RonF wrote:rrricky rrrecordo wrote:
Make sure you download OMNI TR for your iPad when you get Omnisphere up and running. It's incredible!
Indeed....OMNI TR takes Omnisphere to a new level...and really gives it a hardware feel.
If your're into iPad.....I strongly suggest you look at getting an Alesis I/O Dock. It literally transforms your iPad into a pro level hardware audio device. For one thing....it power's (AC) your iPad while having BOTH pro audio I/O and Midi I/O. The Camera Connection Kit cannot do this at all. Once you plug your iPad into the I/O Dock...you suddenly realize how powerful this is. Example....route Kronos outputs 3/4 out to the Alesis I/O input. Send the Alesis I/O output back to our Kronos inputs....now load up the Moog Filtatron on your iPad. Route a program on Kronos out 3/4......and prepare to be amazed. Suddenly....the iPad just became a fully functional super Moogerfooger. Or....use GarageBand for iPad as a 16 track (stereo) DAW with outstanding visual touch screen editing capabilities, and integrated midi sequencing (if only Apple would provide an update to allow for external midi control!!!...suddenly Kronos sequencer would have serious "touch screen" competition). Use StepPolyArp on iPad to sequence MS-20....or for a mind blow....sequence Poly 6 along side its internal Arpeggiator.....very poly-rhythmic. With the I/O dock...all of this is hardwired, just like a hardware synth or effect....but you can change the functionality of the device in seconds by loading a new IOS program. Without I/O Dock....iPad was a musical toy for me. With it....its suddenly a bona-fide audio component.
I agree with you very much - except for one point - the iPad on its own is definitely NOT a musical toy - that's how I use it and it has revolutionised the way I manage and deal with music. I've posted a list of uses below which I posted before but which I feel is worth mentioning here.
A few questions for you:
- Does the Alesis I/O Dock allow for MIDI sync with external devices - for exampel the iMS20 or iElectribe syncing to the Kronos sequencer or with Logic Pro?
- Can the combination of iPad + Garageband + Alesis I/O Dock act as a mini-DAW - most especially for MIDI sequencing? For example - could you play the Kronos keyboard, have what's played be recorded into a MIDI track in Garageband, and have that track then play another synth also hooked up via MIDI?
Finally - though I've only started to use it - I find Omnishpere very superficial. Yes it sounds 'massive' like an instant "Inception soundtrack" synth engine - but honestly - I found many if not most of its presets unusable in any sort of practical situation - it's all too much ear-candy, too much gargantuan and gigantic processed-to-hell stuff, and the underlying samples about average. Simply put, there's nothing left for me to do or explore - I may as well put on a Hanz Zimmer Soundtrack for all the interactivity I feel I can have with Omnisphere. I'm quite surprised at how unusable it is. I'd say if you're a composer of games or teen-horror movies you'll love it, but beyond that it's incredibly unusable. I also found Omni TR to be trite and at best novel, but certainly not a serious synthesis control environment which, for example. iMS20 is; and with its Kaoss controllers propvides serious performance capabilities in a way Omni TR doesn't seem to offer. My two pennys worth on Omnisphere. I suppose I'm one of those who has to create or at least interact with the sound I'm using to create music, and Omnisphere leaves me out in the cold. Quite disappointing actually. I had bough the software before I had a computer to run it on properly - and only recently have been using it and as said - for me - it went down like a lead baloon.
Anyway, I'd be grateful for any answers you can provide on the capabilities of iPad with Garageband and Alesis IO Dock - mostespecially with respect to MIDI control of external hardware and MIDI sync with other devices.
thanks,
Kevin.
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iPad Uses:
For anyone interested - here is how I use iPad in my musical life:
- Control surface for DAWs - AC Core- Control Faders for Logic; and excellet transport control especially useful if you are sitting away from your computer as I so often am across the room at a vintage synth.
- Built in apps such as synths, like this exciting new MS20, as well as a plethora of drum machines, electribe, Jordan Rudess synth (like a mini Haken Continuum).... the list is endless and some of these synths sound incredibly impressive. The nLog synth for example sounds like a minimoog - its stronger than the Roland GIAI in tone, for example.
- iPad DAWs - there are numerous variants and many of them are very capable. Best of all is the ability to use an iPad step sequencer and use it for sketching, coming up with small sequences and so on.
- New iPad music apps that have no analogue to previous instruments. In other words - true iPad apps that provide new ways of music creation.
- Brilliant DJ music making tools. Though I've never been into DJ'ing, some of the iPad DJ tools are amazing and so cheap so I've bought one or two and am learning a whole bunch of stuff about DJ'ing, realtime control and manipulation of sound that I otherwise wouldn't have forked out the hundreds of dollars/euro for.
- Music notation. There are packages for entering music notation. They are fairly basic but this will only get better and they can be exported as MIDI files into other DAWs and scoring packages.
- Music utilities. for example an app called Backline Calc that does all types of conversions - frames rates to beats/bars to time, tempo... and so on and so on... invaluable for film/tv composing. Of course there are a huge number of these - even the free metronomes and tuners are incredible
- Music study. Now here is where the iPad had really made a massive difference to me. At the moment I'm thick in study of orchestral music and so with classical CDs loaded onto the iPod and dozens of orchestral scores loaded as PFD documents (free from IMSLP copyright free score web site), I can study the score by listening and viewing the score all in one succinct package - it's revolutionary. In fact there is even an app called ‘forscore’ that does the page turning (on selected scores) for you!
And - the new app AVID Scortch is fantastic for studying and analysing scores - it plays the score (and can handle ensemble scores) so it is nothing short of revolutionary for studying and analysing scores.
- As a store of all pdf documents for all my synths and software documentation. For example, sitting on my iPad is the 6000+ pages of all of Apple's music applications software, all the PDFs for my OASYS and so on....
- Apps that provide chord progressions and so on...
- Tuner
- Metronome
Admittedly these are with iPhone too:
- "FIRE" stereo fielod recorder - absolutley excellent portable recorder
- iPad MS20 and iElectribe + Monotribe + Korg SyncControl (fantastic!!)
