Exciting new things to do with Logic Pro for iPadOS 17. (scratch, updating)

Following up on my first article for the Logic Pro for iPad Users group, on Facebook, here, in this article, I’ll detail some notions I’ve come across, through years of maintaining interest in topics ranging from the obvious - music creation and audio recording, for example, to more recent developments and prospects for the future of our digital and mobile lives - topics such as IoT and edge technology, in incorporating musical creativity in new and largely unexplored reaches in to people’s lives. In doing so, we’ll examine some of the existing hardware devices and software platforms that exist, currently in the summer of 2023, and I’ll offer my best estimations, or experiences, in working with, or, for studying, these extended-use case scenarios, which offer the creative minds of music-making, on Logic Pro, exciting and stimulating new horizons to explore, all within hands’ reach, on our iPadOS devices.

First of all, I’m composing this article, as Apple’s annual WWDC (Worldwide Developer Conference) 2023 is taking place (June 5th-9th). Yesterday, at the outset of the conference, we got some exciting peeks at brand-new hardware technology (VisionOS and updates to existing laptop and desktop hardware), which I won’t get in to, at the time being; here, for our purposes, I’ll detail some of the highlights, features-wise, which make the new iPadOS 17 a rich environment to perform some distinct and unique purpose-fulfillments in the development workflow, and how these tablet-specialties, as I’ll call them, figure in to creativity and professionalism for us, as musicians, and for iPadOS - our chosen platform for concentrating on certain aspects of development. 

Keep in mind - 

This article will cover a lot of ground, for newcomers to the audio and MIDI world hosted on Apple’s mobile iOS and iPadOS platforms - both largely similar and comparable to one another, yet, given some extended use-case scenarios, for either one - some things become distinctly advantageous, when considering Apple’s tablet designs, for the sake of becoming reinvested in digital audio workstations (i.e.Logic Pro, for iPadOS). 

Aside from the obvious advantages of having a truly responsive multitouch display as the workspace, as well as the user interaction workflow environment, there are several advantages to starting off with a new, and updating app installation iPadOS audio environment, where the general third-party plugin and instrument apps are known as AUv3 (Audio Unit version 3) and IAA (Inter-App Audio) - these are the largest standards established, as far as iOS / iPadOS audio is concerned; although, given the boutique-ish (somewhat) form of app development, given years of having established a reputation and user base, amongst App Store audio buffs, as far as generalized audio files needs, per se - a few of these small-purposed apps bear the weight of acts taken for granted, in coming from a desktop pro audio workflow environment. Here they are (there’s only a few, or several, heh heh 🤯😳): 

AudioCopy

In fashioning an abstraction of a complete newcomer’s (to iPadOS pro audio, that is), standpoint, imaginably, people would approach the performance and session considerations, depending on the types of background and skill sets that the user has. Something that isn’t immediately considered, perhaps, is translating audio files over, from audio that’s already been recorded - this is, for example, well understood, as master tracks, taken from session recording microphones - one track, each, to every microphone. So, there would be a kick drum track, perhaps some more drum tracks, a vocal track, guitar and bass amp tracks, etc. So, if you’re able to get these tracks, per se, in to your iCloud account, and or download them in to the Files app, using your on-device (iPad built-in hard drive space) storage, there are still a huge amount of apps, completely aside from Logic Pro, or Files, or… anything else available, off hand, which a person could use to take these raw audio files (specifically audio, we’re dealing with, here - standard formats, such as .wav and .mp3 files) - in short, there’s no other app, amongst everything else out there, that will allow a user to copy an audio file, from one portion of on-device or iCloud storage, in to some of these other apps, for portability, duplication, workflow progression, within some other plugin or filter app, for example. You’ll need AudioCopy for this purpose.

