Paul Woodward Posted April 13 Share Posted April 13 Release of the Nerd Synth and a recent purchase of Korg’s iM1 got me thinking about IPad apps. Already been a lengthy topic on the subject of iPad as a device for making music and gigging with a controller keyboard. It’s no secret that I’m a fan of the iPad and this is something I dabbled with since the first iPad and really got into when Korg released iMs-20. I was blown away by the sound and features in this tiny thin tablet. I now use a 9th gen iPad for dabbling and have an M2 pro for serious work, but both have a growing library of apps, some of which never get opened. Pairing the iPad with the Korg Keystage has reignited my love of the iPad controller combo so I wondered how others use iPads/iPhone and what their ‘go to’ apps are. For me, it has to be Module (with quite a few in app sound sets) if I just want to play around with splits and layers, as a rehearsal board, or even a top ‘bread and butter’ board above a stage piano, but I also love Animoog Z for how crazy it is. Quote Korg Grandstage 73, Keystage 61, Mac Mini M1, Logic Pro X (Pigments, Korg Legacy Collection, Wavestate LE, Sylenth), iPad Pro 12.9 M2 (6th gen), iPad 9th gen, Scarlett 2i2, Presonus Eris E3.5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drawback Posted April 13 Share Posted April 13 I think I’ve been touting AUM for years. It’s one of the most all-encompassing and for me, well designed of all the host type apps out there. On the pure music side, I’d say my go to is B-3x, but Pure Synth Platinum is right up there. PSP can get you everything from the Rhodes in NeoSoul Keys to fun synths. The only problem is its somewhat clunky interface. It takes a bit of sound design on the user’s end, but it’s all in there for those of us who are never satisfied with presets. 2 Quote ____________________________________ Rod Here for the gear. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D. Gauss Posted April 13 Share Posted April 13 Hands down. GSI VB3m on the iphone! The house keyboard at a place i play quite often is a Yamaha P-125. Decent piano sound, but absolute crap organ. I plug 1 USB cable into the piano from the iphone, turn local off on the yamaha and boom! instant B3 sounds come out of the p125.. My load in/load out is 1 USB cable. Best 15 bucks i ever spent. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baldwin Funster Posted April 13 Share Posted April 13 B3x, Aum, MiniOrchestra. I can do complete blues or motown/stax gigs with these and have. Vb3m and Numa-x as an emergency fill in but I'd be very sad missing my b3x and MiniOrchestra . 2 Quote FunMachine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
miden Posted April 13 Share Posted April 13 Camlelot Pro 1 Quote There is no luck - luck is simply the confluence of circumstance and co-incidence... Time is the final arbiter for all things Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StickMan393 Posted April 13 Share Posted April 13 FingerFiddle for me. Old but a goodie 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Red Ranger Posted April 13 Share Posted April 13 AUM and B3-X. Those two are used on every gig right now, but I'll be incorporating a few more instrument apps as I set up a 1-board rig. Getting ready for a few tough load-ins on the schedule this summer. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jwave Posted April 13 Share Posted April 13 I've acquired countless iPad music apps over the past dozen years. The ones I use the most are: Symphony Pro: for creating and editing sheet music using my preferred method of direct touch input (currently buggy - I'm a beta tester for the long-overdue update) forScore: for displaying PDF sheet music OnSong: for displaying text chord charts which I can instantly change to any key Amazing Slow Downer: for practicing with tracks which I can slow down/retune/loop (I wish there was a similar app that supported multiple tracks with mix/pan/mute/solo) Let's Unmix: for separating recordings into vocal/drum/bass/piano/other tracks liveBPM: for detecting the tempo of recordings and real-time performances I've used a bunch of iPad apps for sound generation in gigs, most recently Zeeon, GeoShred and SWAM Trumpet. I've started trying to recreate the many custom song multis from my Kurzweil PC4 in case it's broken or unavailable. The simple option is Korg Module Pro which has good-quality sounds