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.

New AUx plug, virtual Indian instruments

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Comments

  • New App Preview video (still struggling to upload it on the App Store...):

    https://twitter.com/swarsys/status/780752223525625856

  • edited September 2016

    @pichi said:
    I picked up the basic app with tabla and am impressed. I don't consider it expensive considering the many loops that come with each instrument and the quality. Works well as an AU in MTS.
    One issue though — I would like to know what the tempo of the loops are to sync up with the DAW.

    Thanks for the appreciation. Indeed, we'll try to show this BPM in a future update.

    Though it's not that obvious because Indian rhythms can be very complex and also the Indian and western notion of beats is not always the same. For instance a normal rhythmic cycle like Tintaal (16 beats) can play as slow as 1 beat every 8-10 seconds and then move as fast as 8 beats within a second (full cycle within 2 seconds).

  • @swarsys said:

    @pichi said:
    I picked up the basic app with tabla and am impressed. I don't consider it expensive considering the many loops that come with each instrument and the quality. Works well as an AU in MTS.
    One issue though — I would like to know what the tempo of the loops are to sync up with the DAW.

    Thanks for the appreciation. Indeed, we'll try to show this BPM in a future update.

    Though it's not that obvious because Indian rhythms can be very complex and also the Indian and western notion of beats is not always the same. For instance a normal rhythmic cycle like Tintaal (16 beats) can play as slow as 1 beat every 8-10 seconds and then move as fast as 8 beats within a second (full cycle within 2 seconds).

    Hi. Thanks for the reply. What do you suggest the best way to work with the rhythms in a DAW are? It seems that if I set time signature to the pattern length it is a perfect match, so I could loop patterns that way. I'm not so familiar with Indian music theory but I'm eager to use the rhythms for my guitar improvisations.

  • @pichi said:
    Hi. Thanks for the reply. What do you suggest the best way to work with the rhythms in a DAW are? It seems that if I set time signature to the pattern length it is a perfect match, so I could loop patterns that way. I'm not so familiar with Indian music theory but I'm eager to use the rhythms for my guitar improvisations.

    Yes, we have kept beats within MIDI PPQs, so normally you should be able to adjust them easily by dragging them within your time signatures. Of course, when you have rhythmic cycles of say 10.5, then it's a bit more complicated;-) But I don't think we included that one.

  • @swarsys said:

    @pichi said:
    Hi. Thanks for the reply. What do you suggest the best way to work with the rhythms in a DAW are? It seems that if I set time signature to the pattern length it is a perfect match, so I could loop patterns that way. I'm not so familiar with Indian music theory but I'm eager to use the rhythms for my guitar improvisations.

    Yes, we have kept beats within MIDI PPQs, so normally you should be able to adjust them easily by dragging them within your time signatures. Of course, when you have rhythmic cycles of say 10.5, then it's a bit more complicated;-) But I don't think we included that one.

    Thanks!

  • @swarsys said:

    @pichi said:
    Hi. Thanks for the reply. What do you suggest the best way to work with the rhythms in a DAW are? It seems that if I set time signature to the pattern length it is a perfect match, so I could loop patterns that way. I'm not so familiar with Indian music theory but I'm eager to use the rhythms for my guitar improvisations.

    Yes, we have kept beats within MIDI PPQs, so normally you should be able to adjust them easily by dragging them within your time signatures. Of course, when you have rhythmic cycles of say 10.5, then it's a bit more complicated;-) But I don't think we included that one.

    Damn, and that's the one I wanted!

  • I'll have a big demo for this soon

  • @Fruitbat1919 said:

    Okey dokey. Air 2 iOS 10.0.1

    Used as an IAA in AUM (clean restart). Some odd behaviour. Almost like it's going through some odd fx.

    Works ok in AudioBus, but if you close the app with Audiobus open, it makes a sharp noise and all audio disappears.

    We are finalising an update that will solve some random Audiobus latency as well as the strange fx on AUM through IAA you reported above.

    Could you just further describe the steps to the issue about the sharp noise and the audio disappearing? We would like to fix that as well.

    Thanks.

    Mariano

  • @swarsys said:

    @Fruitbat1919 said:

    Okey dokey. Air 2 iOS 10.0.1

    Used as an IAA in AUM (clean restart). Some odd behaviour. Almost like it's going through some odd fx.

    Works ok in AudioBus, but if you close the app with Audiobus open, it makes a sharp noise and all audio disappears.

