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
No need to bug test. I think I was driving with Dhalang MG, a fairly obscure droning app that I didn't even know supported midi in. I don't think it's been update in awhile. It's just that I've noticed the piano roll within Dhalang stop working before while loaded in AUM before. Never quits when run standalone. It's always rock solid launched standalone.
Would I fair better with it loaded into audiobus instead?
Yes, I gathered those were early apps likely for testing. I only mention them because I was curious if one of those languages is what's used in your Dhalang logo, what it means, and pointing out its edges aren't as clean as they could be. Very trivial.
I've attached the screen logo I'm referring to:
Oh, THAT logo. well that is javanese (ancient indonesian) script and reads "dhalang". I could not find any actual good font of the script so I had to just scale some bitmap text. Maybe there would be a way to vectorize it.
Oh of course it's javanese... how could I not recognize that? Doh! lol
Yes, you can do it in Illustrator with Trace, etc.
I've already done it for you. Traced just the logo Javanese portion, used the same web color as the fill you're using, and saved it as an Illustrator .ai file. I also saved it as a .png with transparency too.
Let me know if you want them and how to get them to you.
Cheers,
Skip
EDIT: I sent you a dropbox link to the vectorized Javanese portion to your private messages here.
I'd much appreciate the code for template color themes - for some reason, the color schema is a challenge to my eyes (no idea why) - probably just my general like of shiny stuff. I'm not sure if the template editing code you reference is to-be added in, or sent out to modify, then added in - but please send me a message here w/ any info. Thx! @Hypertonal
I don't know what code Arturia use, BSP has several ways to sync, via USB, MIDI, Clock and can send or receive clock.
Do you have Patterning drum machine? It works so well for sync...if you click on file, sync, it finds available clocks to choose from and syncs to it, I can turn Patterning's BPM down in BSP while playing and it follows. (And it starts/stops)...really one of the best and simplest to use...
But don't worry about it, I didn't know how to sync, within Dhalang, but your above tip about creating Master clock takes care of this problem.... (And I wanted to record sequences into Dhalang, but there was too much time drifting between BSP and Dhalang that I gave up..that is why I requested MIDI sync)
Thanks for the tip on the scales...GREAT update...
Question:
Vectors have a great way of creating scenes as you explained in video #6.
Is there something similar for Matrix, some kind of chaining of them?...or how do you do in sort of song mode?
Trivia:
Last night I had a dream that Dhalang was MODULAR
It opened empty (only icons on top) and you clicked and dragged on whatever module you wanted to use and it created a path with piano roll and all was set to record etc...and click on Vector for example would open full size...and overall look was like when you click on "overview " in piano roll....
In theory there could be, but in practice that would most likely be extremely heavy on cpu, as a single matrix can have 12x12x12 + 6x6x6 = 1944 values that would need to be interpolated on each sequencer tick.. and then with several matrices... limits of hardware technology.
Nice visions
I have fantasies of modular, virtual reality -based dhalang-ish software.. for ps4 hardware (most powerful/cheapest/best supported computer there currently is, with the most limited operating system/development there is...). And other larger projects also, but most really overwhelming for a single developer.
@Hypertonal, thanks for explaining the tuning.
I can choose a scale, load, update and the keys update accordingly but ONLY in the first scale only (#-1). (I made 3 different scales to test 7,9,11 note for test only)
As I made a new scale in #2,3, with different amount of keys, the update button doesn't "update"! In scales, #2,3, I am stuck with scale keys of first scale (#1) not possible to change...in No. 2-9?
What am I doing wrong?....how does that work if it's not a bug?
Thanks in advance
Everything that relates to the virtual/touch keyboard is changed from the TouchPlay view. There is a scale setting that defines in what scale the keyboard is.
THANKS got it, and it works, ......sometimes I wonder if your app is also an exercise in complexity (on your part) and mental awareness, concentration and patience....(on my side)...
...meant positively 
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhooooooooooooooooooooooommmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
Let me return now.....