but limited switch/layer/control. My more complex option is AUM which has nearly unlimited configuration and access to high-quality AUv3 sound apps such as Pianoteq, Hammond B-3X and emulations of many classic synths. Quote Kurzweil PC4, Expressive E Osmose, UNO Synth Pro, Hammond B-3X on iPad, Rhodes Mark II Stage 73, ART 710-A MK4s Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Woodward Posted April 13 Author Share Posted April 13 I really need to look into AUM to get around my gripes with Module Pro not allowing other Korg apps to be integrated (Like Gadget does). I’m not gigging, so not an issue right now but, considering that Module Pro can struggle with polyphony, has anyone had issues on a standard iPad (mine is 9th gen) running multiple apps simultaneously in AUM, within reason of course? Saying that, you can stack 16 Korg gadgets on one midi channel…haven’t tried that yet. Quote Korg Grandstage 73, Keystage 61, Mac Mini M1, Logic Pro X (Pigments, Korg Legacy Collection, Wavestate LE, Sylenth), iPad Pro 12.9 M2 (6th gen), iPad 9th gen, Scarlett 2i2, Presonus Eris E3.5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Docbop Posted April 13 Share Posted April 13 Long time fan of Drum Genius better feel than a drum machine I use it for practice. The one I recently downloaded is called Koala its a sampler and beat maker that a lot of people are talking about these days. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ElmerJFudd Posted April 13 Share Posted April 13 SwiftScan is nice - scans rapidly, auto crops, adjusts for flatness of paper, saves locally and/or to cloud storage. Can save as PDF or JPG. I paid like $4.99 for it once and although they have attempted to bloat the app and add features for an upgrade price. I ignore. It does all I need as is. 1 Quote Yamaha CP88, Casio PX-560 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baldwin Funster Posted April 13 Share Posted April 13 2 hours ago, Paul Woodward said: I really need to look into AUM to get around my gripes with Module Pro not allowing other Korg apps to be integrated (Like Gadget does). I’m not gigging, so not an issue right now but, considering that Module Pro can struggle with polyphony, has anyone had issues on a standard iPad (mine is 9th gen) running multiple apps simultaneously in AUM, within reason of course? Saying that, you can stack 16 Korg gadgets on one midi channel…haven’t tried that yet. 9th Gen seems to be about bullet proof for running lots of apps in one session of AUM. IDK the limit but I'm guessing more than 10, possibly 20 for all I know it could handle lots more. I'm sure it depends on the efficiency of the apps and effects apps you run. B3x gave me problems once when I had the sample rate mismatched between the app and aum. That problem hasn't reoccured but I have been running b3x outside of AUM out of habit anyways. At some point I'm going to get all in there with using b3x in aum and put in an elaborate left/right split so the left hand doesn't duck the right because I get some of that. Also I want the left hand outside the leslie or at least independent leslies on both sides of the split. 1 Quote FunMachine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Piano Man Posted April 13 Share Posted April 13 I love the sound of Ravenscroft for IOS but I find that, if I play quick passages, it lags too much, no matter what settings and even on the latest IOS devices. This is why I always return to hardware. The playability is always better. YMMV. Quote Kurzweil PC3x Technics SX-P50 Korg X3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yannis D Posted April 13 Share Posted April 13 To my ears Neo Soul Keys Rhodes Pianoteq acoustic piano and VB3 organ are far better than any hardware emulations out there.. Quote Be grateful for what you've got - a Nord, a laptop and two hands Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Synthaholic Posted April 13 Share Posted April 13 4 hours ago, Jwave said: I've started trying to recreate the many custom song multis from my Kurzweil PC4 in case it's broken or unavailable. I've thought of doing something similar. I would love to be completely free of any one keyboard, and be able to use the iPad with anything available and still recreate my rig. Is anyone else using Cubasis? I don't see much discussion about it as a traffic cop for all your sound apps. This guy is a very good explainer. Quote The fact