Hi guys,

some years ago, while 100% of the mobile audio apps were being done for the iOS and all the apple devices, the android phones and tablets were simply being ignored, due to a big latency, and because the android code/apis, etc, wasn't really optimized for audio, specially, low latency audio, real-time audio-midi apps, etc.

but since a few months-1 year, even if i don't follow all the news regarding the android audio developments, i have noticed, that more and more apps get released, for android, on aud..oz website.

does it mean that something has been updated with android 4.0, 4.1,2,3 and now, 4.4 ? is there something official, that android code can now be used for low latency apps ? i remember reading, some years ago, that android wouldn't allow anything below 20ms of latency.

even steinberg has released cubasis for android. and more and more apps are being released, almost every week. even some iOS-only apps, are now being done for android.

were there any big changes ??

thanks

 

I have ios and android (thats is getting better)
The real problem wiht android is playing instruments in real time. Android devices can have octa core processor but they are generic processor that can be use with others OSs. Apple invest in a processor driven to IOS only so they do a better job with slower clocksm

Its a problem of hardware too, because its not made for realtime for audio. They started to chance but you can write in android daws and also control other DAWS via wifi to without problen

 

I guess it's more a software issue actually... think Core Audio compared to ASIO on a PC... but worse

 

Support for low-latency audio has been available to developers starting from Android version 4.0 (or maybe even 3.0, but that was only released on the first batch of tablets).

You still don't see a lot of apps and things like amp sims go on board. I think it's because not all the android devices are as powerful, the quality in the audio DAC maybe lacking in some devices and a lot of devices don't even have support (or official support) to hook USB devices like audio interfaces up to an android device.

So, developers have all they need, but they're still not interested to go on board. I always say the 'android fragmentation' argument is bullshit, proper coding of apps makes apps and games work fine on whatever device there is (performance issues not counted), whatever the resolution or buttons or whatever.

But in the audio world, I kinda have to say 'android is too fragmented for that'. Like I said, every device has a different audio chip and DAC (and who knows what the quality is), and since there is no official USB-otg support for a lot of devices you're limiting your app to only a certain amount of devices.

From Android's OS design standpoint though, there is no reason not to do it.

 

ok, so, things are slowly changing.
but the problem with android is the fact there can be differences in power from 1-10 , between tablets, and an app that would work great on a 500 euros tablet, might work meh on a cheap 150 euros samsung device... fragmentation, like dipje says...

 

A real competidor, at least for the ios tablets, are windows8 tablets

 

On iOS, Apple cut short : some apps are for "iOS x version and more"
Apple Store can even limit by hardware.
Funny enough, iPad 1 had no cam. Some audio devs limited downloads to iPads with cams...to block iPad 1
So if your device is old and not powerful enough...no software.
You can't complain about perfs, because you can't even download it.

On Android, you can put KitKat 4.4 even on a 50 bucks smartphone
There is no hardware limit...so expect some troubles when running it.

About iSchmucks running USB, it can be a mess. Because Apple NEVER supported it. They even changed code to limit power drain on USB ports and compatibility.
To Apple, running USB devices like MIDI/audiocards is a hack. So expect to loose USB support for your hardware next update.
And don't expect jailbreak to save your a** on this point. Because jailbreak coders don't care about USB support for audio users. they don't hack this part of code.

That's a big part of why i sold my iPad. Apple spend their time trying to stop you using their devices another way than the way THEY want you to.

If you want portable devices for audio, Apple still the way to go...if you are ready to change your devices every 2-3 years. And take the risk to loose your setup when updating iOS.

 

Thats right!
But my old ipad is still running everything.
Also the developers invest really for IOS because it makes money with app store. Software options are the most important thing than hardware.
Apple have this agenda that makes you invest with new toys but the only thing I want more than Ipad is an ipad big enought for use like a real robbon controller.
I do not like it for compose or arrange, just to play. Some software are even better than the vsts that I have.
Ipad changes the way I play and open this door for a mini ribbon controller (I need it really big)

 

i don't feel bad because i couldn't watch those apple watch videos. no quicktime, no quicktime.

 

Android hardware is mostly just as powerful as iOS hardware.
The fact that even the first iPad (1) with its 1GHz single core processor runs so many apps with low enough latency to use it for live playing demonstrates that it's a pure software issue.

Android is by design (Dalvik JAVA VM compared to native compilation on iOS) not the best basis for high-performance audio, but there are improvements like the already mentioned introduction of low-latency audio features and the new, more efficient ART Java VM introduced in Android 4.4.

If you search for "android low latency audio apps" you'll find some apps that already show what can be done, and more might come along if audio app developers are ready to go back to Android again.

It's a bummer that it has taken years until these improvements have been done (complaints about high audio latency have been there practically from day 1 of Android), certainly an indication of how high the priority of audio on Android actually is

You can say whatever bad you want about Apple, but they have done a lot on the audio and midi front. IAA and CoreMidi lets you interconnect apps (e.g. DAWs and instruments), Audio and Midi over USB lets you integrate the apps with your Win or Mac desktop by using a single USB cable (also supplying power to the iDevice!!!), and iOS9 will introduce AU for iOS, also providing the dev tools to let developers easily port their mac AU plugins to iOS.
Now I think that's a respectable advantage that Android will have a hard time to catch up.

 

Not anymore. Apple has introduced audio and midi over the standard USB cable this year, and last week I've purchased audiomux and midimux, which btw lets me use e.g. lemur and touchAble on my iPad1 over USB connected to Mac or Win.

Link: midimux

And a real world example