So Close...

[dstole]

I want to preface my post by making it clear that I think the developers of this app have done an amazing job, and that their (his/her) time, energy, and commitment are very much appreciated.

I own a small home studio. It is a modest set-up with a couple macs, some mics, some outboard gear, a few DAW apps, etc. I am sure there are many like it. Over the past few years I have used it less and less, as other commitments have stolen away some of my time. I used to have 5 or 6 bands in a year (in addition to my own projects). Not nearly as many these days.

When I was given the iPad as a birthday gift from the family I was instantly drawn to the audio possibilities. Using TouchOSC to control my DAW is awesome, and then there was recording! I looked at both MT DAW and the others, and decided to get MT. I picked up an iRig for my son, that I could use if needed, and set about looking for a USB interface for the camera kit.

I dreamed of an ultra portable set-up that would let me walk into a clients session ready to record with an iPad, interface, and a couple if mics. In a few hours we could record, edit, mix, and master. Looking for said interface has made it sadly obvious that the iPad won't meet my needs as a semi-professional audio recorder...yet. The main issue is the two track limit. This makes it impossible to truly multi-track a drum kit, or band recording. By multi-tracking I mean more than one record enabled track, or more than a stereo set of mics. I am unable to record a drum kit with 3 mics, let alone the 6-20 that I have used or read about (imagine 20 mics on a kit...WOW!)

I think I set my expectations a bit high. Anything that allows multiple mic connections to the interface, like the Zed 10fx, will require external power and still only allows up to a single stereo track on the USB interface. This makes the set-up less portable, and requires a power outlet. The bit depth and sampling rates are a bit of a limitation as well, although the 16bit 48kHz is perfect for grabbing audio to throw into Final Cut or other DV projects.

I could see using the iPad for quick song writing or recording a band that is ok with the limitations, or that wants a quick live recording off the mixing board, etc. For professional band recording of more than one or two mics, the iPad/iPhone multitrack set-up isn't ready, lot for me at least.

I think it's current market is the singer/song writer that is building the recording one track at a time. Oh to have more just a few more tracks. I imagine the time will come...it always does

How are you using, or planning to use,the application? Is it meeting your needs or have you developed little tricks and tips? I would be interested to read about your workflow when using MT Daw.

I have a group of musicians coming to the studio at the end of the month and we are going to have a round table discussion/presentation on the shrinking mobile studio for the singer/song-writer. I hope to get some video of the iPad, MT DAW, and my interface in action. We will also talk about limitations, benefits, etc, of the set-up. I will post the discussion if there is any interest.

Thanks for reading. And thanks again HarmonicDog

[moogplayer]

I am very much in your shoes. I have actually enjoyed downsizing over the years. Almost coming full circle after peaking with 2" analog 24-track setup. I currently have a 10 year-old DAW (Mac G4, Pro Tools 5, 001 interface) that is rock-solid. However, I just moved into a smaller space. The iPad intrigues me. I do think it's possible to get decent stereo mixed drum sounds with a good mixer, compression, and EQ. Not all my tunes I'll be recording will have real drums. Lots of synths + electronics. I see this iPad setup as a bit of a challenge, but I am up for it. Hell, I'll record an entire full-length and release it if possible. I see a possible Multitrack DAW / Studiotrack marriage for my projects, and some bouncing back and forth. I hope someday Multitrack DAW allows more than a stereo input. 4 channels would be dope. At the very least, dual mono channels would be an immediate help.

I like the portability of the iPad - the ability to take it place with headphones and work on mixes. Sure, one can do that with a laptop. But I am using my iPad so much these days that it would really benefit to get this setup right. Anyone else with a similar mindset???

[dstole]

I agree, 4 tracks would be enough at this point for drums. That would give you the 2 over heads, a kick and a snare. The problem with the stereo mix as you mentioned is that there is no going back. If you record your drums off a stereo mixer with multiple inputs but only 2 outputs (like the Zed 10fx) then you are stuck with that mix. If you find that the kick drum is conflicting with the bass guitar, and the snare is in the way of the lead guitar and vocal, you are going to have some trouble fixing it in the stereo recording.

I agree that EQ and compression would help, but I prefer not to add those at the recording stage so that I have more options during mix down. Since MT doesn't have effects yet, you would have to be bringing some out board gear to make that happen, and then the portability is again out the window.

My ideal solution, which I imagine is currently a limitation of the iPad more so than the MT software, would be to have 4 mono channels of input. Drums could be recorded live on a very minimal set-up, which would keep portability factor high. Bass, guitar, and vocals could be done over the drum tracks. Voila.

Again, I the current limitations are OK for lo-fi indie styles, but I am two tracks off from making this a more usable solution

Now if I could take all the tracks on the iPad and dump them onto your 2" tape, that would be niiiice

I would be interested in knowing how many tracks people are using in their MT projects.

[jkevinwolfe]

For my purposes MT DAT is nearly ideal. I'm a songwriter and not a performing musician. I write a song, record a demo, then put it up on iTunes. Not that I expect to sell a lot of these tracks, but it gives people who might record my songs easy access to them. I am switching over to doing this process entirely with MT DAW.

