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 Store

Audiobus is the app that makes the rest of your setup better.

Ipad for live keyboard rig

Hello,
I'm new here, and I did do a search before asking this, but didn't find any answers.

What I would like to do is use irig midi to connect my M-Audio Axiom-61 to my ipad.
Then use iGrand or something like that for piano sounds.
And maybe Alchemy or whatever for some good soundscapes or pads.
And then use audiobus to mix them together, and use this as my live keyboard rig.
I may want other sounds here and there, but the same concepts would apply.

My question is (not having bought audiobus yet) is can you mix the volumes or different apps within audiobus?
I know if I had two apps running like this, I could swap between then and adjust the volume of each one in within the app, but that is a pain. And if I had a bunch of apps running, it wouldn't be practical in a live setting.
But if I could have a handful of apps all recieving midi and playing sound, and then mix it all in Audiobus from one screen, that would be awesome.

Right now I use my laptop running Propellerhead Reason 6.5 for my keyboard rig, but I would like to be able to use the ipad instead or at least as a backup.

Is this possible?

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Comments

  • You could put a DAW in the output of Audiobus and control the mix from that.

  • Thanks for the reply.

    Let's say I used Garageband for example.
    Would I just create an audio track for each of the inputs from AB?

  • In general the DAW in the output slot should auto-create tracks from the Audiobus inputs. Multitrack DAW and Auria do. They should just show up.

  • Multitrack would be a good choice for this as it's light and flexible.

    I don't think you'd really need a DAW (or even Audiobus) for controlling levels as long as the apps you plan to use are MIDI controllable. You could set up the knobs on your Axiom to control levels in different apps. You might need Midibridge to route MIDI properly, but this would be a much easier way to handle things in a live setting.

  • Well, I went ahead and purchased Audiobus last night just to try it out.
    I think it will be handy, even if not for live applications.
    I downloaded the free version of iGrand from IK, and then the free version of Alchemy.
    And I put them both on the inputs, and then Garageband on the outputs. Garageband didn't auto-create any tracks, and when I tried to create them I wasn't sure what kind of track to create. I tried just an audio track but that didn't work.

    But anyway, I noticed in iGrand, I could assign each knob to whatever CC I want, so I assigned the volume knob to one of my sliders on my controller, and then just set the max CC value on my Axiom for the correct volume level that I wanted (ended up being 75). And so I had Alchemy and iGrand running together, and I could just slide my fader to kill the volume on iGrand, which left me with just my pad in Alchemy.

    Then I thought, what do I need garageband for? So I ejected it and sent the output to just the audio output. And then played around with that for a while.

    It sounded really good. Alchemy sounded better than iGrand. I may try to find a better piano sound. Even the one in Sampletank to me sounded better than iGrand. But maybe the full version has pianos that sound better. I don't know.

    It only got glitchy like one time, on my ipad mini.

    And I am using a powered USB hub to power my Axiom, and then the Camera Kit to connect to the ipad, so this doesn't charge the ipad, but still I played for about an hour starting out fully charged, and when I finished it was like 90% so it wasn't bad at all.

    So I am still playing around with this, but my goal was to find out if using my iPad with my controller in a live setting is even doable, and after playing around with it last night, I am a lot more hopeful than I was before.

    Thanks for the help.

  • One question, and this is probably not the place for it, but some of you might know the answer anyway.

    I thought I had read in SampleTank that the knobs had fixed CC#'s and if you want to control them, you have to set your controller to the corresponding CC#.
    But in iGrand, it will actually detect the CC# of whatever control you are moving, and you can lock iGrand to match your controller. Can SampleTank do this too? Because to me that was a feature in iGrand that I really was surprised to find. If SampleTank has this ability, then I may give it another try.

    Thanks!

  • Beatmaker, cubasis and auria (and others?) can do this now but how about a new simple app? Audiobus mixer, perhaps a couple of simple send effects (reverb and delay) and a stereo recorder.

    IAP for midi bridge 'lite' type routing that could point your controller at the right app or do things like split your keyboard and send sections to the apps of your choosing.

    IAPs for more effects.

    Should take @J_Liljedahl about 8 minutes. :)

  • Seconded on the just for live simple mixer. Faders, pan, VU meters on all inputs and outputs. Inputs selectable from live and AB channels. Scene save/load. MIDI controllable (HUI and learn). Maybe groups and subs. Even without eq and efx sends and inserts I would find that very useful. With - then you're talking Aurio desk without the recorder and automation part. And CPU. Maybe 15 minutes.

