iPad Variants...

[JWhllr]

Hey everyone!

 

So, I'm doing a Masters next year and one of the required pieces of equipment is an iPad running Garageband.

Currently I have a little 8" Samsung tablet (cos it was cheap) that does an okay-but-not-great job at running charts.

 

So, I'm looking at getting an iPad primarily for the Masters (so Garageband) but also running charts, doing some photo editing and the usual emails, invoicing etc. My main question is, any recommendations? The 11" iPad Pro is tempting with the education pricing at the moment, but the 9.7" normal iPad might be fine power wise and a bit cheaper, although I'm slightly concerned about the screen size for charts.

 

Would the 12.9" be worth it over the 11"? Starting to get slightly less portable in that format though, but the screen real estate could be good for DAW and charts.

[analogika]

Not sure about the size, but the Pro has a better screen thats laminated to the glass, which makes using the Pencil much more natural.

 

Ive a 10.5 Pro, and Ive taken to writing up all of my sheets directly on the iPad, rather than on paper.

[tfort]

Thats a decision thats really dependent on your financial situation. The $329 9.7 iPad is really quite good, is on sale right now for $225 or so at a few places, will run any current software easily, and is what most schools will be using (I suspect that model iPad is designed primarily with the education market in mind).

 

Ive been using an iPad Mini 2 (the first one with Retina display), and just updated to the new 2018 12.9 iPad Pro. The two new iPad Pros are very powerful, more powerful than most of Apples current laptops at some tasks. The current 9.7 iPad can still run any current software easily, though, and it now can use the (original) Apple Pencil for the first time. I got the Pro as I want to try replacing my laptop. It wont be easy, but Im fully aware of the pain points and am willing to give it a serious try.

 

I opted for the 12.9 over the 11 size primarily for music and chart reading. It feels a little bit big holding it in your hands or walking around the house, but in your lap you dont notice it. The 12.9 screen is nearly identical to the size of a sheet of paper, so picture if you could imagine reading music from something smaller and still feel comfortable.

 

Ive recommended the 9.7 to several of my friends, and financially its a no-brainer as the best value. I got the Pro as I could justify the price as replacing my creaking laptop, and secondarily for its use in music both for sound creation apps and for chart reading. I cringe a bit when I think about how much more expensive it was than the 9.7 iPad, but I would have spent at least as much on a laptop and Ill be using this easily for at least a decade.

 

It sounds like youre not already fully invested in the Apple ecosystem and havent been using an iPad before. If thats the case, then the 9.7 iPad is definitely the way to go.

[MoodyBluesKeys]

Above answers good, but also suggest that you contact the Professor (or department) and ask how capable an iPad they recommend. I was considering an iPad Pro, my granddaughter has one, but decided on two regular 9.7" iPads instead - one for wife and one for self. Both with 512GB.

If necessary, spend more for one with MORE storage space - it can't be added later. My two previous iPads are 32GB (and an iPhone 6 with only 16GB).

The new ones I got are definitely considerably hotter performance than the iPad Mini 2 that I still have.

I use these in business, home/social, and as sound generators with MIDI keyboards.

Still doesn't replace my notebook computers for the higher end stuff (one MacBook Pro with quad i7, 16GB, and 1TB SSD, and one HP Windows 10 with dual i7, 16GB, and 500GB SSD). But the notebooks are used for business (computer networking services), and a bit of MainStage on the MBP.

 

[3rdAct]

I just got the 9.7" iPad - only ~$230 with 32 GB and WiFi only. It was another $100 to get it with 128GB, and (based on information I found on other threads of this forum as well as other sites) I didn't think the increased cost would be worth it for me. I do not plan to use it for any major audio applications. I've currently loaded iReal Pro, and it's working great. I am able to read the charts easily, even in landscape mode (which I prefer). This has the chart on the right ~2/3 of the screen and the list of songs on the playlist on the left ~1/3.

[analogika]

FWIW, I bought a test iPad first an iPad 2 with lowest configuration at the time on a ridiculously cheap deal, used it for a while before deciding it would be indispensable. By then, i also had a pretty good idea of the specs I needed/wanted, so I upgraded to an Air 2 with almost no loss and went for the 128 GB cellular model. Upgraded that when the 10.5 pro came out last year.

[JWhllr]

Thanks for all the responses. I don't think I'll have much use for the apple pencil, although writing charts onto the tablet is definitely interesting! Would it have good enough response for writing in notation apps? I'd be interested in that... Essentially I'm loosely trying to get rid of my laptop for day to day so I can leave it wired up on my desk unless I need to take it for a session/Mainstage gig. Not so new to Apple ecosystem, my laptop is a MBP and I had an iPad 2 a fair while ago. Guess I need to decide if the iPad pro 11" is worth the upgrade from the 9.7" for my uses.

[RandyFF]

Cant really comment too much on size, the larger ones are ridiculously expensive, and hard to justify when there are laptop variations at around the same price.

 

One thing to factor in is will you be using it much to run musical instrument programs other than GarageBand? Now that they have such fast chips in them, the only other limitation is the amount of of RAM, which gets expensive fast but it is totally worth it if youre running memory intensive music instrument programs. I think the iPad is a great substitute compared to the added complexities of a laptop, and the quality of sound from many of these music apps surpasses my hardware keyboard, making it a great complementary sound source.

