Auria, the iPad DAW from Wavemachine Labs, has been around for a couple of years and has won a lot of fans in the music making community, we reviewed it here. Now Wavemachine Labs have announced Auria Pro with a raft of new professional features, coupled with the recent release of the iPad Pro and this may be the ultimate iPad app for Pro Tools users. Here's why:
Import and Export Audio To Pro Tools
Auria Pro allows you to import and export sessions with Pro Tools via AAF import. This means you can create projects on your iPad and then send them over to Pro Tools when you get back to the studio either via iTunes or with Dropbox integration. It also offers Audiobus, DropBox, SoundCloud, AudioShare, and Audio Copy/Paste support.
You can also open a Pro Tools session exported to AAF. Watch the videos below to see how to import and export to Pro Tools.
Professional Recording Options
Auria Pro sports a whole host of features that you would expect to see on a desktop DAW, for example"
- Sample rates of 44.1KHz, 48KHz and 96KHz
- 24-bit recording
- Unlimited tracks
- Up to 24 tracks of simultaneous recording when used with compatible audio interfaces
- Full delay compensation on all tracks, subgroups, buses and aux sends
- Auto-punch recording mode
- Adjustable metering modes, including pre or post fader, RMS and peak
- 64-bit double-precision floating point mixing engine
- 8 assignable subgroups and 6 aux sends
- Powerful internal bus routing with up to 32 buses and support for multiple destinations
- Full automation support on all controls with graphical editing
MIDI Sequencing
Before Auria was an audio only application, but Auria Pro now offers full MIDI sequencing, it also includes some virtual instruments from Wavemachine Labs and Fabfilter. The list of MIDI and audio editing features is impressive:
- Comprehensive MIDI sequencer
- FabFilter One and Twin 2 synths included
- WaveMachine Labs' Lyra, a multi-format sample player, included
- Real-time audio warping using élastique Pro v3
- Piano roll editor
- Tempo and time signature tracks
- Real-time MIDI parameter control including quantize, velocity shift, velocity compression, length compression, random, delay, legato and transpose
- MIDI processing functions including Crescendo, Delete Controllers/Notes, Fixed Length, Fixed Velocity, Humanize, Legato, Optimize Controller Data, Pedal to Length, Restrict Polyphony, Reverse, Transpose, Velocity Compress/Limit, Velocity Gain, Velocity Range, and Velocity Rescale
- Groove template quantizing with built-in DNA grooves from Numerical Sound (additional grooves available for purchase)
- MIDI Sync support with MIDI Time Code, MIDI Clock and MMC
- MIDI Remote Control (Mackie MCU and HUI protocol)
- Touch-based waveform editor with cut, copy, paste, split, join, crossfade, duplicate, separate, gain, normalize, DC offset, reverse, and more
- Timeline ruler options include Minutes:Seconds, Bars:Beats, Samples and SMPTE time
- Ripple-edit mode
- Real-time audio scrubbing
- Built-in metronome
- Flexible snapping tools allow snapping to events, cursor, bars, beats, fractional beats, markers, locators, transients and SMPTE frames
Professional Features Found In Top DAWs
As we've been testing out Auria Pro on our iPad Pro we've been staggered by the features available on an iPad DAW, they include a version of Drumagog for drum replacement, audio quantizing with warp and slicing modes, transient slicing, audio transient-to-MIDI conversion. It also offers in-app purchases of some of the most popular plugins from Fabfilter, Fxpansion and BIAS. The mix engine and features include 64-bit double-precision floating point mixing engine, 8 assignable subgroups and 6 aux sends, powerful internal bus routing with up to 32 buses and support for multiple destinations and full automation support on all controls with graphical editing.
Summary
We already thought that Auria was a great DAW on the iPad but this new version takes it to an entirely new professional level offering a lot of features that professionals may not expect from an iPad... then there's the price $49.99.
Often apps offer some nice features that might be useful as part of a music making or audio editing workflow, but Auria Pro offers perhaps the most comprehensive features set around on the iPad.
Is this the ultimate iPad app For Pro Tools users? We think it's going to take a hell of a lot of beating.