AudioShare

This is the other, companion, and, otherwise, indispensable app, which allows you to fulfill the obvious “receiving” end of the audio file management process - the thing being, is that other apps, as well as the iPadOS built-in app environment, as far as the Files app goes - since everything, essentially, is done within an app, here, in iPadOS. If there is no app for it, then it might just be that the user “just clicked” on something, or perhaps the user is just swiping around, exploring. There’s no extended file management capability, or specialization, for working with audio files, except for these standard and necessary apps, such as AudioShare. This app allows users to share audio files both locally - on-device, and within the iPadOS Files environment, which includes access to cloud storage (iCloud, Google Drive, Adobe Creative Cloud, etc.), on-device storage, plugged-in storage, etc. AudioShare is the app that will let you complete the copy-and-paste functionality, so to speak, as well as that it is also built in, somewhat as a standard, for higher-level functionality considerations within many audio plugins, filters, and instruments, as far as your file “push” and “pull” drop-down pop-up menus would be concerned - comparable to “Save As” on desktop environments. In this case, in iPadOS, the user would encounter a pop-up window, with various options, as far as where to save the file to, yet, if it were an audio file, the user would be significantly limited, as far as choices, as to destination apps, if the user didn’t have this app. There’s no way around it.

That being the case, that’s it, as far as stuff like that goes.

Now, we can explore common-use case scenario plugins, instruments, and apps.

Brusfri - noise-cancelling of an audio signal (microphone input, for example)

One of the most common pro audio use case scenarios is handling the signal-to-noise ratio of every recorded audio track. If you’re hot on microphones for your iPadOS device to connect to, you can jump to that section here (Title Link). There are somewhat limited, cheap-y, to moderately professional-grade quality mic’ing solutions available, depending on which model iPad device you’re working with, what connectivity, therefore, it uses - although, these days, … hmm… 🤔 actually- make sure to not try this out, for yourself - don’t go on a mean search and research binge dive, out in to the internet, to figure out as much, on your own - I’ll update folks when things change, but I really ought to make this clear - there’s not much of a really suitable Bluetooth microphone device hookup capability for iPadOS audio monitoring and recording - meaning, specifically, you cannot “be” the recording artist, “and” hear yourself, at the same time, with Bluetooth, specifically. Sure, there’s a lot of cool little bitsy hardware earbuds, and stuff, that are available, but keep in mind - Logic Pro for iPadOS was just released yesterday, and better solutions will arrive, over time, but a different authority manages the standards, development, and production of those hardware and communication / connectivity things. If you’re trying to get in to manufacturing hardware - let’s face it: some folks just can’t help but check out the scene, when it comes to that sort of thing 🤯😬🤷. I used to do that sort of thing, also.

Brusfri, the app, would easily cancel out so many considerations that a user would have, aside from obtaining any wired microphone that the user could get to rationally connect to their iPad, for their pro audio workspace environment to really have its basic, essential functionality - iPad and microphone, that is, connected by a wire. It’s not so old or useless an idea this point, to be sure. 

What Brusfri does, essentially, is exactly what, for example, a good Mastering / Channel Strip Compressor/Limiter would do, with a fairly simple layout, and premise - here, the basis is: run the audio input feed, or audio track, that’s already been recorded, and click the “ear” thing. It’ll cancel out an appreciable amount of background noise. In semi-pro audio, on mobile, at this point, obtaining a “modest” and “noisy” (crappy, even, or not “ideal”) recording is fairly standard. Brusfri largely makes that circumstance largely seem to fade away, and the audio input feed, or audio recording, will instantly sound much cleaner and much more usable. This is one of the indispensable, reliably developed and produced, audio plugin AUv3 apps out there, to include in your audio workflow signal chain.

Updating…

June 21, 2023 - some inspiration to throw together some kits (or, you could wait for me to do it, and upload some patches) - a 1.99 GB library of Future Bass Samples, MIDI templates, and more, featuring great sounds to use as starting points in your signal chain, to create Chill Trap and Future Bass tracks. It’ll be our latest group project.

