Wireless Keyboards, Pawn Shops and a New App

Have you ever gone  to a pawn shop and looked around?  Turns out that sometimes you can find  good deals! I found some decent priced ipods, an Apple TV and some mac keyboards! The wireless keyboard I picked up for $30! I have not wanted to spend $70 for one yet, even though I’ve had an ipad ever since the day they came out. This could be a nice addition!

I also downloaded the iPad app, Posts. Posts is for bloggers and is currently free. I like how front and center they put the comments and drafts. It’s even easier that using the actual web site. If you blog, Posts is worth a look at this price. Thanks to ChoirGuy ove at techinmusiced.wordpress.com for the heads up on this one!

Sears has some sacked out prices for iPads! BEWARE!

How is this even possible? Sears is charging $100 more than normal price for some of their iPads!

Sears iPad Prices

iPad and Music Recording Apps (Audio and MIDI)

So I have been checking out apps that I can record audio and MIDI with on my iPad – here are some of my observations…

First of all there are several major features that are involved in looking at these DAW’s – 1)Recording of Audio – both from the obvious external source like a mic, guitar, wind instrument, etc… but also through the integration of AudioBus that allows recording of audio from other apps. 2)Recording of MIDI – both virtual MIDI as well as being able to access external MIDI equipment 3)Built-in synths, drum machines and sounds or loops.

With AudioBus integration the need for “everything” being built into one app starts to go away. NanoStudio, for instance, has a huge user base because it has allowed people to create some amazing recordings all in one app – go search SoundCloud. You don’t have to go purchase additional hardware synths, audio interfaces, MIDI interfaces or mics and you don’t need the additional purchase of synth apps or FX apps!

With AudioBus enabled apps though I can now use any app to record into another app. This allows the developers of Auria, for instance, to focus on creating an awesome app for recording audio while other developers focus their attention on creating really cool synth apps or drum machines for instance. I’m not so sure that the all in one is the HUGE benefit it was just a short few months ago (like November of 2012 – 3 months ago)

  GarageBand was the first obvious purchase -

• PROS
• So many very cool instruments built in
• Capable of recording audio
• Capable of using external MIDI keyboard to control internal sounds
• Smart Instruments – go read their description and watch the video – very very cool, especially for elementary kids, middle school kids and those without the musical training needed to play the parts themselves!
• Jam Sessions! Jam three friends (4 total people) over wi-fi or blue-tooth. How much fun would THIS be in a classroom setting! This is THE REAL GARAGEBAND FEELING!
• Now has AudioBus integration! (This is huge for AudioBus for Apple to throw their support behind AudioBus!)
• Has iPhone version and Desktop Versions
• CONS
• Will not play external MIDI keyboards!

   MultiTrack DAW – my second purchase because of recommendations of friends on the internet! I LOVE people who share!

• PROS
• Great abilities when recording audio – 8 tracks of stereo upgradable to 24
• per track compressor and EQ – also has delay and reverb built-in
• Very simple to understand
• AudioBus integration (one of the first DAW to do so!)
• Will record up to 8 tracks of audio at once
• CONS
• No MIDI at all

   MusicStudio – my third purchase – again because of friends on Twitter. There is a massive sea of apps out there – ask around to see what others are using and what is working well for them!

• PROS
• Records audio and MIDI both! (Yea!)
• Records up to 24 tracks of audio at once!
• AudioBus integration (just updated in March 2013?)
• 127 track sequencer!
• Instruments built-in
• Has Effects built in – a bit limited though (read below)
• Has iPhone version plus an LE version for free
• CONS
• Very disappointed to find out that there is no way to control the input level when recording audio! (At least I can’t find it yet!) As I am a Band Director this is a pretty vital feature!
• Built-in Effects are somewhat limited. These are more of a global effects unit – you can have basically two effects groups – one for all the tracks or one that is on a separate bus or of course you can have tracks without effects at all. It is not a track by track basis by any means!

    Meteor Multitrack Recorder – make sure you have at least 1 GB of free space available when using this app. The app itself takes only about 200mb but it requires more while running! You should also close all other apps to free up space. In fact, while using these audio related apps I have found this to be essential in having a successful session – no audio stuttering or apps quitting.

• PROS
• Records audio
• Records MIDI
• AudioBus integration (just updated in March 2013?)
• 16 tracks of audio – upgradable to 24
• CONS
• Only records a stereo input?
• Charges extra for the MIDI editor – Really? Come on people, if I am going to buy your app it is probably in part because of the ability to record MIDI! If I am recording MIDI then editing it is a basic function!

