I’m looking to buy an iPad 2 mini and invest in some apps. I’m tempted by: AUM, Samplr, Turnado etc.
I’m really new to this though and need some help explaining set-up options.
I’m looking to want to do live looping (with a USB midi footswitch). Do I need Loopy or Quantiloop or can that all be done in AUM or a DAW-type app?
I’m also really intrigued by Samplr and Turnado for sampling and effects but have no idea how you’d set them up. Could/should everything run through AUM or do you need an additional DAW-type app like Beatmaker or Cubasis?
I’ve seen people trigger synths in AUM with their OP-Zs and that seems easy enough to set-up.
Totally new to this so any help appreciated.
I love the Op-z/Ipad combo. I use the camera connection kit to hook the Z up and a NanoKontrol Studio via bluetooth. I sequence everything on the op-z using Aum as my mixer.
I usually use Op-Z’s kick, snare and hats, mute the rest of the tracks and use Auv3 instruments.
You just have to save a template in Aum with your midi routing and tracks and you are good to go.
Nice one, sounds fun. I’d like to do something similar but feeding vocals and guitar in as well. Is that possible? And would it be possible to do any looping with this set-up?
There are a lot of ways to do this, AUM can accept and route any audio/MIDI.
You can connect a lot of interfaces using the Apple Camera Connection Kit and USB, Audient, Scarlett, PreSonus, etc. You can also go with an iOS-specific one like iRig. Once you have an interface connected you are only limited by how many jacks it has, but mics/guitars/synths/anything will work. If you want to do USB MIDI and an interface with an iPad then get a powered USB hub and plug that into the CCK. I have plugged in like four different MIDI controllers through a USB hub and routed everything where I wanted it to go in AUM.
Looping in AUM itself might be possible (I haven’t actually have tried, you can save audio clips to loop but it’s not like a “looper”). However, Loopy HD and L7 and other loopers are super cheap and work perfectly in AUM, I would just buy whichever one has the best feel to you and run it in AUM.
Samplr is bananas and 100% worth it. If a company was selling a hardware device with a screen that just did what Samplr did people would be paying hundreds of dollars for it and raving about it.
Turnado is really cool in theory to me but I never got it to work how I wanted. It can do a million things, but some of its settings are unintuitive and I always found myself fiddling with things for a long time to get the sound I wanted instead of making music. Other people who are more familiar with it might have a better experience.
I could list 50 other amazing apps for instruments or effects, but I really have to emphasize BUY KOALA SAMPLER. It is SO good and so cheap. There threads on here for app recommendations and there are lots of “Top 20” lists for apps each year on music websites to check out for more. Jakob Haq also posts videos demoing just about every app that gets released https://www.youtube.com/c/JakobHaq/videos
I use AUM, Audioshare (great for saving/importing/exporting any files), Koala, and Samplr every time I use my iPad. I think those four apps alone would make an iPad worth buying.
You don’t need a DAW like Beatmaker. You play audio live in AUM and you can also save audio recordings in AUM (definitely buy Audioshare though, cheap and makes everything so much easier to move around). I never use a DAW with the iPad, but Garageband is free and works with AUM if want to compose and edit audio in that format.