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.
Visual Grid Sequencers. Your Favourites?
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Beatwave just updated with audio import, and it's a very nice sounding app.
What other grid-sequencer apps do you use and like?
I have Xynthesizer, it has midi functionality, but I would like to hear opinions on the tenori-ons, aurora, etc.? Thx 
Comments
Das Lauflicht, but disappered on my app store. I can not download again.
Yeah, @Kaikoo, gridlock'd! Beatwave is pretty smooth and intuitive.
DM1 + MIDI Flow or MIDI Bridge and a little bit of patience to remap the notes is pretty sweet.
B-step isn't quite the same but in the ballpark and crazy powerful/deep.
And really, any of the decent MIDI DAWs with a piano roll can almost be treated as a grid if a little bit fiddly in comparison. Zoom in to your area bar, set the quantize to 16th notes, turn on draw mode and there you go.
PixiTacker is intuitive.
I wish I could love and use tnr-i more than I do. the interface and menu especially is not fun to use though, so now it mostly sits on my iPad lonely in a folder somewhere.
The session with online friend looks cool. For some reason I haven't had luck connecting with anyone.
Couple good midi videos here,
http://www.synthtopia.com/content/2012/08/15/tenori-on-for-ipad-midi-in-out/
Also, don't forget to put it into advanced mode so you can change all the layer modes.
Still much prefer it to beatwave. And...using virtual midi seems to use a lot of resources on my mini.
Aurora looks pretty good, but it's expensive no? haven't tried it. Has a built in synth though I think.
I like Midi Pattern Sequencer, but it is too hard to operate quickly and smoothly and intuitively.
midiSTEPs is better grid lock for me but hard to draw a line to modulate anything.
If iDS-10 not a stand alone synth and drum gadget, it has the best sequencer interface. Even Gadget can not compete for the speed and flexibility, there is no other apps can achieve this level. But Korg is such a manipulator!
... agreed.
Thx all
Genome, Diode-108, Gadget
Oscillab ( available on IPhone as well) / includes instruments
MidiSequencer (avail on IPhone as well) / no instruments included
Genome (no IPhone) / basic synth engine included
I use these 3 in no particular order. I just got MIDISEQUENCER and am finding it a great app.
I don't use them a lot, but, when I do I use one of these 3 depending on what I am working on.
You do like MIDI Pattern?
Man, I just never could get that thing going. I found myself looking for buttons. I always wanted to love it, as I do all his other apps.
Xynthesizer is still my go to. Being able to randomize only a few selected notes is awesome
By far the most versatile and easy arp type or sequencer type app to record a thing is Fugue Machine, you can have 4 playheads on but mute 3 of them by using zero velocity on 3 of them, once you finish one part, you can instantly change velocity and continue with different tone and speed, you don not need to stop the pattern, you can keep recording other patterns presets by hand on the list. I think with some easy practice, you get good midi notes fixing on Auria. Fugue listen to Auria start and stop nicely. I found MidiSequencer can not do with Auria by far.
Waiting for Fugue Machine 4 channel update, Auria will handle 4 Fugue channels simultaneously on 4 instruments, wonderful pairs. So, Fugue is a good visual grid arp!
Why do I always forget this app!
This is one of 2 apps I get lost in.
The other IVSC3.
Praxis Beats is a very interesting variation on the grid sequencer: no song mode, more of a live-play deal. The export single track functionality make it very useful as a stem source for DAWs also. The slicing, tuning, panning available for each fraction (triplets, 16ths etc) of each hit, is unique on iOS, more than a little like Breaktweaker on desktop. Also a midi controller...
Synergy, Aurora, and Aurora for iPhone are probably the most powerful of this type. There's synths, user load able samplers, automation, song mode, live mode...
Yamaha Mobile Music Sequencer allows you to use the built-in sounds or to send just MIDI. It can do variations on patterns which be quite useful for building up songs.
Most of the modular synth apps have sequencing grids as part of their capabilities. There are several good grid sequencing templates available for Lemur and a couple for MobMuPlat.
Yamaha. Such a puzzle. They are the weird-old-uncle-down-the-garden-in-the-scary-shed of the iOS world. But just in terms of utility their apps do things....
Yeah. I always forget this limited randomizing action. Must revisit.
Praxis is really good.
Just needs couple more controls for each sound and I would use it more. I have both IPhone and IPad version.
It is very "Attack" ...............
Yamaha Drum & Arp does some pretty cool things. Always looks like there's more around the corner if you're brave enough to go exploring. "Here's your free app, you go figure it out – now SCRAM!"
Entirely right. Just putting my scared face into Yamaha Mobile Music Sequencer and it's one of those that I can't help but think if I was left on an island in Maine for the summer and nothing but this I'd make much stuff by the Fall....but....
Edit: The weirdly good news is that it seems to be 'Itunes' only export which allows me to put it back in the unused box with very little self-loathing...
AUXY
Pros: Good editor for quickly getting melody and percussion ideas down; Easy to use and quick connectivity of Virtual MIDI instruments; Triplet grid; Decent built-in gamut of good sounds and simple usable modulation; Ability to render 4-track MIDI file, or mixed sound file; stable and small memory footprint.
Cons: I believe they took a step backward by "dumbing-down” velocity note values into a ”soft" toggle; the removal of a stop button per column (a full instrument column cannot be stopped once started); No file magement like project/song duplication; No clock sync; No note labels; No undo; No Audiobus support. Also, been waiting for the developer tease of polyphonic pitch bending to come to fruition.
Having filter control and fx per track or hit (or even per fraction) would be the kill.
When individual track loops became exportable I plotzed! A whole new fodder source for Auria Pro/MTS opened up. And the audio and extra samples really stepped up, quality wise.
@JohnnyGoodyear in addition to iTunes export, there is audio copy of recordings you make in the app, it is Audiobus compatible, and you can record the MIDI out to whatever MIDI DAW app you have with the Yamaha Mobile Music Sequencer.
Arghhhhh. I was hoping you wouldn't confirm this. Now I hafta go back and put on my big boots, stamp around and hope for the best. WHAT AN ODD DUCK IT IS. Have also been mucking about with the 'Synth and Dr. Pad'. I can't imagine how I would make a song with it (I know you can, just confuses me), but as far as making 4 bar loops for copying elsewhere....really a deep resource. What I can't figure out is any kind of filing system....but that's just one of about 50 things that are beyond me at this point....
@JohnnyGoodyear with YMMS, try the remix function on the drums. Good times-! With SaDrP, there is no filing system, but in the settings/recording panel, on the bottom, there are 5 slots for songs. Not the most helpful or intuitive but it's there. You got it right when you thought it'd best to get the loop data recorded somewhere else...
And to contribute to the post subject, my fave grid is... Beatmaker. Nothing tops it for ease of use and connectivity to more apps. It's still my hub for everything.
Thanks for the encouragement, I feel like an unqualified lab technician poking about in some dark 1993 field...
@JohnnyGoodyear Fear not, it's just the atrocious, abominable interfaces. Once you learn to get past them, they're both very powerful tools-!
what 'few' more controls would you suggest, I'm very interested in this one?
I think you're right. In places it's a pretty sister in a very ugly dress....