FYI; If it's not obvious yet... I've really been taken with this app big time. And I like the complex mental awareness, and concentration needed. Just ticks a lot of interesting boxes for me.
And now, I also have the desktop version! I've got the OSX version but the dev's website implies a Windows, Linux, and Android versions may be coming also.
Have only played with it a little so far, and it looks and behaves exactly like the iOS version as far as I can tell. I think when you render out you can do so separate high quality streams, but I haven't got that far yet.
What I can say is if you love this app like I do, making it full 27in screen on your mac is a beautiful thing.
If I could only have one of the two, I think I'd prefer the iOS version for portability, and using touch. But setting up sequences in the piano roll are easier with the desktop version.
Now I'm wondering @Hypertonal if song project files can be transferred from the desktop OSX version to be continued on the iOS version?
Nice - if functionality is the same, and project file transfer exists - I'd pick up the desktop version as well.
Since we're on different time schedules and it looks like the dev just started a new job.. I'll do a quick project on the desktop version, see if I can export it out to dropbox, then try to open it on the iOS version. Will let you know if it works. It's cool to have a 27in full screen (it scales up well) for setting up the piano roll.
Awesome - I use (2) 27" monitors w/ the MB Pro - seems this app would do well w/ the extra real estate!
You can! I just tried. Everything transferred except the little thumbnail graphic I assigned to the project via the desktop app.
I set up a Persian scale, gave it a project name, set up an analog synth, and an Additive Dreampad synth. I set up Vector 1 Analog 1 and launched the piano roll, then set set up Vector 2 with the Additive synth, and set it to follow Vector 1. Played it, then went to the Settings tab to save it. Was able to save my IOSDhalangTest.dhl project file to my dropbox.
From the iOS version of Dhalang, I went to Settings, then connected Dhalang to Dropbox, then transferred my IOSDhalangTest.dhl over to the iOS version, then clicked Load. Same Persian scale, same vectors, same sound.
Then, from the iOS version, I added a Physical synth, added a Vector 3, changed octaves, set Vector 3 to follow Vector 1 with sync offset.
Didn't look like I could save the new version over the original version, but I renamed it IOSDhalangTest2.dhl, saved and transfered it back to Dropbox and reloaded the new file on the desktop. All the changes transferred!
Excellent news! This makes me wonder... what other iOS apps have desktop equivalent with this ability? Also, a "buy both" discount would be welcome
I think he wanted to do that, but the apple OSX store and iOS app store are completely separate.
Anyway, I didn't even know you could do this and I'm pretty stoked. It'll be cool to do the more fiddly piano roll stuff on the desktop, pass it over to the iOS version to go portable and play with it more, then pass it back over to the desktop to tweak and them render out from there.
I made changes to the Lite versions by updating the GUI to correspond the full version. Enabled samplers with an unchangeable preset sample and made initial setting more impressive (effected etc..) Also osx Lite version is now updated but somehow still pending in the app store for release...
the dhalang project files can be loaded/saved on all devices (ios/mac/windows/linux/android), the picture should also be visible on ios version.. a bug maybe.. Windows and Linux versions of the software are ready and working fine and in near future will be added to Steam for sale. Android version needs still a lot work and some testing equipment ( I only have a cheap Huawei android phone, and nothing works decently in it..)
Also updated versions with texts of the tutorial videos 4 & 5.
Cool. I'm going to go through all 6 videos again I think. So, do all of them have the new text added now?
Played with Dhalang while loaded into AudioBus. Used the piano roll, internal synths, and used the midi and looped the input into Rotor. Didn't have any issues at all. Kinda cool taking Dhalang's sound into an interface designed more for EDM loops.
I only tried one project for the transfer test. Started with the OSX Dhalang MG install, and added the photo thumbnail for the project file. It showed on the OSX side, but was gone on the iOSX side. After I made a change to the project file on the iOS side, saved and brought back into the OSX side, it didn't come back.
