[Leon]

Hey guys, my name is Leon, and I'm basically new to this entire section of the forum :lol:

Thing is, the guys in my coverband are getting restless and want to start writing some originals. Since I've never done that before, it's pretty scary, but definitely exciting at the same time.

• What I've got: a Roland Duo-Capture interface, an iPad-mini, two SM57's, and a bountiful assortment of Mesa's, cabs, and guitars.
• What I think I need: a better iPad recording app.

What's the best iPad app for tracking ideas? I've used a program called Tape previously, and it is SUPER simple. Maybe I just need to sit down and actually learn GarageBand? Whether these will have any drum tracks on them, I don't know. I'll likely be using soundcloud heavily to share these files with my bandmates, so anything that has that integrated into it would be super swell.

 

[Dana]

Well, an easy way to record ideas and share is jam up. Just record to the built in 8 track, then you can email or send it to iTunes. It's quick and easy and required no outside gear. Everything is rite there in the app

 

[GentleHands McCoy]

Here's four easy steps to recording like a pro.

1) No matter how bad it sounds, claim that's what you intended.
2) To appear good at recording, don't bother learning anything to make sure you have lots of knowledge, just make sure everybody else has less knowledge than you.
3) If someone has more knowledge recording than you just throw out a bunch of buzzwords to get on their level. "Side chain", "Parallel Compression", "Automate the Master Bus", etc. etc. etc.
4) Abandon the ipad and use Reaper, because it's intuitive, and the parts that aren't intuitive you can solve by googling "How do you X in Reaper?" Where "X" is anything more advanced than "the red circle is record"

 

[Dana]

I thought he's just looking to record some ideas?
Reaper isn't gonna help if he's not at home.
Within iPad app he could easily record ideas at practice or on the go.
Just needs the interface to plug into iPad

 

[1377]

Garage Band is fine if you're looking to do basic recording to just get ideas down. If you're planning on playing through any amp sim or synth apps on the ipad, you can download Audiobus to route the audio between apps and into Garage Band (or whatever else you end up using to actually record). It's really useful.

 

[Drew]

Yeah, is there any way you can work with anything other than an iPad? Garageband might be your best et, otherwise, if it even runs on an iPad.

OR, maybe track on the iPad if you have some sort of interface, and then port he wave files into Reaper on your desktop?

 

[Angrychair]

Here's four easy steps to recording like a pro.

1) No matter how bad it sounds, claim that's what you intended.
2) To appear good at recording, don't bother learning anything to make sure you have lots of knowledge, just make sure everybody else has less knowledge than you.
3) If someone has more knowledge recording than you just throw out a bunch of buzzwords to get on their level. "Side chain", "Parallel Compression", "Automate the Master Bus", etc. etc. etc.
4) Abandon the ipad and use Reaper, because it's intuitive, and the parts that aren't intuitive you can solve by googling "How do you X in Reaper?" Where "X" is anything more advanced than "the red circle is record"

I"m dying. #4 is literally ME.

 

[Leon]

Using the iPad is more a matter of my iMac being upstairs and all my gear being downstairs than the best tool for the job :lol:

 

[Leon]

Garage Band is fine if you're looking to do basic recording to just get ideas down. If you're planning on playing through any amp sim or synth apps on the ipad, you can download Audiobus to route the audio between apps and into Garage Band (or whatever else you end up using to actually record). It's really useful.

I've got BIAS and Audiobus on my iPad already, plus that connector-jack-thingy, so I could definitely go that route if I wanted to scratch an idea if I'm away from my rigs...

 

[metalheadpunk]

Hi Leon, I'm Josh! :lol:

Garage Band is great for quickly laying some stuff down. But i've been using Steinberg's "Cubasis" app a lot lately. It is basically a full featured Cubase, for iPad, and you can export your files to use with Cubase on your computer. I've already been using Cubase on my iMac for 8 years or something so it was a no-brainer. Might not make as much sense if you don't use Cubase already, plus it is somewhat pricey. But if you want something that is pretty powerful that would be my recommendation. :yesway:

 

[1]

Clearly, you should just buy another Mac. :yesway:

 

[Cassidy]

I can't imagine how annoying it'd be to go 'hit record....shit....stop.....delete recording.....restart......shit.....stop....delete recording......restart....shit...' a thousand times on a touchscreen device. On a physical keyboard, with enough practice, you can grow really quick at that. :lol:

 

[ChainOfThought]

Jamup with Bias is a pretty good solution for simple stuff. I was able to pretty easily record some ideas from scratch and get all the guitar tracks I needed for a song with two different guitars, each dual-tracked + a bass track. Once they were recorded on the iPad I just plugged that into my mac and imported the files, dropped them into reaper and threw in some programmed drums and voila, demo-quality song with not a terrible amount of work (EQ and mixing and shit of course required).

