Even Ableton Live with its clip-based workflow in session view, encourages a somewhat repetitive approach. It’s a much different way of recording than a traditional DAW like Logic or Reaper. Not that I’m objecting, it was the session view and tight integration with Push that encouraged me to switch from Reaper. In many ways, today’s tools are perfect for the solo musician and allow one to create pieces that would have been very difficult to produce in the “old” analog days. I’m really criticizing my own approach more than anything. It’s so easy to lay down 16 bars of percussion, some chords, and a melody, that sometimes I don’t spend enough time trying to make a statement with my work. It’s an embarrassment of riches in some ways. Between the soft synths, hardware, traditional instruments and DAW software, we have access to a palette of sounds that earlier composers only dreamed of. It’s up to us to use the tools to their best advantage. @robertsyrett’s piece was a good example of using his resources to full advantage. I have to admit I’m envious of his skill.
As far as the ES-8 iPad issue is concerned, it seems to me that the biggest challenge at this point is the lack of multi-channel support for Audulus in IAA or Audiobus mode. I have strongly encouraged @Taylor to consider adding multi-channel support to the AUv3 version of Audulus 4, both for macOS and iOS. When you run Audulus using IAA or Audiobus, Audulus doesn’t communicate directly with the audio interface. The host application is responsible for talking to the hardware. Audulus only provides a single stereo pair in and out. Unfortunately iOS doesn’t allow more than one audio interface at a time. On macOS I can set the ES-8 as the system audio interface and run Audulus standalone and at the same time run Ableton Live using my Focusrite interface. That way I have access to all of the ES-8 channels for Audulus and at the same time I can use my primary audio interface for my DAW. I have two channels of the ES-8 plugged into the Focusrite so I can get audio from Audulus into the DAW. Complicated, but it works pretty well. It would be much simpler if I could just run Audulus as an AU in Ableton and use the ES-8 for everything. Even better if Audulus allowed you to choose which interface to use (at least on macOS)