  • 2 more questions.

    1. When I play Sampletank or iGrand or really anything, out of the headphone jack into my mixer and into some good powered main speakers which otherwise never distort anything, I get distortion when I play hard. I turned my ipad volume down to half, and turned the mixer up to compensate and still get distortion. Whats up with that?

    2. When I load Alchemy and iGrand into AB, and just output it to the headphone jack (not into a daw) I get major glitchyness for a little while. Sometimes it goes away after a little while, sometimes it doesn't. When I just play igrand or alchemy alone it doesn't doe that, but together, I get glitchyness. Even when I don't go through AB I still get this. Is my iPad Mini just not powerful enough to run these two apps at the same time?

  • @keeverw Are you getting distortion in airplane mode also?

  • I had not tried airplane mode.

    Just tried it.
    It's definitely better, but still to me seems a little distorted on the loud low notes.

    But in Airplane mode it seems to run Alchemy a little better.

    But even just running sampletank standalone, when I've got a piano and a pad and a string section all playing together, it distorts a little. It sounds like I'm overdriving the input on my mixer, but I don't see how that's possible with the volume halfway down.
    I can plug my phone in the same cord, and crank up some music, and it doesn't distort at all.

  • edited June 2013

    Have you tried hard resetting your device? I've never tried to output from headphone jack. I use a audio interface through cck, with no distortion.

  • Here is what it sounds like. I just used Sampletank into Garageband, via AudioBus.
    And even the recording sounds distorted when I play it back. And that's even going into a different input on my mixer, so I don't think it's the mixer or preamp. I think the output of Sampletank or whatever app I use is just clipping somehow.

  • @keeverw have you tried the master out on Sampletank? I have the same issues, so over where the bpm and level buttons are hit the level and turn it down till you don't get that distortion. Hope that helps.

  • What do you set it at to fix this?

  • You may also want to turn down the individual instrument level next to pan in Sampletank.

  • That doesn't seem to help.

    Even when I am just playing igrand by it'self, not even using AB, I get distortion.
    And I turned the level down to halfway and still get it.

    I can unplug my Axiom out of my ipad and into my laptop, and load up Propellerhead Reason and load up a grand piano, and it sounds clear as crystal no matter how loud I crank it.

    I wish my audio interface worked with my ipad, so I could see if that was the issue, but I tried it and it doesn't recognize it, (Tascam US122L).

  • mgmg4871,
    They aren't even close to maxed out, they are only slightly above halfway.
    And like I said it does the same thing in iGrand, with the levels low as well.

    I will try playing a piano in Garageband and see if it does it too.

  • What device are you using? Guess that should have been first question.

  • ipad mini, with an M-Audio Axiom-61 controller into a powered USB hub into the camera kit adapter.

    I just tried Garageband piano, and I couldn't tell if it was distorting, but it sounded terrible compared to the pianos in igrand and in sampletank.

  • You've shutdown all other apps and did a reset by holding down home button and power button right?

  • Also have you set Audiobus buffer size to 512?

  • Yes, I did that earlier.
    I don't know about holding the home button, but I held the power button until it asked if I wanted to shut down, and I did, then I rebooted.

    Also, inbetween each session, I double click the home button and shut down everything.

  • There is also a input level within the menu and settings. I've been putting master output level down around -17 to -20.

  • I haven't messed with the buffer size. But I just checked and it is at 512.

  • Correction, the level settings is the same.

  • My ipad is about out of juice, so I am going to call it a night and pick this back up tomorrow.

    Thanks for all the suggestions though. I will keep playing around with it.
    I am determined to get this working at the very least as a solid backup rig, but eventually I'd like it to replace my laptop in my live setup. I might need to upgrade to a more powerful ipad for that.

    Are most of you using an audio interface, or just using the headphone jack on the ipad?
    I am just using the headphone jack, and I wonder if that's part of my problem. If it's kinda made for earphones, and not made for going into a mixer and amplifier.

  • Check also to see if you have latency setting in Sampletank to low and not ultra low.

  • I use a Akai EIE 16 bit and it works perfectly with my ipad 2.

  • To hard reset you have to hold down the power button and home button simultaneously. There will be no shut down notification.

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