If it’s for music-making, then an iPad is your only serious choice. It’s that simple.
+1 for the iPad, there is no debate possible.
+1 for the iPad. I’ve had a Mini Retina for a couple of weeks and I’m blown away by most of the of music apps I’d bought (favs: Musyc Pro, SamplR, Impaktor, Sector, DM-1, Voicesynth, Figure,TC-11, Earhoof). I’m happy with the sound, stability, iOS… if you can afford go for the 64GB or 128 GB version as you may run out of storage capacity if you have less… mine has only 16 GBs but I bought it brand new, it has the 4G function and the price was simply unbeatable (60% off ). So far I’m OK with the capacity but chances are good I’ll be buying another one in a few months.
yeah its kinda sad your forced to get an ipad for the app library. Android tablets are so much more bang for your buck but no IOS. eventually cider will come through though. and even an old android tablet will become a fully fledged ios powerhouse. I was just looking at a tablet 10in. octacore. ips 2000x1000 res. 10000mah. 2gb ram. all for 200… an ipad will cost twice that. anyhoo i have an ipad and love it for music making…
I have a 16gb ipad. I have never had a problem with space.
Cider is now called Cycada @masterofstuff124 - and as of May they were using iOS 5.1 so I wouldn’t hold your breath =/ it’ll be cool if they can make it work, though, and with iOS 7 since more and more apps are requiring it all the time. One of the large 10 inch Notes would be great to draw on, and then music on, though there are some interesting active iPad stylus solutions out there lately.
Of all the tablets I find win tablets harder to use because I want them to be a computer… the iPad I can deny it is a tablet. Of all of them I love the mini retina, unlike @KrisM I have the 128GB, but I have a kid… so we play games watch movies and I have all my extra music stuff. I feel the iPad community is make an effort in the music realm. there are lots of great apps.
If you are big fingered I would go with an iPad air but for no real other reason, IMO.
If you are a win user or even an ableton user, you can run that on the surface. and you can get better USB support.
Apps on the iPad:
Genome MIDI
iMPC Pro
AUFX
AltiSpace
MultiTrack DAW
ReBirth
Korg Gadget
BeatMaker 2
Lemur
Figure
Midi Monitor
Audiobus
Cubasis
Sunrizer
JACK
Nave
Thor
Samplr
Audulus
Turnado
ThesysNXT
TableTop
to name a few…
I bought an iPad mini retina recently, what a great thing for music making!!
source: instagram.com/andreamilana
I have an iPad2 which is still great at making music, though a lot of the newer apps won’t run on it. Ultimately, iPads are your best option for a tablet that you can use to make music. I personally love Xewton Music Studio, MultiTrack DAW (which is not much more than a multitrack recorder but is still very useful), Samplr plus a few others that are incredibly fun to use.
There aren’t a whole lot of great music apps for Android though Caustic is works great and runs on minimal hardware. Unfortunately, I still find latency problems with Android apps though I have an older Android tablet.
A Windows 8 tablet doesn’t really have any decent music-making apps but of course you can run any desktop software that a standard PC can run. The downside is that the amount of RAM would certainly be low and storage space is at a premium. Unlike iPads, it’s very easy to put a MicroSD card for additional storage. If this option interests you, make certain the tablet isn’t one of the standard Surface tablets (if you are getting a tablet made by Microsoft). The Surface Pro line will run any desktop software because it’s running a full version of Windows 8.
There are other manufacturers who make full Windows 8 tablets and they will run you anywhere between $200 to $1200 depending on storage and RAM.
I own an Asus VivoTab Note 8 Windows tablet and am running CakeWalk Music Studio 6 on it. The interface is incredibly small (it’s only an 8 inch screen) but it runs surprisingly well in addition to being able to run nearly any VSTi instrument I can throw at it. This and a small MIDI controller makes for a nice, portable setup. The tablet isn’t without it’s problems and the lack of certain standard apps (like YouTube) is problematic.
In the end, if I had to purchase a new tablet purely for making music then one of the Apple tablets would certainly be my tablet of choice.
I recently purchased Cubasis for my iPad Air and iTrack Dock combo, and it’s been a blast. The iPad has definitely come a long way since I upgraded from the 1st gen, and using a DAW like Cubasis has been quite intuitive and fun. There are a few gestures I’m not used to yet and it can get frustrating when editing fine details (midi & audio tracks) much like other apps, but only time will improve that.
iPad only!!! Core Audio, the same thing that makes Macs great for music is also in all iPads. Plus they have like THOUSANDS of apps that other tablets just can’t handle. iPad is MADE for music! Love mine, I have over 50 synth apps and constantly sample them into the OP-1 and flip them! Never ending source of inspiration, I prefer my apps to most VST’s. For the price of one VST you could get like 20 apps that are all terrific.
I agree. There are some fun apps that cost less than a night out and provide an endless amount of wacky sounds. There is even a decent rhodes/Wurlitzer app called soul keys that is surprisingly good.
soul keys is da best!!!
Most of my tracks from the last year were done solely on an iPad, it’s a powerhouse now with things like Auria available.
No competition it has to be apple ipad.
I’m no apple fan-boy it’s simply the truth that everyone makes music apps for the ipad first 