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.
Music IO for Windows -- open beta starting now
Folks -- I'm part of the Music IO team, and we've just put up an open beta for Music IO. The PC version is a VST plug-in, and connects directly to your iOS device over USB. It handles bi-directional audio and MIDI. There's a MIDI-only iOS app that will be free for the duration of the open beta. If you're into it, there's also the combined audio and MIDI iOS app.
I'm sure there will be some glitches and bugs to deal with (there's a zillion different PCs out there), so your help in shaking things out is much appreciated! More info, and appropriate links, are here: http://musicioapp.com/downloads/windows/
Comments
Brill
Thanks SBD
Great.
Thanks! I am interested testing in XP where I use a small netbook for midi routings with hardware gear ( and some editors).
Where should we send feedback?here or email?
Feedback to the email address is best ([email protected]) -- that's the easiest for us to keep track of things. I'll try to keep an eye on the forums, though.
And Windows XP? Hmmmm. Give it a try, not sure if it'll work (the MIDI stuff changed in around Windows 2000, not sure if it's compatible back that far). Most of our testing has been on Windows 7 and 8; there are so many Windows versions, it makes my head spin.
Did a quick test. It works on Win8.1_64bit with Reaper 32&64 versions. Tried some midi clock to stress-test but there was too much jitter. But for notes and midi CC it's awesome !
Doesn't work on XP (didn't expect to work either)
Thanks @SecretBaseDesign
@SecretBaseDesign
Thanks so much for getting this going, I'm so psyched to be able to run synths I can only afford on iOS into my PC DAW. Will keep you posted -
Wow this is awesome! Thank you for making a pc version. Works so far with win7.
Ableton can't see the plug in. Tried changing name etc. would love some help can my vst folder be on my desktop ? With the .dll file in it ?
Any help please
On windows 64 bit
Working fine here with Live 64 bit, W7.
AFAIK your VST folder can be anywhere you want, as long as Live knows where it is.
Thanks zymos. I thought anywhere was fine and directing live to the folder and doing a plugin rescan but just doesn't show up.
@Gdub -- here's what my Ableton looks like (Options/Preferences/File Folder). Enable VST plug-ins, and make sure the dll is in whatever folder you choose. Also -- make sure the dll is extracted from the zip file (I'd guess that Ableton wouldn't know what to do if the file was still compressed). Let me know if you still have trouble, but it should be possible to get this going....
Ohh nice
Just sharing my experience with Music IO (MIDI) and FLStudio. It works regarding sending MIDI from the iPad (Air0 to FLStudio, but the vst plugin appears as an 'effect' plugin as opposed to FL's 'generator' plugins which would be used to send MIDI things to the iPad. So I've not been able to get that to work.
My knowledge of MIDI in general, is pretty limited, so loopback setups and the like are unfamiliar to me.
cheers.
Wish this would work on my win Xp machine, I have so many vst's and programs that would be awesome to use again.
@Igneous1
You need 2 virtual midi ports. I don't now your OS so generally the configuration should be:
FL Studio-> midi out to Virtual Port 1
MusicIO -> midi in from Virtual Port 1
FL Studio-> midi in from Virtual Port 2
MusicIO -> midi out to Virtual Port 2
+1 for this old OS. After all ,there are still many XP users with old hardware...
@Korakios
Cheers for the reply, but I'd appreciate any further suggestions as to how to actually do that in FL !
I can't see anything in the MIDI settings setup.
I had another go this morning with less success, I'm on Win 7.
Since the lightning port is occupied i can't connect my apogee jam. So how do i use my guitar with Bias FX and record to logic?
Do i need to connect jam to my mac get it into the ipad and back to logic? Is that possible? and if so will that create to much latency?
Downloaded FL_Studio and was able to send some notes to my ipad. I do not use FL (and honestly I hate it) ,but these are my steps:
Download loopbe1
http://www.nerds.de/en/loopbe1.html
install, open FLstudio, go to midi settings enable LoopBe1 internal midi output, assign a port (eg port 0).
Place MusicIO (found it on PluginDatabase->Installed->Effects) on an Insert of the Mixer (not rack). Select LoopBe as an input. (don't select loopbe as output )
Now place from PluginDataBase->Generators->Controller->Midi-Midi_Out to the channel Rack and on right place of the plugin you should see "Port".Port Number should be the same with the one you assigned on the MidiSettings. Open PianoRoll view ,click some keys and you should here sound coming from your app on the ipad (don't forget to make the appropriate midi linking on your ipad)
If you are on 64bit OS then you (and the rest of us ) have a major problem. The only free working virtual port is LoopBe and provides only one port. We need one for input and one for output.
On 32bit machines there is still MIDI Yoke...
@SecretBaseDesign , some advise please!
EDIT: Loop Midi also works (on 64bit machines) ,sorry for any confusion...