I had been recording with a simple little iPhone app called RecordStudio Pro and sending tracks by wifi to GarageBand for mixing. It was a bit cumbersome, since RSP could do only four stereo tracks. Also, I was using a Belkin TuneTalk mic/line, but this had a lot of noise and required heavy post processing.

With MT DAW I'm able to record everything cleanly with a Blue Yeti and a Roland Cakewalk Audio Interface through the Camera Connector. My rig is still somewhat portable for recording and completely portable for editing. Since I work remotely a lot, this functions well for me.

I work quickly, so the logistics of recording my son drumming doesn't fit in. I wind up using a Kaossilator for beats most of the time. I haven't had need to record more than two stereo tracks at once yet. Since it's usually just me laying down a few tracks for a minimalistic mix, the 8 track version of MT DAW (and heavy reliance on bounce for delay effects) works fine. The one project I have finalized with MT DAW has no beat track and has been bounced down to four stereo tracks. So far I haven't needed to upgrade MT DAW to more tracks. It's nice to have them all visible on one screen.

[beyond]

Great thread, love reading about similar efforts!

[moogplayer]

regarding drums: I know this is cheating a bit and also somewhat tedious, but one approach could be to use a good overhead stereo pair on the drums, record that, and then trigger (i.e. manually ADD on separate tracks) kick and snare later from samples. I do this regularly in PT (and yes, it's done manually as well). I just don't know if I can cut/paste like this yet in MT DAW.

[dstole]

I guess the big thing for me is that if i am recording on the iPad i want to keep it on the ipad from start to finish. If I have to move it onto the bigger machine and the big DAW for editing, drum replacement, etc...well, I should have just taken the MacBook in the first place.

Another option that I thought about was the possibility of using beatmaker. You can copy and paste the audio, or maybe import it, I can't remember which. If you had the drummer play to a click, and then sample a single hit from each drum and assign it to the 16 pads, you could recreate the beat and copy it over. I guess you could do the entire beat this way, or record the overheads live and drop the snare and kick in underneath from beatmaker. Or maybe you record the live track with overheads, and the samples onto the iphone. Then you use the iphone like a sampler, and play the snare and kick parts real time onto a 3rd and 4th track on MT. You could use the effects in beatmaker, or on your mixer to add reverb to the snare seperate from the rest of the kit. Again, tedious. Is it worth it? Not sure yet

Keep the ideas coming folks

[beyond]

I guess the big thing for me is that if i am recording on the iPad i want to keep it on the ipad from start to finish. If I have to move it onto the bigger machine and the big DAW for editing, drum replacement, etc...well, I should have just taken the MacBook in the first place.

Another option that I thought about was the possibility of using beatmaker. You can copy and paste the audio, or maybe import it, I can't remember which. If you had the drummer play to a click, and then sample a single hit from each drum and assign it to the 16 pads, you could recreate the beat and copy it over. I guess you could do the entire beat this way, or record the overheads live and drop the snare and kick in underneath from beatmaker. Or maybe you record the live track with overheads, and the samples onto the iphone. Then you use the iphone like a sampler, and play the snare and kick parts real time onto a 3rd and 4th track on MT. You could use the effects in beatmaker, or on your mixer to add reverb to the snare seperate from the rest of the kit. Again, tedious. Is it worth it? Not sure yet

Keep the ideas coming folks

I'll just note that iSequence for iPad is also a great app, and I've been using that for programming some beats, etc. The program has a sample editor/importer, so you can potentially take recorded tracks from multitrack, export them, then import them into iSequence, and add all kinds of "decoration."

It also supports intua's copy function, so you can copy beats from iSequence and paste them into Mutlitrack.

It's a very different type of program from Multitrack, but also potentially a really nice complement app to multitrack, and as an added mention, they've just submitted their v2.0 to the app store, and it includes reverb, delay and flanger effects for their tracks, which should be interesting.

Nanostudio is also very full featured, but so far has been a bit overwhelming for me. Again, it's a complementary app to MultiTrack, but it is really tweakable -- an alternative to beatmaker, and most of the Nanostudio users seem to think it's a bit more "usable" than beatmaker. However, I know Beatmaker 2 is imminent, we'll see what that's like.

[jorgren]

moogplayer, I have copied and pasted rhythm bits from ThumbJam and DrumTrack8 into MT DAW.

[beyond]

moogplayer, I have copied and pasted rhythm bits from ThumbJam and DrumTrack8 into MT DAW.

Yep, so have I, and Morphwiz for iPad is an interesting instrument as well.

In addition, people rave about Electrify, but honestly, I haven't figured out the interface with any level of comfort yet. Also, I think for creating beats, Loopseque is very promising thanks to the very intuitive/simple interface, and they say they're working on their next set of enhancements now.

Groovemaker is also a lot of fun and can be useful, and along those same lines, Looptastic HD is a lot of fun too.

Again, all these are complement apps -- for me, MultiTrack is the hub.