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.
The State of MIDI Clock Synchronization Between Apps
I spent the weekend trying to sync various hosts with various drum apps. It was an exercise in complete frustration! My experience finds that Molton Drum Machine and FunkBox seem to be working the best, but nothing seems to have tight timing or synchronization. What is the point of these apps broadcasting to the world that they have these abilities, when they don't really work (or don't work well, at best).
After reading countless threads, I've become convinced (through reading between the lines), that Audiobus may be our only shining hope here. It appears that they have been working on incorporating MIDI into Audiobus in such a way that it will work seamlessly and correctly. I, for one, wish I was a developer, because I SO want to be involved in this part of the project!!! As it stands now, the MIDI Clock Synchronization that we have now is as if we didn't have it at all--it doesn't work!
Has anyone had any successes with MIDI Clock Synchronization between DAWs and Drum apps? Please post your recipes! What is working for you? What are your workarounds?
At this point, I am REALLY anxious to know where the Audiobus team is with their development and what time frame (approximate) we can hope for to see any new developments. Please speak up on this topic Audiobus!
Let's get this discussion started!
Comments
Here's hoping iOS 7 brings built-in relief.
Yeah, we are in a holding pattern until iOS 7 lands, I'm afraid. Probably a month and a half wait, and you have to hope that your device will actually support the upgraded OS.
I'm not seeing any indication anywhere that this will be solved anywhere outside of iOS 7.
I don't actually see anything special in iOS 7 that will improve this particular situation. AFAIK, inter-app audio and multi-tasking improvements will be there, so who knows.
It appears to me, however, that if one app (audiobus) is controlling the other apps via SDK and code designed specifically to work with the said app (again, audiobus), then Audiobus may actually be our savior. Midibus has been created, but doesn't seem to be catching on. Jack hasn't really caught on. I suspect that the reason for this is that Audiobus is already quite far along with the incorporation of the MIDI and setups storing (presets) capability. I've been reading hints here and there from Audiobus themselves as well as developers who have given vague suggestions that Audiobus may be the solution. The way I see it, a master app (audiobus) and helper apps with everything coded correctly for proper synchronization (via audiobus SDK) will be the way that it initially gets done.
However, you may be right when you state that we may have to wait until iOS7 drops for everything to come out. As it is right now, I'm convinced that Virtual Midi will have to go by the wayside. It is useful for controlling apps and communicating between apps, but not synchronization/timing communication between apps. This is where Audiobus will save us.
By the way, what have you all found to actually work? What are you doing as workarounds for this issue? Until this issue is fixed, I see Audiocopy/paste still being a very important part of the workflow. ;-)
--Sean
+1 for ACP.
Paste my file into a folder in Audioshare and then use 'open in' to drop it into my DAW.
At least a year away yet I think for any solid uptake/implementation.
iOS 7 is going to integrate audio and midi routes at the OS level for the most direct, lowest latency possible implementation, through the development SDK for iOS itself. Virtual midi will be replaced by direct inter-app midi through a standardized implementation.
We'll have to wait for developers to rewrite their midi implementations to that SDK as well if they don't have it done already by the time iOS 7 drops.
We definitely are not going to see anything groundbreaking from anyone on this front until iOS 7 is released. Might as well put a large mark on your calendar for mid-September.
Also, I can't imagine any dev going all-in on jack or midibus or anything similar until they see exactly what they are going to get with iOS 7's SDK.
And, those hints we had about audiobus eventually solving this were all before the iOS 7 announcement, so the situation has shifted considerably since then. It is conceivable that they could put something together for devices which won't get updated to iOS 7, but I doubt the market pressure will be significant enough to make that happen.
I agree virtual midi clock sync is definite hit or miss on Ios at the moment but in my experience
I get usable clock from Loopy HD,Genome midi sequencer,Moblie midi sequencer and a few others and then Auria With its recent midi clock is totally useless.
