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.
Sell your iPads NOW!
For those of you who might remember my blog post on when to upgrade your iPad, right NOW is exactly the time I was saying is the best to sell your current one:
http://innerportalstudio.com/the-upgrade-game/
It's a darn good bet that new iPads are coming next week, and the second they are announced prices for used current gen iPad Airs will drop a decent amount. If you're thinking of upgrading, now is the time to get the most bang for your buck.
Mine's already on sale 
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Apple-iPad-Air-32GB-Wi-Fi-9-7in-Space-Gray-Latest-Model-/181555121174?
Comments
But but but but... The new ones have the evil iOS 8!
LOL, I forgot about that
I don't mind, the apps I like are working fine now.
And if they are announced next week but not available for another month???
I guess it depends on how bad you need an iPad then. I can wait amonth if it means I get $100 or more for my current iPad, versus waiting until they are actually in stores.
Obviously everyone needs to decide that for themselves. Really, for all we know they are just going to announce protective covers for the new Watch.
I'm fine taking the risk as I still have my laptop and iPhone to make music with, it's worth it for me to make sure I can flip my current iPad for as much as possible.
I think you're potentially savvy but probably mad
But then that's because the $100 opportunity cost isn't in the same county as being worth it; to me. Good luck.
OTOH - another person suggested dashing out and buying up stock of iPad Airs / mini Retinas that you could find (new preferably, but 2nd hand would do) that still had 7.1.2 on them. They'll likely become prize possessions among iPad musicians, and sought after. Might make a tidy profit even...
You really think people are going to buy older iPad with older OS's on them just because of the recent iOS8 update?
I look at it like this. I love making music on my iPad, but in many ways it reminds me of of the Win98 days. I'm constantly having to pay attention to how much RAM I'm using, how many effects I have loaded, how many apps are open, how much storage space I still have, etc. Things I haven't had to even think about in years on my laptop.
So any update that improves any of those aspects is going to be an immediate and obvious benefit to me and my music making. It's not like when I went from 8 to 16GB of RAM in my laptop, nice to have, but really can you notice day to day?
So each time new iPads are released, I want one asap since I know those improvements are things I'm actually going to notice a difference as I use it day to day. There's no reason for me to wait. It's worth it for me to position myself to make that upgrade the most economical way possible. Even if that means being without the iPad for a couple weeks, or having a few apps not work right.
Though I apparently am one of the few people who wasn't bothered with the iOS8 upgrade. The apps I use worked fine for my needs, and if they didn't I had other options that did for a few days until the recent updates came out.
To each their own though, we all have different priorities I guess
Fair analysis; agree to differ.
@MusicInclusive said:
Is that person's name Henny Penny? Seriously, what is the logic behind this?
No way. I'm keeping my old (!) iPad Air until I know everything ticks like a clockwork in IOS8 and the new ipad has more ram. I don't mind selling at £50 less, not the end of the world.
People are keeping older pc´s and macs for ak.sys in order to transfer samples to their older samplers.
Some keep their older hardware because they know how to work with them and don´t need newer stuff.
But thank you for reminding that their value is about to drop.
I´m giving my daughter my ipad 4 with ios7 in case i would need ios7 again one day while getting a new ipad air 2 soon.
Im old school. I use it till its obsolete.
I'll be using my ipad 4 till it's dead. Someday I'll probably get another one, and then I'll have two. As long as I can squeeze the most milage out of these devices is what I want. But that's one thing that you'll never see in an 'upgrade', the abandonment of planned obsolescence. All the RAM in the world won't stop that.
I agree with you @aleyas until I think of how hugely inadequate my old Nokia phone was compared to what I have now. I know it is comfortable to stick to safety but I'm sure the new devices will allow you to make better music other than an occasional lemon which we all should be savy enough to spot by now.
@aleyas said:
Well said. I've got an iPad two and a four and I feel lucky having either. The four still feels "modern" to me after two years, but I know both of their days are numbered at some point. Kind of a bummer when you know you can buy $600+ instruments that keep some sort of long term value. But my guitars also never update themselves and fix their own bugs while I own them.
Though a solid upgrade plan sounds like a great idea to share with others and I just got the iPhone 6 on the att next plan specifically to do this sort of yearly upgrade.
