Making music on iPad and iPhone
An iPad, iPod Touch or iPhone is a computer in your hand, complete with a stunning display and touch screen interface. With a tool this portable and powerful, it’s a natural next step to wonder how it can be used for music making. Here are some products that have been released for iOS machines.
Hardware
Audio interfaces
Alesis
- StudioDock I/ODock A stand and docking station for iPad with audio interface, 2 XLR / 1/4″ inputs with phantom power for microphone or line level input StudioDock $245
- JAMDOCK practice interface for iPhone/iPod allows you to connect an instrument, mix its sound with the iPod playback, and listen to the result on headphones or send it to an amplifier JamDock $133
- ProTrack stereo recording add-on for iPod 5G, 6G, and 7G Classics; iPod nano 2G, 3G, and 4G (nano-chromatic), and iPod Touch 2G with X-Y microphones and XLR mic inputs including 48V phantom power.
Apple
- iPad Camera Connector kit While this isn’t an audio interface itself, it provides a USB port so that class-compliant USB devices (that is, devices that don’t need their own drivers installed) can be connected to the iPad. Keep in mind that the USB port does not provide 5V USB power, so you may have to use a powered USB hub in the chain to provide the juice for a USB device to run. This YouTube video walks you through connecting an iPad 2 through the Camera Connection kit and an Apogee One audio interface.
B.L.U.E.
- Mikey– stereo microphone for iPod touch 1G, 2G, 3G; iPod nano 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G; iPod classic; iPod 5G; iPhone versions 3GS and earlier
IK Multimedia
- Amplitube iRig Guitar interface and amp simulation software for iPad and iPhone Amplitube iRig $45
- iRig Mic Vocal microphone and effect software for iPad and iPhone iRig Mic $75
Peavey
- AmpKit LiNK guitar interface for iPhone and iPad
MIDI Interface
Line 6
- Midi Mobilizer – hardware MIDI interface for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch.
USB MIDI interfaces, USB microphones and keyboards with USB MIDI connections can be connected through the Apple iPad Camera Connection Kit as long as the USB is class-compliant (driverless) YouTube video review
Mixers and DJ rigs
Numark
- iDJ Live hardware scratch controller and mixer controller, with iOS DJ software iDJ Live $129
- iDJ, iDJ2 and iDJ3 Hardware scratch controller and mixer for iPod with dock. iDJ 3 $355
- iM1 2 channel mixer with iPod dock
Amplification
Alesis
- Transactive Mobile portable active speaker system with built-in iPod dock, microphone and instrument input, and a battery pack which will run it for up to 10 hours away from AC power. $259
Accessories
IK Multimedia
- iKlip microphone stand mount for iPad
Software
Recording, mixing and beat making studios
Apple GarageBand for iPad loop, beat making and recording workstation with virtual instruments
Async Games Flare DJ mixing workstation for iPad
BeepStreet iSequence 8 track sequencer with built in instruments
Bleep!Box, iPhone, iPad drum machine/synthesizer sequencer
Cubase 6 first look (free trial)
FL Studio Mobile
Harmonicdog Multitrack DAW ($9.99)
IK Mutimedia GrooveMaker beatmaker for iPad
mixr – Open source DJ mixing worktation for iPad – ‘Coming soon’
Multitrack Song Recordeer (free)
NuMark iDJ App DJ mixing workstation
Pajamahouse Sonorasaurus Rex DJ mixing workstation
Quickdecay DJDeckX DJ mixing workstation
Sonoma Wire Works StudioTrack multitrack recording
SoundTrends
- Looptastic HD
Loop sequencer for iPad with 900 loops - Looptastic Producer for iPhone and Looptastic Free for iPhone
- Studio.HD Recorder and mixing workstation with 8 audio tracks, 24 playback tracks, loops editing and effects.
- Studio.M (free)
- Gruvtron Synth and pattern sequencer with a grid-style interface
Instruments
AudioMIDI & VirSyn iSyn synthesizer
BeepStreet
- ProKeys polyphonic keyboard, loop player and recorder, WiFi import and export
- GyroSynth synth, recorder and overdubbing for iPhone, uses the gyroscope to let you control the synth by movin the iPhone in 3D space.
Electrify sample based 8-track groovebox for iPad
Korg iElectribe for iPad a recreation of the Electribe sequencer/beat maker/synth
MooCow Music Pianist Pro iPad piano with MIDI support, arpeggiator and beat box
Omenie Mellotronics M3000 HD for iPad – mellotron simulation for the iPad with chord pads and MIDI support
Retronyms Synth polyphonic synthesizer
Synthetic Bits FunkBox 2.0 vintage drum machine recreation
Controllers
An intriguing use for an iPad, iPod Touch or iPhone with their WiFi connectivity is to serve as a remote, touch sensitive controller for other devices, like DAWs and sequencers, effects or instruments.
Far Out Labs
- ProRemote, touch sensitive remote control surface for DAW software on a computer
- ProTransport remote transport controller for DAW software
- ProPads wireless MIDI pad controller for virtual drums, instruments and loop based software
Hexler Touch OSC modular OSC and MIDI control surface for iPad, iPhone & iPod Touch. Open Sound Control (OSC) is a open systems protocol for communication between computers, synthesizers and software.
MidiPad touch networked MIDI controller – still listed as ‘coming soon’
Monotone Records Trixmix 2 control surface for audio software such as Reason and Live! (Mac, Win)
mrmr – an open source iOS remote touch controller project
Saitara Software AC-7 Core for iPad and AC-7 Mini for iPhone/iTouch
Synthetic Bits Little MIDI Machine uses the Line6 MIDI Mobilizer interface to control hardware through MIDI signalling.
Talkative Entrackment controller for GarageBand (Mac OSX only)
Effects
Agile Partners AmpKit guitar amp simulator
Utilities
Agile Partners
- GuitarToolkit – Guitar tuner, metronome, chord identifier for iPhone
- Lick of the Day Guitar training
- Star6 – recorder and sample player for iPhone
- TabToolkit guitar tab and score notation viewer for iPad, iPhone an iPod Touch
ForScore 2 music manuscript / score reader for iPad