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.
New app "midiSTEPs" from developer Art Kerns (MidiLFOs) available now
Per Twitter: "My second MIDI app got through app review! It's a MIDI step sequencer inspired by an old favorite, the SH-101. It will be released tomorrow"
Comments
nice! Year of the sequencer.
You MIDI guys are gonna love this, even i can work it and you all know I'm a midiot, very cool app put this with his other app midiLFO's and you can get some very cool stuff going in very little time
I love the idea of THE sequencer to end all others, but have to see/hear more about it to spend the ten bucks at this point...
Will be interesting to check this out, is it strictly monophonic?
(Personally I'm waiting for the new BeepStreet mono-synth as it is also supposed to have a sequencer similar to the SH-101).
Second I get home I'm hitting the buy button. The manual is great. http://artkerns.com/midiSTEPs-manual-1.0.pdf
So, basically it's Little MIDI Machine v2 (maybe v4!) or... a four-track polyphonic BeatStep Pro with a bunch of extra features and basically unlimited storage for 1/25 the price. Epic.
If you like step sequencers, this is an instabuy. LMM and Funkbox remain the king of iOS clock (and MIDI Setup screens imho) and very few apps nail swing as well as they do.
That it's set up to work like the SH-101 sequencer (with tons of benefits should you want them) is boss. It's funny that by most any "what makes a good sequencer" measure the SH-101 sequencer is severely limited but in use, it's an absolute pleasure.
Alas, no song mode (but it does have pattern chaining). Good Mr. Kerns, please add a vote for an eventual iteration of this magic that allows for MIDI control over the Pattern Mix page (part:pattern selection mainly, but mute would be handy too)—that'd let us use an external sequencer as a "song mode". Or perhaps the (presumably simpler) snapshot+snapshot recall via MIDI model? That would even let us use something as simple as LMM at some super slow tempo to change scenes to create full songs.
It's definitely not that. It's a pattern based step sequencer. Good for tons of uses but doesn't at all cover all things one might want a sequencer to do. First problem you'd run into is that it quantizes to fixed clock divisions. Exactly what you want for lots of scenarios but the second you wan to capture, say, a long emotive piano track you'll be sad-faced.
I wouldn't even say it's THE step sequencer to end all other step sequencers, at least from the manual. Then again, I love me some step sequencers and enjoy having the options. For instance, midiSequencer and B-Step both have features this doesn't. This though, looks to be incredibly good at what it does and offers incredibly straight forward four track operation + polyphony.
Dang, it does chords too...
Hey, thanks for making the thread! And thanks for the kind words about my apps.
I think this one is pretty cool and pretty fun. I already did the Moog/Arp sequencer thing with Little MIDI, I looove grid sequencers like the Tenori-On but that territory is pretty well covered on iOS, and I like piano roll editors for editing but not so much for messing around and creating new things.
So this one is intentionally different from those three styles of sequencers. It's sort of like the SH-101 where you can just record the notes and play them right back. Sort of like an Elektron/groovebox thing where you can set CCs/velocity/length step by step. Sort of like a Volca and the old analog step sequencers where you can play with the first/last step, mute/skip steps, etc.
It's definitely not the sequencer to end all sequencers! Just something with a little different approach and some interesting twists to hopefully inspire you in a different ways from the sequencers that are already out there. I intentionally call it a "toy" and not a "tool" because it's supposed to be fun and inspiring, not a bread and butter jack of all trades. If it doesn't look like what it does is worth ten bucks to you, then it probably isn't. It won't be for everyone, it won't do everything. But it does do some cool stuff.
@syrupcore, thanks I really appreciate that. Song mode is on the list of things I plan to add. You've asked for it in FunkBox forever and been patient with me when I changed the subject or pointed at something else and ran away. FunkBox actually needs a re-write to add new big features (part of writing these MIDI apps is to do some of the low level work for that, as well as try different UI things) . midiSTEPs was written knowing that a song mode of some sort was something I want to add. Note sure when, and it might not be exactly what you want, but yes... makes sense for this one.
9.99 again
midiSTEPs - midi step sequencer toy by Arthur Kerns
https://appsto.re/sk/pQIS7.i
@artkerns Thanks for making the app, been looking for something like this for iOS for a long time
In my opinion the classic 'SH-101 Way' is the way to record/enter notes into a step-sequencer and finally we have that on iOS and You nailed the editing too, so intuitive!
I want to believe
Can anyone be kind enough to spend a paragraph in lay terms and explain what this does better/more fun/faster//whatever than what the average appaholic might already have in their shamefully overflowing toolbox?
