Google Pixel Tablet

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Introduction

    So I bought a Google Pixel Tablet specifically for running Roland Zenbeats using Christmas money family gave me.  While I have a 2-in-1 Dell laptop with a touch screen, I don't like the thought of having to transport my laptop to and from gigs, if I'm using the tablet as my beat making and DAW.  My goal is to set up loops to help with worship music, as well as busking.  This page is a work in progress.

Setup

    Initial setup was incredibly easy.  I was given the option to move my documents, music and settings to the new tablet.  If you agree, you eventually get the option to specify which settings and documents to bring over.  I chose to include only app settings and certain apps (because my phone and my tablet have different use cases).

    This tablet and the Google ecosphere allow you to, for example, do texting and dismiss notifications from the tablet and it takes effect on my Pixel phone and watch.  All three communicate with each other.

Experience with Other Applications

    Most Android apps for tablets versus phones are horribly designed in one way: visually.  Instead of getting more "landscape" and the app scaling visually, usually (such as Facebook, DnD Beyond and Reddit) I get just an exploded view of the same thing as a phone app.  To me, that's really pathetic.  These apps also don't seem to have a tablet setting either.  Some of the Google applications function better, such as Keep, GMail, and Messaging: they set up so that on the left, you see a sort of menu, and on the right, you can edit the Keep, or reply to an email, etc.

Experience with Zenbeats

    Thankfully, since Zenbeats was too small to be super useful on a medium sized android phone, it is amazingly well set up for a tablet.  And this is good because Roland, in many places in documentations and their website, advertised this as specifically made for tablets (though it works on PC and phones).  For phones, it was fun in a sense because it was cute to use it in a small package.  And on a phone, it could still be used to run loops and beats.  But for a tablet, Zenbeats really comes into its own, scaling very well visually.

    However, one minor problem exists that I knew about beforehand: Android does not support VSTs at this time.  This means that if someone really wants to run VSTs from a tablet, they should probably look towards Apple tablet products so that you can use AUv3 plugins.  Roland has a page that explains this.  But at the same time, the problem here is that most tablets are not going to have super powerful processing powers / CPUs.  For me, I only use Roland AIRA and Legendary VSTs, which would likely require more processing power than most tablets will have, so I went into this decision knowing that I was not going to use VSTs.

    But I don't have to use VSTs because Zenbeats has the ability to record and use clips of any sound imaginable.  As well, it has the ZC1 synthesizer and many loops and drum sets in it.  If I really need to use a VST, I would be using my laptop for this anyway.

    The problem I am currently facing (I'll probably edit this later) is that the interface of Zenbeats is almost TOO intuitive.  I'm slightly struggling to learn how to use the interface, but I'm currently only spending like 30-60 minutes a day.  Roland's website has plenty of very helpful videos that are helping me learn, so I am VERY excited to see where this goes!