    Auria – This app is by far the one that seems the most professional – the one that seems the most like a professional recording studio full of effects, EQ’s and capabilities. This app has astounded people time and time again!

Have not purchased this one – I mean geesh – it’s $50! (There is a $25 version as well though if you want to get your feet wet here and try this out) Ouch! Don’t get me wrong… I am sure it is worth it but I am looking for something that I can use with my students on multiple iPads in the band room. $50 starts adding up really fast! Of course software for the desktop that does what this app is capable of would cost 3 to 5 times as much! Plus many of the plug-ins for Auria are 3 to 4 times cheaper for the iPad then they are for desktop versions!

• PROS
• From everything I can see this app is amazing in it’s ability to record audio
• Records up to 24 tracks of audio at once! Plays back up to 48 tracks of audio at once!
• Lots of plug-ins available as in-app-purchases (watch your kids! We don’t want any $2,500 bills here now people!)
• CONS
• Only does audio – no MIDI
• I’ve read that this app is operated very much like a desktop app in that there are a lot of menus, clicking and such. Not enough use is made of the touch screen interface (just what I’ve read – not from personal use)

    Cubasis – This is from Steinberg. Have not purchased this one either for the same reason – it’s $50! Again… I’m sure it is worth it and the longer I look around for a cheaper option I think I might just have to go this route and pay the money! I am very intrigued by this company as this is now where many of the developers of Sibelius work now, after Avid went through their restructuring. I am holding high hopes for some amazing new technologies to come together in the form of Cubasis and a new notation program from the same company.

• PROS
• Records audio and MIDI
• AudioBus integration
• Unlimited audio and MIDI tracks!
• Will record up to 24 tracks of audio at once!
• Has a desktop version!
• CONS
• Price
• No iPhone app

    FL Studio Mobile HD -

• PROS
• Record up to 8 tracks of audio at once
• MIDI recording
• Compatible with the PC Desktop version (In fact, if you use the desktop version you should buy the iPad version as well!)
• Has a Desktop Version and iPhone version
• CONS
• User interface issues looks much like they just doubled an iPod screen
• Effects only on the Main bus (working on a fix – 3-15-2013)

    Nano-Studio – This app has been around for a long time (in iPad years anyways) and has a huge user base built up!

• PROS
• Some great internal synths/sounds
• Desktop versions
• Great built-in effects
• Has iPhone version
• CONS
• No audio recording (does have a sampler though)
• No MIDI
• No AudioBus integration
• Only 6 Simultaneous instruments unless you pay more $ for and in app purchase to get to 16

    Studio.HD - Not very familiar with this as it seems to be focused on using loops. For those that are into that though this could be a great choice. I would suggest the video they have on their web-site – it is very well done and highlights some exciting thing this app can do with ease! This developer has quite a few apps out there which tells me that he is not going away any time soon.

• PROS
• 24 Tracks of audio
• Lots of effects built in – 14 total – 4 per track? plus master effects as well
• You can record automation of items like volume, pan, effects settings
• Can record multiple takes per track
• 900 loops plus more as in-app-purchases
• Has an iPhone app based off the same concept Studio.M (4 tracks of audio up to 8 tracks with iap)- not sure how compatible they are though
• CONS
• Lots of in-app-purchases (Although these feel more like things that are actually add-ons vs some apps where these in-app-purchases should have been included in the first place!)
• No AudioBus integration
• No MIDI

 

   BeatMaker2 - (Read comment from Greg below)

In looking at all these other apps I have also ran across these Multi-Track audio recording apps -

n-Track Studio MultiTrack Recorder

CONCLUSION
If you have thoughts please let me know! Which is your favorite and why? Which of these do you own? What have you found to be huge benefits and drawbacks of these apps! Are there features you would like me to add to the list so you can compare the apps to each other?

I will keep updating this and will tweet at anytime I do post an update to the list.

GarageBand Updated to support AudioBus

If you have not checked out your updates for your iPad apps GarageBand was updated today to support AudioBus! This is pretty significant. This indicates that Apple is throwing their support into the AudioBus app arena. Considering that Jack just announced their new app that is similar to AudioBus. If you want to read some more on Jack this is a good review….

 

Posted with Blogsy

Google Forms and Flubaroo

Want some more free time? Ever have to give tests that need to be graded?

Create the test in Google Forms then use Flubaroo to grade it! Seriously easy to do – go to their web page and watch the video!

iPhone 4/4s Case Deal – LifeProof Major Savings!

I don’t normally do this…

I have been wanting the LifeProof case for a long time and at $79 normally I’ve just had to wait. Today I found a factory re-conditioned on sale for $20 PLUS I got free shipping!

http://www.all4cellular.com/dailydeal/

Not sure what these guy’s track record is… not sure what exactly factory re-conditioned means in their case (no pun intended) but for $20 – I’m willing to go for it!

