Audiobus: Use your music apps together.
What is Audiobus? — Audiobus is an award-winning music app for iPhone and iPad which lets you use your other music apps together. Chain effects on your favourite synth, run the output of apps or Audio Units into an app like GarageBand or Loopy, or select a different audio interface output for each app. Route MIDI between apps — drive a synth from a MIDI sequencer, or add an arpeggiator to your MIDI keyboard — or sync with your external MIDI gear. And control your entire setup from a MIDI controller.
Download on the App StoreAudiobus is the app that makes the rest of your setup better.
Post your tips to get the most out of your system.
Many of us are still using the iPad2 or iPad Mini to do music. What are tips and tricks that you are using to get the most out of your device (while waiting for an iPad5 or iPad6) ;-)
Thoughts:
- Increase latency (for example, go from 256 to 512)
- Make sure all background apps are closed
- Reduce polyphony in your synthesizer a little bit (for example from 6 notes to 4 notes) to reduce CPU usage
- Combine and Bounce tracks of a large project to a new project using less tracks
- If your Host allows it, Freeze tracks whenever possible
- Rather than using insert effects, use AUX bus effects
- Use 16bit/44.1khz instead of 24bit/96khz
- If you don't have enough power to Audiobus record a part straight to your DAW, use something lighter such as AudioShare or Multitrack DAW to Audiobus record your part, and then ACP that part to your song in your DAW.
Comments
Another one: If your DAW has internal sounds, use them and then freeze the track (for example, Cubasis has internal sounds that use less resources, sound decent, and use a LOT less resources than something like Animoog, Nave, or Thor. After recording the part, freeze the track to Audio and even bounce if necessary.
Any tips or tricks anyone can add? I'm going to bump this post, because surely someone has something useful to add to this list. :-)
Make sure you have plenty of free space as I find I run into problems with out-of-time playback of recorded audio if I go below 3GB on my iPad 2 (using Cubasis and applying all the above tips).
Oh and another useful tip is to switch to Airplane mode to reduce CPU usage as well as to avoid notifications from popping up while you are recording !
Good ones! Here's a tip as far as freeing space goes. I use Photon Web browser for flash related sites. For any apps that have web-based sites, you can use this browser to access and view everything you would on these apps. This means I can view shows on Hulu and Crackle, listen to music on Songza, Pandora, etc., without having any of the apps for these things installed. Also, Safari has the ability to create an icon on your home screen that can be used and treated just like an app, but it doesn't take any space. Useful for apps like Feedly or DuoLingo or SkyDrive. I don't have to have any of these apps installed, because browser links do everything I need. This is handy if you only have 16GB!
Use airplane mode to stop background polling for mail, messages, App Store update, whatever.
Backup your songs every mouth on external hard-drive....I use Apple Time Capsule...
Does the"free up space"tip really help really help with that cubasis"out of time"playback??Sounds weird (but it's a weird bug,so...)but thanks anyway,i'll give it a try.That one is most annoying...
I think Yes because Time Capsule is a Network Wireless Disc....but I think you need an App in your iPad for connect to it...
I don't need it because I have my network with my Macs but I think is simple because it see all my devices...I use it as a Router & Wi-fi Network Disc
@synthandson It's important because before this I lose my stuff two times...
@synthandson First time lose all in Meteor....second a part of Auria...
depends, I begin a song in an app (BM2 or TT or Loopy etc.) and after I edit in my favorite DAW that now is Auria...but the Master project is in one place: Auria
Make sure you understand the recommendations for battery usage. After I got a 4th gen ipad, I made sure to understand how to maintain the longevity of the battery. I believe the Apple website suggests that once a week you should run down the battery until the device turns itself off and then charge it all the way up to 100% before you unplug it. For the rest of the week you can go back to plugging it in whenever.
I'll try to find the link in a bit.
Also keep in mind that laptop batteries have a different process to maintain longevity, so be sure to research that and not assume that it operates the same as your idevice.