Now there's a marketing softball for you @artkerns
@Samu Thanks, I feel the same way about the SH-101. Appreciate the kind words, I re-designed the editing part several times and am happy how it turned out.
@JohnnyGoodyear I have a quick video that shows it in action:
I'll make some more videos this week. Really I'd just recommend waiting and looking at the videos and it will either click for you that it does things in a cool way or not. I don't think it has any specific features you can't find anywhere else, it's got a certain approach and feel to it that I think makes it interesting and easy to use. But I designed it so of course I think that.
As you've probably noticed I'm pretty terrible at marketing and will demonstrate that further by saying from one musician to another: if your toolbox is already overflowing, go play with the stuff you already have. In fact, deleting some of the stuff you already have that you don't use and that makes you feel guilty about not using will probably make you more creative than buying something new. This app will still be here if you decide you really need it someday and there will be more reviews and videos to check out and see for sure.
Art can do a better job pitching the entire app but I'll pitch the simplicity of the sh-101 style sequencer. You turn on record and then play a few notes. It's not going to play them back the same way you enter them—it plays them back on a fixed clock. It means you don't need to worry about timing and the like—you just mash in some notes you think will be interesting together and perhaps add a few ties (longer notes) and rests while you're doing it and then hit play. If you like it, sweet—keep going. If you don't, wipe it out and try again. It's basically an idea machine. It's also an incredibly fast way to do certain type of electronic music 'riffs' like the classic octave jump bass lines (think Blue Monday). I own an sh-101 and use its tiny 100 note monophonic sequencer all the time.
I haven't had a chance to play with it yet but this app would appear to fix all of the shortcomings of the SH-101 sequencer and then add a whole bunch of stuff you occasionally find yourself wanting. The big shortcoming fix here is that when you're programming a sequencer with no UI it's easy to flub a note 23 steps in and not realize it until you hit play—with this, you can see what's happening and if you flub it, just tap the step and fix it. AMEN.
Another: The SH-101 sequencer only allows transposition of the sequence by holding the transpose button and hitting a key—a big pain, especially if you need another hand for messing with the synth or playing another keyboard. This allows you to do it with one finger. Real-time sequence transpose is a big deal for both "berlin school" style sequencing (see youtube if you're unfamiliar) and for turning the sequencer into a super-bad-ass arpeggiator. What's super slick about this app is that you can set transposition listening per part. So if you have a little sequence doing something like drums or a drone or noisy bits that you want to remain fixed pitch and also have two parts doing pads and a baseline, you can choose to only transpose those parts via external control. It also appears to allow you to set transpose to happen immediately or at the top of the next bar. ACES.
Remember that sequences can be any length (well, up to 64); even two notes. As a simple example, with external transpose you can create a two step octave jumping baseline and then use an external synth to transpose it in real time (see Blue Monday again).
Real review tomorrow. Know I'm gonna lose myself in it tonight.
Wow, I think I need to have @syrupcore do all my marketing. Much better answer than mine! He has me excited about using my own app now. Thanks man.
Haha, that's great!
@artkerns @syrupcore
Gentlemen: Excellent input both. Philosophically and technically
I like your soft sell Mister Kearns (Please throw me in the briar patch!) and all stupidity (mine) to one side, good honest advice. Endearing to say the least.
As for The Professor, he intuits brilliantly that any English boy who was a very early twenty-something in 1983 (and had secretly danced -because of the bassline- to Sylvester's 'You make me feel mighty real' five years previously) will always be reeled in by a Blue Monday reference however hardcore he was at the time and however wilted he's become since
For all of that (and for all of the fact I ALWAYS wish there was a song mode) anything that will let me delay my transpose gets my attention.
Off to check the video, but as for marketing; no point winking at girls in the dark.
@artkerns You're welcome...
I do have a 'small' feature requests.
I wish that the app would remember the pattern/transp/rec setting when switching 'tabs' so one doesn't accidentally edit the patterns (It's easily done if 'performing' on one tab (ie. transposing the pattern using the keyboard) while editing another pattern.
And if it's not too much hassle add 'triplets' in addition to the 1,2,4,8,16,32 speeds (6, 12 & 24 is enough for starters).
Thankfully the app has 'autosave' so I've so far not lost anything when the app decides to quit to home-screen for no apparent reason. (iPad Air 2, iOS9.0.2). (3 crashes so far and the diagnostics are automatically sent next time I sync my iPad with iTunes).
Also to make it easier to add multiple notes on a step (drum & chord editing) the app could when in 'hold mode' have option to tap/un-tap multiple notes one by one. As it is now pressing one note clears the others.