"The State of MIDI Clock Synchronization Between Apps"
hahahaha...sorry,couldn't resist
i recently made some tests with cubasis btw
http://www.steinberg.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=183&t=44022&sid=0b886dd4d851e70a9121123bba009161
MIDI Clock Sync pretty much sucks by itself on real hardware. I had to switch to MIDI Time Code many years ago to get anything to work. Also, virtual midi sucks pretty bad. These two forces combined have made for a pretty crappy experience with syncing on iOS. Some devs seem to know some magic to get it to almost work properly, while others (like myself) are able to follow the midi standard and get the correct midi messages flowing (confirmed by examining raw output from midi cables) but it's hit or miss with other apps. My app Beat-Machine has a pretty standard midi implementation and I can sync it just fine with a real MPC, my casio keyboard, and also with Reaper on my mac. But with virtual midi it seems to either work or not work depending on the app, or what order the apps were opened in, or some other nonsense. There is an app on the app store called midi wrench that allows you to see what midi messages are flowing at any given time and it works pretty well. You'll see that any app that claims to send clock sync actually is doing it, and whether or not it reaches it's destination in another app is up to something else I guess. And if it does reach it's destination it has to be interpreted correctly. I still can't figure out how my app can interpret BPM from the clock sync on an MPC or computer just fine but the clock sync from another app like Loopy is waaaaaay off. You'd think the midi messages would just be the same.
@commonstookie Yeah, I didn't realize this before, but ACP is still a very needed component in current iOS setups. I think this will have to be something I still consider when purchasing apps.
@DaveMagoo I certainly hope it is sooner than that!!! :-(
@AQ808 VERY INTERESTING AND INFORMATIVE!!! Could you point us to further reading on this? I've heard/read very little as far as MIDI goes with iOS7. You definitely sound like you've gained some NDA-type info. ;-)
@Multitouch Yes, it was Auria that got me started with experimenting with all of this this weekend. I've had luck with Molton Drum Machine and Funkbox through Meteor and Beatmaker 2, but nothing else has worked--even Modrum, which supposedly has a good reputation for this kind of thing.
@Crabman Yeah, a little dramatic, but I want my drum machine apps to sync properly REALLY BAAAaaadd!!! ;-) Thanks for the links to your tests!!!
Maybe I just didn't get into it deep enough, but I'm only now realizing what a huge gaping hole this is in producing proper music on iOS devices! No wonder people are still including recording capabilities and ACP in their synth apps!! I previously thought Audiobus and Virtual Midi were sufficient......which still confuses me why MIDI Clock Sync isn't considered essential to sequenced audio parts with separate synth apps.......is everyone just playing all of their parts live through audiobus and virtual midi and not trying to sequence things at all outside of their DAWs?
--Sean
@Dreamless Your app was one of the many that I tried, and as you suspect, I didn't have a lot of luck..... You mentioned something that I find really interesting though: You said that sometimes the order that apps are opened can affect things. I wasn't aware of that. What would you say is the proper (or best) order to open apps to get the best chance of them sync'ing? Master (sender) first? then Slave (receiver), or maybe the other way around?
--Sean
What all of this basically means for me, unfortunately, is that if I want to sequence parts, I need to make darn sure that I am using the most complete DAW available since as things are with Virtual Midi and Audiobus, nearly everything else will likely have to be recorded live or via in app ACP/Recording. At this point, it appears that Cubasis and Meteor may be the best we have available..... Auria's MIDI sync capabilities are, to quote MultiTouch, "totally useless."
--Sean
The Best Drum Machine can sync to DAW at today is BEATMAKER2 synced to AURIA...working perfect and with song position
@Sinapsya this is exactly what I'm having the most success with as far as drums are concerned. I've got a lot of custom samples loaded and i'm most familiar with BM2, so that's where I started. Was wondering what all the fuss was about until I tried to sync up with DM1. That didn't seem to work at all. I have also had success syncing time with Alchemy and Animoog so far but obviously those aren't as sensitive to sync issues as a drum machine is.
@Sinapsya I heard that there was success in that! It was mentioned over at the Auria forums... But then again, nearly a gig of space for a (very) feature heavy drum sampler is a bit much--it's really a DAW and should be thought of as such... I would ideally love to be able to use DM1 or something similar that is light and powerful for drums. I like the idea of being able to construct the entire drum track in an app specialized for drums, and then have it sync properly while I write other parts. Also, iPads are very limited with resources and sync'ing up two DAWs doesn't sound like a very resource-friendly way to work--even if you have an iPad 4 (and I've just got an iPad 2) ;-)
--Sean
@Audiojunkie I've found that opening the master app first and then the slave will make it work if it hasn't been working at all, at least with my app.
I have a lot of promo codes available for my app if anybody wants them. Just pm me an i'll send them out tonight when i get home. You can try it out with other apps to see what happens. Keep in mind that it's working about as bad as most apps though! I've contacted the dev of Molten to see if he can help me since his app is similar to mine and uses some similar SDK components. Other larger devs that seem to have it all worked out won't tell though
I think BM2 is the best Drum Sampler for iOS and if you use only the DR1 is light for the CPU....
