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.
Comments
Oups, sorry, bad message...
Just thanks for the tip for the 3rd Ipad in midi...
I'm having connectivity issues with my iPad Air 1. A lot of the time, it isn't registering as being connected. I wonder if I have a dodgy cable.
Congrats! I'm wondering whether apps see each other's IAA midi ports when connected to iconnectaudio 4+? Or is an intermediary midi sync app required? @MusicInclusive
Hey guys, long time no see.
My experience with the iConnect 4 is that when I first got it I couldn't get it work with Ableton. I was trying to get sound from a track on the Mac to go through an AudioBus effect on the iPad and come back into Ableton to record. There's a guy in Canada that handles all of the tech support. For the life of us we couldn't get it to until I realized under setting I had to have each app set to accept external mic. I always turned it off each time I set up a new app because I never wanted to use the internal mic. 
Thanks! This thing is very cool but pretty intimidating at first. The flexibility is overwhelming... On the plus side, the pre-amps and AD/DA converters sound pretty good to me at first listen.
It's funny that you mention IAA midi ports because I'm wrestling with MIDI presently. The MIDI patch bay is pretty easy for routing the different ports, but I haven't yet cracked how MIDI is shared from device to device.
Firstly, I'm not an expert on midi, however I thought I'd give it a go. AFAIK you don't need an intermediary app. IConnect seems to act as a conduit. For example, I plugged an iPad and an iPhone in. I have 3 different synths on the iPad (in this case Model 15, iSem and Animoog ). I have one player on the iPhone (Thumbjam). I can send 3 different outs from Thumbjam (using Iconfig and the midi inputs and outputs on the different synths) and play all the synths on the iPad either all together, or separately depending on how I choose. No other apps involved.
Haven't tried doing it. I'll have a think about it. Sounds like it might work fine as long as a.) you set the MIDI routing in the iC device accordingly b.) you can actually connect the IAA MIDI end points to the MIDI ports.
It does, indeed, work very well. Not sure of the advantages over Bluetooth LE though.
I may be overthinking what you are suggesting. I read the latter part with more emphasis than the rest, and I think I was thinking you wanted to use all the apps on the same device. It's certainly possible to route via the iC devices between devices. Sure
Just never thought about doing so on the same device. But, am I still missing the point?
@Fitz @MusicInclusive Guys, thanks for your replies but I was chiefly asking about the midi sync. I know everyone is enamoured with Link but since I'm still using the old crusty IAA sync I've been wondering whether it was possible between 2 different devices wired to Iconnect 4. Bluetooth LE ain't good for this, too many ticks apparently.
I would love full midi integration, and a simpler software, to allow third apps to take control of this GREAT hardware...
Yes totally possible
What's interesting is that I can quickly route MIDI to play a controller on one iPad and generate sound on the other iPad. It's super easy using either the iConfig app or AUM. But, for the life of me, I cannot figure out how to get one version of Loopy talking to another version on the other iPad (either bindings or clock sync). I'll keep plugging away at it and report back if I figure it out... I welcome any suggestions!
What apps would you want to sync? I don't know much about IAA sync, does it need a host?
Ok so I'm not sure about IAA sync between devices, but you can easily sync between devices by sending midi clock to the other USB port on the ICA4. I used to use midiflow sometimes to help some apps achieve this. but now I tend to just rely on Link it's so much easier.
I'm about to give up on this ICA4+... it is really, really temperamental and I don't think I have the patience for it. The learning curve is high to figure out the iConfig software but I figured I had it licked when I got two iPads playing nicely through the box. I couldn't figure out how to get IAA sync going between devices, but I was willing to let that come in time and use Link for the short term. But. Suddenly I get a "No Connection" error and can't connect using the supplied cable. It came back for a short while but the routing I had flashed to memory was no longer working. Life's short. This thing requires long time.
Simplest, and most accurate, would seem to be Link. If both are Link enabled and on the same wifi, it seems spot on timing wise. MIDI sync works too - if you have the right cable in place in iconfig, and have selected the right sync ins and outs, but doesn't seem as accurate. Link doesn't stop and start Loopy though, and midi sync does.
Is the no connection in the iconfig app? I have this on occasion, but using Aum, for example, seems to still work fine.
I bought one early one and its has some issues but support was great and its all been worked out. I only play and record at home, but I use it for guitar, Bass, have my Synth on the MIDI Din daisy chained to a an FCB1010 and a MIDI controller keyboard on the USB MIDI with a pair of Yamaha HS8s, my Yamaha THR10c, and Headphones for output. Everything but my iPad, MBP, and headphones stay attached all the time. I always plugin my MBP and iPad whenever I sit at my "Studio" (really our breakfast room too) and always use the ICA4+ for everything from listening to music to recording in Logic Pro X or practicing with MainStage. Its been 100% stable for me for a while and I don't even thing about it as a possible problem anymore.