I don't think I would make better music on a new device. Maybe just different music.
Absolutely @Tarekith - I know people who have done that post the iOS 8 release. Also, I deliberately purchased a mini Retina just before the iOS 8 update specifically so that I could get a more up-to-date iPad but with 7.1.2 (instead of the 3's and mini originals I use otherwise - all of which are still on iOS 7.1.2) just so that I could avoid getting one with iOS 8. I have also reverted apps on iPads to pre-AB-SDK-2.1/iOS8-ready versions in order to get back to a stable music production situation. For me iOS music making is part of a revenue generating operation. Cannot afford to have it messed up.
We were specifically warned by the Audiobus team that not all apps were ready and would not be ready for iOS 8 in time. There are still a number of core apps that I use that are not iOS 8 ready.
I won't be updating to iOS 8 any time in the near future. It would turn it into a brick for music production for me with respect to several of the apps I use with Audiobus, such as iMini, Epic Synth, Jam Maestro, Sample Tank, among a number of others.
Some more of those may be updated shortly, but, I got word a couple of days ago from Retronyms per my support request to them that iMini will be addressed "at some point" but no date has been set. That being the case, it's a good way to keep me from being tempted to move to iOS 8 since it's one of my go-to apps on iOS.
Tough crowd, never mind
Well, it's all about disposal income I guess. There is no apples to apples on this one. We are all different fruits
. Looking forward to a Pro/large screen and will get one, no doubt, but I never threw away/sold my original iPad 1, doesn't do a lot compared to my Air, but from writing point of view it does a thousand times more than my IBM golfball ever did (which is still my alltime favorite piece of technology and the one thing I wish I'd held onto, however much of a doorstop it is or would be now; I'm a sentimental git deep down...)
I still have an iPad 1 as well @JohnnyGoodyear :-) . It can continue to run many music apps just fine - e.g. iMS-20, iPolysix, iMini, iSEM, Alchemy, Animoog, Magellan, Gallileo, Sunrizer and a fair number of others (no - not current versions of them, but versions that work just fine). I tend to use it as a sequencer however in my studio iPad rig.
Yes, my iPad DUCE will be my midi sequencer too...
I love having multiple iPads around. With help from my kids I'm already doing some fascinating things with multiple iPad arrangements. When Señor SecretBase figures out a few more things I'm going to love the Apollo setup even more.
I guess I should have put a disclaimer in my first post that this only applied to people specially planning on upgrading their iPads.
Oh wait....
It's all good, Erik. People are just stating their intentions, not saying your advice is bad.
I do find this thread interesting, so thanks for starting it. I reread your original blog (I remember reading it the first time you posted), and your system makes a lot of logical sense. I'm guessing that your way is the road less travelled, which explains all the posts that basically oppose your idea. I am also in the hang on until it's dead camp, but my music making isn't serious enough to run into the lack of RAM problem. If I felt like I was running into limitations on my iPad Air, then I might take the "risk" of your system. I only use the word "risk", because that's what the unfamiliar often feels like to us humans.
Anyways, there's a good chance that one of the many silent lurkers who read this forum often will start using your system as a result of your post. They might end up really appreciating the idea that you have given them without ever letting you know.
So, again, don't be discouraged by the replies of those who disagree. As a mainly silent lurker, I've always appreciated your contributions to the forum (and your own website has been on my bookmarks for awhile)!
Didn't mean to come across as negative, it's all good
@MusicInclusive said:
Damn, should have left 7.1.2 on mine. :P
I think it is a good strategy if you can live without your ipad. My addiction and weekly rehearsals wouldn't allow me to do it anyhow. As far as yearly upgrading goes, after the initial investment I see the yearly top up to get the newest and greatest as a kind of rent. With apps getting better all the time it would be hard to expect the older hardware to keep up. Also if these machines are to be used on stage things like ram, cpu or anti reflective coating seem to me like great additions making the hardware more reliable. I may not have an immediate need for extra ram but I'd rather my system have more headroom rather than cruising at 97% at all times, especially when using effects and fat synths like animoog.
I think of it exactly like renting or leasing actually, a yearly fee to always have access to the fastest iPad available. Plus I'm a bit of a minimalist, having multiple iPads would drive me nuts. Weird I know
You could velcro it to the wall in the loo?