Here’s the Google Drive link:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/11ZDFTC544O1q9ybk2PUrnUfJdVPWHaAq/view?usp=drivesdk

Getting started with Logic Pro for iPadOS - a hands-on starter’s guide, for beginners. (Updating)

Discovering that Logic Pro for iPadOS (was|is) [going to be] available was big news, amongst a generation of music enthusiasts and audio professionals. 

Conceivably, for those amongst this demographic, work had become stale, given that our musical imaginations had disappointed us, for the sake of the number of physical steps that digital music creation would require of us, during the creative process, itself. Thinking back, and comparatively, perhaps some of the cutting-edge and elite music producers and studios had, for a long time, now, employed touchscreen formats, which allowed for similar types of control over the workflow and user interface formats, along with software and hardware plugins, instruments, and effects, perhaps - all suited to accommodate music creation and capture, and, also, unique, to some degree, perhaps. 

 For me, I happen to recall that I intently set aside the creation of music tracks and songs, at some point, back when I was trying to juggle so many acts, in between work, walking the dog, home life, and various other attempts at juggling lifestyle concerns. 

Nowadays, 

the late model iPad Pros make things easy, and so many pursuits in life, that had been accommodated by ostensibly larger, clunkier, hardware, are much more well-suited and accommodated by this handheld device, control surface, and screen, all in one. 

For one thing, the sheer speed and power of the late model iPad Pros (I have the 2022 11-inch version) are a challenge to beat, in terms of some senses, of “doing things,” so to speak - in particular, music-wise, in graphic design, in an illustrative sense, and for the sense of user experience and interactivity. The possibilities are, by far, much more on the creative enthusiast’s side, with the iPadOS format; for example, I am a classical pianist, since age 5, which is the recommended age at which a child is recommended to begin piano lessons, in general. I ended up attending university and grad school for music and for music composition, as my concentrations, and majors. 

That being said, 

perhaps that sense of belonging, and, of… 🤔 perhaps, longing, as well - for a familiar platform, in music creation, which accommodates the user at the point at which familiarity brings relief, rather than discontent, for the fact of that it feels like little has changed, in some regards, from the desktop / laptop macOS (and prior) versions of Logic Pro - I’d been a Logic user since version 5, I believe, somewhere back, around 2002-2003, or so - that’s how far this particular platform dates back, historically, for me: it was my preferred platform for creating music, for as long as I’d worked with digital music, on a computer.

Landscape view of the workspace layout, in a new project session I had tinkered around in, in the new Logic Pro for iPadOS app. Here, I had learned where the patches, control panels, session features, such as creating new tracks, instrument patch selection, mixer, and various options, for instruments, for example, are located. 

Now, granted,

I’d long ago ditched such things as jailbreaking my device(s), and I’d set out on the comparatively much brighter outlook of purchasing my software from the App Store. To be sure, it’s a golden age, somewhat, of affordable software, on a top-tier platform, and format - it’s been this way, for a very long time, and for performance, over newness and novelty considerations, it’s truly an illustrious time to be an avid App Store browser and searcher, with the degree, versatility, depth, and features of the third party apps - instruments (inter-app audio) and plugins (Audio Units) that have already been developed, going on, for a good run and a show of things - all of these things, considered, for over a handful of years, and then some (I got on to the latest-model iPhone and iPad Pro formats beginning around 2017, or so. That being said, I’d personally accumulated a fair number of handy and nifty plugins, instruments, and apps - for that matter, apps of all sorts.

Getting fairly personal, here - a peek at my first-page Home Screen, on my current 11-inch 2022 iPad Pro. Here, I had tried to include as broad-reaching, yet contextually succinct, in most cases - the nested folders, which describe the apps I placed in to them. In some cases, the context is largely generalized. For example, I included Logic Pro in my “Apple” nested folder.