For me, this is almost of no significance, but I thought I'd pass it on.
Cheers
@Hypertonal , thanks for updating videos...
Have some questions for you....
Could you please make like a written instruction on how to use the "read, write, feed" in a track? So I can follow it? Just as simple as possible. Thanks
Can the 16 piano roll tracks be used in a different way than (only) to play back recorded notes?
Do Matrixes have some kind of scene arranging like Vector has in the State machine?
What are surfaces 1-5?
Discovery:
I imported a MIDI file into Dhalang but NOT into Matrix, and lo and behold ...it put notes into 3 tracks...didn't know it was possible...interesting, it lets me play different instruments per track...
One thing though
.....importing MIDI files into Vector crashes Dhalang, if they come from the folder called "Imported"....
THANKS
I think there are only a handful or so of Dhalang users here, but for those who are into this app I wanted to share a few findings regarding the OSX version and offline rendered sound files.
First off, I'm set up at 96k. If you're rendering out your project to a sound file at 96k, my 3min track weighed in at 140MB. Did it sound better than simply recording output to AudioShare? Yes, it did... but nothing earth shattering. A bit more rich and defined. Somewhat more full. Cleaner.
When you output via offline render, you have to set up the start and finish. Looks like start 0, finish 30 equates roughly to 1min. I set mine up for 0=start 90=finish for a 3min final render.
If your project is playing, ie. the piano roll is playing... you'll hear an irritating tone all during the render. This doesn't get recorded. You can stop the piano roll before the offline render and your vectors, etc. will be rendered but anything you might have in the piano roll won't be, so if you want the piano roll sequence also recorded in the render, you have to have it playing and deal with the irritating tone during the render process.
For something you were actually going to master or publish, I think the quality gain is worth it for the offline render. For Soundcloud stuff, maybe not so much.
Regarding passing project files back and fourth between the iOS version and desktop OSX version, I initially just tested a few Vector sequences. Those, and any extra changes were transferred perfectly. I wasn't sure about some of the other items though. So, I tried setting up 3 vectors, analog synths, physical synth, and one of my own field samples being played by the particle sequence generator, and I adjusted the mix, added FX via all 4 buses and applied to each of the synths and samples, etc.
I saved the project to dropbox, pulled it into the iOS install, made a few more changes, and passed it back to the desktop. Everything accept the thumbnail graphic I'd assigned to the project on the desktop transferred perfectly.
Didn't figure the State Machine stuff would also transfer, so I set up 3 different states to test, set up a course to interpolate with delays for each state, saved it. Re-saved the project, then passed it on to the iOS version via drobox. ALL of that transferred perfectly too!
@Hypertonal two questions: When offline rendering with capturing the piano roll too, you have to have the piano roll actually playing which generates an ungodly tone while you're waiting. Anything I can do to not hear that? Or is that a bug? Secondly, when I was offline rendering my project with the piano roll playing as a loop during render, it didn't capture the piano roll portion for all of the 3mins I specified for the render. I think that piano roll looped only for the first minute maybe. Not sure why. And also, how is it that "30" equates to 1min of offline render time?
The next tutorial video will be about those features.
They can also write to Feeds and be exported into multi-track midi files.
Currently no. Single matrix has that much data in it, that interpolating it between sets would cause serious
dropouts to audio. Some other ways could be possible, like switching between matrix sets only instantly. This is something to design and develop in future.
They are the note triggering surfaces in particle sequencer.
Midi import loads a 16-channel standard midi file into 16 piano roll tracks according the midi channels in the file.
you mean importing into matrix? I have tested importing midi from Imported folder and it works fine. Are you sure the same file works when loaded from the Midi root folder ? The Midi file importer has some checks in it to make sure file is not currupted, but sometimes that is not enough if there is something crazy in the middle of the file.
The irritating tone is a bug: the output buffer stops updating because of the rendering, but does not mute... and the buffer stays static = oscillation. I will fix this to the next update. The offline render start and stop are measure numbers (as in the piano roll & overview & control views), it depends of the tempo and measure length (beats in block) how long the duration it will actually be.