    We are finalising an update that will solve some random Audiobus latency as well as the strange fx on AUM through IAA you reported above.

    Could you just further describe the steps to the issue about the sharp noise and the audio disappearing? We would like to fix that as well.

    Thanks.

    Mariano

    Hi

    Open Audiobus. Open SwarPlug in the instrument slot as normal. Go to SwarPlug and get it playing. Now double click the home button to show any running apps. Close SwarPlug while still playing. This can make this noise and loss of sound happen. I've known it to happen with other apps too on occasion, even when not used in AudioBus. The problem does not happen every time and I can not find any reoccurring feature when it happens, sorry. Hope this helps.

    I'm using an Air 2 64gb iOS 10.0.2. I'm not sure, but as I've had this problem of sound cut out with other apps (confirmed by some, yet others never have it) I'm wondering if there may be something else happening with iOS and some models.

  • @Fruitbat1919 said:

    @swarsys said:

    @Fruitbat1919 said:

    Okey dokey. Air 2 iOS 10.0.1

    Used as an IAA in AUM (clean restart). Some odd behaviour. Almost like it's going through some odd fx.

    Works ok in AudioBus, but if you close the app with Audiobus open, it makes a sharp noise and all audio disappears.

    We are finalising an update that will solve some random Audiobus latency as well as the strange fx on AUM through IAA you reported above.

    Could you just further describe the steps to the issue about the sharp noise and the audio disappearing? We would like to fix that as well.

    Thanks.

    Mariano

    Hi

    Open Audiobus. Open SwarPlug in the instrument slot as normal. Go to SwarPlug and get it playing. Now double click the home button to show any running apps. Close SwarPlug while still playing. This can make this noise and loss of sound happen. I've known it to happen with other apps too on occasion, even when not used in AudioBus. The problem does not happen every time and I can not find any reoccurring feature when it happens, sorry. Hope this helps.

    I'm using an Air 2 64gb iOS 10.0.2. I'm not sure, but as I've had this problem of sound cut out with other apps (confirmed by some, yet others never have it) I'm wondering if there may be something else happening with iOS and some models.

    When you say loss of sound, do you mean that no other app plays sound?

  • @swarsys said:

    @Fruitbat1919 said:

    @swarsys said:

    @Fruitbat1919 said:

    Okey dokey. Air 2 iOS 10.0.1

    Used as an IAA in AUM (clean restart). Some odd behaviour. Almost like it's going through some odd fx.

    Works ok in AudioBus, but if you close the app with Audiobus open, it makes a sharp noise and all audio disappears.

    We are finalising an update that will solve some random Audiobus latency as well as the strange fx on AUM through IAA you reported above.

    Could you just further describe the steps to the issue about the sharp noise and the audio disappearing? We would like to fix that as well.

    Thanks.

    Mariano

    Hi

    Open Audiobus. Open SwarPlug in the instrument slot as normal. Go to SwarPlug and get it playing. Now double click the home button to show any running apps. Close SwarPlug while still playing. This can make this noise and loss of sound happen. I've known it to happen with other apps too on occasion, even when not used in AudioBus. The problem does not happen every time and I can not find any reoccurring feature when it happens, sorry. Hope this helps.

    I'm using an Air 2 64gb iOS 10.0.2. I'm not sure, but as I've had this problem of sound cut out with other apps (confirmed by some, yet others never have it) I'm wondering if there may be something else happening with iOS and some models.

    When you say loss of sound, do you mean that no other app plays sound?

    Yes. All sound goes until a restart. Sometimes a new app opening will bring the sound back.

  • @Fruitbat1919 said:

    When you say loss of sound, do you mean that no other app plays sound?

    Yes. All sound goes until a restart. Sometimes a new app opening will bring the sound back.

    I don't know if it's been solved with the latest changes, but I have tried several times this procedure and it seems to work Ok. The input rectangle in Audiobus shows SwarPlug with "Tap to launch", and I'm able to play audio, say from iMovie.

    But I'll look further to make sure SwarPlug shuts down gracefully. Though it's then Audiobus responsibility to handle it properly too.

  • @swarsys said:

    @Fruitbat1919 said:

    When you say loss of sound, do you mean that no other app plays sound?

    Yes. All sound goes until a restart. Sometimes a new app opening will bring the sound back.

    I don't know if it's been solved with the latest changes, but I have tried several times this procedure and it seems to work Ok. The input rectangle in Audiobus shows SwarPlug with "Tap to launch", and I'm able to play audio, say from iMovie.

