Just a year ago in Computer Music we rounded up the 100 Greatest Mobile Apps and stated, “we still don’t think that mobile music making offers all the flexibility of a decent, hardware and software hybrid studio based around a powerful computer”. How a year changes everything, or certainly the “powerful computer” part anyway. Apple’s latest Pro iPads have the same M1 chips found in the company’s desktop and laptop machines, so the devices are very much on par power wise with your standard computer. Plus most of the latest iPads have USB and even Thunderbolt compatibility meaning you can plug in and play a range of interfaces, keyboards and more. And as we shall see, there are many such devices, and even more apps to run on iPads to make the mobile studio experience just that more, well, pro!

And to clarify, of course Apple’s iPhones also offer the same kind of music making power – the latest iPhone 13 chips are right up there, if not quite at the same level as an M1 – but we are really just talking about the iPad in these features in this issue. This is not only to go along with our main iPad Buyers Guide starting on p16, but also because the extra screen real estate on an iPad really does offer you a better desktop music production experience, with all the advantages of touch. Of course if you want to go down the iPhone route, then most of the info over the following pages will apply, but do be aware that just a few of our app recommendations require an iPad, so check before buying.

So to ibusiness

Following that main iPad buying feature, we have broken down this second feature into several parts to cover everything you need to know about using an iPad for music production. First up, we explain all the latest interfacing standards used on iPads, plus the power requirements you need to understand in order to expand your iPad studio into the realms of hardware. Then we reveal the best bits of gear – interfaces, microphones and keyboards – that you can plug into your iPad to enable recording and playback of your music.