So far I really like the simplicity and clean design of the app and it's quickly becoming a favourite of mine (it will soon replace Koushion, MidiSequencer and a few others for 'jamming').
Combined... both @artkerns video and @syrupcore 's pitch got me to press the buy button.
Shame I can't purchase it right now,being a cagey iOS 'sevenite'.
Definitely getting this when hopefully a new device adopts me as it's owner next year.
Cheers. Looking forward but no sweat on song mode—just throwing it out there. App looks incredible and sure to scratch a thousand of my itches. Funny that I asked for the same with Funkbox; at least I'm consistently naggy.
It has nothing to do with patience. More like: your apps always give me way more than my money's worth (imo) so anything added is gravy.
Another idea for the pile. Not a feature request really, just a thought. Well, instead, I'll just describe how I've been using the SH-101 sequencer lately and leave the rest to your larger brain—more an "SH-101 sequencer use case".
I program a little 4 to 8 note sequence into the SH-101. Then, I plug the Arturia Beat Step's gate out into the SH-101's clock in. Now I can use the pads/steps on the BS' sequencer to control and very simply vary the timing of the same set of notes on the SH (each pulse from the BS triggers a single clock step on the SH).
This is different than muting steps—each note in the sequence will always play in the order entered but when they play is controlled by the BS' sequencer. It's like two separate sequencers to make one sequence: one contains the notes in order, the other controls the timing. Turns out this separation of concerns is pretty powerful for extending very small sequences in to loads of varied music output.
Take a four note/step sequence on the SH-101 as an example:
You can do this all in real time so while you're jamming you can widely vary what's happening with your simply 4 note sequence by turning BS steps on and off. It's really great fun and sort of astonishing how far you can take a very short musical sequence. Adding transpose takes it even further, natch.
Sorry if I've over explained it. Coffee and work avoidance are powerful things! And really, not a feature request as I totally get that it might not fit into whatever the larger picture is for your baby—just sharing, maybe planting a seed.
Be an interesting list to revisit when you get your new machine and see what's held up or been superceded in the consensus etc.
Haha! Let's hear it.
You're not wrong. I updated the phone to iOS 8 only recently and went on a spree including Holderness Media Apps, Soundprism Electro, some graphic apps.
Funny things is I only relented and updated the phone to use Audiobus triggers. Not thinking it through properly that it wouldn't work if I didn't update the iPad too!
Daft bugger I am!
I Need to read the manual to grasp the subtilities, but the 10 mins I spend with it controlling laplace and lorentz together were a lot of fun, the IU is clear and pretty self explanatory
Thanks for this app !
@Samu suggestions noted, thank you! Sorry about the crashes, thank you for including the device and OS. midiSTEPs has been very stable for me on my Air 1 or I wouldn't have released it, but the sequencing, audio and some MIDI stuff is new code and I'm sure there's some little hidden quirks in it that crop up when it does certain things certain ways. It could just be it runs differently somehow on the Air 2, I have some code that might be vulnerable to that. It could also be that you're using features in a way I didn't try out. I'll look over the logs, look over the code, and contact you for more info if I need more help figuring it out. Crashes are not fun nor inspiring, no good, will fix.
@syrupcore yeah I really like that idea, I love playing with things clocking each other in weird ways. One of my other upcoming apps might sorta go there but not really. I also think this could be its own cool little app, it could be something like Fugue Machine where you enter a simple sequence and it really transforms it for you, optimize the app around cascading clocking and expand on that idea instead of bolting it on something else in a more basic form. I will keep thinking about it... I'm trying to get some good basic sequencing, MIDI and audio code with these MIDI apps that will then let me put out some weirder projects without having to build everything from the ground up.
Thanks again everybody for the positive feedback. I make these things for myself and then throw them out there to see what people think, never know what the reaction will be. Always feels good to hear they hit the mark with at least some other people!
This also cries for an iPhone version! Come on, million iPhones are sad now
Second+ as a new convert to the later iPhones. This would rock on the iPhone. @syrupcore's description makes this sound like the sequencer equivalent of Patterning so I'm going to buy today if I can muster up the energy to delete a load of unused apps on the iPad.
@artkerns, HI, can you please tell me how much midi is implemented?
External sequencers CCs etc?
BTW, great article syrupcore:)
It's brilliant
A the Big Audio-Synth-Appaholic I too would love some "WTF-do-you-do-with-ite" examples!! I'm still a bit vague on where a sequencer falls into music-making scheme.