Strange Tales - musings of a sound monkey

thanks to an astonishingly kind bit of birthday presenting, I’m now the very very happy owner of a shiny 32Gb iPad. almost the minute it was switched on it was being loaded with all manner of Apps for all sorts of things, mainly news and tech feeds„ some creative bits and bobs (as i fundamentally disagree with anyone who says the iPad is about consumption and not creation) and yes, a couple of games or six. you have to. it is the ultimate leisure device to be honest, no getting up to even catch up on online tv or stream radio anymore, just nab it off the pouffe (it doubles as a spare bed so it’s allowed) and the world is at your lappy tips (that sounds so rude I don’t want to think it thru, but help yourself)
eventually i remembered my pre-ownership rantings below about it actually having a financially sound reason to be in a studio that uses DAWs instead of recording hardware. so i duly downloaded the excellent AC7pro from Saitara software and the excellent hot-to guide from James Steele at MotuNation and started to install all the relevant bridging and desktop software.
however, i then booted up Digital Performer, only to be told there was a free update to v7.2, so after a quick read thru the release notes it transpired that not only were MOTU fully embracing the remote control hoopla, they’d actually gone and made their own for the iPhone and it was immediately available.
one quick download later, set DP to OSC driver control and bam(!) full remote control of all your favourite DP functions, track control, transport and mixing.
OSC strikes me as much more straight forward than the bridging system that Saitara use, so i must admit, I’ve only used the AC7 software a little, but the whole thing just works so well. either App, just works almost as fast as my old Mackie MCU desk via MIDI. i would follow the advice on either software and try where possible to have the DAW host computer linked to your wireless router by Ethernet rather than having both remote and computer on wireless, it just seems a bit more reliable for some reason - whether ipads and iPhones hold their wireless signal a bit more tenaciously than laptops and desktops I don’t know but just seems to be faster and more reliable. DP Control is available free from the AppStore, as yet only for iPhone, but the 2x scale-up iPad isn’t bad would be nice to see a native version soon though.
the only real issue is aesthetics. DP Control is majorly function over form. it doesn’t even look as nice as the host software, and given that MOTU have just gone to a lot of trouble with their new ‘themes’ function you would think there would be some mirroring of appearance at least. this can make the mixer faders just a nadge fiddly and they don’t have a great length travel (maybe 50mm?) but they’re ok. i get the impression that DP Control is a very much toe in the water proof of concept and gauge of interest at the mo, but it would be nice if they did tart it up fairly soon.
AC7pro on the other hand almost has a steam punk feel to it’s appearance, i love the look of it’s grimy metallic finish and burnished surrounds. it just looks great open on the iPad on the desk. AC7pro is iPad native as well and so looks very detailed. the mixer faders are almost full 100mm travel as well, more like pro-desks. a minor minus point for AC7 is that it does not translate the much used ‘double-click to zero’ function in DP whereby, double-clicking a fader will return it to unity gain, handy on a big mix. in fact, AC7 takes a little while to get used to the unity point calibrations to be honest, as it has been designed for the 4 major DAWs, but flipping the mode does not change the fader graphics which mean that any differences in DAW fader layout are not translated. important to bear in mind.
both these Apps have their up and down sides, but both make me want to keep using them. the iPad has just become another happy addition to the central console now and fits in perfectly t my workflow. of course the lure of going and sitting in a sofa across the control room to listen to mixes is also very cool. as is being really flash and doing ‘out of the room’ mixes from the lounge!