there's a Highway To Hell and only a Stairway To Heaven says a lot about anticipated traffic numbers People only say "It's a free country" when they're doing something shitty-Demetri Martin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reezekeys Posted April 13 Share Posted April 13 23 minutes ago, The Piano Man said: I love the sound of Ravenscroft for IOS but I find that, if I play quick passages, it lags too much, no matter what settings and even on the latest IOS devices. This is why I always return to hardware. The playability is always better. YMMV. Either you're extremely sensitive to latency or there might be a problem with your setup - with Ravenscroft (which I havent tried) or maybe something in the chain of software to audio output (or the audio device, if you use an external one). I'm mainly a piano player and all my local gigs are on an iPad 9G with a 64 or 128 buffer. I hear no discernable latency, using Virsyn's AudioLayer inside AUM. Could be me for sure, but I don't feel any lagging at all. On topic - the apps that make iOS music-making happen for me are AUM, Midiflow, Streambyter, and the aforementioned AudioLayer - a quite full-featured sampler that reads Logic .exs instruments. My piano is an older Native Intruments piano I used Logic's autosampler to render to .exs, then imported to AudioLayer in my iPad and iPhone. I love it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Piano Man Posted April 13 Share Posted April 13 1 hour ago, Reezekeys said: Either you're extremely sensitive to latency or there might be a problem with your setup - with Ravenscroft (which I havent tried) or maybe something in the chain of software to audio output (or the audio device, if you use an external one). I'm mainly a piano player and all my local gigs are on an iPad 9G with a 64 or 128 buffer. I hear no discernable latency, using Virsyn's AudioLayer inside AUM. Could be me for sure, but I don't feel any lagging at all. On topic - the apps that make iOS music-making happen for me are AUM, Midiflow, Streambyter, and the aforementioned AudioLayer - a quite full-featured sampler that reads Logic .exs instruments. My piano is an older Native Intruments piano I used Logic's autosampler to render to .exs, then imported to AudioLayer in my iPad and iPhone. I love it. Interesting. I would love if there was a solution. Any other Ravenscroft IOS users having success on fast passages? My setup is iPad Pro 1st gen into a Korg Plugkey into an old Technics P30 stage piano but have had the same issue with other keyboard controllers. And have also tried an iPhone 12. I will give Korg Module a try in order to rule in/out Ravenscroft as an issue. I will also try Ravenscroft using Camera Connection Kit, thereby ruling in/out the Plugkey as an issue. Quote Kurzweil PC3x Technics SX-P50 Korg X3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baldwin Funster Posted April 13 Share Posted April 13 I was checking out the new Nerd app that is being discussed on another thread and I wasn't sure but I thought it felt slightly latent. I checked the apps buffers and it was defaulted to 512. I reset to the extreme low buff of 64 and got no glitches and the slight latency got even slighter. Like no latency . Check your buffers within the app. Quote FunMachine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D. Gauss Posted April 13 Share Posted April 13 6 hours ago, Docbop said: Long time fan of Drum Genius better feel than a drum machine I use it for practice. Do you have any insight into this app? They keep hyping "real drummer" in their ads, and name drop all these famous players (many of whom are dead). As far as i can tell it's some guy with a keyboard programming famous beats into a sequencer? Hope i'm wrong about that. Who (if anyone) is actually playing real drums on these? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Woodward Posted April 13 Author Share Posted April 13 For those with lag, try restarting the iPad and then turn WiFi and Bluetooth off. Also close any unused apps. Made a noticeable difference for me. 1 Quote Korg Grandstage 73, Keystage 61, Mac Mini M1, Logic Pro X (Pigments, Korg Legacy Collection, Wavestate LE, Sylenth), iPad Pro 12.9 M2 (6th gen), iPad 9th gen, Scarlett 2i2, Presonus Eris E3.5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Canoehead Posted April 14 Share Posted April 14 Amazing Slow Downer for learning songs. