ipad daydreamer question- specific app issue

[Tantroniq]

Hi everyone,

I am considering the possibility of scheduling some time to think about what it might be like to someday use an ipad for live performance.

At EM2010 my esteemed co-judges and I declared earthgirl the winner of the late night live performance contest. While I only observed the interface at a distance, it appears to me to have a real time wiper going by vertical columns that you could fill with squares (by dragging and dropping), the squares being, I presume, audio chunks of various durations and sizes.

My live performance experience is entirely outside my electro-music experience, so I have not even had to use a laptop for live performance. However, what I want to be able to do is continue using whatever software or hardware I feel like using but create things in my studio that I can then mix together live. This would make the most sense for what I do musically.

So I am hoping that for ipad there is a program that allows me to mix preloaded audio that I have created wherever/whenever/however and maybe and also has vst instruments, though that is not entirely necessary either. I would probably then output that to a mixing board where vocals and external instruments.

Does any of this sound like anything that inspires a specific direction to point me in? Any ideas at all greatly appreciated.

[Tantroniq]

((sigh)) Part of my post didnt make it. I wanted to say "I would output that to a mixing board where live vocals and other instruments could be added"

[EdisonRex]

The iPad is a pretty effective medium for music performance. You don't even need a new one, a 2 works quite well (some say better). This very forum has references to a load of music apps which work, and work well.

Getting your iPad to do MIDI is not a prerequisite but it does help. There are a couple of ways to do that, some involving more money (the apple camera connection kit, or a dedicated midi dock thing) but there are quite a few choices you can make, including wireless ones.

And it's small. I remember seeing a Lemur and thinking it was kind of chunky, now a Lemur can be had for 1/100th the price as an app inside an iPad. There are apps that take advantage of the iPad's multitouch, gyro and compass.

It's a pretty cool device for making music.

[EdisonRex]

Oh, and there is more than one way to get stereo audio out from it. There's a cable you can get from Apple to mate the Dock connector with audio cables, and you can just stick a plug in the earphone socket. Both work.

[Tantroniq]

I'll probably use much more primitive methods for my set at EM2012 but I do need to begin the process of searching for an effective tool,one that inspires less than it hinders.

Explain the advantage of MIDI. I have not used MIDI much in a long time. Do you mean this as a prerequisite for interfacing with VST?

[pyrosonic]

You might find this one of some use.I don't have it,but it looks like what you may be looking for audio wise.(no vst instruments tho')

http://www.electro-music.com/forum/topic-54218.html

[Keysandslots]

I went with a 2nd gen and an Alesis IO Dock. The combination works fairly well, certainly lots of fun, but MIDI is a bit erratic sometimes. Most of the iPad apps have a panic button, for good reason as it turns out.

Even with the MIDI issues 'though, it has been fun, which for me is the main thing right now.

Randy

[Tantroniq]

Thanks pyrosonic, that could in fact be it!

[EdisonRex]