The only one apps have make good work with Clock Sync is GlitchBreaks and Fingerlab Bassline....I don't why the MoDrum don't work good like Bassline, is the same developer...
@Dreamless Thanks! I've been trying both ways, but I'll focus my attention with opening the master first. Also, I would LOVE for your app to work, because yours and DM1 are the two that have everything the way I want them in an app, and they are light (as in resource footprint). You already gave me a code a while ago, and thank you again!!! I'll try some more and see if opening order helps. I suspect that, as you say, it won't be much better than the others, but I'm not holding that against you. :-) I'd sure like to get a good solution to this issue though. Over all though, I'd say that the state of things as they are are pretty crappy. I'm just really surprised that no one has made a bigger stink about this (Midi Clock sync issues) before now....
@Sinapsya (or anyone for that matter) Have you figured out a way to unload all of the hundreds of megabytes of crap default samples in Beatmaker 2? That would go a LONG way to solving my bloat problem. I wouldn't feel as bad about using it as a glorified drum machine then. :-) I've only got a 16GB iPad 2, and am VERY tight on space, which is why I deleted Beatmaker 2 in the first place.
Here's a thought too....maybe a lot of us aren't setting things up correctly? There are a lot of things to consider in some of the apps. You know, it would be really nice if other developers chimed in and mentioned what they knew to be working on their particular apps, and the best way to get things working for them. I wonder how many developers added the Midi clock sync and never got many apps actually working with their own app and just assumed it was the other developer's fault.... food for thought....
@Audiojunkie I feel ya. I have gotten rid of a LOT of apps because of the same problem and I'm running a 32GB iPad2. SampleTank? Gone. GaragBand? Later. Can't live without my BM2 though. I've just been using it so long. I actually had to "forget what you have learned" as Yoda advises when BM2 got the bus treatment because I never really looked at it as a DAW - in my mind it was a really sup'd up drum sequencer until then- yes, I realize how ridiculous that was now. I don't think you can get rid of the default libary unfortunately. I don't use them for anything either. Furthermore, I have another gb of samples loaded into it. But they are awesome and I couldn't imagine an iOS music making world without them.
So, Poll time: What DAW seems to be the best at Midi clock sync, and what drum apps are you successfully using with that DAW?
I've been able to get Beatmaker 2 and Meteor to run both Molten and Funkbox. There were some glitches, and I'll need to go back and test again to see which worked better.
Here's a list that I've been using to try different apps from to see what may work or not. I don't think everything is on the list though:
http://www.iosmusician.com/app-lists/midi-clock-sync
--Sean
@Boone51 That is SO frustrating! I bet Beatmaker 2 would drop to the size of NanoStudio or less if it didn't have all of the default crap installed. None of it sounds good anyway, so it's just wasted space! Speaking of NanoStudio, does it do Midi Clock Sync?
You can remove the stock samples in BM2 if you are jailbroken. Tim @ Discchord goes into that process in his [excellent] review:
http://discchord.com/blog/2011/9/8/review-beatmaker-2-for-ios-universal.html
Here's the instructions in his video review which start at about 10:36, here's a direct link to that part, which covers removing those samples from BM2 in iFile:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=c4gjcX9WXnE#t=636s
You can also do it via terminal:
In Terminal (or SSH): rm -rf /var/mobile/Applications/B07D0261-A778-4737-8808-C389DD967F0F/BeatMaker2.app/library/Keyboard Sampler/
@jesse_ohio Thanks for the useful information! :-)
Hello i am new on Board and have the same Problem
but i found this on you Tube.
Is this maybe the answer for us. :-)
Freddy
"Board" "Problem" "this" ?? Sounds a lot like a generic spam post.
(Sorry, Fred, if its not, but I'm not clicking that YouTube link without more info!)
And to add to the discussion, I have a lot of fun with Loopy driving DM1 via MIDI clock. It's generally a nice tight sync. One minor annoyance is that DM1 only picks up the BPM when you start Loopy's transport.
Don't worry Freddy posted just a link to the new core audio features in iOS 7
Yes,this is supposed to be the last hope.And why should developer waste a lot of time in the current midi mess when iOS 7 is arround the corner?
@Freddy_Valeur Thanks!!! It looks like it will be interesting!!! It's an hour long, so I'll have to watch it when I'm not at work. ;-)
A better link to the same material is here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?client=mv-google&hl=en&gl=US&v=VrW_1iMgFtI&nomobile=1
Thanks again Freddy_Valeur, and welcome "on board" the bus!
--Sean