So yesterday was the long-awaited iPhone and Watch Event from Apple. Three new iPhones were introduced as well as more informations about iOS 11 released. The release date is now official and confirmed. The newest version of the operation system iOS will be available on September 19. The new version provides several new features to improve the workflow with iPad’s and iPhone’s. In addition to the classic new functions, there are also some new features that are mainly interested in iOS musicians.
One of the biggest new features in iOS 11 for musicians will be the MIDI Out support for AUv3 which will opens the market of AUv3 to an entire new range of apps. Currently there are only instruments and effects apps with AUv3 support in the iTunes store. With the new update, it will change and many developers will most likely release new MIDI out apps with AUv3 integration like sequencers, arpeggiators and more. Apple enhanced also in iOS 11 the Inter-Device Audio functionality that allows musicians to connect their iOS device to an macOS system and transfer audio via the lightning cable to their favourite DAW. This excellent feature will work in future also with MIDI signals. Beside this, they also add support for high-quality audio formats like FLAC, Opus and HOA.
A further and long-anticipated feature may be used in the future by many musicians to explain their workflows to other users. With iOS 11, users can record and share the screen of any app with audio. A good new function that will help many musicians if they have problems in an app. So they can record the screen and ask other musicians how to solve the problem. It will be used also in future to simply share their music sessions and show friends their tracks made with iOS.
To be honest, you’re certainly so excited about this new update and want to update as soon as possible. I can understand this very good but this can quickly turn out badly. Especially musicians with a complex iOS setup, should ask themselves two times whether they want to update.
There are various facts to follow and with my experience, I recommend you to follow them.
- New features always sound like paradise and promise a lot. This can be right but as you know for years, software is very error-prone. In order to make sure that you can play live concerts without problems and errors, you should be patient that the Apple developers can improve the latest iOS and eliminate the typical children’s diseases. I have been following the motto for years: Never change a running system and I’m very happy that I took this decision.
- Another very important point to consider when you are iOS musician is that many apps are not compatible or cause problems at the time of the release of a new iOS version. As many users have seen in the past with iOS 9 & 10, many apps are causing problems and crashing after an update. Especially this scenario is not good when you use this app daily or even live on stage. For this reason, consider carefully whether you want to switch to iOS 11 or stay on a good functional iOS 10.
- You should also not change the iOS when you use older apps. With the introduction of iOS 11, only apps with a 64 bit architecture can be used on the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. Various iOS apps are available in the store which have not yet been updated and so these apps will no longer exist and usable on the new operating system. So if you use one of these apps currently and you don’t want to loose it, than don’t update to iOS 11.
These three points will show you how dangerous it is if you plan to switch as musician as soon as possible to the new iOS operating system. If you want to update to iOS 11 as soon as possible, then I recommend you to wait a little longer. I bet you will be doing just as good music on iOS 10 as on iOS 11.
New apps will continue to be compatible with iOS 10 and continue to get updates. iOS 11 is not a revolution but a further development and update of this operating system. Follow my motto “Don’t change a running system” and you will not get in trouble with your device.
Tom,
thanks for being in the team looking out for your fellow musicians.
Your posts and videos are daily agenda.
We’ve heard some voices bugging you for giving due warnings about iOS 11.
For that I thank you.
Don’t forget to give Tim from Dischord slap on the shoulder, he’s on your team and has very (as you know) sensible finger spitzen gefül.
Best, Andy
Merci 🙂 You say ‘good functional ios 10’. However, on my 10.5″ it only functions well for audio through my lightning audio interface. Yes, AUM now gets round the AU plugin limit bug in ios, and unplugging/reinserting the jack does solve the terrible latency bug in ios 10 when using cans. But I don’t think ios 11 can be worse.
One thing is sure: my compositions won’t be any better on ios 11 😉