LoopinIII Gives Us the Lowdown on Turning the World into His Production Studio
LoopinIII turned the dream of producing into a lifestyle, something you can do anywhere, with very little and now he’s dropping gems on how we all can too.
It's been quite a long journey with the iPad being my main audio production/engineering home base. I enjoy the ability to bring my gear with me wherever I travel. Whether it be just for the day out and about locally or when I pack up and fly out, I like to be able to produce and workout ideas everywhere.
It started when an unfortunate event took my MacBook out of commission. This was the first generation of the aluminum body MacBooks that I was using the Digital Audio Workstation software Logic exclusively. With the screen shattered and only the ability to use it in clamshell mode hooked up to an external display, my daily portable tool was transformed into a desktop only experience. With this setback occurring a week before I was moving out of state, the devastation of not being able to produce on the Megabus ride weighed heavy on my mind.
I would now have to be immersed in the loud shenanigans around me the whole trip. Shortly after the move I enrolled into a multimedia school where we were given older iPads to use for viewing our digital textbooks. I fell in love with being able to use my hands and fingers instead of only having a keyboard and trackpad to maneuver around the interface. It felt like I was in Star Trek or in the future at that point and there was no going back.
Now to find a way to produce and record music on this thing…
I started with the early version of GarageBand since it felt like the closest thing on the iPad to Logic, but it was too limited in features at the time for me. Then I stumbled on BeatMaker 2 which allowed me to slice chops accurately with my fingers for the first time.
The only thing it lacked for me was the recording and mixing workflow I needed. I stumbled upon the app Cubase for the iPad which turned out to be close enough at the time to use with plugins for mixing final tracks. Fast forward to the present, Logic is now on iPad to fulfill all my professional recording and mixing needs. I still use BeatMaker 3 for the sampling workflow. As I continue to build a minimal set up with the smallest footprint without sacrificing the audio quality, I try not to lose sight of the reason why I started this journey. Opening up the ability to be creative anywhere and everywhere while soaking up the inspiration all around me.
If you'd like an inside look at some of the creation process, check out my weekly show "Can You Dig It" on YouTube.