@AQ808 That's a new one to me .... have always read it is detrimental in the long term to run battery dry. Is this just ipad4 (am on 3rd gen).
They do suggest running the battery down, but once a month, not once a week. I always do it on the last day of the month.
I was a bit surprised about this too, but I do think it's in Apple's interest to keep user's batteries in good health to avoid exchanges.
The reason they suggest that you should run your battery completely dry and charge it to 100% once a month is to re-calibrate iOS:s battery monitor. The percentage you see next to the battery indicator is an approximate guess by iOS how much battery you got left, and it will gradually miscalculate it more and more. But once a month isn't a must, I do it every 3rd month or so (unless the battery meter seems way of track). Besides that, there isn't nothing that will really help the battery on an iDevice to last longer. All those battery apps on the AppStore doesn't help either.
So just use it and charge however fits you best, the battery's are built for that (simply put)
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hardware/seven-ways-to-improve-the-ipad-3-battery-life/19745
"It's a good idea to charge your iPad -- and all other devices powered by Li-ion battery technology -- before the battery becomes fully discharged. Full discharges can have an adverse effect on capacity in the long term. "
oops!
Great post @Audiojunkie and useful tips. Thanks guys.
My tip: I take my music creation very seriously so I gave my iPad 1 to my Wife and kids that way they don't come anywhere near to my iPads 3 & 4. Selfish I know but it does help to keep my gear in tip-top condition!!
Jsb: I do believe Apple knows just a bit more about all that, since they are on the forefront when it comes to researching and developing battery technologies. So a quote from them would be more useful then a quote from a random tech site. Just saying
I do believe discharging once a month isn't necessary tho, every 3 month should do.
Here's the link: http://www.apple.com/batteries/ipad.html
Guess it is just recommended once a month and only for the proper reporting of your charge by the iOS.
I assume that not having proper reporting may not give you complete access to your entire battery's power.
There are other great tips on that page relevant to this thread.
@ChrisG my "oops" was aimed at the guy from znet with the misinformation , not you my dear :-)
Here are some more tips, adapted from the 4Pockets Meteor manual:
If you are suffering from insufficient CPU you may want to try disabling unneeded options, in particular the ‘Display Clip Contents’, ‘Display Clip Descriptions’
and ‘Show VU Meters’, etc.--all of which will help boost performance.
If you are recording from a MONO source it is wasteful of resources to select
STEREO tracks. It takes twice the processing power to render a stereo track than a
mono, especially if you are using effects.
Create a mixdown which renders all effects and automation, freeing up CPU and allowing for glitch free playing if your project is getting too CPU hungry.
There are many instances where you may wish to have the same clips appear more
than once in your composition. If for instance you are recording a musical score, you
may have two or three chorus parts to your song, all containing the same clips. Of
course you could record the chorus again, but this is wasteful of both your time and
memory. By cloning a clip, it simply places a second reference to the same recording
onto the stage.
If you have audio clips that have have lots of extra recording that you don't need, trim the audio clip to remove the waste--smaller clips take up less space and RAM.
When making recordings you might want to listen to what is about to be recorded
along with previously recorded tracks. This is especially useful if you are using
Record Effects and want to preview their settings. Once you have finished recording you should turn off the record monitor to save CPU. Also ensure you disable the option before unplugging your headphones.
To help relieve the burden on the CPU you should make use of the ability to ‘Freeze’
effects.
It is preferable to use AUX Send effects over Insert Effects, because multiple tracks can make use of the effect with AUX Send effects, where as Insert Effects only benefit a single track. The more effects that are used, the more CPU power is used. In other words, it is highly recommended that you use real time Insert effects sparingly as these can consume more CPU than Aux Send effects which are global and shared amongst all tracks and therefore more efficient.
Many host have FTP capability for transferring files. This option enables and disables the inbuilt FTP server. Turn this off when not in use to save CPU load.
This last tip is actually a group of tips copied straight from the manual. Most of these have already been mentioned, but still are useful for the explanations:
Optimizing Performance
The following are suggested guidelines on how to get the best performance out of
Meteor. Whilst some suggestions might be obvious, it is worth reading through this
section if you need to squeeze that little bit more from your device.