That said, if you can get an interface plugged into your computer with ANY method of monitoring the signal so you can hear while you play, just do that and record the dry track. Once you have it all recorded re-amp through BIAS or whatever other amp sim you want to (or even through your actual rig) and record that. Its not quite as good for instant gratification, but in the long run, working with dry tracks is so much easier and more flexible than just recording the actual tone and whatnot as you record.

AmpKit also has a decent record function with some decent tones if you want an alternative to JamUp, but I preferred JamUp with Bias to AmpKit. Didn't try anything else.

Also, if you're dedicated to using the iPad and can afford it, spend the cash and get an iRig (or some sort of comparable device, I don't know whats out now). Using the USB input/interface to the iPad is SOOOOO fucking superior to one of those headphone adapter style getups.

 

[Version_6]

Auria is highly feature packed and works a treat. Garage band is cool. Multi Track DAW is cheap and reliable. I have all 3 on my iPad from before I got my Mac and they all work great.

 

[1]

I can't imagine how annoying it'd be to go 'hit record....shit....stop.....delete recording.....restart......shit.....stop....delete recording......restart....shit...' a thousand times on a touchscreen device. On a physical keyboard, with enough practice, you can grow really quick at that. :lol:

That's why I have this. :lol:

http://www.metalguitarist.org/forum/music-recording-studio/26560-reaper-mulligan-macro.html

 

[ChainOfThought]

https://soundcloud.com/wisdomcomes%2Fnew-shit-superior
Here you go, all the instrument recordings (two guitars & bass) on this were done in JamUp + BIAS. I just turned the metronome on to the drum setting and recorded against that, used the 8-track (well, 2-track, I think I hadn't paid for it at this point) to get everything done and exported each single track to iTunes. Imported all that to my computer and dropped it all into reaper for a bit of mixing and to write the drums.

...bit of, uhm...'cover your ass'? ...when I sent this track to my drummer (we work remotely like this since he lives in the states and I'm Kuwait) he almost figured out how to kick my teeth in through the internet. SO the song has since been slowed down by about 20bpm and is quite a bit different than what this one sounds like. Regardless....here's the type of demo quality shit you can get with MINIMAL effort using JamUp. If you want to hear what some pro's can do, get on youtube and check out Keith Merrow, Jeff Loomis, Ola Englund and Drewsif Stalin. All of them (individually and a bunch of them as a group effort) have demo's up for JamUp and/or BIAS.

 

[Cassidy]

That's why I have this. :lol:

http://www.metalguitarist.org/forum/music-recording-studio/26560-reaper-mulligan-macro.html

"Mulligan macro" :lol:

I didn't realise you could macros create in Cubase, but that just prompted me to search, and you can! I've been hitting three keys; numeric 0, delete, numeric *, which I can now fire off at lightspeed, but I'll start doing macros now! :yesway:

 

[Leon]

I can't imagine how annoying it'd be to go 'hit record....shit....stop.....delete recording.....restart......shit.....stop....delete recording......restart....shit...' a thousand times on a touchscreen device. On a physical keyboard, with enough practice, you can grow really quick at that. :lol:

My recordings will go like this...

"OK guys, this is riff 43...

bawh dun dun bawh wee wee weeee dun bawh bawh chunka ch...

Fuck, damnit, OK, here it is again..."

 

[Leon]

Clearly, you should just buy another Mac. :yesway:

You know, my desktop *is* a 2009 model...

 

[Drew]

You know, my desktop *is* a 2009 model...

:agreed: Honestly, a proper desktop with mouse/keyboard and some sort of a dedicated recording interface allowing oyu to do at LEAST 4 tracks at a time would make your life so much easier here, man. The iPad isn't really intended to be a full recording solution.