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.
Audiobus stopped working live
Hi,
I'm using an ipad air 2 and i have the latest audiobus 2.
I setup an audiobus project, as follows:
- Inputs : DM1, Z3ta+ and ISem
- Output : MiMix
- Audio interface : AudioHub 2x4
Prior to the gig, I soundchecked and everything was great. However, 2 hours later when i went to play, i just could not get any sound coming from the audiohub. When i looked in MiMax, audiobus was not sending any audio. I went into DM1 and tried some kicks but no sound. Similarly, i went into ISem and used the inbuild keyboard to play some chords but still nothing.
I finally switched projects back and forth in audiobus and suddenly there was sound coming out.
But, the sound was now all peaking and stuttering and I could hear audio cuts and lots of glitches. I had to restart my ipad and setup everything again to get it working.
Can anybody help me with any advice/suggestion on what to do or does anybody know what happened there? How do you guys play live with the ipad?
Thanks,
Rajiv
Comments
Though I've never played live with my iPad, when I'm about to do any serious recording it's standard procedure to do a full restart first to clear out any cruft or phantom apps. I imagine that would doubly true before going on stage!
I don't use your particular set up but I never play iPad (with associated interface, outboard gear) unless I've heavily rehearsed the set in my studio for at least 2 - 3 months prior.
You haven't gone cold turkey have ya?
These glitches seem like they're coming from some sort of background mode issue. Either apps stopped working while idling in the background or your audio interface does something weird in a low power environment.
Personnaly, with a full powered system, everything checked (background audio etc...) I came to the conclusion that I had to put off the equation DM1 at the moment.
I also took off Z3ta+.
Don't get me wrong, I still have glitches with IAA also(with AUM),and some apps or with AB.
I'm trying to keep my setup as simple as possible, but it's never stable very long...
It truly has nothing to do with my old home studio that could be on during a week or so to produce a track.
Fortunately, we have lots of 30 seconds fancy videos with nice shinning controllers to proove I'm wrong.
Just being ironic, I love the power of all these apps combined, it's crazy great, I just wish it was (already, hopefully, trully) stable...For more than 30 minutes...
I've done a lot of gigs using Audiobus and the soundcheck to stage time gap is always a dangerous one. I usually go back to my device and cycle through apps every 30 minutes or so, or simply close all apps, and power down then reboot everything before the show, give myself a little 'silent test' with headphones.
iOS should not be considered stable after leaving the device unattended for any length of time. Apps auto-close and things become unpredictable.
I'd recommend (and use) a 'max. 1 (or maybe 2) apps per device' policy.
Audiobus is probably not the source of the problem, the risk of crashes/strange behaviors just increases exponentially in the amount of apps used as well as in the amount of connections between apps.
Other tip: Sampling complex synth stuff into apps like Samplr or SampleWiz also helps to reduce the load on your devices as well as the risk of synth sounds going completely crazy. You know exactly what's inside that sampled wave file.
+10000000000000000000000000000000000
True dat ^^^
As soon as you put that cover down for the post soundcheck sleep, there's the distinct possibility that the glitch elves might invade & disrupt your best laid plans !!!
I agree with what @OscarSouth says about the soundcheck to stage time however I still think it is dependant on the apps you use.
I have kids and often work on the project, then have to cook dinner for them or do this or that and when I go back to it, it ticks as well as it did when I left it.
The problem I see with restarting the whole thing and rebooting seconds before the show is that often there isn't much time to do it so the mistake margin is high. I know it isn't always the case but the last gig I've played I had 30 mins total play time. It turned out to be 50 because the next act turned up late but I simply only had time to move my rig in position, plug the guitar, sort out drummer with the click and play.
I think it is often one app that causes the problem and likely culprit is some kind of cpu/battery saving 'feature' that puts app to sleep when untouched for a number of minutes. I guess we'd feel pissed off if that same up didn't go into sleep mode while in the bag and drained our battery in a few hours of busy idleness.
+1 on @MK7 tip to sample synth sounds if you can. It makes my live show more stable for sure. For live, simplify and keep everything well rehearsed as @supadom says.
Wise words.
Lots of great advice for live set ups by those above.
I've read lots of articles years past of all the back ups and problems encountered gigging hardware set ups and most of it is just as relevant today gigging iPads.
9.Before a gig: launch your iPad, make sure you've killed all your apps, press power off, then home button. Relaunch your ipad, then load your stuffs.
10 Make your live iPad The Music Machine only and keep it in flight mode at all times.
11 Stay on the last working IOS version if you can. If all is working do not update.
Exactly this. For example in my practise space last night I was using iOS music for backing to my instrumental practise and I left my Air2 on charge with the screen off and AB, AUM, Patterning, Navichord, 1xRP1, 1x Zero Reverb & 1x different reverb AU active. In the morning I pressed play and everything resumed like I'd left it.
I've also been jamming in the past with a bit more, left for 1 hour and everything becomes unstable. It seems just based on how much you're running at once and how long you leave it for. No way of knowing exact values, but I've found that you get to know your tools very well after a few months and develop an accurate intuition for how far you can push things. In some performance instances for example I use many more apps that my device can handle (unfortunately, can't be affording iPad pros on a freelance budget!
) and I just feel how much audio can be routed through where in performance. If I hear a glitch then I know to pull back a bit, and I can already 'feel' when things are getting pushed too far. If we're using iPads for live performance, we should get to get to the same levels of intuition that we'd learn a 'real' instrument.
well said
You can't do that if you need Link...
But you may shut bluetooth, and have a dedicated fast network for Link. (I use an Airport extreme for that purpose)
12.Deactivate transitions and transparencies.
I just came back (2 hours away), play start again : all is working (almost) fine...
I still have quick glitches while switching between apps on the iPad (pro 12') running the drum parts. (39% loading into AUM, latency 256 in 44100khz)
I need to run some final tests but I'm almost good to go...At least for full track live. Then I'll see for chaining a second track...
Gosh guys, thanks so much for the feedback. Amazing tips for the future. That was the first time ever gigging with the ipad and it messed up completely. I was actually using my novation circuit as the sequencer, and that device is 10000% bulletproof and stable. So, i ended up switching the sound of the ipad off and reverting back to the circuit's onboard sound.
Not the best pads, nothing like isem or zt3a+'s bass, but it did the trick.
Pheww, I don't know whether its worthwhile to keep investing time and money then into trying to make the ipad my live sound module.
Cheers,
R
As long as you do your prep, know your gear and run your checks, I would say it's 100% reliable. Takes a specific kind of attention to detail (it's definitely not 'rock 'n' roll!) but if you invest the time the rewards are worthwhile, imo!
Excellent advice. Thanks Oscar.
Excellent guys. THanks so much.
By the way, how do you stop iaa apps from sleeping off and losing connection?
R
Sometimes the reason is that the device is running low on RAM, but often it's a bug. Therefore it's best you contact their developers and tell them that their apps lose connection. Send me a DM if you'd need contact details. It's always better when this comes from users and usually developers listen to these kinds of requests.