    But I'll look further to make sure SwarPlug shuts down gracefully. Though it's then Audiobus responsibility to handle it properly too.

    Look forward to the update and as always wish you best with your product :)

  • Ok, update 1.0.3 was just approved by Apple. It fixes the latency issue on Audiobus/IAA and fixes a few glitches for the same. Let me know if you find any other problems.

    Cheers!

    Mariano

  • @swarsys

    That's done the job thanks :)

    Just one more request and then I will let you relax ;)

    We could really do with the AU version to sync with AUMs play controls, so that we can start and stop SwarPlugs loops all at the same time. This does not seem to happen, unless I'm doing something wrong :p

  • Here an older discussion. I‘m interrested in the whole SWARPLUG IAP. But how many disk space will that allocate? Are the instruments layered to different velocity?

  • Hi Satie,

    The whole instruments collection is about 400-500MBs. On iOS, the instruments are single-layered. On desktop, the main drums are multi-layered and we are working on resampling the melodic instruments as well.

    Best wishes,

    Mariano

  • @swarsys said:
    Hi Satie,

    The whole instruments collection is about 400-500MBs. On iOS, the instruments are single-layered. On desktop, the main drums are multi-layered and we are working on resampling the melodic instruments as well.

    Best wishes,

    Mariano

    So the desktop is higher quality samples? I’ve been thinking about picking it up...

  • Yes, the main drums (Tabla, Dholak, Mridangam, Pakhawaj, Bass Dholak) are of higher quality on desktop. More to come soon.

  • edited February 2018

    -

  • Interesting. Definitely something we could be doing in the future, but at the moment we are really focused on high quality virtual instruments, primarily for desktop since CPU usage and memory will be much higher.

  • I have had the SwarPlug app on my radar for a while now. I love that it is AU and support the developers trying to price higher on iOS and not having any sales. I just haven’t been able to convince myself to pay the $140 CDN for this. Will keep watching! If I get a windfall of cash I will get it.

  • Well, we are open to dropping the price, though as it is a niche market I'm not sure that will trigger that many sales. If you want we can temporarily set it to say $59 so you guys can buy. Let me know.

  • @swarsys said:
    Well, we are open to dropping the price, though as it is a niche market I'm not sure that will trigger that many sales. If you want we can temporarily set it to say $59 so you guys can buy. Let me know.

    Well I’ve got $50 CDN on my iTunes account burning a hole in my pocket right now so if you want to give it a try then I’m game ;). I have spent that amount on similar high quality apps and IAPs like iSymphonic and DrumPerfect Pro with no regrets. We could share the sale info on the iOS Musicians FB page as well which has about 5k members.

    But like I say, I actually support you setting whatever pricing works for you as a business and if I get some spare cash one day I will probably pick this up at full price as it seems like a quality app that I will thoroughly enjoy sampling.

  • edited February 2018

    Here is my old song project using SwarPlug inside Cubasis (if it helps):

    Video:

    Audio only:

  • @swarsys said:
    Well, we are open to dropping the price, though as it is a niche market I'm not sure that will trigger that many sales. If you want we can temporarily set it to say $59 so you guys can buy. Let me know.

    That offer comes a little late - now I bought a few single instruments. It there will be sale on single instruments, I will complete my collection for sure....

  • @swarsys said:
    Yes, the main drums (Tabla, Dholak, Mridangam, Pakhawaj, Bass Dholak) are of higher quality on desktop. More to come soon.

    Sorry, checking again the bundles I realize the multi-layer drums are also in SwarPlug for iOS. So same quality at the moment between desktop and iPad.

  • @powerobject said:
    Here is my old song project using SwarPlug inside Cubasis (if it helps):

    Cool, thanks!

  • @Satie said:

    That offer comes a little late - now I bought a few single instruments. It there will be sale on single instruments, I will complete my collection for sure....

    Sorry about that. But changing the price of IAP at the App Store is a pain. You need to change it one item at a time. So I'd rather temporarily slash the price of the full bundle to say $39. We can do it on Tuesday if you want. Feel free to spread the word to anyone who might be interested.

  • @swarsys said:

    @Satie said:

    That offer comes a little late - now I bought a few single instruments. It there will be sale on single instruments, I will complete my collection for sure....

    Sorry about that. But changing the price of IAP at the App Store is a pain. You need to change it one item at a time. So I'd rather temporarily slash the price of the full bundle to say $39. We can do it on Tuesday if you want. Feel free to spread the word to anyone who might be interested.

    Awesome!

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