 

In my experience iPads are pretty reliable, perhaps look for one that is a year old and has 128 GB of RAM. Slight cosmetic blemishes are your friend!

 

There is however one really significant change in the latest iPad pros, which is the USB-C port. With that you can easily transfer files into and out of the iPad, which you normally have to do in the cloud, much less convenient.

[analogika]

Cant really comment too much on size, the larger ones are ridiculously expensive, and hard to justify when there are laptop variations at around the same price.

 

One thing to factor in is will you be using it much to run musical instrument programs other than GarageBand? Now that they have such fast chips in them, the only other limitation is the amount of of RAM, which gets expensive fast but it is totally worth it if youre running memory intensive music instrument programs. I think the iPad is a great substitute compared to the added complexities of a laptop, and the quality of sound from many of these music apps surpasses my hardware keyboard, making it a great complementary sound source.

 

In my experience iPads are pretty reliable, perhaps look for one that is a year old and has 128 GB of RAM. Slight cosmetic blemishes are your friend!

 

There is however one really significant change in the latest iPad pros, which is the USB-C port. With that you can easily transfer files into and out of the iPad, which you normally have to do in the cloud, much less convenient.

Hold your horses!

 

USB-C at this point in time CANNOT be used to transfer files between iPad and external storage, except for a few iOS-specific devices, which have been available for years and work fine with Lightning as well (and previous iPad Pros support USB 3.1, as well).

 

Also, Im not sure whether the RAM comment is directed at the iPad - there is no way to upgrade RAM on the iPad, and all iPad Pro except for the first-generation 9.7 iPad Pro have 4 GB of RAM.

 

The 9.7 iPad Pro and the current regular iPad have 2 GB.

 

This may make a difference in how many audio apps can be running, and is something to keep in mind, but it shouldnt detract from the idea of buying a dirt-cheap (relatively) tester, if thats the way you want to go.

[3rdAct]

The 9.7 iPad Pro and the current regular iPad have 2 GB.

 

Not sure what you're refering to, but here's a 9.7-inch iPad Pro with a minimum of 32GB:

https://www.amazon.com/iPad-9-7-inch-Wi-Fi-Space-Model/dp/B01D3NUJEC

 

And the current iPad has either 32 or 128 GB:

https://www.apple.com/ipad-9.7/specs/

[analogika]

That is solid-state storage (SSD) capacity, and has absolutely nothing to do with RAM.

 

RAM is random-access memory and determines how many active processes an iPad/iPhone can have in memory simultaneously before having to kill one. Apple has never advertised RAM capacity on any iOS device, AFAIK, but we know from testing. MacTracker is my reference of choice.

 

Sorry if it feels like Im jumping you for your misnomer I genuinely thought you were talking about RAM in the earlier paragraph, since that is indeed an issue when running memory-intensive music apps (though more so on traditional computers that arent designed with the iPads limitations in mind).

[3rdAct]

Sorry if it feels like Im jumping you for your misnomer I genuinely thought you were talking about RAM in the earlier paragraph, since that is indeed an issue when running memory-intensive music apps (though more so on traditional computers that arent designed with the iPads limitations in mind).

Not a problem. I actually didn't use the term "RAM" in my original post. But, like I said, I wasn't sure what you were referring to.... I thought you might be referring to storage, because that's what most people (inducing me) talk about regarding iPad memory. To be honest, I never even thought about the amount of RAM on Apple devices, even though I do all the time with desktops. So I learned something new (2 GB of RAM on iPad)!

 

 

 

[analogika]

Sorry if it feels like Im jumping you for your misnomer I genuinely thought you were talking about RAM in the earlier paragraph, since that is indeed an issue when running memory-intensive music apps (though more so on traditional computers that arent designed with the iPads limitations in mind).

Not a problem. I actually didn't use the term "RAM" in my original post. But, like I said, I wasn't sure what you were referring to....

Apologies: Randelph had confused the terms, which prompted my comment.

[AnotherScott]

. So I learned something new (2 GB of RAM on iPad)!

it depends on the model. Getting a model with more RAM is more beneficial if you want to run multiple apps ar once. Unfortunately, Apple doesn't tell you how much RAM a model has. everymac.com is a site that has that info.

[RandyFF]

Yes, I was confusing ram with storage, Which is obvious when I talked about 128 GB of RAM.

 

There is a crowd funded USB C hub HYPER DRIVE USB C HUB that Cnet had an article on. Perhaps Im wrong, I assumed when I saw the SD and micro SD card slots that it allowed you to bring files into and out of the iPad. Re-reading the article, he only talks about bringing photos in an out, so perhaps the new USB C port is not as useful as I imagined.

[analogika]

At present, the USB-C port on iPad doesnt really do anything that the Lightning port didnt do, before.

 

This is likely to change, but right now, thats where we are.

[tfort]

So I learned something new (2 GB of RAM on iPad)!

 

I believe most of the 2018 iPad Pros have 4GB of RAM; the highest end one with 2TB of storage has 6 GB of RAM.

[analogika]

So I learned something new (2 GB of RAM on iPad)!

 

I believe most of the 2018 iPad Pros have 4GB of RAM; the highest end one with 2TB of storage has 6 GB of RAM.

 

They only come in up to 1 TB, but yes, the 2018 11 and 12.9 models have 6GB of RAM on the 1 TB models; all other Pros except for the first-generation 9.7 Pro have 4 GB.