There are so many cool music making and recording apps for the iPad that it’s hard to keep up with them all. Here is a recent one that is a 4-track MIDI sequencer called the Nord Beat CoreMIDI Step Sequencer. If you don’t know what sequencer does – well, it’s sort of like the drum machines of old (though the sounds a sequencer uses don’t have to be drums). There is a tempo and time signature you can assign to a box (in this case, an iPad app). Then there are buttons that correspond to up to 16 beats in one “sequence.” You can assign a sound – usually a drum hit – to each button to create a pattern over the sequence. Then you can build songs by stitching together a bunch of sequences.
Anyway, here is some info on the Nord Beat: http://en.audiofanzine.com/virtual-instrument-iphone-ipod-touch-ipad/clavia/nord-beat/news/a.play,n.14074.html
Recording Software
Working with Multiple Takes In Logic Pro 9 and Reaper
I found a great little tutorial from AudioTuts+ about editing all your takes at once using Apple’s Logic Pro 9 recording and mixing software. This tutorial reminded me that you can also do the same thing in Reaper.
One of the many differences between Apple’s Garage Band recording software, and Logic Pro is the ability to record multiple “takes” of something. That means that you can set a region in your song to loop while you record take after take of the same part. This is awesome for particularly difficult vocal or instrument parts. Each time the region loops, a take gets recorded and saved. When you’ve recorded as many takes as you feel you need to, every take is visible on the track. You can even divide that audio region in segments and pick the best performances in each segment to build the perfect part.
The tutorial I mentioned will show you how to apply certain edits so that they apply to every take simultaneously.
By the way, this exact thing – recording multiple takes and having them all visible on the same track afterward – is a feature of Reaper recording software as well (which is available for PC and Mac). You simply record your first take of a track, rewind to the beginning and record your next take. You can also use the loop function like I described above for Logic Pro. Just highlight your region (you want to make sure to put enough time into the segment as a lead-in for each time it loops), click the “Toggle Repeat [R] button,” and start recording take after take as above. You can also composite (build from bits and pieces from all the takes) a perfect take from region segments just like in Logic Pro. To view all the takes in one track, make sure to hit Ctrl L or choose Options, Show all takes in lanes (when room).
We have a 19-video tutorial course on audio recording with Reaper – The Newbies Guide To Audio Recording Awesomeness 2: Pro Recording With Reaper for $47.
The Logic Pro tutorial can be found here: http://audio.tutsplus.com/tutorials/mixing-mastering/how-to-edit-all-your-takes-at-once-in-logic-pro-9/
What Is The Piano App In The iPad Mini Commercial?
Have you seen the commercial on TV for the new iPad Mini that shows a full-sized iPad with a piano app playing “Heart and Soul,” and next to it an iPad Mini playing the melody part for the song? If you’re like me you paid less attention to the fact of the iPad Mini than to wondering what app was being used to play the piano.
There are several good piano apps for the iPad. The one I had most recently downloaded was the iGrand Piano, which is very cool. It’s free for the basic piano, then you can pay for additional kinds of pianos as upgrades. But that isn’t the topic here is it? We want to know what piano they were playing on the commercial.
That one, it turns out, is one of the many instrument apps in the Apple GarageBand app, which costs just $4.99. The computer version of GarageBand, which is included in the iLife software package on OS X (for Macs only), is an amazingly powerful audio recording and production software program. It is easy to use, does multi-track recording, and comes with tons of great-sounding virtual instruments instruments built in that you can trigger via MIDI tracks. Getting back to the iPad version though – in order to get to the piano used in the commercial, just open the app, and click on the instruments button located in the top left corner of the screen next to the My Songs button. That will go to a screen with gigantic and obvious icons representing the instrument categories. Keyboard is the category you want. Just tat the giant keyboard icon and the piano from the commercial will open on the screen. You can also choose from among a bunch of different pianos and keyboards such as Grand Piano, Classical Grand, Electric Piano, Whirly, different organs, etc. Other instrument categories include guitars, strings, and drums. I had so much fun playing with these instrument son my iPad that my wife had to tell me to put the toy away so we could go to bed:).
So now you know what piano app was used in the Apple iPad Mini TV commercial. Don’t you feel smarter? Now go download it and have some fun. Just make sure it isn’t close to bed-time.
Avid Pro Tools Integration With Pro Audio Cloud Service Gobbler
At the AES (Audio Engineering Society) convention in San Francisco, Avid, maker of Pro Tools recoding software, announced upcoming integration with Gobbler, the high-speed transfer and storage service designed for pro audio use.
When working on multi-track recording projects, the track count can get pretty high, especially now that we record on computers with unlimited track counts. Back in the day you were limited by the number of tracks available on the tape you were using – typically 24 tracks. Anyway, say you have a song project that has 24 tracks. Each track is made up of at least one audio file (another difference with digital recording is that ability to put multiple different audio clips or files on one track). So that’s 24 (minimum) individual audio files you’d need to somehow deliver to someone else if you are collaborating over some distance. Of course you want each audio file to be pristine and high-quality, so you would not want to use mp3s or some other data-compressed, lossy format. 24 high-quality wav files cannot be e-mailed. Yeah, you could probably use drop-box or a similar cloud service. But Gobbler offers a service specifically geared toward pro audio.
Check out the full article about the integration between Avid Pro Tools and Gobbler here: http://blog.gobbler.com/2012/10/avid-and-gobbler-announce-upcoming-integration/
7 Free Audio Recording Software Programs
I found an article that lists seven free audio recording and/or editing programs, which is pretty amazing. I knew about one or two but seven? Wow. Of course Audacity is at the top of the list. I definitely knew about that one. You can learn how to do all the basics of audio recording with Audacity in our beginners tutorial course The Newbies Guide To Audio Recording Awesomeness.
In addition to Audacity, the article lists six more programs you can use without paying a cent. Who says it’s expensive to set up a home recording studio?
See that list here: http://www.cometdocs.com/blog/7-great-free-options-for-audio-recording-and-editing
Have fun with your free recording studio!