When Google first introduced the world of Android 5.0 Lollipop among many related news there was one that caused a huge stir in the environment musicians. The creators claimed lollipop because I finally managed to solve the problem of high latency audio, whose presence had made previous views Android incapable of any serious work with sound. In addition, the new version of the system was to provide full support for USB audio devices. In short: Lollipop finally had to end the era of the reign of iOS as the only mobile system for musicians.
As of a few weeks that I have the opportunity to retest NVIDIA Shield Tablet, which is one of the first “tiles,” which received an update to a lollipop, I decided to finally check whether those lofty promises are reflected in reality and whether the device can be a really useful tool for working with sound (and by the way to prove that mighty motored systems actually useful for something other than games). Of course, you should be aware that any musician can have very different ideas on how to use the tablet as a work tool, so it is impossible to check all potential applications. In the following text, so I decided to focus on the most popular examples of the use of mobile devices for both the creation and performance of music.
DAW
Applications DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) is, very simply, virtual recording studios, equipped with a set of tools that allow us to do the whole process of creating a song within a single program. Mobile versions of these applications are considered by most musicians as a kind of “sketchbook” to facilitate the work of the early outlines of works in situations where we do not have access to our main work tool, or when using it would simply be uncomfortable. Increasingly, however, you can find people using mobile applications DAW to produce the final versions of the songs. The most famous example of this approach is probably the album The Fall Gorillaz project, created entirely using the iPad during one of the tours.
One of the most popular applications of this type androidowych is Caustic 3. decided its success mainly simple, clear good user interface checker even on smaller screens and a strong focus on the use of sequencers stepper, so that users do not feel so much problems with latency. As he personally will record everything “live”, and according to experts from Google promises NVIDIA Shield Tablet running on Android Lollipop should easily cope with this challenge, quickly stopped playing and started sequencer for independent recording tracks. Unfortunately, the first impression was not positive. Virtual instruments built into the application reacted with a noticeable delay for both touch and on MIDI messages sent from the external controller. Although it was not quite as big as the tablet with Android 4.2, which I used for comparison, but still it was not a comfortable level to record tracks in this way. It turned out, however, that it is enough to bury a little in the application settings to wyeliminiwać this problem completely. A few minutes later I recorded have no problem enjoying a low-latency, until recently, reserved exclusively for Apple products. As you might guess the manner of virtual instruments proved to be much nicer than the tedious filling the boxes next sequencer.
The success of a challenge with delays arising in the course of using virtual instruments woke my appetite to try the next thing that until recently was for users of Android unattainable. The reference is, of course, the track record of instruments with external USB audio interfaces. Since Caustic 3 does not offer such a feature had to reach for a more powerful tool – Audio Evolution. This program from the outset offered me a choice of one of the two USB audio drivers, one designed specifically for the needs of the program and the other which is part of Android 5.0. With a certain degree of uncertainty chose the second option. Again, it turned out that getting satisfactory results required to spend a short time playing with the settings of the program. But then everything went smoothly now, and use as a portable Shield multitrack recorder turned out to be surprisingly comfortable.
The last thing worth mentioning in connection with DAW applications, it is possible to use the tablet as a wireless MIDI controller control application on the computer booted. This not only helps us to work and it is much more easy on the wallet than buying special hardware controllers, but also can be beneficial if we want to control your computer from a distance. As that in the case of use of the application of this type of tablet itself has no direct contact with the only sound processing that may occur due to the delay in performance and response time to touch (which in the case of the tablet Nvidia Shield are more than satisfactory) and the quality of the wireless connection (which is not depends only on the tablet or software). Among the applications of this type available in the Google Play most appealed to me IL Remote, which is the official application used to control the program FL Studio 11. Not only it offers quite an impressive set of features combined with a clear user interface, but also boasts the easiest installation process ( sufficient to ensure that the two devices are connected to the same WiFi network and select one option in the FL Studio). Official free application can also boast Steinberg Cubase, but at the moment it does not offer the opportunity to interact with Android 5.0. As far as the unofficial applications, or that are not designed to work with specific software, the leader leads a cult in some circles Lemur, which is admittedly quite expensive (as in a mobile application), but it is certainly worth the money.
