Welcome back to Musician’s Corner, where we explore apps and accessories that we think musicians and music fans should know about.
Last week, we gave away a handful of
AnyTune Pro HQ apps to our readers. Some of your comments regarding your favorite guitarists led me to explore new music. Thanks to everyone who told me about little-known guitar virtuosos. I have a new list of musicians to look for when record shopping now.
This week, we are going in-depth with the most in-dept digital audio recording app for iOS,
Auria. This complex bad boy offers 48 tracks of simultaneous playback and up to 24 tracks of simultaneous recording. I know what you’re thinking, “Why does anyone need 48 tracks?” My answer to you, dear readers, is Why not?
This digital audio workstation (DAW) is a recording program that offers an unbelievable level of recording control, including a digital mixing board that looks like an analog board, complete with auxiliary controls, mute buttons, level faders, and more. Not only that, but the program offers double precision floating-point mixing and third party plug-in support, making it a powerful DAW.
To record a track, users start a new project and add a track. Plug your Guitar or bass directly into the iPad using an adaptor that lets you connect the two and tap the record button. You can also use the iPad’s internal microphone if you don’t have any dedicated instrument adaptor.
To add effects while mixing, open the PSP ChannelStrip to access the Expander/Gate equalizer and compressor sections. You can also adjust the auxiliary effects using the AUX FX button. This will let you adjust reverb and fine-tune the filter mix and output of auxiliary effects.
To edit tracks, switch from the mixing board to the editing window to see a visual representation of the music you just recorded. You can use non-linear editing tools like moving regions, trimming, splitting, separating, deleting, and cross-fading.
Auria can be used with the iPad’s built-in speaker, microphone and headphone jack or through external audio interfaces connected through a 30-pin USB connector like iPad camera connector kit. The USB connector allows you use MFi interfaces like Apogee Jam or USB Class 2 Compliant interfaces like the RME Fireface UCX.
If you don’t know what any of that means, you may not be ready for Auria. This is not a
simple recording app. You’ll be dealing with Auto-Punch, Bouncing, multiple channels and subgroups, fades, cross fades, Automation, and a lot more that I don’t even understand. If you have experience with DAWs, then you will love this app. It is worth every penny and the 145-page user guide will walk you through the recording process, step-by-step. Considering this app comes with thousands of dollars worth of digital recording equipment, the $50 price tag is pocket change.
While this app is meant for the experienced digital recorder, like I mentioned before, the 145-page user guide really does walk you through every bit of the recording process. If you have always wanted to learn digital recording, you could consider the 50 bones as the cost of a comprehensive at-home recording class. For $22 per-unit at your average community college, you couldn’t even get into Digital Recording 101 for that price.
I don’t recommend this app for people that would only use it to record a demo of their friend’s rock group. That is what
GarageBand is for. Auria is for the serious recording engineer, or those looking to become one. If you have the guts to ride this wild stallion, then download it from the app store today.
That is
Auria. It is one heck of a recording device. Are you a digital audio recording professional? What programs do you work in? Have you every used your iPad or iPhone in conjunction with your studio recordings? Do you think the iPad is capable of being a full-fledged DAW?
