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.
Sale: Apreggionome Pro - $19.99 > $4.99
Pretty huge discount on this versatile app. I have the free version which I haven't used much but the Pro version is supposed to be quite powerful. Nice deal!
Comments
iPhone version is free at the moment too. I'm trying it out. Does anyone use the ipad version? Can't see the free version unless you mean the iPhone one?
Yes that's what I meant.
Apparently this is the lowest price ever for the Pro version... Normally only dips to $14.99 or occasionally $9.99
Anybody has seen any user videos of how it can be used with hardware and external synths ? I found the Dev videos fascinating but couldn't see how to use it in some flows....
I have the iPhone version for 99c bit none of the IAPs
Still not sure weather to jump on this ipad pro version
Nice find on the sale! I had not heard of this app, actually (the $20 iPad price would have disqualified it anyway). I like both Xynthesizer and Analog MIDISequencer but feel like there's still something I'm missing in a MIDI arppegiator.
Downloading the iPhone version. While free (originally $2.99), you need a pro upgrade of $4.99 to get it to work with Virtual MIDI, so that basically means the iPhone and iPad full versions are the same price. But trying it free should give me an idea of the interface and how it works.
I would note that normally in this situation, I would buy the iPhone version and use it on both devices, but with that iOS 7.1 glitch blocking all those controls at the top of the screen, I doubt that's an option for the time being.
Doug's review... in case you were missing his voice
Update: WOW! This may have been what I am looking for. Playing with the iPhone version and the native sounds, and it is really cool.
Still figuring it out, but I think the y-axis of the grid is timing (within the bpm tempo you set), while the x-axis is notes. If you are in the key of C, all the root "C" notes are marked by a dot, and then the steps (I, II, III, etc.) of that mode are as you move from left to right on that same axis. The vertical layers (y-axis) change from like whole note to quarter note to 1/8 note and so on.
The native sounds are really just four sounds - it's an internal synthesizer where you can change the waveform (since, sawtooth, square, and triangle). But they sound cool and retro, and are more than sufficient for identifying the pattern before you MIDI out.
There are "banks" labeled A through P, and A1 - A32 has named presets for you to start with (like "C minor triads", etc.). But really, all of the changes can be made on the one screen you bring up with the "Knob" icon. There are about a dozen or more "modes" (major, minor, aeolian, dorian, locrian, etc.), so you flip a knob and then all those notes on the grid are re-mapped to that scale.
What's really cool about it is that it's a rolling arppegiator after you hit "play", but when it's not playing, you can still touch the individual notes on the grid and it will start play that note, or start arpeggiating based off of that note. So you can work in simple thirds, and fifths on the fly. It's like a combination between a MIDI arpeggiator and a simple touch interface for MIDI, like SoundPrism. (I will say that if you're using it like that, the iPad version would be far less cramped).
Questions I still have:
Big thanks to @jesse_ohio for making me aware of this!
Any thoughts on how this compares to StepPolyArp?
@StormJH1 you covered its capabilities quite well! I haven't used the Pro version yet but the MIDI control is supposed to be excellent. If you watch the demo video I posted above, Doug connects it to several apps like SampleWiz and Magellan quickly and easily, and it works like a charm. That's the real power of this app IMO.
Reviews of this app are overwhelmingly positive, both in the App Store and from review sites:
http://iosmusicandyou.com/2013/01/11/ipad-music-app-review-arpeggionome-pro/
http://bboytechreport.com/2013/04/17/arpeggionome-pro-review/
http://smitematter.com/2013/02/16/arpeggionome-pro-review/
Controlling other apps hasn't been a problem for me, only tried it a few times over wifi iPad-iPhone and that seemed to work ok too. It is a midi controller first and foremost (unless chiptunes is your thing).
The iPad version (unless it's changed since Doug's review) looks to me to have additional capabilities. I'm not seeing anything like the keyboard mode he brought up in the video on the iPhone version. Also, I was a little surprised that the grid view on iPad didn't use more of the larger screen, but perhaps that can be adjusted.