All of this being the case,

a newcomer / enthusiast, to the iPadOS format might be wondering where, and or how, they could fit themselves in to this vast ecosystem of new opportunities and grand possibilities in music and audio, with Logic Pro, now being offered, for iPad. I’ll be quick, since other sites cover this sort of specification requirements - essentially, at this point, a Logic Pro user would have to be on a late 2020, or later (release) standard iPad, such as the 8th generation standard iPad, which came out, in late 2020, the iPad Air 3, iPad Mini 5, or any more-recent device. The prospects are not so dim - devices dating back to this time, in development and production, hardware-wise, given iPads - this is an iPad thing, to be certain, and I feel that some users might begin obsessing and searching, madly, for some sort of “other” platform hack, or crack, or otherwise, some sort of solution, which would allow for Logic Pro to work on an iPhone, or something - it won’t work out; that’s my advice (at least not to a person’s overall satisfaction with such an arrangement, if it does become possible to do so). 

So, people will need a late 2020 or later model iPad, of (any|some) sort.

What to do? - if a person doesn’t already own an iPad?

A conundrum, and a frustrating situation, of all things, but, trust me, it’s worth it to switch to iPad, if you’re a music and audio enthusiast. First of all, the display (screen) real estate is at it’s best, with the iPad, and it’s Retina display features, at this stage of starting out with iPads, as a standard feature. All things considered, it’s about (or, at least) as much display and screen space as people had become accustomed to, with iPhones, or other mobile devices, and I consider it a must, for doing work in digital formats, for any kind of digital multimedia arts enthusiast. Trust me, it’s a bargain, in many ways. For one thing, people can employ Google Voice, to field their phone calls, on mobile, and be done with paying for cellular service, and, instead, switch to an unlimited data Tablet Plan, such as AT&T offers, for only $20 a month. 

Hmm… the information detailed in that link suggests that this plan is only for business users, but it’s the plan that I’m on. I’m wondering what the particulars are, on this topic. Perhaps you’ll have to fashion your own business premise, out of this iPad procurement issue - not beyond reach, for the otherwise standard user, who’s aspiring to create music. AT&T has some obscure, behind-the-scenes marketing distribution efforts, I’d estimate, directing customers to one or another offer, to suit, and these types of distinctions and exclusivity could be somewhat incremental, and progressive, in a sense - you might have to come back to the AT&T website, over several days, perhaps, and contingent on that you’d worked out your budget for a device and for this plan, yet I find it the most suitable accommodation in Apple iPad financing and data plans - this AT&T package. For one thing, it greatly reduces the cost of monthly payment commitments, making owning an iPad vastly within reach - for example, I’m mostly outfitted with a welfare-benefits budget, yet I still qualified for this program; that being said, I do run this blog, and associated activities, as a business, for example. I imagine that my readers might encounter different offers, from AT&T, yet, as I’d said, previously, try back at it (AT&T’s website, or app), over the course of several days, perhaps, and see if you get a progressively better deal, once you’ve worked out your finances and budget, for allowing for this sort of thing, with leasing-to-own an iPad, if you can’t purchase one outright.

The next thing to consider is storage.

Here, you could potentially have several choices, depending on where and how you buy in, to the iPad format. Perhaps you already own an iOS device, with some storage used up. On one hand, you’d be fairly hard-put to allow for a fully-featured, free-roaming Logic Pro installation, which, in and of itself, at this point, of the outset of its release, on iPadOS, amounts to about 16 GB of space, if you install all of the content, included in Logic Pro. Recent macOS users of the Logic Pro app would find many of these offerings in the iPadOS version to be very familiar. I chose to download everything, since I have 512 GB storage on my iPad Pro, with plenty of space, at this point. 

The Logic Pro Sound Library dashboard, on iPadOS.

Some of the add-on Sound Packs included, standard, with iPadOS.

A page describing one of the sound packs and instruments included with Logic Pro.