There's also loopMidi (Windows 32 and 64bit): http://www.tobias-erichsen.de/software/loopmidi.html.
Many thanks for your time and detailed instructions @Korakios, unfortunately, I still can't get it to work and when it was working (sending MIDI from iPad) it was pretty hit and miss.
It took me ages to figure out how to get my iConnectMIDI2 thing to work fully with FLStudio and Live, so perhaps I should just stick with that.
Didn't work unfortunately. Did you try it?
EDIT: My mistake it works!
So do i need to buy the full version to access audio or will there be a beta version of that?
@Korakios -- thanks much for jumping in on the MIDI! I've been slammed for the past few days. What you've got is on the mark.
The Music IO VST talks to system MIDI inputs and outputs -- it does not (at this time) connect directly to the DAW MIDI system. We're going this way, to try to avoid having a dozen DAW-specific tweaks. With Windows, only one application can open a MIDI input or output port at a time (as far as I can tell) -- so if the DAW has access to MIDI input X, the plug-in does not get direct access.
To get MIDI working -- Loop MIDI, LoopBe -- both great solutions. They create virtual MIDI input and output ports. To send MIDI from iOS to the DAW, using (for example) LoopBe:
Music IO VST connects to the LoopBe input
The DAW connects to the LoopBE output
To send MIDI from the DAW to iOS, you might need another loopback (Loop MIDI lets you make as many as you want).
Music IO VST connects to a Loop MIDI output
The DAW connects to the Loop MIDI input
Each of the DAW tracks would use the Loop MIDI as their output destination -- so the MIDI would go out to something like Loop MIDI, get transferred to Music IO, and then go across the USB to the iPad.
I really need to get a video for this together. And a more detailed write-up. And I could use some sleep, too!
Nadav -- you can connect a guitar to the DAW, and then send the audio to the iPad using the effects loop -- it would pass through the effects app, then the audio arrives back at the DAW. There is latency along this path -- varies by system, and a dozen other things, but it's probably in the range of 60ms round-trip, for a typical setup. For audio monitoring, you would definitely be better off listening to the iPad (the DAW track can be delay compensated, but your ears can't). If you're not shredding, this may work ok -- but if you play quickly, it may not be responsive enough.
I know a number of guitarists who won't use digital effects at all -- even with direct in to an iOS app, there's a latency that they can feel (and on a good day, I can sort of feel it too). One of my other apps, Apollo Remote Recorder, can handle this situation -- it streams audio over WiFi, and works with Audiobus. Connect a guitar directly to the iPad, run Bias or whatever else in the effects slot, and Remote Recorder in the output. Stream audio over WiFi into Sound Injector (there's a rough Windows VST for this). I'm planning on rebuilding the Sound Injector plug-ins over the next month or so (I know a lot more about building plug-ins now, than when I first started in on streaming of audio over WiFi).
@musikmachine -- the Windows VST beta will talk both MIDI and Audio -- but to test out audio, you'll need the full version of the iOS app. We're sort of looking at the MIDI part of the equation as a way for people to try out the system without putting any money down; if people dig the MIDI, they'll have the confidence to upgrade to the full version.
I used an external USB keyboard to control iPad apps with Live on Windows 7, and didn't use any loop back apps- I couldn't even figure out how to configure the MIDI part of musicIO.
It just worked anyway...
Thanks SBD. So where does Music IO go in the chain then?
I placed it on a track with Analog but it was placed after the plugin disabling the audio, i tried putting Music IO on it's own midi track and routing it to Analog but that didn't work. I'm getting a midi signal but the midi's not being passed on to the plugin.
Nevermind being dense, it's an audio track innit for all communication? Got midi being sent from Live to iOS anyway, will post if i still can't get it working the other way. Cheers.
@Zymos -- the plug-in tries to open MIDI inputs and outputs when it fires up -- the default (without any configuration) is to use the first available for each, and if the DAW hasn't latched on to them, it'll grab them -- so it might work out of the box for some people.
The plug-in retains the MIDI assignments (unless the input and output ports change -- so things might go hay-wire if you plug in, or unplug some devices).
We need better buttons (and a better GUI in general), but clicking on the circles next to the input and output IDs will cycle through the different available devices. And in case anyone missed it, clicking on the button by effects loop will turn that on or off.
And.... I did some experiments with Windows XP (running in a virtual machine). Not working right now, but I think it may be possible. Will investigate further...
Yeah- it would be nice to clear up that inconsistency in the GUI- one circle toggles on/off and turns black (the fx loop) the others cycle through choices and never turn black. I kept thinking something was wrong because it seemed like I was not able to select any of the MIDI sources.
I'll have to mess around with MIDI more- I could simply play notes, but couldn't figure out how to send clock from Live to an iPad app.
The audio side works very well though!