The iPad Studio

Though the iOS doesn't make the iPad a computer, it's been obvious since its introduction that the iPad is a game changer. The advanced touch screen allows a new control element that takes us from mouse and clunky keyboard to tactile physical control. A prime example is MultiTrack DAW from Harmonic Dog. This is almost GarageBand for the iPad. Though limited in many respects (no effects) MT is a powerful recording app that can be used for professional results in 8-24 tracks, even producing and posting results from the field directly from your iPad.

The iPad Camera Connector kit allows you to connect pro audio peripherals, taking this app into the realm of GarageBand and beyond. I have been using it with Roland's Cakewalk audio interface and Blue's Yeti microphone much to my delight. Cakewalk allows you to plug in line audio, instruments with pickups, board feeds and external mics.

I couldn't be more impressed with Blue's Yeti. Review's don't do the sound quality justice. At $149 this USB mic is one of the nicest sounding mics I have ever worked with, even competing with the legendary Rode and Neumann. The Yeti has three elements in a triangular array that gives you an amazing amount of versatility in stereo and mono recording. Admittedly the straight mono cardioid pattern sounds so sweet I will probably use it for most recording. Since it requires no preamp, the Yeti, at 100 db signal-to-noise ratio is the quietest mic I've ever heard.

The Yeti is a solid choice for use with MT since it has it's own headphone jack to monitor both the mic and your tracks. This is a necessity since the iPad can be extremely uncooperative when a mics like the Blue Mikey and the Belkin TuneTalk plugged into the connector slot. It needs to be noted that the Yeti is just about the end of its power limitations in the iPad. Some headphones cause it to drain enough power to crash the mic. My little Senneheiser earbuds killed the mic, but my big Sennheiser HD280 studio monitor cans worked fine.

The MT offers no effects and can't allow plugins, so it's vital to have a clean, crafted signal going in if you plan on mixing on the iPad. That being said you can create a multitude of delay effects in multiple tracks and then bounce the delays and original back down to one track. Though not easy as turning an effect knob, staggering tracks and adjusting volume levels is easy in MT, so you may find yourself creating more complex delay effects than you've ever imagined.

With MT you'll probably need to change your recording workflow. Often we depend on the "fix it when we mix it" philosophy when working with GarageBand. With MT you can't do that if you're planning to do the final mix right on iPad. You need to get every sound as sweet as possible coming in. But with the Yeti there's no need for EQ tweaking and with the Cakewalk you just get all you effects sounding right in the chain before they go through the interface.

There's a short learning curve to working with the MT. What's not done in an Apple-like fashion is easier. Having the controls on screen takes a lot of frustration out of recording. What used to require a lot of mouse clicks and keypresses now can be done with a few intuitive finger moves.

You can easily move tracks over to GarageBand, Logic, Audacity or ProTools by wifi for tweaking and mixing. But since you can get the same CD quality tracks right in your iPad and post them directly to Sound Cloud from within MT, you may find yourself working directly with iPad more than you think. I can see a lot of musicians doing a quick demo in the hotel of a new song or posting a live version of a song from last night's show on a fan site without ever involving a computer in the process.

Having done most of my recording on an iPhone with a TuneTalk mic and mixing in GarageBand, I'm delighted to centralize the process onto my iPad and be able to edit now with simple finger moves. Previously I depended on post tweaking, but now will switch workflow to gets stuff right going in. The lack of effects will change the sound of my final mix, but who's to say that didn't need changing? I expect my first few projects to sound substantially cleaner, but more vintage (from the days before reverb as taken for granted.)

My singles can be found here: http://wolfewithane.com