Trimming Clips
It might seem practical to record a complete song in a single recording, but it doesn't
actually make a lot of sense, both in terms of having to get everything correct in a
single take and from a disk space point of view.
It is much better to split your song down into sections such as intro, verse, chorus, fillin, ending etc. and simply record each section once. This way you can focus on
making a perfect recording of a single passage rather than a complete song. To
duplicate a chorus elsewhere in your song you can clone one or more clips and move
into place, or drag the clip(s) out of the Audio Pool onto the stage, whichever you feel
most comfortable with
If you really must record a whole track in a single take, then we advise you to use the
‘Split;’ function to trim away sections where an instrument is not playing. This
reduces the CPU overhead of effects processing and mixing for that part of a track.
See the section on Splitting Clips for more information.
Use Effects Wisely
There is often a temptation to overuse effects without paying too much attention to
how this affects performance. If you are hearing audio dropouts then this could be a
case of you overworking the CPU. Ideally you should choose Aux Send effects over
Insert effects for a number of reasons. First of all these effects are stereo, and
secondly all 3 send busses are shared between all 12 tracks. This makes them far more
efficient than using live Insert effects. If you really must use Insert effects it is best to
make use of the Freeze Insert FX feature, although this can usually only be done once
a track is completed.
You may also want to consider adding effects at the time of recording. You can do
with Record effects. In order to hear record effects during recording you need to
enable the ‘Record Monitor’ in the ‘Options’ menu. Please note that you should be
wearing headphones when using this feature to avoid feedback.
Master effects are provided to allow extra effect processing to be added during a
mixdown, to add extra compression or EQ to the mix. Using both Master effects at the
same time as 3 Aux Send effects will most likely be pushing the iPad 1 over the edge,
especially if you have more than 5-6 tracks of audio.
Another one:
http://snapguide.com/guides/save-battery-life-iphone-w-ios-7-complete-guide/
@Crabman: yes, I too find the out-of-time audio playback annoying in cubasis but making sure I keep at least 3GB free + the other usual tips seems to work for me!
Thing is i usually have that three gig free most of the time (64GB device),if not more...i'll delete some more stuff then,just to be sure
I guess i read something in the cubasis release notes of 1.6 that probably fixed that bug.Had no time to try it yet.
Btw,iOS 7 is sucking the crap out of my 4s battery.Anybody else notice this?But on my iPad everything is fine,i even believe it last slightly longer than before...It seems that apple introduces a very hungry network connection with every new iOS.Hope they fix it again.
@Crabman Try some of these things:
http://theweek.com/article/index/250098/ios-7-battery-life-6-simple-ways-to-keep-your-iphone-powered-up#
http://www.mactrast.com/2013/09/how-to-improve-battery-life-in-ios-7/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=how-to-improve-battery-life-in-ios-7
http://www.tuaw.com/2013/09/18/how-to-stop-ios-7-from-destroying-your-iphones-battery-life/
http://www.stuff.tv/ios-7/how-improve-ios-7-s-battery-life/news
Hope this helps! :-)
I don't use the data on my iPhone much, so most of the time I turn it off. I found it's the biggest battery killer even if your not purposely using data.
@Audiojunkie:thanks for the links,i'll check them when i'll be back home.But i'm pretty sure i will know most of this tips ;-) I was always a sucker for infos of"how to improve battery life"and things like this...
@mgmg4871
Problem is that half of the fun is gone then.At least when i'm on my way...sitting in the metro right now and enjoy to check the latest audiobus infos and skype with my girlfriend
@Crabman I forgot most people commute. Right now I'm working from home, where wifi is always available.
If it hasn't been mentioned in this thread, iFunBox is great for removing or archiving files within apps to free up space. If Audioshare import/export becomes more widely adopted, I think that could become the main sample repository, minimizing the need to have many samples, beyond what is needed for a project, within any other app.