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.
Is the 16GB ipad pro's overkill for music production>
I'm set on getting a new Ipad pro this weekend but just want to check that if I get the 1 or 2TB ipad pro's whether it will be overkill, a waste of the extra RAM?
Curry's, here in the UK are selling the 2TB ipad pro, wifi only, for the same price as the 1TB! at £2049. My old 2nd Gen pro is great for AUM sessions but when using Cubasis 3 I getting quite a bit of choking, even with freezing tracks etc. I also notice it's getting a bit more laggy with every update. Just trying to future proof for another 5 years.
The alternative is the 256GB Ipad pro, £1369, and an external SSD drive.
So basically it boils down to whether the extra 8GB of RAM is worth it. £680 is a lot of money for 3/4 of a TB of storage and 8GB of RAM.
Comments
You should get the big boy. You'll only regret it later otherwise.
RAM is king
If you use Decent Sampler you might appreciate that ram, that is eyewateringly expensive though, ouch.
It is a lot of cash but if it last's 5 years with all the Apple updates etc, then money well spent BUT.....only if music apps like Cubasis actually benefit from the extra RAM.
Ask the people still rocking and loving their Air 2's the same question.....
Will they still be rocking in 5 years?
I have an M1 iPad Pro with 16GB RAM and I honestly don't think I benefit much from the extra RAM yet. But iOS 16 does at least allow for applications to use that RAM, so I expect that within the useful life of this device, I will end up being glad I have it. But I thought back in 2021 that I'd be glad to have it by now, and again, not really seeing the benefit today, I don't think.
Iv got an ipad 2019.
Im confident I can still return it. Should I persist because it has always had intermitent freezing
but kind of count my blessings.
If buying any other might be worse.
Laggy with every update?
No more updates for me.
The Air 5 is perfect for me.
Actually just filmed it.
Will send the 2019 back.
Its a reason I havent made much music.
Sold a lemon. Given a replacement lemon. Then told theres nothing wrong so warrenty expires. The told £300 just to see if anything is wrong.
Im sorry.
Consumer rights.
Thank you, this is the answer I was looking for.
Still on 15 on my gen 2 don't want to give it a nervous break down going to 16!
A true player of an ipad.
im saying they're getting the current job done with 2, not 16
It is a total pleasure NOT to think about storage or DSP/resources. It's painful to pay for the 2TB and 16GB but afterwards you just don't bounce off the boundries like I did with the 2018 iPad with 256GB.
After loading everything I bought and downloading all the free sample sets and building 50 AudioLayer instruments I'm floating around 400GB so I need to get into video.
The switch to USB-C without a headphone jack pushed me to get an Anker Hub with headphone, 3 USB-A ports, USB-C Power Port but I did have to upgrade to a Power adapter that can power the iPad and the Hub with it's attached devices like an Audio Box, MIDI controllers, maybe a USB-Hub that needs extra power... so I got a 100W wall adapter.
I noticed the strain on the Anker's USB-C cord was potentially making the audio connection unreliable so I velcro'ed the hub to the back panel of the Smart Keyboard stand. Oh yes, I to the smart keyboard and made the iPad a "laptop". Good for coding Moziac scripts and managing email and writing too much on the ABF.
Bottom line: when you upgrade spend as much as you can afford to, IMHO. I went cheap on the 2018 9.7 inch and suffered for 5 years over storage, screen size and RAM/DSP limits. Lesson learned.
Don't spend too much money. Many of us are on quite "ancient" hardware and are enjoying 99.5% of what iOS music creation universe can offer. Cheers
Tough call, Ram is one of the most important aspects, especially if you are using it as your main device to make music. I guess it really comes down to affordability. I think the value is there, and the added abilities should let you get a year or 2 extra out of it. Maybe consider potential resale value in a few years just in case. Also consider its longevity (be able to use it as needed and update OS) and how often you will be using to get a better idea of it really being worth it. If it’s affordable to you, and at a good price point, I’d say yea. But it’s really hard to say, since I don’t know your budget, or situation… You should easily get 6 maybe 7 years out of it, but I’m speculating. If you use it everyday for 6 or 7 years, it will probably be a good decision to get the big one, assuming you are able to afford it without affecting your regular spending habits. Cheers!
