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 Store

Audiobus is the app that makes the rest of your setup better.

Audiobus 2 is launching on Thursday, April 3rd 2014

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Comments

  • Damnit!
    How long before the update is ready for normal human beings like us? :D
    I'm jumping out of one's skin!!!

  • @Dramatispersona13 said:

    Damnit!
    How long before the update is ready for normal human beings like us? :D
    I'm jumping out of one's skin!!!

    Don't do that, that sounds unhealthy!

    We're definitely not going to launch it in January. That's as precise as I can get.

  • January is a good number. I mean it's half over already. We got this NAMM show to keep us occupied (and a little time to actually make some music with all of 2013's appfest). I'm ok with giving folks time to put a final coat of wax on the the new Bus before they hand us the keys.

  • Ok now why not in the meantime spend our time digging deep in the apps we already have. Because as the greedy bastards we are ( yes Im guilty too) we always want more and more, forgetting about the jewels we already possess.
    And then when the time finally arives, and AB2 is released.......we can really rock and roll!

  • Talking about appreciating simple things I just had a noodle on my old acoustic guitar. Feels good!

  • Were the noodles stringy?

  • @RockingGarage said:

    Nice, no need any other photo upload website....

  • supadom what is that keyboard on next to your guitar, I did not recognize it?

  • That's novation x station. It's a UK made synth/midi controller/audio interface. A hugely versatile when used with ipad through cck IMHO. It has phantom power on mic input, nice action keys with aftertouch and a great xy pad by the mod/pitch joystick. The synth side of things has an arpeggiator and quite a few controls. But for portability and fast midi channel switching akai mpk mini does me better.

  • Could not find an answer or over looked it. I have an EIE interface. Some apps do not see all 4 input channels or it seems they do not. Will audiobus 2 be able to choose different channels as input.

    Say I want channel 1 with my guitar to go to jamup pro and then channel 3 to go to singaling.

  • To be honest I expected (and hoped) something like bluetooth or wifi streaming to pc/mac (maybe Jack can eventually make it,till then iconnectivity2+ seems the only solution). But my point is not sound negative.Great video and I can't wait to download AB2!
    Maybe I'd like to see a demo of the IAP( say working for 2 minutes or hiss interrupting) to test if ipad2/3 can take advantage of the new AB2 features.

  • There's only a couple days left in January. I was all ready to download then I realized I was looking at a calendar for February. :(

  • Will this new version be able to be used in 48KHz 24 bit mode?

    The 44.1 / 16bit limits in the present Audiobus are not really usable with regards to pro quality recording. Don't get me wrong I think this app and idea opened up IOS to a whole new frontier but its time to nail it now and really make it usable on more than just demos and ideas etc.

    Especially when combined with such a high end recording multitrack app like Auria !

  • Well? Anyone at Audiobus read there own forum?

    Is anything higher than 44.1/ 16 bit coming anytime soon? Definitely in need of a higher bit/ Rez for true quality audio recording.

  • Still nothing from the Audiobus guys on there own web site forum?

    Pretty sad.
    I found out today that IAA ( inter-app audio) will support up to 96KHz / 32 bit. That's a far cry from the old 44.1/ 16 bit standard from 30 years ago that is presently supported by audiobus. This much higher resolution really brings high end audio recording finally into its own on the ipad. ( While 24 bit is enough 16 sure is not). Some apps are already supporting this higher end like Auria and others.

    It's a new game and I hope your ready to play. Entry is 48KHz/ 24 bit or better to enter !

  • iPads are struggling to cope with the CPU demands of current music software. Apple will have to increase power and RAM before that becomes practical. Also, most of the instrument apps don't generate audio at 24 bit anyway, so making the bus handle it would be of limited benefit anyway.
    I suugest you stick to desktop audio workstations for the present if bitrate is the most important thing to you.

  • @Stewart
    Are your ears really capable to capt the difference between 16 bit and 24? I think you are a super-human or you are daredevil. Remember even you record at 192 khz, 99% of global poupulation are listening only mp3s. If you want to do very hi-fi music, you don't need an ipad, but you need the abbey road studios.

  • edited February 2014

    I think what the man is saying is that it is best to start with the highest quality because some of it gets lost with all the audio processing signal goes through before the final master. And the 'people listening to mp3 quality' argument seems to be old and not very valid. I agree with other point though, stay on the PC until ipad gets powerful enough to handle hi res audio.

  • Hmmm, I've been making records for over 35 years so I know a little of what I speak.

    Dramatisperson, If your going to talk about mp3s then just leave the conversation as you have no clue of what im talking about.

    Supadom, yes you get I mostly but bear with me a second. To make it clear I deal with 2 " fat tape and workstations all the time and i do not use an ipad for my main DAW. What I use the ipad and specifically the Auria app for is an extra guitar track or maybe some vocal overdubs in a mobile setting without all the old heavy gear. It's really quit amazing what a little tube amp, an SM7 and an ipad can do with regards to portable recording. Then I dump the tracks back into PT or whatever's I'm using and mix or track away . ( But to be clear, if one did want to make a full album on the ipad one could no problem). Its quite simple really, just hook the ipad upto a good interface that goes to a great set of powered monitors and bobs your uncle. I wouldn't do this personally as the result would be inferior to the hardware capabilities but the point is you could. It will get you 80 percent of the way then just send the flat mix to a person like Howie or Bob for a proper mastering job. Maybe its my experience talking but it is really just that simple. Don't under sell this ipads capability as we are only talking audio which is very small in requirements and CPU power compared with say film or video needs.

    Also, the ipad easily handles 24 bit. I currently own three ipad interfaces that record at 24 bit no problems and all in real time all the time on my ipad 4. Some have limits of 48KHz and some go upto 96KHz but they all work great. There are at least another 5 available on the market currently that I am aware of so I think you should check them out as you'll be surprised indeed.

