SOFTWARE: AC-7 Core DAW Control Surface for iPad
For recording videos for mastertheguitar I tend to sit in the other end of my studio from where my iMac sits, so being able to hit record/change levels etc in Logic I need to get up, walk to the iMac hit some keys then return to my seat. All a bit cumbersome and time consuming!
A while ago I came across an app which allowed me to control Logic via my iPhone and for a while now I have been using the shiny new iPad version called AC-7 Core.
AC-7 Core, developed by Saitara Software, turns your iPad into a wireless DAW control surface connecting to your PC/Mac over WiFi. It features a multi-touch interface with faders for each track in your project with typical functionality you would expect to see such as time display, record, mute, solo, pan, track name, level meter as well as a jog wheel and a bank of DAW specific buttons.
The app itself supports a wide range of applications and has dedicated modes for:
Logic Pro
Pro Tools
Digital Performer
Cubase/Nuendo
Sonar
Reaper
Ableton Live
Reason/Record
Sony Vegas/Acid Pro
FL Studio
Studio One
Audition
Tracktion
Final Cut Pro
Compared to the older iPhone version setup is pretty straightforward. On the Mac it’s all done via OS X’s ‘Audio Midi Setup’ and although you need to download and install a rtpMIDI driver for Windows, that setup looks fairly easy too.
Once setup operation is very smooth with very little lag and selecting and manipulating tracks is easy and actually quite fun!
I’ve found it incredibly useful for my purposes and it does speed up my workflow. I can be sitting with my guitar across the room and quite easily preview a take or arm a track for recording all without needing to be sat at the Mac.
I’ve not tried the Final Cut Pro mode yet but I’d say having a touch based control surface would speed up the video editing process, even if you were sitting at your machine. You could preview your video full screen and use the iPad to scrub/set markers and edit away.
Along with AC-7 Core, a mini version called AC-7 Mini is available for the iPhone as well as an 8 fader extension module called AC-7 Core XT.
If you do a lot of recording with DAWs and own an iPad I recommend you give AC-7 Core a whirl.
This is brilliant! It took a bit of faffing, but i've got it working now with Reaper. Given that the other control surface app for ipad is 59.99, this is a bit of a bargain!