[primitur]

I think there's a missing area of creativity and tinkering in the iPad world, which gets seriously under-evaluated .. MUSIC MAKING.

The iPad is a fantastic creativity/tinkering machine for making music. Its not consumption, but Performance.

[keithpeter]

I've seen an electronic music group perform with some iPads used as controllers and others making sound directly, including modifying the sound of a cello. One chap was using a thinkpad with a games controller to be different I suppose...

http://www.bilensemble.co.uk/

And I've just spent a week in Yorkshire including a visit to Salts Mill. Hockney has an exhibition of some of his iPad paintings (projections) and some of the paintings he did using a graphics tablet on Photoshop. I actually liked the tablet/photoshop paintings more (composed of thin lines building shapes and shadings) than the iPad ones.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2012/jan/13/david-hockney-...

http://danielonphotography.wordpress.com/2009/06/23/daniel-h...

But I think that a 'direct manipulation' interface will allow creation in variety of media. I'm waiting for a notebook sized tablet with stylus input for an electronic moleskine.

[kitsune_]

I disagree. It's "fantastic" as a generic (midi) control panel (similar to the Lemur, for instance Touch OSC or Max/MSP). Of course, you could usually achieve the same thing with an old second-hand Behringer BCF-2000 (or BCR-2000). Bonus: You get motorized faders and real knobs that you can touch.

[primitur]

Well, I have 2 ipads and an iPhone which I use as a portable studio these days, jamming with my band .. and I use the iPads just like VST plugin hosts on my PC .. since I play keyboards in the band, its awesome! Plug in, fire up a few apps, and off we go .. a very, very versatile creativity machine. Beats the DAW by far!

[lloeki]

> MUSIC MAKING

like, you know, Gorillaz.

http://thefall.gorillaz.com

[kitsune_]

Yeah, made on the iPad. Mixed at Studio 13, London. Mastered at Abbey Road Studios, London. But yeah, totally made on the iPad.

[rimantas]

Wait, so before iPads everything was done on one device?

[kitsune_]

What are you getting at, if you don't mind me asking?

[thornofmight]

I hear this a lot. Why is the iPad such a great device for making music compared to say...a laptop?

[primitur]

Its simple: it just plain works. Pretty much, always. I plug in a MIDI keyboard and Controller, fire up a synth app, and off we go. Stable, sounds great (comparable by far with any PC plugin), and just plain works. I have two iPads and an iPhone in my studio rig now, plus a couple of Akai controllers (pads/keys/sliders/knobs), and as a portable action studio this configuration just rocks.

Plus, I don't have to have it sitting there, like I'm checking my email on stage. Hate that about laptop musicians, as if it is actually interesting to watch someone glow their face when I'm out at night and want to have fun, away from the office .. with the iPad form factor, at least, it lays flat and stays out of the way. And there is no QWERTY keyboard, so its not easy for someone to make the association "that guy must be writing an email onstage instead of making live music", and believe me that happens a lot with laptop musicians around my parts.

[rprasad]

Because...magic. And fairy dust. And nobody who uses a laptop could possibly be cool.

It's not a great device for making music. It's an adequate device mostly used by hipsters (and I use that term offensively) to look cool, sort of like how "writers" hang out in coffee shops using Macbook Pros (or various other expensive laptops, like Vaios) to "write" the next American Novel.

[kisielk]

as a musician, I disagree. The iPad makes for a great adaptable electronic instrument. The major feature of tablets is that they become the app you're running. This lets the designers of the various synths for the iPad experiment with interfaces like was never before possible. Check out some of the stuff that Jordan Rudess's Wizdom Music is putting out: http://www.wizdommusic.com/

Jordan Rudess isn't just anybody, he's one of the top keyboard players alive today. He's always experimented with alternative instrument interfaces and I think the fact that he's doing this on the iPad lends a lot to its credibility as a creative platform.

[benthumb]

I bought the ipad on a total whim and have been repaid many times over by the enjoyment it continues to provide. I'm an old-school musician from the days when sounds were 'etched' on analog tape and I can tell you that as far as I'm concerned, it is a GREAT device for making music and one that is only going to get better as software evolves to exploit the full potential of its touch panel.

I also recently took it to Poland for a month and used it to compile a hundred pages of typed and handwritten notes and video footage--all the while using it to navigate my way around the unfamiliar terrain. I keep being surprised by my little sidekick's range of uses and flexibility...

[simonbrown]

Vaios are expensive? They certainly don't come close to the cost of Macbook Pros.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sony-SVE1511M1EB-CEK-15-5-inch-Lapt... https://www.amazon.co.uk/Apple-15-inch-MacBook-Graphics-GeFo...

They are UK products, couldn't find a reasonably sized VAIO on Amazon.com. The VAIO has lower specs, though.

[malenm]

As a huge technology fan (and moe. fan), I was ecstatic to get to witness the entire band perform live on iPads last year at moe.down

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzVhVJaKexk

[statictype]

This is probably true. I've actually seen people making music with their iPad. This is one area where it probably does excel in producing work.

[jakem1331]

I agree...and Garage Band is the equivalent of a very low-level Pro Tools, if you will, and best of all, it's free. I do wish there was an easier way to sync tempos on the program but it's good enough for a basic user.