As I’d said, the total installation size, for the complete offerings included with Logic Pro, as well as the app, itself, amounts to about 16 GB. That being the case, if your device only has 64 GB storage, you could, conceivably, already not have enough space, considering other apps, music, photo, document, video, and system data storage content that.s already been filled. On one hand, I wouldn’t much recommend trying to fit Logic Pro in to your iPadOS system, to the exclusion of other stuff you have going on, in your digital iDevice life, since it’s probably also necessary, and it feels good to have options available, as well as an appropriately situated outlook for storage expansion, given legacies of apps, content, and storage committed to our iCloud+ backups, which you’ll also have to figure in monthly fees, to store your backup iPadOS system images, as well as store content, which will be accessible on your iCloud+ subscription plan, which is a good, well-integrated, cloud storage system, in my opinion. 

So, for example, if your current installation is nearing, at, or over - 100 GB, then you’ll definitely be much more comfortable with a 256 GB device, over 64 GB options, that might typically be available. You can find deals on iPads, locally, at any time, on craigslist - one of my old favorites, and a long-time tech-buyers’ and sellers’ haven, for Apple device transactions to go down, locally, and, most commonly, without a hitch. Be sure that the seller is willing to let you demo the device, as far as setting things up, if you go this route. The other well-established platform for local deals would be Facebook Marketplace, which, locally, is very comparable, and, perhaps, even more well-populated, with deals on Apple devices, for local, in-person transactions. Here, you will have various options, and, at times, more options, perhaps, as far as payment, with regards to completing your side of the transaction. I’ve not yet had a poor experience using Facebook Marketplace. There’s also eBay, which is another well-trusted platform for e-commerce transactions to take place; here, with buyer and seller standards, of ratings, and reviews, at the forefront. Amazon is also a suitable marketplace for online transactions, in searching for a new iPadOS device. 

Some things to consider are that, ideally - in my opinion, you’d want to go with a “carrier unlocked” device, which means that it’s been paid for, in full, most likely, by the seller, or, by another previous user, and you can check out any carrier’s plans, as far as getting your device hooked up with data service - iPads can, and do, have their own “phone numbers” provisioned to them, but you can’t make “phone” calls from iPadOS devices, although you can use the phone number for Apple device messaging and FaceTime only - you can’t make calls from your iPad, per se, although you can use Google Voice, for free calling, and it works just as well as a real cellular phone number, in many cases. Only occasionally, a person would run in to a problem with verifying their accounts, from various websites, for example, for needing to use a Google Voice number - it isn’t allowed, in some cases, or, you’d have to contact customer service to notify them of the difficulties in using a VoIP number, such as a Google Voice number.

You’d definitely have to avoid an “iCloud locked” device, since those devices are ones that the current owner of the iPad cannot unlock, themselves, which is questionable. It’s practically junk, in other words. At the time of the transaction, make sure to meet in a comfortable, public or private setting, where it would be reasonable to “go over” your personalization and booting up of your new iPad device, if you’re buying from a local buyer. Make sure that your purchasing platform, or payment medium, has buyer protection, in case something strange happens. 

That being said, remember to try to go with a reasonable amount of storage. If your iOS device backup is already at 100+ GB, or so, you could reasonably, in short order, max out 256 GB, but maxing out 512 GB would be far more off, in the future, perhaps years from this point. Keep in mind some general rules of solid state storage, such as that performance starts to decrease, when the storage drive becomes filled at over 50%. Beyond that, there is about a 10% decrease in performance, with every increase of 10% beyond 50% of storage space filled. Remember, an iPad is a versatile device, and you’d probably explore many different interests, in the App Store - some of which will require a fair amount of storage, themselves, for the app, and for content you create. Set aside a vast amount of data storage for yourself, and don’t worry about it, all that much, for the time being. Just stay intent on expanding, over years, with newer devices. By that time, storage performance and read/write access times will greatly increase, over newer generations of device busses, RAM, VRAM, and storage.

Updating…