11 thoughts on “How to Make Music With iPad Apps & Ableton Live”

1. The only comment I have is that he is talking about this like it some ‘new thing’ – we’ve been importing sounds into Live for years with everything – synth’s, live musicians, sequencers, etc., etc.,

   So have iPad owners like myself, and before iPads with iPhones and Touches. This is a great example of creating filler content for a website – high in fat content, no real nutrition… junk food.

   I mean, come on…. does this ‘instructor’ really believe that a person who owns Live, AND owns an iPad full of music apps won’t be able to figure this out? Hahaha, made for a good laugh!

   1. >does this ‘instructor’ really believe…

      I think companies are trying to figure out how best to serve the Apple market. My experience has always been that the Apple market is unique and very, very polarized. Many Apple users are extremely smart and experienced and can figure out anything for themselves. But, at the same time, many Apple users are people who have never owned a computer before and are trying to get into Apple technology and other technology the best way they can and helpful entry-level tutorials can mean so much to these people that it’s hard to imagine.

      1. I know many people who could never afford desktop stuff or hardware suddenly find they are empowered by ios apps, many of those then decided to save up for additional equipment..

   2. My gut reaction is to feel the same way. But then I think about the armies of people who only ever use sample loops and don’t actually record or play anything themselves, and then this video makes a lot of sense.

2. I’m using my ipad in a similar way with logic, main difference is I’m using midi and audio copy too, for timing and automation, but I like playing in a lot of things live also. I find I’m using the ielectribes quite a lot for beats, working on breaks in parts then recording a loop, doing variations, intros, breakdowns and getting the whole beat together in 30 or so different loop parts and dropping them in logic from itunes. Also use the dm1 drum machine but do the arrangement in dm1 and record the whole thing in live with fx pads, altho my ipad 1 sometimes glitches and tempo drift can be an issue.

   I also spend quite a bit of time sampling from youtube, netflix and random apps on the ipad and record it straight into logic, maybe bounce some samples back into the ipad and use apps like curtis to do a bit of mangling. I have an io dock which has helped loads and makes it easy to use the ipad as a virtual instrument, grain science, alchemy, sunrizer and a ton of other softsynths work like plugins, especially when you start mapping all the controls. Apps like, touch osc, lemur and konkreet performer have been invaluable, especially if you’ve got hardware, plus it feels damn inspiring and futuristic controlling stuff with the touch screen, especially with konkreet.

   Also apps like chordbot and prochords are fantastic for coming up with melodies and chord progressions which I’ll either bounce in live or just export as midi file and use it with whatever synth tickles my fancy at the time. Using sp pro, seline, thumbjam or polychord makes a nice change from using my midi controller keyboard as I find I’m more expressive with these instruments and it’s easier to keep in key for me as I’m not to hot with music theory. I liked what he was doing with beat shuffler I think it was called, im going to check that app out, I use a similar app called amen break generator, but it has no bpm, so I have to go into flex time to tidy it up.

   I’ve found the ipad to be a sublime studio tool, very creative and the apps are criminally cheap compaired to there desktop counter parts, I know some of you will think the ipad is a toy which is why the apps are so cheap, but some apps I’ve mentioned and ones like tc-11, animoog, addictive and the like I would put on a par with what’s on my main machines. What’s also great about the ipad is the way a lot of apps are updated adding extra functionality for free, quite a few apps I use get things like midi support and audio copy and paste which just opens them up in a studio setting. What I’d like to see is more osc support built into softsynths and more daws, like logic has, also it would be great if apple added airplay support to logic and made it easy for other devs to follow suit, maybe even throw in wist support to. I haven’t got into using the ipad as a self contained studio yet, but that would be feasible, especially after audiobus lands.

   I was initially very disappointed the ipad wasn’t running osx, but in the end it has turned out better having a simpler and touch focused os that can use core audio and core midi from osx, it’s enabled apple and the devs to go crazy and come up with some absolutely amazing forward thinking software, which will influence touch based music creation for a long time like the original lemur.

3. One other thing I forgot was using the devices as sample collectors, around the house and outside, even just using the inbuilt mic and your voice can get very interesting results, my only advice if your buying one for music is to get a 32 or 64 gb version, mines 32 and I have to juggle apps and music, as I run out of space quite a bit, especially if I load 24 bit aiff’s onto it checking out my tracks on different headphones and speakers.

   1. Actually the inbuilt mic is quite good, extremely sensitive actually

      1. yeh its like neumann quality and shit

         all the REAL engineers use iPads to do vocals because they are extremely sensitive and fucking awesome because apple means “cool”

4. Its people with ghetto gear that always end up doing interesting stuff, not gear snobs. Did techno come from people with great gear?

   1. ^
      Fur reel

   2. yeh the ipad is so “ghetto” … LOL

      damn you guys are keepin it real! totally fucking indie and down with the scene!

      snap snap snap snap