Can The Ginormous iPhone 6 Plus Replace The iPad For Making Music?

In this video, Tim Webb answers the question ‘Can the ginormous iPhone 6 Plus replace the iPad for music making?’

More importantly, Webb compares how music apps work on smaller iPhones, on the iPhone 6 Plus ‘phablet’ and on an iPad.

If you’ve made the leap to one of the new larger iPhones, let us know what you think. Does the phablet form factor offer much of a benefit for music making?

23 thoughts on “Can The Ginormous iPhone 6 Plus Replace The iPad For Making Music?

  1. I am more excited by the idea of a larger iPad Pro. The iPad user interface is perfect for a lot of music apps, but something larger would be perfect. Can you imagine lemur on a 12″ iPad?

    1. I don’t get the fascination with large phones, the iPhone 4/5 is about as big an object that I’d like to carry around in my pocket.

      +1 for la 13″ MBA/iPad hybrid – i.e. retachable keyboard cover to a full size touch screen computer with an OS that can run Mac apps _and_ iOS apps! Ahhh.. what am I saying, this has been inevitable for YEARS!!!

  2. People are REALLY adverse to change..
    Iphone 6 plus looks like a great option for music on the go if you dont want to carry around with your ipad all the time..
    Like Tim states on the video it seems like a good compromise between a thing that makes calls/takes photos/send emails and let you play some music while travelling or waiting for someone, or taking a coffee… Isnt supposed to replace your ipad as a studio tool though…thats for sure…

  3. Bloody hell. If it was possible to use 3Gs to make music and developers like Taylor make Audulus universal, and daws like Beatmaker 2 and Nanostudio are available , and what to speak of synths like Sunrizer, animoog, drum machines like DM1 ( these apps have been around years ). Then of course, iPhone users can make music and in theory, don’t need iPads. But here is the downside:

    There are no mastering apps for iPhone AND developers are ignoring the platform and focus mostly on iPad apps because they feel a bigger screen=more money per app.

    But it’s the same iOS regardless.

    I don’t think it’s fair to suggest iPad gets replaced by an iPhone, as many users have both. But if someone has an iPhone but no iPad, they can accomplish much I’m sure.

    What boggles me is why bloggers who don’t produce music on iOS devices are seen as authorities on such matters?

    Lets see a video from people who actually create, not speculate 🙂

    1. I was hoping this as well. The Apple key note had kind of given the impression that it would be offering an experience that combined the best of both worlds, but you nailed it. It’s mostly just uprezzed, albeit with a little extra real estate.

      For people who did sincerely want to pair down from the expense of new phones and new iPads, I suggest you get whatever free phone you get with your 2 year contract. You save $300+ that way and can pick up a used iPad for around that much.

  4. The iPad screen is barely large enough to use with the more complex music apps. Anyone considering using their iPhone to make music needs a new hobby. What a stupid video.

  5. Done just that. iPhone 5 and iPad Air Gone replaced by iPhone 6 Plus. Will miss Korg apps, but Nanostudio is my current workhorse.

  6. There is a human element these gadgets have to pretend to ignore, namely range-of-motion. Things that are too small or too large go against the grain of how we really move and think at our creative best. Swinging room is a real thing. iStuff is cute, but as squinty as Logic gets on a desktop, I can’t imagine paying big bucks for even LESS working real estate. I AM impressed overall, but all the means in the world are still hampered by ungainly access. Neither the screens nor the RAM are much past toy-level in the clench, great apps like Nave acknowledged. Just owning one isn’t enough; I want it to be capable of real work as I see it, rather than having to play to the device’s weaknesses. That’s not a total dig against what does have some high points; the feng shui just doesn’t feel right. The main reason I still have some hope that it’ll improve is the guy who played a SampleTank piano totally hosted within an iPhone. We just have a few miles to go yet in defining the roles better. Its similar to not using FM for string ensembles. Zat make sense?

  7. The best instrument is the one you have on you. I may have a recording studio at home but I don’t take it on the bus, to the park, on holidays, etc. The iPhone is the best mobile music sketchbook available ever.

  8. yes, considering that the processor in the iPhone6 is many times more then that of the iPad1, which can run animooog, iSEM, iMS20 etc… I would hope there would be some possible convergence of the apps…. or at least the ability to dl the big boy version onto your iPhone (if it can run it),….

  9. Since iOS 7 or so, I can plug my iPhone into my griffin midi/USB Dock thingy, lightning connector, and play iOS soft synths via 5 pin MIDI, with decent audio output. So with these even more powerful phones, we can expect to run more simultaneous synths with better latency, even if the screen is too small for Cubasis, say.

  10. After using the iPad since 2010, the only music app I find useful on the iPhone is Filtatron. It’s pure stupidity to get a iPhone 666 over a iPad Mini or Full Size iOad for music making.

  11. I would pay at least £40 or $80 for a fully featured (as fully featured as it can get on a phone) DAW on my iphone 6plus. I have an Ipad 2 which seldom leaves the house. My Iphone is with me all day every day. It would be great to have something like IMPCpro on the iphone 6 where I can sample, chop, tap out beats and arrange my song on the go. Mastering would be hugely benneficial also but I would be happy with just the essentials such as those. I know you can do this in NanoStudio but I love the IMPC pro app on Ipad. There is certainly enough screen real estate on the 6plus to encompass those features and apps. Also to people comparing prices for devices, my 6 plus was only £250 for the 128gb on my phone contract. Sure you pay for it in the long run but who cares! 🙂

  12. I like the 6+ for creativity on the go, for note taking. For a proper live set, a large screen is much more convenient due to adrenaline and other things. I don’t like music apps on iPhone screens prior to the “plus”. I generally just try stuff, then forget about it forever.

    Now it’s like a waiting game. Will iPad app creators port their full iPad apps to the Plus? Who are these new 6 Plus users? And how many are they? Indications show a sort of iPhone 5C adoption rate, but clearly, I assume, for completely different users.

    If it turns out the Plus users are old, spreadsheet accountants – then nobody will care to port their apps. But if it turns out Plus users are a creativity people on the go – then it’ll make sense.

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