Audiobus: Use your music apps together.
What is Audiobus? — Audiobus is an award-winning music app for iPhone and iPad which lets you use your other music apps together. Chain effects on your favourite synth, run the output of apps or Audio Units into an app like GarageBand or Loopy, or select a different audio interface output for each app. Route MIDI between apps — drive a synth from a MIDI sequencer, or add an arpeggiator to your MIDI keyboard — or sync with your external MIDI gear. And control your entire setup from a MIDI controller.
Download on the App StoreAudiobus is the app that makes the rest of your setup better.
Comments
I appreciate your extensive feedback and honesty.
I am sure slings and arrows are now being readied as torches are lit in the town's square.
SurfacePro3
Any other descriptors as I look into it?
Options, etc
Maschine is on my list for Santa at this point probably so that is interesting.
Otherwise, Ableton probably will dominate.
But who knows.
Thank you
THIS IS POTENTIALLY THE MAIN FACTOR!
Brilliant
I have multiple iPads and iPhones and integration would be critical
A Mac. My PCs i used only for Other things, like Games.
Music Never ever on a PCs again.
Mac mini is a desktop
Go with windows, you'll get a lot more for your money and cheaper repairs down the line.....before buying check and double check the amount of RAM you can put in it....this will have the biggest impact on the overall performance.
BUT...don't expect the ease of use combining iPad/iPhone/laptop as you would get with a Mac on a new OS
I've been forced to watch that process for a while on my dad's laptop.
A permanent mess, phonecalls at least every 3rd day that the computer 'doesn't work'.
Microsoft has failed time and a again and they will continue to fail, a matter of fact based on statistics.
I prefer to stay in control of my systems - and I don't want anyone to mess around on them.
I work with image, sound and video for more than 15 years,
Started with PCs,
The total amount of headaches and problems that made me lose time or simply not getting intended results made me switch to Mac and I won't be transitioning back any time soon,
Once I did an artistic residence/workshop with 11 other colleagues that involved hardwiring a DAW, hardware, arduino and electric sensor, everyone took some kinda Mac machine, only one used a Windows machine. Guess the only soul who had severe and impeding problems in their setup?
Also, Mac hardware do fail, but a lot less than PC hardware and they age with much more grace. PCs seem to get exponentially worse with the time, so you have to keep upgrading both hardware and software. Macs tend to stay very near factory form for a long long time.
If you are serious about it, I'd suggest to get a Mac,
I do hate Apple, I just love my time and peace of mind even more.
Heads up:
I had been hearing good things about the official Apple Refurbished Store, and recently purchased from there myself and had a good experience. The deals aren't all that enticing, but it's a way to shave off some of the cost, by way of it being both refurbished and an older device.
https://www.apple.com/shop/browse/home/specialdeals/mac
As for Mac vs PC, with Mac you will likely eventually get Logic Pro. $200 for one of the better DAWs out there, along with a quality synth in Alchemy.
There's a lot I don't like about Apple, but I moved over from Windows roughly five years ago and haven't looked back.
Also, my initial foray into Mac was a Mac mini and it was very solid for music making. Just make sure you get good specs, especially the processor. RAM you can upgrade in the minis, or at least you could with mine, not sure if they changed that.
The cherry one for music production would be i7, 256GB (or more but I don't think there is a 512 one)
That's the SP3. There are a few new ones still around, or nice refurbished, even though the 4 has been live awhile.
I spent a decade rolling my eyes at my apple fanboi mates, then got a 2nd hand MBP for £275 on eBay (it was a risk I admit), but over the next 3 years it worked its way under my skin. It finally fell foul of the brittle solder issue on the graphic chip. I had a choice to make at that point and it was no contest, £600 on a newer MBP (again 2nd hand on eBay, but I went looking for a good well looked after model this time, you need a level of eBay ad and seller analysis, but there are bargains to be had if you're careful). 2011 models and upwards, until the point they baked in the memory, gives good value, get a model which you can upgrade the RAM and an SSD.
Having said all that, Bitwig on a surface pro sounds VERRRY tempting. To me, Windows 10 felt like the first well-considered OS from MS in a long time. I use one at work, but the build is very tied down, so no issues with updates or in-machine messing from MS here. The funny thing is, I thought 10 was MS going for the Apple model(s) but trying to imagine a convergence of iOS and OSX.
None.
AFAIK they made the last mini's (late 2014) almost impossible to upgrade - the RAM is soldered directly onto the board and there's no empty SATA port anymore so you can't install another drive.
I have a late 2012 model (16GB of RAM, 2 internal drives: SSD and HDD) and it's a superb machine. Not good for gaming because of its inferior video card but great for everything else. For gaming, I might buy an external GPU later since they are adding support for eGPU's in the next version of MacOS
I'm not a Live user on Mac, so I can't give advice there. But for every other DAW I use (Studio One, Tracktion Waveform, MixBus, Reaper) my brand new iMac 4.2 ghz I7 is kind of a sick joke compared to my Windows 10 machine. (I have to use a Mac for iOS development reasons). I've experienced more crashes and strange issues in my first month in Sierra than I did in the last 2 years using the same apps in Windows 10.
I do love how my iMac, iPhone, and iPad Pro interoperate... that really is a joy. But for just about anything else, I'm just mystified why non-Logic users are still so enamored with MacOS, especially considering how expensive they are (even for a used one) compared to a similarly spec-ed PC hand-built for recording. Obviously this is just my opinion, but it's based on using Macs as my main machine for 5 of the last 7 years. (Now, if they hadn't gimped the Mac Mini's... those would have been a fantastic, affordable choice).
PC user here. Windows 10 NEVER crashes, incredibly fast machine and quite silent. I integrated my ipad with the pc by:
a) adding an ethernet port (about €10) to the ipad. The midi connection latency is <1ms, no jitter and no necessity to create adhoc networks, etc.
b) using an old USB soundcard connected to the ipad with audio ins and outs wired to my main PC one. In this way, I can grab the audio output from the ipad and, if I want, redirect some audio from my PC back into the ipad again.
Latency CAN be an issue on a PC because it is heavily dependent from the driver of the audio card. So, bad drivers = big issues, even on a super PC.
Thank you
Thanks homie!
My opinion in order:
In order of sexiness:
Hardware
Ipad
Mac
PC
Price dependent as some cheap items are crap in all categories.
In order of reliability:
Hardware
Ipad
Mac
PC
Consider some verifiable with cost.
In order of bang for buck:
PC
IPad
Mac
Hardware
May be changing as IPad prices are rising.
In order of cost long term cost effectiveness:
Hardware
IPad
Mac
PC
Again many variables that can change this order dependent on how and what you buy.
Shit I've just talked myself back to hardware! Lol
I need a spread sheet for this...........LOL
Its a bit early for the ole synapses.
Never too early for some OCD related listings lol
The data checks out, the formatting just needs some of these.
1.)
2.)
3.)
4.)
-
I considered some of those, but I'm going through a minimalist stage. Either that or I'm getting more lazy as I get older?
1.)
2.)
3.)
4.)
1.) used Lenovo T430 for 129 Euro
2.) used Mac Mini 8 GB Ram for 220 Euro
3.) used iPad Air 1 cellular for 220 Euro
4.) new Mac computer (can't afford this)