Considering an iPad mini

[wahrk]

I'm thinking about getting an iPad of some sort for use in making and performing music (and other stuff too I guess).

 

The iPad mini looks like a great option because it's got a smaller form factor and is much lighter, which is great for transporting it and swinging it around madly at shows. It's also cheaper, which is always good.

 

What do you guys think? Any experience with a mini? Does the scaling down of apps cause any issues?

 

What are your thoughts on TouchOSC?

 

 

Update: For those just joining us, I ended up getting an iPad 4. It rules.

[goDel]

No experience, but I'm looking myself as well.

 

There's a pretty thorough review on Anandtech:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6429/ipad-mini-review

 

 

 

In my first week with the iPad mini, it quickly became the iPad I actually wanted to carry around. The mini's form factor is really where all of the innovation is. It's thin, light and an almost perfect balance of functional screen size and portability. I really love this form factor. In my life, a tablet is really an augmentive device rather than something that takes the place of a larger notebook. As such, I actually want something even more portable than the current Retina iPad and the mini delivers just that. It's small enough that I don't mind taking it with me, and it retains nearly all of what made the iPad such a great consumption device. I say nearly all because there are some definite tradeoffs when moving to the smaller display. Mainly all UI elements shrink in size, which can be a bit annoying when tapping small widgets (especially at the corners of the display). There's always something to be given up in pursuit of ultimate portability.

[Braintree]

I haven't had any experience, either, but I would think that the animoog would be almost unusable if it were any smaller. The keys are already too small if you want a lot of range.

 

I also have small, slender hands, so it's not a sausage-fingers kind of thing for me.

[o00o]

I have one while my father has a retina ipad. the mini is lighter but the screen is non retina. For me its finally the ipad size I always wanted. The retina one is more like a cool netbook with very special features while the mini is more like a big ipod.

 

I always wanted a laptop that is completely silent and at the same time able to do the normal stuff like web, games and facebook. Pages is a nice word editor and connecting a bluetooth keyboard works great. I still have my iMac for work.

[jhonny]

Got one and love it

[awepittance]

to the original poster, have you checked out the Windows 8 tablet computers yet? Unlike the ipad it lets you add usb devices, extra drives and also runs a full fledged Window OS letting you run most Windows 7, XP and previous generation Windows applications.

It doesn't have most of the neat toys out for Ipad, but it's a real computer

[kcinsu]

If I was buying one for music apps, I'd get the larger version. If I was getting one as a portable media device, I'd get the mini.

 

 

[wahrk]

It doesn't have most of the neat toys out for Ipad, but it's a real computer

 

I think that's the thing. I want the iOS stuff.

 

Also, has anyone tested one of these things with Ableton?

[awepittance]

 

It doesn't have most of the neat toys out for Ipad, but it's a real computer

 

I think that's the thing. I want the iOS stuff.

 

Also, has anyone tested one of these things with Ableton?

 

 

you mean like with touch osc / lemur app? It seems to work great from what i've seen. I've only tried the lemur app on reaktor and it works great, i personally prefer physical sliders and knobs thats the only reason i dont use it too much.

[wahrk]

 

 

It doesn't have most of the neat toys out for Ipad, but it's a real computer

 

I think that's the thing. I want the iOS stuff.

 

Also, has anyone tested one of these things with Ableton?

 

 

you mean like with touch osc / lemur app? It seems to work great from what i've seen. I've only tried the lemur app on reaktor and it works great, i personally prefer physical sliders and knobs thats the only reason i dont use it too much.

 

 

I actually meant running Ableton on a Surface.

[awepittance]

it works pretty badly from my initial testing with it, even something like a basic fader move is totally out of whack. Fruity is the only DAW program that seems ahead of the curve on surface/touch screen implementation.

[wahrk]

Got one and love it

 

Does TouchOSC work on it?

[Guest ryanmcallister]

I just got one this past weekend. Love it. You don't expect it to surpass the original iPad but the form seems to just click so much better for my use so I'd say I like it way more than my old iPad 1. I've been dabbling with Android the past year and while I still love my Galaxy S2 I have to say I missed how iPad and it's apps have matured. Still the king of the tablet market imo.

 

FYI TouchOSC works just the same as it does on the iPad.

