Useful iOS apps

TTony

iOS apps that are more than useful in the home studio.

ChristophEar

My picks:

DAW: Garageband is seriously impressive and will cover most non-pro recording needs.

Metronome: Pro Metronome and Metronome+ are both great.

Tuner: Cleartune perfect digital tuner

Jazz Standards: iReal b quick access to huge library of jazz lead sheets + can transpose

Guitar Chord & Scale Reference: Jamn is good

Interactive Guitar Learning: 4Chords basic but fun playalong for learning chords/songs

Piano Instrument: Virtuoso Piano great for quick note-checking

TTony

I've a huge amount of fun with GarageBand too.  Worth every penny and a lot more besides.

JamUp Pro.  Plug a guitar in and play through a huge range of emulated amps & fx, jam along with tracks on your device, sampler and 8-track recorder.  Comes as a basic app with lots of add-on packs.  I'm using this more than anything else atm.

Amplitube.  Very similar to JamUp - albeit with different amps & fx.  Basic app is free so perfect for try-before-you-buy-the-rest.  Which I did.  There's also a full DAW add-in available now, though I've not added that (yet?).

Guitar Pro.  I've got this application on the PC too.  Does a lot more than I've ever done with it - great tab editor/player and a whole lot more.  Silly-cheap in iOS form, if you use tab at all.

TonePad.  Simple matrix-driven sound creator.  Pretty sure it was free when I grabbed it.  Passed a few train journeys playing with this.

Figure (by Reason).  And I've spent even more train journeys generating simple tunes with this (also free) app.  Brilliant, simple, fun.

TNR-i (by Yamaha),  Yup, an iApp version of the Tenorion.  Like a very grown-up and incredibly powerful version of TonePad.  Huge fun and worth all the pocket money that I spent on it.

Launchpad (Novation).  Another matrix/sample driven tune creator.  Yes, I like switching my brain off and creating pointless "music".

Launchkey (Novation again).  Use a virtual keyboard and a clever visual interface to standard synth controls for some more creative time.  Love it.

Fretwired

Recently picked up a Line 6 Sonic Port and downloaded the Line 6 app from the iTunes store. Basically gives you a Line 6 POD 2 on an iPad with a jamming tool. Great fun and completely noise free. The Soni cPort also allows you to connect a keyboard and out the sound to a mixer/PA etc. Not sure I'd gig with it but a good tool.

Longtallronnie

Are there any decent drum machine apps for iOS? Preferably that work with garageband?

I also need something to plug my guitar/mic into like an iRig or whatever. I've heard they can be noisy but is that just whie monitoring or does it affect playback as well? Obviously something like an Apogee Jam would be ideal but I'd rather not spend that much if possible.

ChristophEar

@Longtallronnie: Garageband doesn't play very well with other apps - but you might want to look at Audiobus and the list of compatible apps.

Longtallronnie

Cheers dude. 

Longtallronnie

Audiobus now supports Garageband and is half price atm. 

Fretwired

The Line 6 Sonic Port supports Garage Band - great bit of kit.

TTony

Fretwired said:

The Line 6 Sonic Port supports Garage Band - great bit of kit.

I took a look at that last night - after your original post.

I probably need to upgrade my trusty old iRig interface.

Re the Line6 device;

• Q1; it looks like you can't power the iPad whilst it's connected - is that right?  Does it drain a lot of power from the iPad?
• Q2; the "play-along" tracks - are those all extra cost add-ons from Line6 or are there user-generated tracks too?
• Q3; although you can presumably use mp3 tracks via the Line-In socket on the interface?
  

stickyfiddle

Massive =1 for Jamup. It's all I use atm, and has made my Mustang1 feel a bit sad.

I use the Apogee Jam and it's really good. The only downside is that you can't charge while using it, but I get a good couple of hours of Jamup time from a single charge, so it's not the end of the world. The noise performance and lack of feedback makes it completely worth it vs the iRig

ChristophEar

@Longtallronnie said:

Audiobus now supports Garageband and is half price atm. 

Wow, hadn't seen that - awesome!

