With the introduction of Apple’s New iPad I have a feeling personal computing is about to change… for everyone.
But how will this device figure into an Audio Engineer’s work flow? For Live AND Recording? Well… Who knows.
But of course, one can always speculate.
The iPad – The iPad for Live Sound – The iPad for Recording – The End
Lets take a look at the device…
The iPad
- 9.7 Inch Screen w/ Multi Touch @ 1024 x 768 Pixels
- 1 gHz Apple A4 Processor
- 16, 32 or 64 GB Storage
- Souped up iPhone OS
- Dock Connector (i.e. iPod or iPhone Dock)
- 1/8th Inch Headphone Jack
- Connections: Dock Connector, 3.5mm Out
Anything the iPhone Does, I Can Do Better (except phone calls)
Now the iPad uses a modified version of the iPhone OS… So any Application that you can download purchase whatnot for the iPhone, you can use on the iPad too.
Yes, This opens up recording apps, synths, RTAs (!), Noise and Tone Generators, ect ect ect.
Audio In, Out, Thru
The iPad will have a Microphone… That much is known. But an iPhone like audio in (for microphones) via the headphone adapter? Only time will tell… But there’s another solution!
The Dock connector offers USB device functionality (although it’s not used yet) as well as audio in and out. So devices like the Blue Mikey, or yet to be release iPhone/iPod touch audio interfaces can get audio in and out.
The Screen
9.7 Inch Screen. Worlds bigger than an iPhone/iPod touch, but not quite a Macbook. But what you have to remember is your App takes up your WHOLE screen. No applications nagging you in the background, and no dock or start menu. The WHOLE screen. With a stylus, you can be just as accurate as you can be with a mouse.
Applications
Lets keep going and take a look at possible (and known) applications of the iPad for Audio Engineers…
The iPad - The iPad for Live Sound - The iPad for Recording - The End
Nice work on the article. I am VERY disappointed on the apparent inclusion of DRM. BOO+HISS. But I will be getting the $500 version ASAP as a controller for Ableton.
Isolated and secured WIFI will be a requirement. It takes a good hacker about 5 hours on an off the shelf PC to crack WI-FI (maybe less?). So the secure connection is a problem. But – this is easy to solve:
-Limit to one IP address (not great)
-MAC Address limit
BAM! One to One connection via WiFI.
You can still get hacked. So, look into alternate OS options for your router and tweak the (open source) code to lessen the chance of someone cracking your system. That would be bad.
Now if Apple could pull it together and figure out how QoS works we would be golden. Yeah, no QoS yet, ouch. Read up on that and you will get scared REAL FAST!
I am optimistic for the device. If this thing can control Cubase and Ableton the $500 price is well worth it as a tool.
Other wise all this Apple stuff (iPhone/Touch/iPad) is nothing more than a toy.
Well, I see a screen of a very handsome size for showing correlation, peak metering etc. Once you get over the missing connections, that is, and keep in mind that adaptors for Apple products are traditionally quite expensive. As long as there’s not even USB, this doesn’t go anywhere.
I don’t see it as a replacement for any recording gear. Don’t know about you, but I like haptic feedback from my tools, and a touchscreen doesn’t provide that. So, launching apps like any controlling surface may be ok, but actually controlling something with it seems like a nightmare to me.
Using Novation's Automap app for iphone and similar controllers based on OSC is already possible on the iPad to control DAWS (given that iPad will run existing 3.1 iPhone OS apps). iPad specific versions will no doubt follow.
Using Novation's Automap app for iphone and similar controllers based on OSC is already possible on the iPad to control DAWS (given that iPad will run existing 3.1 iPhone OS apps). iPad specific versions will no doubt follow.
This is quite confusing, as putty is used for such things like ssh and creating a secure connection to a certain IP. I am guessing that if somehow your internet connectivity is allowed though putty, then a vpn is going to try to use a different port than putty is using..