I expected to use my iPad as a media consumption device. An eBook reader, movie viewer… a game console.

I did not expect to use it as a Music studio. In hindsight, that was foolish. It is far more powerful a machine than the decade old PC that used to be attached to the synths, after all.

The first step was a pair of tools; the iOS version of Amazing Slow Downer, and Tunebook, an ABC cataloging and editing tool. With the two of those and an external instrument, I could start transcribing tunes I wanted to learn — my ear is not good enough to learn entirely by ear.

With the addition of GarageBand, and an external Bluetooth keyboard (in the computer sense, not the music sense), I could do everything from the Coffee Shop.

But GarageBand has some issues (mostly the latency on activation) that made it annoying, so I added Music Studio, a SoftSynth, Sequencer, and also a MIDI input device.

And by this time next week, I should have an iConnectMIDI interface, and be able to use the iPad or iPhone (yeah, the iPad led there as well), for both synthesis and sequencing with my existing gear. Content consumption I expected. Content creation, that is a joyful surprise.