Longtallronnie

I ordered an iRig from TomTop.com for £4 including tracked shipping! At that price I though it was worth a go and paid with paypal so should get my money back if it's dodgy/doesn't turn up. 

Bought Audiobus which is cool and downloaded some drum apps (Rhythm Pad and Drum Loops HD) but haven't found one with an interface I like yet. Probably just need to spend time with them.

Longtallronnie

I ordered an iRig from TomTop.com for £4 including tracked shipping! At that price I though it was worth a go and paid with paypal so should get my money back if it's dodgy/doesn't turn up. 

Bought Audiobus which is cool and downloaded some drum apps (Rhythm Pad and Drum Loops HD) but haven't found one with an interface I like yet. Probably just need to spend time with them.

Fretwired

Q1; it looks like you can't power the iPad whilst it's connected - is that right?  Does it drain a lot of power from the iPad?

You can't power the iPad whilst using the Sonic POrt. I haven't had any major issues regarding the power draining. There's also a guy on the Line 6 Support Forums who played a two hour gig with his Sonic Port. It used about 20% of the battery.

Q2; the "play-along" tracks - are those all extra cost add-ons from Line6 or are there user-generated tracks too?

You get a selection of tracks with the Line 6 Mobile app and you can buy others. They are made from the original master tapes - they are not re-recorded. Prices vary between $1.99 to $5.99 to a 15 minute Dream Theatre track ... As far as I am aware you can't make your own Jammit tracks.

Q3; although you can presumably use mp3 tracks via the Line-In socket on the interface?

It has it's own jam tool - just load mp3s onto your IOS device - means you're totally mobile.

TTony

^^

It's looking quite tempting then ...

dindude

Garage Band does everything for me at the moment, its great for someone like me who records occasionally and doesnt want to have to learn (and retain the knowledge of) a complicated DAW, yet I don't find it that limiting, especially now I've found how to import MP3's etc. 

I tend to mike everything up though rather than rely on amp software. I have got Jam Up, and it is one of the better ones, but I don't get the love for it overall, there's zero dynamics to it and I always feel like I'm playing a Midi controller with these things.

TTony

d'oh ...

I've just worked out that, in Amplitube, I can import a backing track into one of the channels on the 8-track recorder, so that I can record my impressive* lead parts on another channel over the top of the backing track and then save them both.

For the last lots-of-months, I've been playing along to the backing track, and recording my stuff (so that I didn't forget a solo part), but had never worked out how to record the backing track as well.

Amplitube has just become a lot more fun and a lot more useful for me.

 

*ok, so maybe not so impressive ...

ftumch

I had a apogee jam before and while it was a great interface I thought the basic amp sounds and effects in GarageBand were pretty awful, also not a lot of cross compatability between apps back then either so I sold it. Things are clearly much better now so I've just ordered a sonicport so I can join in the blues jam thread.

TTony

Double d'oh.

Just as with Amplitube, you can do the same thing (import a backing track into one channel in the 8 track recorder) in JamUp Pro.

So, JamUp Pro is also a lot more useful than I thought it was ... And I prefer the sounds in it too.

johnnyurq

Not an app but I have a friend who owns one of those Alesis iO Docks and it is great and much more fully featured than the iRig, Sonic Port and others.

If you can stretch to it its a great buy.

It is about £40 to £50 more than the Sonic Port @ approx £120 or half that if you can get one on EBay etc.

Here is a link.

http://www.alesis.com/iodock

Beheringer do one too but as it is only £10 cheaper than the IO Dock I would go for the Alesis.

http://www.behringer.com/EN/Products/iS202.aspx

Nothing against Behringer who have upped their game after acquiring Midas tech etc but Alesis FTW IMHO.

In fact I have taken a punt on one of these because it has Midas tech in it.

http://www.behringer.com/EN/Products/FCA610.aspx

Not iOS I know but I will give an account of it once I have it and seen how it is, it has firewire and USB connectivity so I can use Firewire on the main PC and USB on my expansion deprived laptop. Two headphones outs with their own volume too so cannot be bad.

It was £169 with free delivery so not a big deal if it is not that great.