INSTRUMENTS AND EFFECTS
Another challenge contemporary musicians put their tabletom, is to serve as sound modules (controllable by MIDI controllers) or even a stand-alone instruments (controlled by touch screens). Offer these types of applications that can be found in Google Play, at first glance looks quite impressive. Most of them, however, represents, to put it mildly, not very high. Finding notable instruments required to spend some time on various thematic forums and blogs. Most positively surprised me a virtual synthesizer Synthesizer Heat, who not only offer quite wide possibilities of creating her own voice (and surprisingly funny sound modulating function by moving the tablet), but also the possibility of future use created by you (or other users) version VST presets. Another pleasant surprise was the classic drum machines imitating the G-Stomper, which version of Studio (which at the time when I wrote this article is available for free in the Amazon Appstore) was additionally equipped with a quite not a bad synthesizer (also available to purchase separately as G-Stomper VA-Beast) and more powerful sequencer. An interesting set of instruments has also mentioned earlier Caustic 3, which also has the advantage that it allows us to control virtual synthesizer knobs via MIDI CC, so we can put aside tablet aside and focus on shooting twiddling our keyboard.
The big disappointment will be felt while those who were counting on the fact that Android will allow them to use Lollipop Shield emulator as amplifiers / guitar effects. The Google Play store, I found only one application of this type of supports external USB audio interfaces (a handful of other proposals involved plugging the guitar directly into a microphone input tablet and listening to the sound modified by the built-in speakers), who unfortunately acted with a clear delay of almost preventing you from using it.
DJ
tablet apps DJ passed in the last few years really amazing evolution, transforming the simple toys aimed at amateurs and hobbyists with the tools in terms of functionality on par with professional applications. The most common application of this type is Djay 2, which Google Play appeared a few months ago in two versions – free and paid. Even the former offers a really interesting set of features, among which only happiness is missing support for the so-called. Splitters, or splitters stereo headphone output signal into two separate mono output, which is a cheap alternative to professional interfaces of DJ. However, this feature is available in the paid version, costing just 15 zł. It is also worth mentioning that Djay 2 gives us the opportunity to mix tracks streaming from Spotify service, which, however, requires there to start a paid account. The situation is complicated a bit, when we want to approach the subject a bit serious and professional collaboration to harness DJ controller. While the iOS version offers the opportunity to work with quite a list of devices, whereas Android version provides full support only for the two models, and the Pioneer Reloop Beatpad DDJ-Wego 3. The problem is that if someone has one of these two models is probably acquired it in order to work with the iPad, because that’s what they were advertised. This situation may change after the upcoming Musikmesse, which is likely to see some new controllers designed to be interoperable with tablets (eg. Beatpad 2 is promoted as “a cross-controller”), but they are so far only conjecture.
The main competitor androidowym 2 djay app is Mixvibes Cross DJ company, which is also available in free and paid versions. I have to admit that this application much more appealed to me, both because of the clearer and more convenient user interface (which is not hard he tried to pretend turntables and a mixer) and the possibility of mixing tracks streamed from the site Soundcloud, who spoke to me more than competitive Spotify (and did not require any extra charge). Unfortunately, here also limited by the small number of compatible controllers. DJ Cross officially works with three models: Mixvibes U-Mix, Pioneer DDJ-SB and Pioneer WEGO 2.
Summary
It is time to sum up the result of a clash tablet with NVIDIA Shield and music applications to answer the question posed in the title of the article. The device itself came from the battle unscathed. It is difficult to assess whether this is due to changes in the new version of Android, high technical parameters of this particular model or perhaps a unique blend of both of these factors, but Shield dealt with most of the tested application support in a manner comparable to twice more expensive iPad Air. The sour note in the ointment, however, is music offer applications that are available in the Google Play store, which is competitive against the App Store still looks very poorly (to put it mildly). Fortunately, the developers are working slowly to reduce the distance, but you can not hide it from them is still a long way to go.
The text was written in collaboration with X-COM shop where you can buy NVIDIA Shield Tablet.
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