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.
midi looping
![[Deleted User]](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/8247d768a08e747278700d7476462017/?default=https%3A%2F%2Fvanillicon.com%2Fd39064a14c34cb4f62e49e97e919757e_200.png&rating=g&size=200)
Let's go
Comments
Shotgun!
Ah, yes, derived from the ancient Chinese philosopher Liu Ping. Inventor of the mantra, nobody suspected he had a stutter.
If ya wanna talk midi looping, then @supadom is a good authority, especially if you're talk in' live. I'm old school hardware Boss RC Somethin' Somethin' . I'll get my popcorn and watch the show.
Sorry for interruptions, thanks @Martygras, is there such a thing like a hardware midi looping sequencer? I only found some sort of diy box called midi rex ...
Or an app that loops midi and can be triggered?
Hardware:
Alesis MMT8
Korg Electribes
Yamaha RM1x / RS7
Probably others
App(s):
Pro MIDI
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pro-midi/id766756959?mt=8
I once wrote here that I retired Genome after I tried Pro Midi but I'm back to Genome. Not as pretty and not very intuitive but more solid and more complete.
Call me back in 2016. Loopy Masterpiece Edition
Just to note, for MIDI capture of audio loops you can use thumbjam. It's not at all the elusive "midi looper" or "Loopy for MIDI" but it is a fairly capable audio looper that will happily capture the MIDI present at input for each loop, saving it to a .mid file.
I've had fun playing a looped range in cubasis and then just popping bits of clips in and out while muting and unmuting but probably not what you are looking for.
Yep. Genome. Especially if you want clip based.
Firo (I think that's what it's called now) also has 4 (I think) midi loopers.
I mostly do audio looping via midi @Martygras so basically midi takes care of the sync and bindings but actual recording is in audio.
I think we're very close to multi app midi looping but it will be only as good as the iOS midi sync which is still not quite there. Having said that, the sync is much better then it used to so one probably would get away with midi looping in gadget, any audio recording in loopy and fx processing curtesy sugar bytes with all apps slaved to loopy.
Gadget isn't exactly a groove box but could be used as one certainly having an upper hand in terms of time signatures. Tabletop ,as someone mentioned, comes very close too but seems very buggy, still.
Does genome have midi controls? Tap a foot pedal to record a midi loop?
Not sure about midi for record. Possibly. But possibly not.
I know you can trigger existing loop clips via midi learn.
I'm also not sure you can erase a clip via midi (which would be useful).
and you three too, thanks, getting occasional interruptions, sorry.
Syrupcore, your intuition is right - thumbjam's loop handling is where I started thinking about looping, ah yes, the midi files are getting saved, good for further tweaking.
The interesting question would be now how to trigger 'record loop' - looking it up in Loopy HD's assignments it reads 'midi clock start', and in the manual @sonosaurus indicates that it can be triggered by MMC control message - well, only how do you send it from your midi keyboard (cc130? Midiflow most probably, saw 'midi clock start' available?)
That would be pretty much the desired workflow, playing, overdubbing, save.
And, Matt, as much as I'm fond of Thumbjam, I love Firo too, its loopers being fantastic for bringing home ideas, and the appealing advantage of the loop's (unlimited bars, unquantized, if preferred) live midi output ...
Of course, like w/ hardware, simultaneously having the midi track saved, as with a Daw's monitoring track, and being able to drive start/stop etc. with a few external pads, would surely facilitate the whole matter
@crzycrs: MMC messages are sysex using the following spec:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIDI_Machine_Control
In this case, the MMC record message that TJ listens for is the following raw midi sequence:
F0 7F 00 06 06 F7
But yes, having generic CC bindings for these functions would be good too, right? Right? I agree.
Thank you, Sonosir!
I didn't know MMC was under Sysex commands. I thought they were just global midi, but realtime. Nevermind,I read up on it.
If only Nanostudio had MIDI Out. Sigh. It allows 4 tracks per channel x15 (with mutes, they can also serve as take tracks), tempo adjustment, UNDO, adding tracks, overdubbing, deleting clips, copying clips, moving clips, adjusting input quantinization, piano roll editing, loop length and timeline position adjustment... pretty much everything we all want from a MIDI looper, all while in record mode without a hiccup to be found, even on my lowly iPad 3 (while it runs synths and samplers... mind boggling to me still).
NS will output a MIDI file if you can sonically make it work.
If you YouTube "ani nanostudio" you can watch her build tracks in real time with NS. She basically doesn't exit record mode, does all manner of looping then stretches stuff out on the timeline and loops some more. There's also a great Washed Out Black Cab session that is just him building a track in NS in real time and singing over it.
