Apple made several big announcements earlier this fall, which I think are going to have a big impact on musicians — I know they will impact how I make music! First, the big news (no pun intended) was the announcement of the iPad Pro, a jumbo-sized version of the popular iPad. Why do I think this is such a big deal? With a screen size of 12.9″ (diagonal), which, if my math is correct, works out to around 10.5″ x 7.75″, we’re talking nearly the same size as a standard sheet of notebook paper. This means that you can display a sheet of music at nearly full size. I’ve been slowly but surely moving my sheet music library over to my iPad, and I dream of having a full-size display for it when practicing and for charts on the gig.
Likewise, for composing, you get basically a full-size sheet of score paper, which along with the new Apple Pencil stylus means that you can “write” music in the old-school way. This is something you can’t do with a laptop in the same fashion; you have to use a mouse or trackpad, which isn’t the same. I, for one, am very excited by the prospect of both of these. But beyond the “printed page,” the iPad Pro offers us enough screen real estate to blow up our virtual instruments and iOS-based DAWs for a large view, which will make them much easier to operate.
All the other new stuff in the iPad Pro is great, too, but I really see these applications for musicians as being a primary reason to pick one up. Stay tuned — I’ll have a full report soon.
Maxi to mini
On the flip side of the coin is the new iPad mini 4, the latest generation of the compact member of the iPad family. As a super-portable music-making companion, the iPad mini is ideal: small, but not too small, and also excellent as a “reader” for documents. I load all of my manuals into iBooks as PDFs, and the iPad mini makes a great platform for referencing them while I work on my laptop or desktop computer — no need to switch windows or take my eye off the ball, as it were.
Got the time?
In app news, my new favorite “musician’s toolbox” app is Time Guru from Avi Bortnick. This metronome allows you to quickly and easily program complex meters and rhythms and, best of all, allows you to selectively or randomly mute any combination of clicks so that you are forced to maintain the meter yourself. You can save all your settings as presets for quick recall. Check it out in my iOS Update video review: Sweetwater.com/time-guru-app.