Creating Music on an iPad with apps! (UPDATED)

I have stated before on this blog that as much as I use my iPad in my teaching of music, I have not taken the time to actually create with it! I’ve had tons of apps sitting there that are capable of playing music in new and innovative ways, I’ve just not actually used them to record with! I’ve bought Digital Audio Workstation apps that allow me to record but in the past I’ve just used my computer. There are been apps sitting there that have made me say “wow, that’s pretty sweet!” I’ve seen the apps get created that allow us to connect the audio from one app to another and that inspired me say “Hey, I should do that!” sooooo…..

Today I took some time to try to piece some of these different pieces together. Here is the final product: I am using ReverbNation

Here is the process I used to get to the final product….

I started with Impaktor and created some drum jams! If you have not seen this app let me tell you…. make sure your wife is NOT around when you download it because she will not like it! (This guy got kicked outside!)On loading the app you now have the ability to turn all that crazy tapping rhythms on the table into actual drum sounds! The app picks up the tapping, clapping, snapping and other noise – analyzes it for volume, timbre and other things then it turns that info into magical music! It’s loads of great fun!

Then I loaded up MultiTrack DAW, from HarmonicDog.com – an app that allows you to record up to 24 tracks of audio! This is what I started dumping audio clips into. I used Apple’s AudioPaste/Copy to take the drum patterns from Impaktor and bring them into MultiTrack.

AudioBus was the next app I fired up as I wanted to see how things worked when I started linking apps together. Frankly I fully believe that for a music app to really be taken seriously from now on it will HAVE to support AudioBus! This app makes it so easy to make two apps work together! You have an input app, an FX app, and an output app. Once I selected MultiTrack as the output app I set ThumbJam as the input app. That allowed me to jump into Thumbjam but I still had some controls on the side of the iPad that gave me the ability to play or record in MultiTrack! No more starting one app and trying to quickly jump to the other app “in time”!

I also used Animoog in this recording. Animoog is a great example of an amazing company that was around when synths began and are still innovating with todays tech and tools. Animoog is also a good example of why you should be watching for these music apps when they go on sale! I know for a fact that I most certainly did NOT pay $29.99 for this app like it is listed for currently! I’m all for paying developers what they deserve but $30 is a bit steep in the iOS world of apps. I’ve swallowed hard and paid $19.99 two times though. With that being said… the Animoog app is very nicely done and lots of fun to play! It is one of those apps that takes full advantage of the touch screen!

Then after getting done playing around and jamming I finally used the MultiTrack DAW app to upload the final product to SoundCloud, I also connected my web browser using wi-fi to the app and downloaded an m4a version of the mix as well as downloading a zip file of the entire project to archive on my laptop. I did not really want to leave the audio on my iPad as I really don’t have the room! My iPad is only 32GB’s and I am constantly out of room! BUT BIG FOLKS! 64 GB minimum if you are going to be messing around with recording audio, video and putting pictures on your iPad. At the end of this post is a screenshot of the Wi-Fi interface MultiTrack gives you so that you can download these files WITHOUT hooking up any cords! I will say that I had a bit of an issue getting my audio clips to line up real well in MultiTrack!

UPDATED – I guess it does pay to read the manual! I knew that some place in MultiTrack there was an option to change the tempo and therefore the gridlines to match the audio clips I had recorded in Impaktor. Up in the top left corner of the iPad screen is the answer – there you can set time sig, tempo and a few other things as well. By changing the tempo to 120 (the speed at which I had recorded clips in Impaktor) I could now see measure markers and grids that helped me line things up! Of course then I read more on the forums and found that in the Menu there is a snap setting! That meant that my fiddle faddling with TRYING to line audio clips up by eye was all wasted time!

Last thing I would like to mention is I have been discussing with a few people online about an iPad DAW that allows for recording of audio as well as MIDI (I have some nice external keyboards that I want to through in the mix!) I really appreciate the ability to have knowledgable people out there that are willing to give feedback on what they are using and like! Thanks to Twitter I had almost made a decision, based on their input, and then I was notified that MusicStudio had just done an update with AudioBus compatibility! Talk about timing! There were several other apps that released updates this past week all centered around AudioBus as well!

If you are not following these people on twitter you should! – ChoirGuy, Richard and Barbara they love teaching music and love using tech to do it! I am looking forward to purchasing MusicStudio soon and trying this app out as well!

Why would I suggest Apple products?

First and foremost… they work.

