Stuff We Like: Touchable iPad App

The first round of “DJ” apps, made a lot of people rightfully question their place in the clubs. Sure enough though, with more refined iOS features and a new breed of sophisticated music app’s emerging, we are starting to see iPads comfortably show up in clubs. In the video above, touchable shows three amazing use cases for their Ableton interface on the iPad (the club scene is last). Technically, there is nothing out of this world in the videos, but they do a great job of showcasing how iPads (and their software) can fit naturally into the music world.  Continue reading for one more examples of iPads showing up in the wild and really spreading their wings.

One of the main reasons turntables gained acceptance was their universal understanding. As iPads become more ubiquitous, and therefore  more understood, it will seem natural, almost common sense, that they should show up in a live setting.  Abstract controllers will have a hard time gaining traction without a common base of understanding, since it is fundamentally hard for the audience to really “get” what the artist is doing. My “guitar hero” performance was an experiment to see how people would react to a controller they have personally used.

Here Stephan Bozin and Marc Romboy team up with 4 iPads as control surfaces for a world tour. Skip to 4 minutes to see the club action.

You, our fair readers, have millions of eyes on the internet at all times. Have you found any note-worthy examples of iPad use in the clubs or on stage? If so, tell us in the comments! Now before I kick off a sea of angry comments, we should qualify this post. Dj TechTools is not advocating iPads replace DJ equipment which, quite frankly, is terribly unrealistic. The iPad can however play a really great role as part of many artists arsenals, augmenting other more tactile interfaces.