[Joyrex]

My only complaint about the Mini is the lack of a Retina display - why go through the effort of releasing a new hardware SKU just to have it inferior (display-wise) to all your other SKUs, which you are standardizing with the same display type, etc...

 

Nevermind - iPad Mini 2 - now with Retina display!

[oscillik]

is that why your profile pic is all pixellarted?

[Joyrex]

is that why your profile pic is all pixellarted?

 

This was an old scan from joyrex.com back in 1989... there weren't enough pixels on the internet then.

[goffer]

 

 

It doesn't have most of the neat toys out for Ipad, but it's a real computer

 

I think that's the thing. I want the iOS stuff.

 

Also, has anyone tested one of these things with Ableton?

 

 

you mean like with touch osc / lemur app? It seems to work great from what i've seen. I've only tried the lemur app on reaktor and it works great, i personally prefer physical sliders and knobs thats the only reason i dont use it too much.

 

 

I actually meant running Ableton on a Surface.

Ableton won't install on the Surface as it uses Windows RT which uses an ARM chipset (thus x86 programs will not install). You need to look into a Windows 8 tablet with an Intel chipset.

[oscillik]

 

 

 

 

It doesn't have most of the neat toys out for Ipad, but it's a real computer

 

 

I think that's the thing. I want the iOS stuff.

 

Also, has anyone tested one of these things with Ableton?

 

 

 

you mean like with touch osc / lemur app? It seems to work great from what i've seen. I've only tried the lemur app on reaktor and it works great, i personally prefer physical sliders and knobs thats the only reason i dont use it too much.

 

 

 

I actually meant running Ableton on a Surface.

Ableton won't install on the Surface as it uses Windows RT which uses an ARM chipset (thus x86 programs will not install). You need to look into a Windows 8 tablet with an Intel chipset.

 

like the Surface Pro

[Guest]

hm.. can you confirm that the iPad mini is actually useful beyond casual things?

it's basically a shrunken iPad 2, and i'm guessing many music production apps might run slow on it, and if not, you'll want to run the new amazon AudioBus (which is amazon but i don't even bother with my iPad 1...), and you probably hit performance walls real quick?

 

i'd also like to have a mini-sized iPad, call me once it has iPad 4 specs, Apple.

[wahrk]

hm.. can you confirm that the iPad mini is actually useful beyond casual things?

it's basically a shrunken iPad 2, and i'm guessing many music production apps might run slow on it, and if not, you'll want to run the new amazon AudioBus (which is amazon but i don't even bother with my iPad 1...), and you probably hit performance walls real quick?

 

i'd also like to have a mini-sized iPad, call me once it has iPad 4 specs, Apple.

 

Part of why I am, in fact, just getting an iPad 4.

[o00o]

hm.. can you confirm that the iPad mini is actually useful beyond casual things?

it's basically a shrunken iPad 2, and i'm guessing many music production apps might run slow on it, and if not, you'll want to run the new amazon AudioBus (which is amazon but i don't even bother with my iPad 1...), and you probably hit performance walls real quick?

 

i'd also like to have a mini-sized iPad, call me once it has iPad 4 specs, Apple.

I did not have one app yet that runs slow and I have direct comparison

[Guest ryanmcallister]

Ya i mean at the end of the day an iPad is still an iPad and I don't think there's a single music app out there that would be so demanding that it would be noticeable between an iPad 4 and an iPad mini. I mean most are just glorified 4-track recorders with a few effects built in. As for my experience, I don't take those apps all that seriously, I'm having some fun with them but the only ones that I think will see real use in my studio are the controller apps. I just dropped the $50 on Lemur the other day and holy shit have I been having fun with it. A lot of it is conceptually over my head at the moment, trying to figure out a use for some of the objects and scripts and shit but you can definitely tell it has a lot of benefits over TouchOSC.

 

But honestly for me this isn't a music thing so much as a general browse the web and play games device, so I'm likely biased.

 

Also, has anyone checked out this app? Fucking fun I tell ya, OP-1 in app form.

[wahrk]

I plan on picking up touchAble, Lemur, and a few others as well.

[Guest The Bro]

Get Beatmaker 2 that's one the best apps for making music on the Ipad.

[wahrk]

Get Beatmaker 2 that's one the best apps for making music on the Ipad.

 

It does look pretty rad.

 

I'm currently rocking touchAble and DJ Player, and I've got Tabletop and SunVox installed to play with.