). Also the various options a for modelling, Bias Fx and amplitude etc, which do you prefer?

What is your ipad set up, what daw and fx are you using?
 Any advice for a recording newbie? 

fendergibson

I find iPad restrictive. It’s too small to look at and having to ‘touch screen’ everything is crap. 

Garageband is great. There are better equivalents out there. Get a laptop/pc and Focusrite audio/sound card. Reaper for your daw and you are good to go 

MagicPigDetective

Ta; I know that many here recommend Reaper, but for now it’s a bit late for that; I’ve committed myself to the ipad, my pc has died and it could be a few months till I get a replacement. 

fendergibson

Ok. Use GarageBand for your daw but maybe use JamUp pro for guitars and import them. I’ve found JamUp to be the best for tones/fx etc 

fendergibson

But recommend don’t waste your dosh on iPad recording. Save and get a laptop mate

Branshen

There is a learning curve to using any daw. It took me years to figure out how to use cubase to a competent level. And I had a decent amount of forced practice as I was running a music society which did bi-weekly recordings.. 

Garageband is about as simple as DAWs come and ipad DAWs are even more simplified.. Persevere and it will come. I truly think that the DAW makes little difference when you're starting out. Just learn whichever one you have and make music! When you're competent enough, you'll be able to assess for yourself if you want to switch DAWs for the different featureset.

As for amp modelling, I've never been satisfied with software solutions as I could never get the latency low enough and it trips me up when recording. I use hardware amp modelling, specifically amplifire..

What specific problems are you facing? 

MagicPigDetective

Branshen said:

There is a learning curve to using any daw. It took me years to figure out how to use cubase to a competent level. And I had a decent amount of forced practice as I was running a music society which did bi-weekly recordings.. 

Garageband is about as simple as DAWs come and ipad DAWs are even more simplified.. Persevere and it will come. I truly think that the DAW makes little difference when you're starting out. Just learn whichever one you have and make music! When you're competent enough, you'll be able to assess for yourself if you want to switch DAWs for the different featureset.

As for amp modelling, I've never been satisfied with software solutions as I could never get the latency low enough and it trips me up when recording. I use hardware amp modelling, specifically amplifire..

What specific problems are you facing? 

Good advice, thanks. I'm going to persevere with Garageband. Since last night I’ve watched a great tutorial which has really opened my eyes to how it works. I’ve put the guitar down and used the on board keys, drums and bass to make a simple 8 bars. The quantize feature to tidy it up is a big revelation . The next stage is to come up with different parts to the song, this is where I usually struggle to get beyond the initial first few bars. 

Must be more fretboarders out there recording with an ipad? 

Fretwired

I have an iPad, Cubasis (which is great) and pair the iPad with a Steinberg UR22 interface and IK Multimedia iLoud monitors although I mainly use it as a practice tool and scratch-pad for ideas. I also have a Line 6 Sonic Port which is cool ...

Cookiemonster

I use my ipad to sketch ideas

Here is one Listen to Fuzz science by LifeisanOceanwave #np on #SoundCloud

Fretwired

Cookiemonster said:

I use my ipad to sketch ideas

Here is one Listen to Fuzz science by LifeisanOceanwave #np on #SoundCloud

Like that .. fuzzy psychedelia .. :-)

kin

Here is Dan Baker recording a song using only the built in mic on the i pad, sounds pretty good to me, he also has a video showing him making a 32 track recording using garageband on his iphone.

Use what you have already and if you find your outgrowing the features offered with garageband then that will be the time to spend more, for now just get recording and have some fun.

Its the talent you have at your disposal not the gear that matters, i have most of the daws available on IOS and i sound shit on all of them but that isn't down to the daw

kin

this is the video showing him actually recording it sorry, the first one is more about using the included eq etc to polish the recording a little

Cookiemonster

Another ipad one Listen to Sky Cries by Trip Computer, trip computer #np on #SoundCloud

 just the ipad mic as well. Like I say I just use it to demo

dindude

LOVE LOVE LOVE iPad as a recording setup. I record infrequently so DAWs on a computer are a complete faff, learning curve is vast and struggle to remember what to do when I go back to it 6 months later. And just not quick enough for the time I have. 

On iPad, I’ve never gotten on with Garage Band, still feels like a toy with the virtual instruments.

Cubasis is brilliant, not too big a learning curve (some great YouTube tutorials that’ll get you up and running in no time) and I’ve not found it restrictive for my noodlings.

I did this solely on iPad with cubasis, guitars are recorded the old fashioned way with a mic in front of pedals and amp all at neighbour friendly volumes.

https://soundcloud.com/dinadams/blues-is-my-drug

dindude

Cookiemonster said:

Another ipad one Listen to Sky Cries by Trip Computer, trip computer #np on #SoundCloud

 just the ipad mic as well. Like I say I just use it to demo

That is awesome, like that a lot.

MagicPigDetective

Thanks all for the advice and (really) excellent examples of your recordings. I just need to crack on with garageband for now. There is much more to GB than I thought and I can now see the possibilities. What I need to do is get on with it to produce a whole song, any song, bad or good, and stop being too fussy and self critical, which is holding me back. Listening back to myself is magnifying weaknesses and mistakes and certainly shows areas in need of improvement, i.e. timing!

axisus

I love the simplicity of Garageband, it's all I ever record with and it does a superb job. I'm laptop only though, I have no interest in using my iPad. There isn't enough space on it and it is a pain in the ass trying to get things on and off of it. I also hate not having proper directories, folders etc. I like to know where everything is on a computer