iPad music apps are great!
 

Ehy, one year ago I was very skeptical but now I have some GAS attacks that I can't believe!

What is great about it is the workflow that is fast and different. I lost many hours in Ableton clicking around with the mouse, or pushing around with Push... without produce nothing decent. Now with a simple sampler and a synth on the iPad I re-found a fresh inspiration because the limit push me to think better on what I want to compose.

Some suggestions if you want to dig in:

Samplr - Animoog - Thor synth - Beatwave

let me know your thoughts and addictions...

I've got a few music apps on the iPad -- FLStudio mobile, Maschine, Korg Polysix, etc. Fun to dink around with while traveling or whatever, and maybe inspirational as you say, but doesn't come close to replacing my studio room for music creation. For one thing not enough processing power in a mobile device to do synthesis justice, also I have to have my hands on real piano keys to draw any real musical inspiration.

I can recommend BeepStreet Sunrizer (inspired by the JP80x0), Waldorf Nave (Wavetable synthesis), Arturia iMini (Moog emulation) and Korg iMS20 (MS-20).

Less fussed by Arturia iSEM (Oberheim SEM), although this is probably a taste thing.

Not fussed by Korg iElectribe or Korg Gadget, although not fully explored the latter yet.

Purchased an IK Multimedia iRig Pro when it was on offer to get MIDI from my keyboards into the iPad, also allows you to inject audio into it via a combi ¼" TRS/XLR jack such as a guitar or mic for mobile Amplitube fx or sampling or whatever. Even has phantom power (supplied by battery) for active mic duties if necessary.

(wow... quite a few years passed since the last reply...things just have gone crazier since)

Indeed! I've just moved from the Mac to the iPad using the Camera Connection Kit, my Scarlett interface and some controllers... way more comfortable, inspiring and fresh, loving it!

AUM and AudioBus are excellent apps to route MIDI and audio any way you like, use different sequencers like Modstep or Beatmaker 3 to run AU instruments (Synthmaster One and many great stuff from SugarBytes) or external gear (my Virus TI2 <3). Just got myself a USB Hub as well to make this happen because all the videos on Youtube turned out to be misleading... the camera connection kit does NOT have enough juice to run a bus powered audio interface due to the limitation in voltage output I learned... shame they don't sell Anker hubs here in Hungary (7+3 USB3 slots latter 3 to hook the ipad back to it for charging).

great apps piling up on my ipad, dropbox support in many apps make things so simple, I just plug the Virus in, add softsynths and loops and here we go!