Mastering on iPad suggestions.

[dave_bass5]

As above. I’m trying to shift all my music making over to my iPad, as it’s the most powerful device I have an app that will allow me to trim rehearsal files, but I need to give them a bit of a boost and polish. 
Seen loads of reviews about Final Touch, but it’s turning out to be a real piece of crap. Can’t change bit rare for mp3, can’t save to anywhere on the iPad other than within the app, and it crashes often. 

[skidder652003]

what app are you using on your ipad to record rehearsals?

If you're using a DAW I could offer suggestions but I don't know your ipad process for recording your rehearsals.

[dave_bass5]

Thanks. I use a Roland digital recorder to record the Gigs and rehearsals. This is in 24 bit 48khz wav format. I normally transfer these files to Adobe Audition on my PC. Cut out the gaps etc and output to high quality MP3 using Ozone mastering suite. 

As my ipad is more powerful i thought I’d give that a try. I can import the wav files in to Hokusai 2 and do the trimming. That too is a bit hit or miss but it does work. It does have loads of good plug ins but Final Touch seemed prefect as i can transfer the wav files directly in to it, and output to MP3. The interface is also very similar to Ozone and not just a long list of plugins. MP3 because i upload the files to DB for the others to download and listen to (yeah, as if they do that).

So I’m looking for a proper mastering suite or section rather than seperate tools if that makes sense. FT will output 48khz MP3, but only at 125kbps. Normally I’d use 320kbps, but need to vary it sometimes to keep the file under 200mb for Apple Music. 

I dont mind buying a DAW that includes mastering, ive seen a few good ones, but not going to stretch to something like Cubasis 3 which is much too expensive. I’m only working with single stereo files. For Daw stuff I’m happy using GarageBand. 

Edited April 29, 2020 by dave_bass5

[dave_bass5]

Quick update. Think ill drop Hokusai in favour of WavePad. Just found this. Much more user friendly for cutting and trimming. It also has all the features i need for outputting. Still not ideal for mastering though. 

Only issue with this app is when you hit the stop button it jumps to the start of the file. Hitting Pause works but it’s easy to forget. Also no apple keyboard support. 

[skidder652003]

You sound like you're more knowledgeable than me when it comes to this stuff. I was going to suggest giving PSP Vintage warmer a trial. I think it works in garageband, I use it a lot to give that bit of boost and sparkle you were talking about, especially for band gigs and rehearsals.

[dave_bass5]

Thanks. I know what i want but not really up on whats out there. 

I cant use Garagband as it doesn’t seem to allow me to easily take out sections of larger files. As far as i can see only spitting files. 

I have got further. WavePad works pretty well for cutting down the large files. in fact its faster than me doing it on my PC. It lacks the smoothness at the joins, but its only rehearsal recordings. I can save the edited wave file to the FIles app. I can then send that file to Final Touch to master. I then save it to an app called Audio Share. This then allows me to export to whatever format i want (other than MP3 iconically). AAC 320kbps seems fine for my use. Doesn’t have to be MP3. 

Its a long winded workflow so ill keep on looking, but its still faster than using just one program on my PC to do it all. The rendering times on on iPad are very short compared to my PC. If only these apps all spoke to each other. Audio Share is supposed to glue it all together, ironic is doesn’t do MP3 though. 

Thanks for the input though.