to ipad or not to ipad?!? help!

[dasilvasings]

I've been resisting i-thingies for stubbornness, but after listening some of the stuff you guys are doing, I am seriously considering buying an ipad.

Lets just stick to music and ignore all the ipad functionalities. My many questions (and BB's, I guess):

1. Garageband - is it as good as it seems? I've noticed there are no bass amps? WTF? Is it easy to export the wavs so I can do final mixing in a daw?
2. GB / smart guitar (or whatever it is called) - It is so tempting to press a button and have the difficult chords you struggle for 20 years! Is it as fun as it seems or does it leaves you with a sense of emptiness?
3. How do you record voice with GB? Assuming you have the right connectors, can you actually record a bass/ a synth/ whatever?
4. All those magic ipad apps - synths, synths and synths... can you "reroute" (?) them to record with garageband?

5. Again... Garageband - is it as good as it seems?!? There must be a catch... Are there any daw that allow more sophisticated mixing and mastering (errr... using wndows vst?!?).

Cheers,

Miguel

[Bluesberry]

Yes Miguel, I too have many questions......but I am also intrigued as heck about the possibilities..............

[Geir]

I've been resisting i-thingies for stubbornness, but after listening some of the stuff you guys are doing, I am seriously considering buying an ipad.

Lets just stick to music and ignore all the ipad functionalities. My many questions (and BB's, I guess):

1. Garageband - is it as good as it seems? I've noticed there are no bass amps? WTF? Is it easy to export the wavs so I can do final mixing in a daw?

Yes! It is as good ... and simple. No bass amp, but I don't think I'd use the guitar amps either .... well ... I will give them a try if/when I get an iRig.

You can export to m4p and import that in a daw. I did that on "Asylum pit" (well I imported it in Audacity, converted to wave and put it on my BR800 before adding vocals)

2. GB / smart guitar (or whatever it is called) - It is so tempting to press a button and have the difficult chords you struggle for 20 years! Is it as fun as it seems or does it leaves you with a sense of emptiness?

I find playing with the instruments I'm not familiar to most satisfying. Cello, doublebass, violin, drums .......

3. How do you record voice with GB? Assuming you have the right connectors, can you actually record a bass/ a synth/ whatever?

Yes .. and yes ... I have recorded vocals with the built in mic (on "A New year"). If you have an iRig you can plug in a guitar/bass or even a synth. The synth sounds on the iPad are however fab if you get the right apps.I guess I could have recorded my latest song in garageband, but due to old habits I just plugged the ipad into the line in on my br80 and recorded it there. The mastering effects on the BR's are fab, and I haven't got any apps that covers that yet.

4. All those magic ipad apps - synths, synths and synths... can you "reroute" (?) them to record with garageband?

I think you can. I just downloaded "Tabletop" which seems to do that, tho I haven't figured it out yet.

5. Again... Garageband - is it as good as it seems?!? There must be a catch... Are there any daw that allow more sophisticated mixing and mastering (errr... using wndows vst?!?).

The catch is that there are only 8 tracks !!! There are other options I think, but I haven't gotten that far yet.

Hope this answers some questions. I sure don't regret getting the iPad. I mean, 10$ for a minimoog !!!!! And thumbJamb  ....wow !! So much good noise for so little money once you've invested in the hardware !

Cheers,

Miguel

[64Guitars]

Is it easy to export the wavs so I can do final mixing in a daw?

You can export to m4p and import that in a daw. I did that on "Asylum pit" (well I imported it in Audacity, converted to wave and put it on my BR800 before adding vocals)

I believe you can export directly to WAV from GarageBand. Somebody asked about that before and I posted some instructions I found online. I'll try to find it and post the link here.


Found it: https://songcrafters.org/community/index.php?topic=16069.msg200975#msg200975

Actually, it exports to AIFF, not WAV. But the BRs and the BR Wave Converter can work directly with AIFF files just as easily as they do with WAV files.

[DeificDave]

The only thing I have to record music is GarageBand on the iPad, it's a great tool with fantastic sounds, I use an iRig to plug my guitar into it and now have a line 6 keyboard to make playing the virtual instruments a bit easier.

The bass options are pretty basic, enough to get by with but that's about it. I also wish there were more drum options too, not enough cymbals and there is no percussion like chimes etc 

I bought an iRig mic but it's not that great I get a lot of hiss off it which is bad on quiet pieces of music, the built in mic is better I think, less hiss at least, the options for audio recorder is also limited as well.

The catch is that there are only 8 tracks !!! There are other options I think, but I haven't gotten that far yet.

This is true, but you can merge tracks now, it will make a copy of the original song, so you can always revert back if you don't like the results of the merge, I've done this with several tracks and I think you lose some quality during the process but it's handy to free up tracks.

I think you would have a lot of fun with the app on iPad but dont expect too much from it would be my advice.

Dave

[Speed Demon]

There are two iPads and four iPods in my home. I'm too spoiled from using DAWs to use an i-device for anything
more than some percussion and special effects sounds. Too limited for anything else, in my opinion.
The world's most expensive MP3 players.

[Hook]

Without a doubt...to ipad!

[alfstone]

Hola Miguel

in brief: since you are planning to use an iPad for music, may I suggest something else than GarageBand? OK, it's a good and simple sw, but anyway it's a stripped down version regard the original GB.

Backwards:  

Question 5: The best today for recording is Auria: http://auriaapp.com/Products/auria
absolutely great.

Question 4: yes, you can reroute almost everything: MIDI can be rerouted via CoreMIDI, and audio, effects and so on can be rerouted via the new "gold standard" called Audiobus: http://audiobus.tumblr.com/

Question 3: the best microphone for iPad is Apogee Mic; the best way to connect a guitar is the Apogee Jam (if you have a Mac they are perfect for Mac too). Of course if your double bass has a mic, you can record it with Apogee Jam with an absolutely PERFECT result (I mean no noise, no distortion etc.)

Question 2: no answer at all.

Question 1: see answers by Geir and Sessantaquattrochitarre. But there are great sw for bass too different from GB...I have not the iPad at hand now, but I could be more precise later...

Ciao
Alfredo

[DeificDave]

Question 5: The best today for recording is Auria: http://auriaapp.com/Products/auria
absolutely great.

This app carries quite a hefty price tag for the full version compared to the £2.99 I paid for GarageBand. I wouldn't mind getting something better than GarageBand for my iPad, the app looks good but also quite complex to use, how user friendly is Auria?

[alfstone]

Question 5: The best today for recording is Auria: http://auriaapp.com/Products/auria
absolutely great.

This app carries quite a hefty price tag for the full version compared to the £2.99 I paid for GarageBand. I wouldn't mind getting something better than GarageBand for my iPad, the app looks good but also quite complex to use, how user friendly is Auria?

IMO it's very user-friendly. They are also very responsive to every suggestion from the users (their forum is very "crowded"). And...I too had an iRig, Dave. After I bought an Apogee Jam, never used it anymore. Different worlds.

Alfredo