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J.F.N. Posted April 14 Share Posted April 14 3 hours ago, Baldwin Funster said: I was checking out the new Nerd app that is being discussed on another thread and I wasn't sure but I thought it felt slightly latent. I checked the apps buffers and it was defaulted to 512. I reset to the extreme low buff of 64 and got no glitches and the slight latency got even slighter. Like no latency . Check your buffers within the app. Yes, check settings and adjust buffer, just as it's done in a DAW etc. I run all audio apps on 32 samples on my iPad (M1), which is lowest possible for me (I guess it depends on the audio interface). Quote "You live every day. You only die once." Where is Major Tom? - - - - - Band Rig: PC3, HX3 w. B4D, 61SLMkII Other stuff: Prologue 16, KingKORG, Opsix, MPC Key 37, DM12D, Argon8m, EX5R, Toraiz AS-1, IK Uno, Toraiz SP-16, Erica LXR-02, QY-700, SQ64, Beatstep Pro Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fleer Posted April 14 Share Posted April 14 Pianoteq Pianoteq Pianoteq 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zephonic Posted April 14 Share Posted April 14 ForScore - on iPad, best for charts iRealPro - on all platforms, 21st-century Jamie Aebershold, and convenient for quickly scratching out chord charts in a pinch Metronome - both Phone and iPad, indispensable LiveBPM - measures BPM's of whatever the phone mic picks up MiniPianoLite - when you don't have a keyboard but quickly need to find a key of something that's playing on the radio or for a singer VocalEase4U - awesome vocal coaching app by the great Arnold McCuller I have many more, but those are the ones that see the most use. 1 Quote local: Korg Nautilus 73 | Yamaha MODX8 away: GigPerformer home: Kawai RX-2 | Korg D1 | Roland Fantom X7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Docbop Posted April 14 Share Posted April 14 4 hours ago, D. Gauss said: Do you have any insight into this app? They keep hyping "real drummer" in their ads, and name drop all these famous players (many of whom are dead). As far as i can tell it's some guy with a keyboard programming famous beats into a sequencer? Hope i'm wrong about that. Who (if anyone) is actually playing real drums on these? From the website..... "All the drum loops have been realized by Mauro Battisti using a master keyboard and drum libraries" He also has "Study Tools" on his site including bass and piano transcriptions. https://www.projazzlab.com/study-tools/#drumgenius-transcriptions Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jejefunkyman Posted April 14 Share Posted April 14 I’m addicted to Korg’s apps: Module with many IAP (Synthogy, Scarbee, KAPro…), Gadget, iM1. Use them for music production and rehearsals. I use also Cubasis 3 a lot. Then a bit of Beathawk and iMPC Pro 2 to craft nice drums. iReal pro and Anytune for practicing and learning new tunes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D. Gauss Posted April 14 Share Posted April 14 9 hours ago, Docbop said: From the website..... "All the drum loops have been realized by Mauro Battisti using a master keyboard and drum libraries" Ha! So no actual drummers were harmed in the making of these. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J.F.N. Posted April 14 Share Posted April 14 11 minutes ago, D. Gauss said: Ha! So no actual drummers were harmed in the making of these. Or, quite the opposite! 🤣 Quote "You live every day. You only die once." Where is Major Tom? - - - - - Band Rig: PC3, HX3 w. B4D, 61SLMkII Other stuff: Prologue 16, KingKORG, Opsix, MPC Key 37, DM12D, Argon8m, EX5R, Toraiz AS-1, IK Uno, Toraiz SP-16, Erica LXR-02, QY-700, SQ64, Beatstep Pro Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Polkahero Posted April 14 Share Posted April 14 Forscore and LiveBPM when I think the drummer is rushing things, lol. 1 Quote '57 Hammond B-3, '60 Hammond A100, Leslie 251, Leslie 330, Leslie 770, Leslie 145, Hammond PR-40 Trek II UC-1A Alesis QSR Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D. Gauss Posted April 14 Share Posted April 14 11 minutes ago, Polkahero said: LiveBPM when I think the drummer is rushing things, lol. Anybody remember the old, pre DAW Russian/Dragon studio box/argument settler? You fed it 2 signals and it compared them, with LEDs telling you who was rushing and who was dragging: 2 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.