iOS 7 audio problems: musicians advised not to upgrade yet

Thanks to the long-awaited arrival of Inter App Audio, many of us had been hoping for better integration between music making apps in iOS 7, but with the latest version of Apple's mobile operating system now rolling out, the focus has switched to problems that it's having with audio performance.

Create Digital Music is reporting that some (not all) apps are exhibiting audio performance issues and glitches, and that there may also be teething problems with the new Inter App Audio standard.

What's more, one of the developers of Audiobus, the groundbreaking app that enables you to use multiple iOS music making tools together in a single project, has taken to the Audiobus forum to urge users who rely on music apps not to update yet.

Not ready

"iOS 7 audio is not ready," he says. "There are a wide variety of bugs that are causing performance problems, crashes and other problems in a large number of music apps."

Of course, it may transpire that if you do upgrade to iOS 7 right now, all your music making apps will work just fine. However, the best advise is to wait until your favoured apps are explicitly listed as iOS 7-compatible (which may only occur after iOS 7 has had a point release update or two) before making the jump.

As far as Inter App Audio itself goes, Create Digital Music also says that not many apps currently support it, and that it seems likely that Audiobus and JACK will remain the best options for iOS musicians who want to route audio between their apps for some time to come.

UPDATE: Native Instruments has now advised users of its apps not to upgrade to iOS 7 at this point.