@syrupcore: Will have a go at nanostudio this way, thank you, my first entry gate to iphone music then
Am seeing at the moment Firo into Thumbjam. Midi keyboard into Firo. Midiflow transmitting the tiny cymbal in Firo and the midikeyboard's record button as triggers for 'record on' in Thumbjam. Yeah;)
Midiflow preset http://preset.midiflow.com/ijSO4nZbfs
Audiobus preset 'loofy': http://preset.audiob.us/Mnjr38XQnTGmzWu
(axiom air mini 32, insert your toy piece here)
thanks to you
Toggling the cymbal next to the metronome in Firo activates Record on (and then overdubbing) in Thumbjam.
Next stop: bluetooth, pedalboard, and other remote scenarios ...
^ Nice!
Getting closer to a 'working' workaround for the audio/midi looping dilemma.
I merged two previous ideas, with Firo, Thumbjam and LoopyHD as equal players and recorders - and external midikeyboard and a bluetooth keyboard, Midiflow carrying the start/stop bindings for Thumbjam, Firo and ext. controller, while the bluetooth keyboard has the same triggers preparated for Loopy as the improvised and 'rescheduled ' drumpads of Firo.
The trigger for Thumbjam to start and stop loop recording can be activated by the midi keyboard's 'record' button as well as from a dedicated drumpad in Firo, the tiny cymbal (upper row, right corner, left to the metronome)
Furthermore, Firo's drumpads or alternatively BT keys, trigger certain actions in Loopy:
BT keys are *e,r,t *d,f,g *c,v,b
Now, Firo's excellent loopers capture for example the midikeyboard's live playing on ch.1, keep in mind Firo's instrument icons point to midi channels 1 to 13, so you can play Firo's own sounds (also soundfonts) and Thumbjam's multiple instruments on a different channel.
You can record the midi looping in Firo, you can record the midi/audio in Thumbjam, and you can record with LoopyHD.
Depending in which app you're currently 'lodging', you can of course in addition use ab sidebar controls and ab remote triggers.
Tap the follow link to open this preset in Audiobus:
http://preset.audiob.us/IKKEhroqqosdEk5
Check out my Midiflow preset: http://preset.midiflow.com/5V8cQ0B5hp
Midiflow with Controller Remapping. One or more external midi controllers. Tweak to your preference. Cheers:), crs
p.s.: Going to try with midiSTEPs and Fugue Machine etc.
Thank you to
@adamkumpf (Firo)
@Alexandernaut (Fugue Machine)
@artkerns (midiSTEPS)
@JohannesD (MidiFlow)
@Michael @Sebastian (Audiobus2, Audiobus Remote, LoopyHD)
@sonosaurus (Thumbjam)
@syrupcore
@crzycrs I am going to propose you as a member of the non-existent but still highly prestigious Forum Boffins!
More like 2020!
We would have had Loopy Masterpiece by now if it wasn't for Jimmy Fallon using Loopy HD on the Tonight Show. Let's face it... Michael doesn't have to grovel at our feet since he tapped into the masses for a bonifide "hit" that produced more money than complaints. More developers should be so lucky: not to disparage Loopy HD in any sense. I love it as a design for Looping and have bought it in every form over the years.
It couldn't have happened to a a nicer guy.
Of course, supporting AudioBus using developers is also probably a fulltime job. Hopefully we can eventually get to a set of standards for plumbing that just work well for the little things like:
start/stop
MIDI routing and FX
memory management (AU Crashes)
real-time OS mechanisms (AU crashes)
poorly documented "standards" (AU crashes)
The only way Windows ever got decent standards was from "de facto" efforts by Steinberg, Propellerheads, Ableton, etc so we complain because we are in pain and need some relief.
Ooh look... new App. Gotta run.
I do miss [Deleted User] to call me on my shit.
Actually my comment was totally tongue in cheek. I came across this old thread while looking for something else and the whole dates thing made me chuckle.
Anyway, it is but it also isn't about the money. It is also about the life itself. I do believe what was said in the latest audio kit interview. He does want to get it done and he will. The whole waiting for apps is possibly the most ridiculous thing I know. Just lately I was told by an optimistic developer that I'd get an early beta in the beginning of December. It is mid Jan and I'm not expecting anything for another month. And it's cool.
We all get excited about things, enduring love and new year's resolutions. We're human and life gets in the way, that's all. This is probably the truest with software development.
Masterpiece is his pupedream and I do believe he'll get there. For many of us but most of all for himself.
@supadom said:
I would have cried if I knew this back then, lol. But the dream is still alive. I’m felling good about 2020 ;-)