I’m in this camp too. I recently upgraded to a second hand 4th gen iPad Pro 12.9 and feeling like I died and went to heaven (for now at least). All relative to your own needs and expectations I guess.
If you’re flush though, fill yer boots!
Btw is multi-core processing definitely enabled in Cubasis 3? If it’s definitely a memory issue this won’t help, but just checking.
My 2018 iPad Pro is still going strong, apart from RAM. It struggles with the new Stage Manager, because—I think—all those open windows require lots of RAM. It also seems to reload apps from cold more often than under iOS 15.
If you can afford it, then the extra money spent now will be cheaper than buying a whole new iPad earlier than you would otherwise.
Yes in a nutshell. Got the M1 Pro 256GB and it just breezes through with no hog. Don’t full into the Apple trap save you money.
Why not try and buy a 2nd hand one that still has apple care? Even if it's the last generation, not this one.
I got the 11" M1 256GB model a while back (9 months in now) and went all in with Apple Pencil and proper USB-Hub with both USB-PD port and an addition USB-C port, 2 USB 3.1 ports and card-reader so I'm covered for a few years to come...
...but I do wonder if it will live as long as my iPad Air 2 which is still kicking along when connected to wall-power, the battery is practically dead for mobile use
Watching this discussion with interest. I’m considering upgrading to a Pro 11 from my 2018 base model (128GB), and still dithering over whether to cough up the extra for the 1TB/16.
No one ever complained about having too much RAM. Buy the most powerful device you can afford today because you may not be able to afford it tomorrow.
I was able to to afford the 12.9” 128GB M2 when it came out (the 1 & 2 TB versions way out of my range sadly) after struggling with a 9.7” basic 2018 like one of the posters above, and whilst it was painful landing that amount of money one go (probably the most expensive single purchase of life so far) I don’t regret it as I know I will be rocking this one now for many more year than I got out out my basic model. The extra hard rice would have been nice but I can spend a bit more on a 1or 2TB SSD and still have spent less than getting one of those model Pros.
This is true! With USB-C, using an external SSD or even a micro SD card plugged into a good USB-C hub is super easy.
One thing however, is there’s not a lot of apps that allow external installation of their libraries. Pure Synth Platinum is really the only one I can think of (I’m sure there’s more right?) that will allow it. I know this because that exactly how I had everything set up on my previous iPad PRO 11 64GB. Thing is, if I wanted to use those libraries, I had to tote the usb hub and everything around with me (if I truly wanted to be “mobile”).
I’ve since “fixed” that problem by giving Apple all of my money and now have this shiny new M1 Pro with 1TB of storage, and 16GB of RAM. So now I’m broke AF, but have ALL my apps and all of their respective libraries installed, and have plenty of breathing room to spare.
Also, you don’t choose your RAM with iPads, you choose your storage. If you choose the 1 or 2 TB option, you get the 16GB of RAM. There is no other RAM options with those storage choices.
Thanks for your informed reply.
TBH it’s the storage that’s driving me towards upgrading. I was already running low with 128GB, but Jamuary pretty much finished me off with a load of new videos. So much transferring to iCloud and deleting stuff, and general faffing about. And now my iCloud is filling up! 256 would be tight as I’ve already offloaded a bunch of apps, 512 might just do, but 1TB would be ideal. 2TB is really out of my league.
never again without (12`9 / 1 TB) 😉
I hear you. 1TB was out of my league as well, but I bit the bullet and pulled the trigger before I had time to really think about it.
I was struggling with a measly 64GB on my previous IPP, juggling apps, offloading things and trying to figure out where I could store things, so I was ready.