June 7, 2014 editorial: comments

Before anything else, I wanted to highlight the interview with legendary producer Jack Douglas that we posted late last week. If you haven’t read it yet, I highly recommend it. Douglas, who’s worked with mega-artists like John Lennon, Aerosmith and Cheap Trick, among others, has had a supremely interesting and colorful career, both as a musician and a producer, and he tells some great stories in the interview.

On another subject, I wrote a two-part story this week (part 1, part 2) about putting together an iOS-based studio, and it reminded me of an interesting behavior pattern that I’ve noticed with myself and others. I’m talking about the dichotomy in how we view prices of music apps versus the prices of Mac or PC music software.

In the Mac/PC arena, a $50 piece of software evokes the response, “Wow, great deal.” In the iOS world, a $50 music app makes you say, “Yikes, that’s expensive!”  

Granted, Mac/PC apps are, on the whole, more powerful, but there are a lot of very capable music apps on iOS, including DAWs like Auria and Cubasis, and amp modelers like AmpliTube and JamUp Pro XT. Software this powerful for your computer would cost you 5 to 10 times as much.

Not that I’m complaining, mind you. I only bring it up because I find it amusing when I notice myself using that double standard, and thinking something like, “How can they charge $19.95 for that synth app? That should only be $9.99!” And then I realize that I’m complaining in my mind about a full-featured synth for $19. It just goes to show you that reality can be very subjective.

Speaking of iOS, are any of you using an iPad or iPhone for music production? Having a touchscreen interface changes the way you work in a very cool way, I think. With the right outboard gear, you can make some serious music on iOS. Do you agree? Do you even use iOS for music? Are you an Android user and annoyed that I'm devoting so much time to iOS? Post a comment.

Have a great week.

Mike Levine

U.S. Editor, Audiofanzine