There's no doubt. Making music outdoors is a different experience than doing it indoors. Being on the beach or in the woods and responding to your surroundings can stir new musical ideas, which four walls might never do.

And we live at the right time for stepping out and producing music. With iDevices and the miniaturization of gear, it's easier than ever to take incredible tools with you. But because you can fit it all in a backpack, does that mean you should? And what if you forget something?

So how can we keep our portable setups as simple as possible and increase our creativity at the same time? These are the questions mobile musician and producer Jakob Haq asks and answers in this first of a new series of videos on the subject of music production outdoors.

In this episode I want to talk about what it means to me being a mobile music producer.

Some insights

"I realized what I was doing wrong. Right there in front of me were three key pieces of equipment that I could start being productive with right away. Even though I couldn't connect them together, I could just pick up one of them and start working.

Sitting outdoors, away from home, having the inspiration from the trees around me and that fresh air, it was a freeing sensation. I really recommend it.

"The absolute simplest thing for getting started with production, if you have an iPhone or an iPad, is to grab that and a pair of headphones and get to work."

IK makes it easy

We offer elegant solutions for music production outdoors. MixBox for iPad is amazing for mobile mixing and sound design. The ultra-compact UNO Synth Pro Desktop (as seen in Jakob's video) runs on batteries and lets you store all your creativity as presets.

And of course, between the Creator Series of mics and interfaces, there's an iRig for everyone, which leaves plenty of room in your bag for water!