Second…. they are fast and reliable

Third…. Apple has won the number one slot in Fortune‘s annual “World’s Most Admired Companies” list for the sixth year in a row. That’s not by accident.

 

PS… I’m glad to see Coke, not Pepsi, at #4!

Band Festival – Using “The Cloud”, an iPad, iPhone and Zoom H4n to record. (Updated)

Today I worked at our District Band Festival. They got smart and assigned me to do the recordings for the day. It was an enjoyable day of listening to great bands from our district showing their stuff!

Our District got smart this year.  For a few years now our district has been doing our own recording, and saving a bundle of money by doing so! We bought a great stereo, x/y mic right away and for the first couple of years we were using a CD recorder. There was nothing wrong with the recorder except most people could not figure out how to use it correctly! In fact last year several bands ended up without recordings because of this issue, actually I think the entire friday night! So this year the District bought four Zoom H4n’s.

Today I was charge of the recording so here is what I did – played around! Ha – Ha. So I had one Zoom hooked up to the external mic that was set up on stage, this is a stereo mic. I plugged both mic cables from the mic direct into the Zoom, turned on the phantom power and was set to go. No mixing board, no computer, nothing else. With this Zoom I simply left it on for all three songs – I did not want any errors on my part and this eliminated one potential issue of forgetting to hit the correct button in between songs (which I almost did once on the other recorder)

Then I took a second Zoom and simply sat it on the edge of the stage while the band was playing. Using the built in mics, which again are stereo mics,I recorded each song individually. This gave me 27 individual files at the end of the day. I then dumped those into iTunes, edited the artist name, track names, year and titled the album. These files are all wav formatted so after uploading the wav files to DropBox I converted them all to AAC files for keeping in my own iTunes library.

THE CLOUD -

I uploaded all the files onto DropBox where I share them with the other directors in the district. They will then download them to their own computers and burn a CD if they would like.

At the same time as running two Zoom recorders to compare the quality of the two recordings, one using an expensive external mic and the other using the Zoom mics, I also used my iPhone and iPad to create a few other  recordings. On my phone I used the AudioBoo app to upload some of the pieces to that service. One drawback to using AudioBoo is the length they allow me is not long enough for some pieces – so that cuts out using AudioBoo for anything final and as the only recording. I absolutely love AudioBoo though because it is so drop dead simple to use! Load the app, hit the record
button – wait for the recording to finish then you hit the publish button, fill in a few details and you are done! It does take a bit too long to be able to catch all three pieces in a row though. On my iPad I used SoundCloud to record some of the bands as well. SoundCloud worked well… I love the way the app is set up. You hit the record button once, it starts running a wave form across the screen and then once you tap the BIG Rec button on the recording screen that waveform starts turning orange indicating it is actually recording. When done you have the option to trim the file, came in very handy when the director took longer than I thought getting the song started. Then you save the file. After saving you can then start recording a new file or upload then one you just recorded. This app is fast enough to type in a name to the song quickly between pieces and get to recording the next one on time! Later when I got home I uploaded the SoundCloud files, when I had wi-fi.

SUMMARY and COMPARISON – Take a listen to each of the recordings below and do a comparison of each.

Zoom hooked to external mic which was our main recording (stereo recording) – Uploaded later to DropBox

Zoom recording sitting on edge of stage using the builtin mic’s (stereo recording) – Uploaded later to DropBox

iPhone recording to AudioBoo was held in my hand sitting directly in front of the stage (mono recording) – Uploaded directly to AudioBoo.fm

iPad recording to SoundCloud sitting on the front edge of the stage (mono recording) – Uploaded to SoundCloud

UPDATE – By the way I tried using the Zoom H4n as an audio interface for the iPad. No such luck any more! If you Google the subject I guess there was some success with this BEFORE iOS6. The Zoom does work well as a two channel interface for your computer though. The capabilities of this Zoom H4n are outstanding! Builtin stereo mic’s, two inputs for external sources and the capability to work as an audio interface for your computer!

New iPad for the Band Room!

Today our new iPad arrived! Thanks to Chromatik our Band Program now has our first iPad for student use!

Not only am I excited to use Chromatik because we get a free iPad out of the deal but I think Chromatik is a good substitute for SmartMusic. Especially nice right now because it is a free service!

Back to the iPad though… because this is my first iPad I will be putting into the hands of students I am open to suggestions of apps that you think I should have on this iPad for students to use in classes – keeping in mind that I teach Band!

Here is a screen shot of the apps I installed on the iPad on the first day and then what good would a student iPad be without excitement from the students so I’ve included a picture here of that too!

The new apps installed on the Band Room iPad