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.
Devs - Build the Killer Drum App please.
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Probably totally impractical due to memory required for multisamples, but this is what I'd like from a drum app.
Pattern Sequencer.
24 instruments/multisample slots.
User loadable velocity mapped multisamples.
Fullly configurable pattern lengths, eg 3 to 64 beats. Not just a choice of time sigs.
Beat subdivision like Molten, 2 to 16 optional subdivisions?
Probability setting for each beat/subdivision. (Play/omit).
Velocity level setting for each beat. Perhaps using a popup 'draw graphic level' track?
Random velocity variance with configurable range per instrument/part.
Humanising timing randomiser with configurable amount and bias (ahead of beat/on beat/behind beat) per instrument/part.
Play mode loops and allows live changes of pattern.
Save/save as/load pattern.
Song Sequencer.
Arrange multiple patterns to form songs.
Master velocity level track. Again, draw graphic level.
Option to record live master velocity control changes.
BPM sequencing for tempo changes.
BPM change interpolation between values for gradual changes.
Option to record live BPM control changes.
Save/save as/load song.
Live performance pads (iPad).
Should be rectangular, with velocity mapped along long axis.
Ideally, two rows of 6 pads in landscape mode, with an extra bar along the bottom.
3 rows of 4 in portrait, plus bottom bar.
Each of the 12 pad's multisamples should be user loadable.
Bottom bar switches to a second set of 12 multisamples for duration of touch..
Working MIDI clock/sync.
Audiobus.
Brain tired now...
Comments
Big ask but fingers crossed. Perhaps 2015.
Ipad 6
Some of the stuff is "optional" but really we just want someone to develop a drum app that stands out above the rest, takes all the good features from the current drum apps available, expands on it and develops it further. In my eyes, this is a gap in the market that is waiting to be snatched up. There are a bunch of good drum apps but there isn't an Animoog, BM2/NS, Auria/Cubasis. We don't want look this is a synth app with a drum machine and a 4 track recorder and blah blah....we want one killer drum app...is that too much to ask for?
For other ideas see this Drum Discussion Thread
Not much of that feature list is optional, IMO, if it is to stand out as better than all the other drum apps. A lot of the others do some of it, but none do the lot combined.
Export as single tracks (into Auria?)
Drag and drop patterns to create song structure
Performance: live control of timing per track (we need this now)
@PaulB should've been more clear, I only meant one or two things.
Since we're stating our wish to an unknown audience (who knows what this could turn in to).
Wish List (Cont'd):
Midi learn
To add to that, I haven't seen many implementations of midi learn that I like. Magellan is probably the closest, since you can either learn via the controller knobs, sliders, etc., but you can also type in the values you want. I like that approach, since if I design a controller in a midi designer app, I can more easily map them by typing than by switching between apps with the traditional learn approach.
Yes, Animoog's MIDI learn is like that plus you can save your setups.
Wow. Anyone want to fund this?
If you could guess @Rhism....or anyone else......how long do you think that would that take, and what would you think a dev would charge for it?
Oh....and would a kickstarter work to kick it off?
Depending on skill level / geography, devs charge from $20/hr (college grad somewhere in Asia) to $250/hr (CTO-level in Silicon Valley). I've never done hourly contracting but I know from a recent experiment that I'd quickly get multiple offers at $100/hr, which implies I could probably charge more. That said, flat hourly rate assumes no equity. If I were doing a project like this I'd probably prefer a lower hourly with ~20% project equity, to have skin in the game.
How long it would take depends on lots of things. Scope of the project (let's assume it's exactly as described above, although it never is), skill/speed of the developer, how flashy / robust you want everything to be, how much code is already built or in reusable libraries. E.g. @Michael's The Amazing Audio Engine would be a good place to start. Someone who already has built a live+sequencing drumming app might already have 75% of the code in place and could probably give a more accurate estimate than me.
Wrt Kickstarter, that could work if you have reputable talent with relevant experience signed up. But generally Kickstarter projects work better if the person raising funds is the one driving the project concept, and the backers just help steer it a little bit. In this case you guys are the ones proposing the concept, so for it to be a Kickstarter one of you would have to be the one raising funds, you couldn't just be regular backers. Your developer will really want to have a clear person he/she is taking direction from, who knows what they want the app to be like.
When Ralph from Rayzoon ports JamStix over to iOS, my drum app dream will be complete. It won't be tomorrow as he has PC and Mac VSTs to wrap up but he has said he plans to pursue iOS.
As a side note, a bass jam VST has been in his long term plans which hopefully too may come to iOS.
One can only hope.
JamStix for ios would be pretty cool.
While beats, loops, sequences, etc. can get the job done, there is nothing like artificial intelligence with real world player techniques thrown in the mix to get a really great drum track.
