What The Apple iPad Means for Music Production

The hype surrounding the launch of the iPad was enormous, even by Apple standards, with the device causing innumerable flame wars before it was even touched by the public. Some denounced it for its lack of Flash, others for its lack of multitasking, but musicians have seen the potential of this oversized iTouch…

Let Them Have iPad

Steve Jobs may have been targeting those who are relatively unfamiliar with computing, with the iPad being slated (so to speak) as an entry-level Internet access device for grannies. Now this seems to have been very successful – the American public have snapped up every available iPad, such that the device’s launch outside the US had to be delayed. The user-friendly tablet computer has already been a massive consumer grade hit, as evidenced by this video of 99-year-old Virginia’s experience with it…

Supersize Control

The iPad may not be the ultimate mobile computing device, but it was not intended to be; it does what it does, and it does it well. The absence of Flash and multitasking may be dealbreakers for many, but the iPad has enormous potential as a musical controller.

Plenty of music has been created on iPhones, and there are a huge number of music-making apps available for that device. However, now that the iPad brings in so much more screen space, other companies such as Jazzmutant must be looking over their shoulders with increasing concern. The iPad won’t be cheap when it does arrive here, but it will still be only a fraction of the two grand or so it takes to get hold of a Dexter or Lemur.

CDM have a preliminary list of iPad music production apps, and this list will keep growing – the iPad does seem to be the ultimate mobile touchscreen controller, with its sensitive capacitive multitouch screen being deemed worthy of a performance from Lang Lang…

The iPad’s wireless connectivity is key to using it as a controller – it may take a bit of setting up, but you can use it with TouchOSC and Propellerhead Reason/Record as shown here…

Or you can team up with a friend and run two iPads as controllers in Ableton Live…