One hint I strongly suggest is that you learn to use it from the front panel first for basic things before you dive into the iConfig app. I often use it with only the front panel for simple things, but getting to its real power does require using the iConfig.
I also strongly recommend you do the simplest things possible first in iConfig to get a good feeling for the mixers and stuff before you dive into more complex things. Don't expect to be able to any do complex things with any sound interface if you don't understand the basics of audio and MIDI.
@MusicInclusive: The only real issue I have with it is the interface to save and retrieve configurations in iConfig is about as primitive as it gets. It takes so long and is so hard for me to remember the names of settings that 99% of the time I just change the settings manually because its a lot faster for me. I think I early posted that I thought I could make some basic settings that I could use for all the things I do, that went down the toilet pretty quick once I realized all of the complexities of using the widely varying iOS apps with it and really learned the power of iConfig. I'd probably have 25-50 different configurations for the things I've used it for.
A simple list of the configurations in a selected directory would be awesome. Personally I'd also love to see changes that don't require a device reset not to reset it. I'd be happy with to see two types of configuration saves, one with reset and one without where you set a mode in iConfig that simply disables changes that require a device reset.
What I think would really, really like is for iConfig to have something like MIDI mapping to all the controls in the mixer screen so I could record my changes and control them in MainStage or with my MIDI pedal. This would take care of most of my needs for configurations.
My gear-setup is (almost) the same as @BigDawgsByte. and I never have to use iConfig anymore after I made this patchbay-configuration and saved it as my default (see pic). I can record audio and midi from iPad to PC (in Reaper, etc.) and vice versa (in every recording-app); I can just listen to audio from iPad (from any app) through my iCA4-monitors and listen to audio from PC. The analog inputs (for guitar and mic and other line-ins) are 'visible' on iPad and PC, so I can choose f.i. Tonestack (on iPad) or Guitar Rig (on PC) for playing guitar through my monitors, without changing anything in iConfig. I'm very happy with it!
Hello,
I just tried that, but the ICA4+ does not see the Ipad at all...It does not respond or send any midi.
I have the CCK powered, connected to the host port (tried only with the Ipad) with a male/male USB cable...
Do you see the name of the Ipad into the connected devices ? Can you assign it properly ? (to reconnect automatically on reboot)
Thanks
Ok, it seems the only solution is to use bluetooth with MidiFLow...
Here's a video, and it's also using Apollo, but I don't understand why exactly...
Do you think you could share your config file ?
@gonekrazy3000, here's a dropboxlink to my iCA4+ setup. Use at your own risk (
). It's a iConfig-preset-file and you should copy that on your PC to the folder where iConfig can find its presets (search for "*.ica4" on the drive where you installed iConfig, and you'll find that folder).
Notice that I have my PC in usb-port 1 and the iPad in usb-port 2, while the default is the other way round!
Also: maybe it's easier to just build your patchbay in iConfig like mine (see picture above) (after first saving the preset that you're using now)?
Good luck!
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/5483870/default_with_headphonemix.ica4
Is port 1 the 1A socket ? Coz that's exactly my setup. Want my iPad to get a decent charge lol.
As an aside, I did upate my firmware today on the iCA4+ and an intermittent pop I was getting every 15 mins or so (which sounded like a periodic resyncing) has gone away. I hadn't noticed it before, but I had to swap in my iCA4+ to (hopefully temporarily!) replace another interface that has gone belly up for the time being, and now it's running continuously feeding my studio monitors and therefore over that longer time period I noticed the pop happening.
I'm looking to get that interface repaired since I'm vastly underusing the iCA4+ as a result, and besides it was an 8-way interface that died so I'm having to reroute 4 inputs currently anyhow.
Is it the 1.1 firmware ? Coz I updated it the moment I got the interface.
In the same boat. I really want to like this interface, but it seems very temperamental. It was working fine a few days ago connected directly to my iPad, and the config app worked as expected, but I spent all day yesterday reconfiguring my home studio in integrate the interface as a four channel effects processor. This involved a load of re-cabling and messing with patch bays, etc.
When I finally finished, and plugged in my iPad...'no connection'! I tried it maybe 20 times, with the same result. This was with the original cable, but I also tried with another cable and got the same thing. Tried uninstalling and reinstalling the app, re-flashing the latest firmware (I can still connect without any issues from my MBP), all to no avail. Very frustrating!
Sorry to hear it, mate. I sent mine back.
A great feature, probably imaginary and impossible, would be for iConnectAudio4+ to somehow create a LAN network that would let you run a wired Ableton LINK connection between two devices, and not have to sync them over wi-fi.