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.
Ondes v1.1 Out Now!
Just submitted to the App Store... here's the new feature list:
SWARM OSCILLATORS
Two extra oscillators thicken your sound. Detune them and tell them lag behind to create a swarm effect.
HOLD BUTTON
Press the ‘hold’ button to sustain notes indefinitely. Play melodies over top or move the sustained notes around.
MIDI Mode
You asked for it… You can now control other synths and electronic instruments with Ondes using MIDI. Please read the instructions though — there are a few things you should know about first!
NEW MODULATION PARAMETERS
The Y Axis can now control more parameters:
Assign the Y Axis to control wavetable LFO rate & depth.
Assign the Y Axis to control filter LFO rate & depth.
Adjust the Y Axis to control volume from -100% to 100%
INTER APP AUDIO TRANSPORT
Using Ondes as an instrument in Garageband or other DAW just got easier! You can you control the play, record, and rewind buttons from right inside Ondes.
KEYBOARD RANGE
Choose between small (1.5 octave) and large (2.5 octave) range for the keyboard.
SNAPPING
New “Scale” and “Chromatic” snapping modes.
SCALES
In the mood for some modes? How about the “prometheus” scale? Choose from a bunch of pre-loaded scales or create your own. Save and reuse your custom scale types!
TUNING SYSTEMS
Put all that microtonal space to good use with alternate tuning systems. Choose from experimental and traditional tuning systems such as Just Intonation, Pythagorean, and Highland Bagpipe tuning. Create your own tunings or import & export .scala files. (Some limitations apply)
TUNING REFERENCE
Ever feel like A440 isn’t right for you? How about A415? That’s more like it.
Comments
This is a brilliant update!
Impressive list
@benkamen Good list. Promoted this app from the 'wait and see' list to the 'go get it' one although
MIDI Mode You asked for it… You can now control other synths and electronic instruments with Ondes using MIDI. Please read the instructions though — there are a few things you should know about first!
scares me a little.
Worth the price of admission for the Hold and Swarm features alone.
Good enough. I'll take you at your word...
Edit: I'm not a cheap date, but boy I'm easy...
@thinds of course now you have to tell me what (where) those features are
They are in the update which was submitted to Apple today.
As @benkamen listed above.
Edit: I have been playing with the beta version.
It's an awesome update. I've had the beta version as well, and these are some great features.
@JohnnyGoodyear I have to admit I'm playing a bit of game there with the MIDI description. MIDI out does work really well, but I feel the need to temper expectations because some setup/understanding of the limitations is required for the best results. I ranted on another thread on here about why I'd never add MIDI to Ondes -- in essence that you need to hack MIDI to get good results. But basically people here convinced me that it could be done (and that other apps were doing it) so I went ahead and did it despite some reservations. But it IS a hack (in the sense that it's not the way MIDI is meant to be used), and there are limitations, so I don't want people to write bad reviews or get frustrated expecting MIDI to "just work" the way a normal controller would.
I'm going to make a video explaining it. But long story, short: MIDI notes are integers : 60 is middle C. There is no note 60.5. You have to use pitch bend to 'detune' a note. Pitch bend data is interpreted differently on different synths - usually 2 semitones or an octave, but sometimes other values. Also, pitch bend applies to ALL notes on a synth channel, so you can't hold a chord and bend the notes in different directions. Because of this, you are limited with Ondes to playing monophonic instruments over MIDI. However, you can assign multiple outputs, so that each touch controls a different MIDI output port / channel.
So, the rules are:
The receiving instrument(s) must be setup to play monophonically.
To play more than one note at a time, you can use multiple MIDI ports & channels to send to multiple instruments on successive touches.
Ondes needs to know the pitch bend depth of each instrument it is sending MIDI data to.
Let me know if that makes sense.... I have to rehearse for all the support emails I'm about to be writing
@benkamen Yes. It does make sense. In fact, within the confines of what you just covered, I have now got a clearer understanding of some of the mechanism of MIDI than I have gleaned previously.
Fear not, most of your users are far further into the menagerie than me. I am the blind man in a dark room with no information or real understanding of the elephant I am trying to describe to myself simply from feel (and having no idea what an elephant's supposed to look like in its totality to begin with).
I am impressed with your effort on the update and impressed with the people who are impressed with what you've done so far. And, finally, I'm impressed that you're rehearsing at all
Thanks for that.
Here's a blog post & video about Ondes and MIDI output in version 1.1.
http://www.olympianoiseco.com/blog/whats-new-in-ondes-1.1-midi-output/
v1.1 is spreading out through the App Store as I type this!
Wow, that is about as impressive of an upgrade from 1.0 -> 1.1 as you could hope for in any app. Really excited about the swarm oscillators given the unique sounds the come out of Ondes, not to mention the MIDI implementations and Hold button! Thanks @benkamen!
The great thing is that you can hold multiple notes, then move individual ones.
Good stuff @benkamen
@JohnnyGoodyear said:
Same. Thank you and congrats on the update!
You're welcome! If you have a chance to write a review, it would be much appreciated, as always
Now... onto this drum machine...
Still no reviews showing in the Australian store. No idea when, how and if Apple finally publish them. It does appear to be random.
yea, they usually take 24 hours or so to show up, it seems.
No reviews showing at all for any versions though at present, which seems an unlikely state of affairs.
I've had one report of a crash when loading scala files, but haven't been able to re-produce it. Has anyone here experienced any issues?
@StormJH1 said:
Agreed. I thought he should've at least listed it as 1.5. This is a great update to an already-great app. Thank you!
@benkamen BTW, thanks for putting together the short MIDI connect video. You can't grow to love what you can't hear
I know it's obvious to some, but not all of us, especially the tip as regards the pitch bend entry etc.
@JohnnyGoodyear no prob. I didn't mention it in the video, but you can use multiple MIDI ports to play polyphonically. i.e. first touch goes to Sunrizer, the next touch to Animoog, etc.
Though I did notice that if you set Animoog's pitch bend depth to 12, the tracking isn't quite right. I wonder what's going on with their math over there
Seems fine with the default pitch bend range of 2 but that's more limiting since you can't do big slides.