    So as I said earlier, IAA offers 96KHz at upto 32bits so that's a game changer plain and simple. Now its upto the app developers to take advantage like Auria already has. If Audiobus is to survive it must offer something new to compete and upping the quality seems like a no brainier.

    Who doesn't want better choices?

    Sincerely,
    Stewart

  • edited February 2014

    @Stewart The thing is, when talking about Audiobus, we're not just talking about the CPU demands of audio, we're talking soft synths and effects processors as well. These are about to increase in number with the addition of more Audiobus channels and we already see glitching and crashes due to CPU and RAM bottlenecks. You may have been recording for 35 years, but you haven't been using iPads any longer than the rest of us. There's nothing hard to understand here, and most of your 35 years experience is irrelevant to this particular issue, so you have no grounds to talk down to other forum members. The way most of us use Audiobus, current iPads would choke if everything had to be 24 bits at 48kHz.

    Having said all that, if Apple double the iPad RAM and processing power, then I will be agreeing with you.

  • edited February 2014

    The thing is PaulB, I could not disagree with you more.

    If as you state you only use internal synths and effects to record with then please continue right along. I already stated pretty clearly in my prior wording as to how I use my ipad with regards to recording and it involved none of what you speak of. As you say, its not hard to understand. In the immortal words of bill gate, who will ever need more than 64 K on a PC? Well indeed some of us look ahead for more and are never happy with the status quo. But then again most do not.

    As far as recording experience and relevance goes i mentioned it simply because MP3 man questioned my ears. I think it was an entirely proper response given this. If you do not then so be it as I care little. Given we both have the same ipad experience here's the difference experience makes, I know what can be done and how to resolve a mired of audio situations before they even happen solely because of experience. This is something you will hopefully learn about experience when you finally get some of your own. Those that discount it usually don't have it.

    In this case 48/24 will provide what I am after and that is my motive, nothing more ( for now). Please feel free to stay with 44.1/16 as long as you like but I simply want and can currently use better.

    Cheers!

  • edited February 2014

    I don't discount your experience, as I have plenty to value of my own and use it where it is both relevant and appropriate. What I do discount is your over inflated opinion of your own worth compared to the rest of us. I am confident that your opinion of that worth not shared by many. You are in a tiny minority compared to the vast majority of Audiobus users who are are happy with the balance between quality and performance that Audiobus provides and this will ensure that Audiobus will easily survive until Apple raise the power of the iPad to a level suitable for higher bit depths and sample rates within Audiobus. Until then, yes, I will make appropriate use of 44.1/16, rather than trying in vain to create more of a case for 48/24 than there actually is.

  • @Stewart: There seems to be a logical inconsistency to your argument. On the one hand, you dismiss PaulB's comments concerning the inadequacy of current iDevices to handle multiple apps at high bit-depth/sample-rate because you don't need to use anything but Auria plus a high spec audio i/f. On the other hand you argue that you need Audiobus to handle greater than 44.1/16bit.

    Do please forgive my inexperience, ignorance, innocence, naivety, simplicity or just plain stupidity but why do you need Audiobus (or IAA) at all?

  • edited February 2014

    The majority purchase justin beber and didn't see the markets or housing crash coming in advance either. So whats your point then? Should I expect as little as you do and bury my head? No thank you. As I've already said repeatedly to no avail, keep your 64 K and be happy then. There are others like myself wanting better.

    And wash boy, you are excused.
    "Copy and Paste " ( a file from 2 different apps without losing quality). If Sonoma or any other standard would allow this at a higher quality then I wouldn't give a hoot about Audiobus. But if AB can raise there game then everyone wins. Thats the idea and that's all I'm after. But seemingly even this simple valid reasoning is falling on a few sets of deaf ears.

    Anyhoot

  • You haven't managed to affect any of those things you mentioned and you won't make what you want happen here either. It'll happen when the technology is up to it and I'll happily adopt it when it actually works. Meanwhile you can want all you like...

  • This is an old argument. But there are a couple of interesting data points.

    1: 44.1K/16B is the 20-25 year old CD standard, driven as much by device performance (ca 1990) as anything else. It is a final delivery consumer standard. If you remember, a CD writer in 1992 cost around $10,000.00 and was a 3U device. It was never a pro standard.

    2: LPCM in BLue-Ray, HDMI, and pretty much all Game Audio is 48K/16B. If you want to go the outsourced Mastering route, they are going to want 48K/24B minimum. While up- and down-converting between the two formats is quite do-able, it is not without introducing various audio artifacts, aliasing, etc. Quality is lost, forever, at those conversion stages. (I do Game Audio engines for my day job). However all (I believe) digital audio interfaces offer at least 44.1/48 choices of operation. Even the lowly Behringer 202 does.

    3: the rate switch on my ADAT Line Input box is broken. It only works at 48K. I have a personal interest.

    3 is my prime concern actually, since my audio chops are unlkely to ever rise to needing professional mastering. But for the ecology, well, even Auria on iPad 1 coud do the rates dance. Current hardware is no limitation in that regard. While I have no direct experience coding the audio internal of iOS, my general audio coding experience is that stuttering and glitching issues are not because of processing power limitations any more. They are more to do with communications between the various subsystems the audio has to travel through, and how well those node algorithms and comm channels are defined and coded. Yes, we can still overload an iPad Air sooner compared to a desktop DAW, but

  • I'd rather avoid any of the confrontation and contention myself, but for the sake of things, I could have sworn that @Sebastian had said something about supporting 24bit in Audiobus. If @Sebastian could just speak up about this, the contention could just die down..... :-)

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