The differences do at least justify the separate apps, somewhat. A lot of apps (DM-1 for example) are non-universal, and I don't mind as long as the product is GOOD and if I see additional thought went into how one was designed versus the other. Based on the sale prices, for $10 total, I may be buying both. That's still less than the price of StepPolyArp, which actually isn't as well reviewed (though I do like ChordPolyPad, his other product).
NOTE: The App Store page does claim that the sale lasts until 4/24, so there is some time.
Also, in his "Details" description, he says: "[v. 1.2.0 SALE] Arpeggionomoe Pro is 75% Off!"...but the app is version 1.1. Do I interpret that to mean that he's doing the sale in advance of an impending update?!
That would be good news because it hasn't had an update in about 10 months.
That's great news. I've been looking at the app since it was originally released but i always thought $20 was ridiculous for a MIDI controller (albeit a really cool looking one). $5 is super fair. I'll be picking it up today.
@hwangman said:
Agree that $20 was too much, but $5 (or even $10 arguably) is below the competitor rates for that type of product. What's amazing is that even at that $20 price point, he had 66 reviews after the app got "on the Bus", and they were overwhelmingly 5-star. At $20, you'd think the bar for people hedging their opinion with a 4-star review (or just outright slamming it) would be considerably lower.
I worry a bit about my iPad2 running this, a synth, AudioBus, and a DAW, but I'll be getting one or both versions for sure.
Yea an update is waiting to go live on the AppStore (source: the devs twitter).
I've had no problems with Virtual MIDI. The sky's the limit with this one, based on what you are looking to do with it. The preset arp patterns are nice, but you can absolutely go to town changing up the patterns, by tweaking octave range, octave style, note style, etc. Really fun, and a great deal at $5.00 USD. And the dev is wicked responsive when you've got questions. Good guy.
Checked his Twitter feed: Confirmed about the update! And all good news -
Alexandernaut @Alexandernaut 2h
@IFFConsulting Nothing huge, but a solid update. / Even if you know the app well, I recommend checking out the quick start guide. Is good :]
@IFFConsulting There's a new quick start guide, under-the-hood enhancements (now runs perfect on iPad 1), and visual updates & bug fixes.
Arpeggionome updates should go live at any moment, just waiting on them to process… In any case, Arp Pro is 75% OFF for a week! Why not? :]
Up past 6am last night working on Arpeggionome updates
This is actually a really cool app with lots of features and works really well over virtual MIDI. Here's something I created when it was first released...
I also had a example/short thing on my Soundcloud I did when trying it out back at release (everything is being played by Arpeggionome Pro over virtual midi, except drums)
@thepinkelefant said:
I bought the iPad version a few months ago when it dipped to $10, and have had the free version for a while. Usually when I fire it up I run the midi out of my dock into either my microbrute or volca keys in unison mode. It's a great app that's worth the money in my opinion. If you want me to record a short thing with either synth and soundcloud it let me know.
i was on the fence, but after reading this thread and the app being on sale -- seems kind of like a no-brainer for me!
Does it let you put the same or different pattern to different channels ?
That is can you control more than one background app with the MIDI on different channels ?
Looks like I will pick it up today :-)
@thepinkelefant no, from memory it is one midi channel at a time only.
@thepinklefant not that I know of... but I had used it on my iPhone with a usb-midi interface with the same bpm as the one running on my iPad connected to my dock. I'm use using apollo you could sync it up with no problems.
I thought that he did use separate MIDI channels in Doug's video above, but I think I was mistaken. He switched from Magellan to Sunrizer but not back and forth in the app. Not a feature I use anyway, though I know that some MIDI apps (like Analog MidiSequencer) do let you do that note-by-note.
This app is great, I've been using it for a while, glad to see it updated finally.
Update is available in store now
This is one of my favorite iOS music making apps and something that shows how powerful the iPad can be. Seriously, this thing is so deep. I just wish I knew how to use it better! Practice, practice, practice...
Compared to StepPolyArp? StepPoly is my go-to for simple sequences. This is my go to for crazy
Had this app in my wishlist for quite some time, finally decided to go ahead and buy it at 19'99 few days ago...
Fuck me
Landscape?
Yes it works in landscape.Has anyone figured out what Futura! is? It's listed as a new feature in the upgrade list but I can't find it.