As far as I know and perhaps I am wrong, JamStix is the only VST to generate completely different drum tracks based upon the user's selection of options each time one chooses to do so. And each section of a song can be a different drummer with varying styles. Not to mention that nearly everything can be edited by the user.
I'll get off of my soapbox now and wait with baited breath. Bring it on, Ralph.
Last time I looked, Jamstix was limited in time sig options. Has that been addressed?
Ah...Paul B. your preaching and the choir is saying Amen! Lets have the ability to get down and fonkey with drums...we owe that to James Brown....
@PaulB love it! The issue of being able to assemble parts into a song is crucial. Thanks for putting out this great wish list.
Paul,Jarrett,Keeboo
Make Ralph aware of this thread?
Would jamstix fit the bill?
What existing software comes closest to 'the list'?......it could already be out there but just needs to be converted/tweaked to work on ios,
Anyone else know of other non ios
drum software that might tick all the box's?
Many of the currently available drum apps would be a decent starting point to which to add the missing features.
As a suggestion
Paul,Jarrett and others
Agree on final list/spec and one of us(Simon?...you seem to be the one in touch with most devs...and if its ok with you?)...
Paste list into email and send to the devs most likely to be interested and who ppl think could produce a rock solid app.
This is just a suggestion and if you feel I should get off my lazy fat hairy backside and do it myself...Im more then happy to.
Or if anyone has other suggestions...
I know for a a fact that @Sonosaurus said to me that he wants to and plans to further build on DrumJam and make it deeper so he may be a candidate versus just start blank, if you did start blank a base point might be The Amazing Audio Engine. The idea that we could actually get something done with this is exciting but a competent dev that's willing/focused is needed
Thanks for the insight @Rhism. We can probably rule out Silicon Valley CTOs in our quest ;-)
I have toyed with the idea of an XL version of Beat-Machine, but it really just isn't that easy. The Amazing Audio Engine is pretty nice, but lacks the ability to preload samples into ram so they can be fired off at will. Some people are getting better results using the built in AUSampler in the iOS sdk but I haven't gotten that far yet so I don't know if the performance is good enough to build a mega sampler. The sample player I made for Beat-Machine can fire off samples at will with certain parameters editable in real time like start / end points and forward / reverse, but there is a quite obvious one off load time getting the samples into ram when a kit is loaded to make this possible. Other apps like iMPC seem to have sample players that can do this much quicker and more efficiently, but they tend to be buggy and it's obvious that larger companies like AKAI have problems with software development and user support, probably because of the teams of people that must be paid well in order to make the software happen.
Programs like Superior Drummer, EZ Drummer, BFD, etc aren't really possible on iOS yet because of the extreme amounts of ram they require for all of the velocity levels. iOS is especially sensitive to ram usage and will kill apps without warning if they hog up too much, so it is an issue that devs are pretty sensitive to. I've also never seen a drum machine with a sequencer resolution greater than 96ppq, and I am a long time drum machine fanatic. 96ppq should be more than enough for "off grid" beat programming IMO. I programmed the quantize slider in Beat-Machine to give some life to the very simple 16 step sequencer by randomizing a short delay on the output of each pad on the grid. I can increase the sensitivity of this slider if it's not enough.
What I see happening is a very quick shift towards "iOS ONLY" music making, while I always looked at my iPad as just another device in my never ending collection of devices connected to my Mac. When I create patterns in Beat-Machine (or DM-1 or FunkBox), I connect the midi out to my Mac and use the apps to trigger Superior Drummer so I can have the power of a realistic multi-sampled kit with the simplicity of a touch screen pattern editor. Then I pile more tracks on with whatever combination of apps / Mac software I've got in my arsenal. Like someone else said, it will probably be a few years before iOS devices have enough power to really become all in one solutions. I'm definitely old school in my ways though, but it looks like that is going to have to change
Dreamless,thanks for shedding some more light on the issues involved.
Any idea how much ram would be needed?
Seb/Micheal is this something that could be considered for The Amazing Audio Engine in the future?
Has anyone tried using minidrum pro by Yonac? It has a few features that I believe can be built upon.
I always wanted that, it popped in my head the other night, I went searching only to find that they yanked it from the market for unknown reasons
Minidrum?? Did you mean minisynth pro??
IMHO: a proper version of NI iMaschine would be the best starting point
I agree that drum jam is on its way. I am pretty new to it though. Is there a step sequencer in it? If not it could use one and the ability to effect velocity, turn off quantize and use a 50% quantize like Maschine. The sounds are already great and the avenues for performance are unique.....
+1 vote for Toontrack EZ Drummer into IOS..... when they want to make it?