First off I would purchase iRig so you can record your guitar. NanoStudio will do a lot of what you want until it comes time to put the guitar in. NS is a sequencer not a multi-track audio recorder but there are a few of those kind of apps to fit in to the mix as well. Pretty much everything saves and imports in WAV format so you might save in one app and import it into another making sure your BPM's match up etc. But there is a feature that is built into almost every iOS music app. It's called "Audio Copy/Paste" each program is a little different on how it does it but here is a video of an example of bouncing a beat from iElectribe to NanoStudio. So you are looking at about the same process on most music apps.

I also have an extensive tutorial on NanoStudio here: http://youtu.be/_ECps0JSqq8

I would recommend not getting an iRig. I have one, and it works ok as long as you don't do anything silly like listen to headphones while you're recording the guitar. Then it's crosstalk city, with the headphone signal bleeding into the input. It's also pretty darn overpriced.

In general, I don't trust anything that tries to cram a high quality recording input into the same thin wires and 1/8th inch jack that the headphones are using.

Call me old school, but I think guitar should be recorded from a mic parked in front of the amp. I bet the on-board iPhone mic would work pretty good, as well.

gearkyle; I don't know anything that matches the flexibility of synthesized parts with traditional 'whole track' audio recording. If you're on iOS, I think you're pretty much going to end up using different aps.

If I were you, my flow would probably be:

Record scratch guitar tracks in Nanostudio, recording them as samples. You probably won't want one guitar part all the way through, but rather one sample for intro, one sample for verse 1, etc. More shorter samples will be harder, but few long samples will make it tough to work on the other parts (as Nanostudio doesn't pause a sample and start it playing again if you stop mid-sample, you'd have to back the song up until you hit one of the sample start tiggers before you'd hear the guitar again).

Then I'd sequence the automated parts in nanostudio (drums, keys, bass, piano).

Once you're happy with everything, you'd export it as a stereo mix (or separate wave file per track, which Nanostudio does) and import them into an ap that does raw audio (like Multitrack DAW). Then you could do a proper job of recording the guitar by placing the phone, or a mic, in front of your amp.

If you want to record guitar direct, I don't have a lot of advice other than 'avoid iRig'. I think Tascam makes something that plugs into the iphone's USB port and gives you 1/4 inch and xlr.

I'm with mco: god intended for electric guitars to be played through amplifiers. Just ask him. For times of sin, my peavey ampkit link does a pretty good job. Most people who have A/B'd them seem to prefer it to the irig. Less feedback.

Good to know about iRig. I was thinking of getting one :/ I saw a more expensive one that actually plugs into the data port and held off to check things out more. Looks like I got more checking to do.

Thanks... Now for the unbiased part. I am heavily leaning towards Nanostudio, but I have done some research into FL Studio Mobile as well. I have used their PC software before, so I am familiar with that product a bit. After watching a few tuts on YouTube and around, I find it hard to compare the two. Not because they are so different, but more in line with they offer sooo much. I guess I could say that NanoStudio seems to be great software with an original touch and FL studio is more taking what they have and fitting it into a mobile package. Where as Nano will grow, FL is fitting in. Idk. Then there is Rebirth... I am just looking for a user friendly app that I can get to know and use. I suppose I may be jumping the gun on making a decision right now, as I feel there is a lot of room to grow with the mobile recording scene.

And as far as the guitar interface, it seems there are some really crappily made products. I only hope they will realize their mistakes and start making products that are reliable and user friendly. There are some low latency/low noise interfaces that plug into the dock connector (Line6, Apogee). But then it is only possible to record into certain apps due to proprietery software/hardware. And I guess that CoreAudio is a standard? for the iPad? Anything else you guys can add to further my understanding of what is good and bad would be greatly appreciated!!

Kyle

it doesn't matter what it is, it's how you use it. :)

My two pence real quick - I was going to gripe about the cross talk with iRig but searched first - glad I did and glad I'm not the only person having a problem. Pretty crappy.

Secondly, between Nanostudio and FL Studio Mobile, Nano is the winner by a mile. I have both, I've used FL for many, many years now and that interface is just WONKY. I can't stand it. Their tag line is "The fastest way from your brain to the speakers", or something similar... well, I think I spend more time trying to wrap my head around the interface and how to do very simple tasks than actually getting anything done. Also, no synths on the mobile version, but precanned sample sets that unless you're writing techno aren't the most useful.

I swore up and down I'd try to use FL studio mobile as a scratch pad, then bring it over to the real desktop software, but it's so uninspiring to get around the interface and have techno sounds shoved down my throat that I couldn't even make it work like that...

Bottom line, it's not a bad app. The fact it supposedly carries over to the desktop seamless (or seamlessly enough) is pretty cool. But I can do basically the same thing with Nano - write a track, export project, open the midi file on the desktop and import into FL Studio...

Hope this helps some. I'm really effin bummed out about the iRig btw....