Some remaks you might have noticed already, but still.. Currently while offline rendering, it is not possible to run state vector machine. the vectors wont be updated. This is because it's not stable enough yet, but will be.
But everything can be also recorder (to stereo) with the online rendering (red button on mixer main section) that works also with vector state machine. Even if there would be latency drop outs on playback during online render, they wont appear in the resulted file because it's pre-buffered.
@Hypertonal I'm curious about the piano roll loop that I had playing/looping for all 3 mins of the offline render question, "Secondly, when I was offline rendering my project with the piano roll playing as a loop during render, it didn't capture the piano roll portion for all of the 3mins I specified for the render. I think that piano roll looped only for the first minute maybe. Not sure why."
Should the looping piano roll playing while doing a 3min offline render, have recorded the loop for all 3mins? Or, is there a setting I need to change if I want it to do that?
Also, I've got my projects set up as 96k, but I don't think the iPad hardware actually supports 96k does it? When I try to set AudioShare recording to 96k it says the hardware doesn't support 96k. So, if I'm recording the output of Dhalang via AUM or AudioBus, etc. am I not actually getting a 96k file? Or, does it only maintain 96k when offline rendered out?
Thanks! I didn't really think I'd use the OSX desktop version that much, but it's nice to have a big screen to fill up with Dhalang and mess with the smaller controls. The iOS and OSX kind of compliment each other IMO, and I like especially that they are nearly identical in function (other than the thumbnail thing, and the individual bus files and individual track files).
Please excuse my ignorance, but what's the difference between the individual bus files vs the individual track files?
What is the difference between a Main screen stereo recording, and an offline render recording?
@Hypertonal , thank you very much for all your explanation. Looking forward to the video, but not in a hurry, as I am figuring out other features..and taming the beast
I will definitely check out the files for corruption. The file that I loaded into Dhalang (I think) was one that crashed in Matrix.... but will try them all.
I should add that my question about Matrix and the tracks was only to be sure that I understand functions of all components...
Today I tried to send MIDI out to drum perfect pro and beat machine. (Not at the same time)
In AUM and Audiobus...Both platforms were somewhat a failure...
@skiphunt , what did you use as platform to send MIDI out from Dhalang?
Thanks
You have to go to settings, at the top it has Midi I/O and "update", click update then click the Out Port dropdown just below update. You should see the apps available to receive midi. Beat machine is receiving on midi chan 1, select EXT from your sequence page, and select MIDI-01.
You can send midi out from Dhalang to multiple channels to different apps, but you have to kind of refresh and select one app, ie. Beat Machine for chan 1. Get it playing... Then go back to Setting page, and select Drum Perfect from the Midi I/O - Out Port drop down. It's a little easier to just set up a simple local midi network with something like MidiFlow, but I've got it to send to multiple apps simultaneously selecting then one-by-one as described.
I tested this and I was able to offline render looped piano roll tracks successfully for many (5) minutes.. the sequencing code does not differ from normal audible playing.
At least the iPad (Air 2) hardware output supports 96khz but other apps/devices can be a different thing. If there is an audible sound when the app is set at 96khz, the device supports it. I personally use 96khz only when doing something where I need high quality and clean sound from the physical synthesizers. Otherwise it has not that much effect, but with the physicals the difference is great.
indvidual tracks are direclty from the instrument tracks (only with volume and panning) and individual busses output from the busses with possible effects etc.
The mixer main record (online render) records stuff while you can hear the playing and while you can affect parameters and settings etc like live mixing, keyboard playing, generator control... without worrying about dropouts. Offline render stops all user control and renders the data much faster than it would take to play as audible. It's also 100% dropout proof while online record can, in tehory, have dropouts ,if the dsp & sequencing is ridiculously overloaded.
@Hypertonal I've actually got an Air 2 and it certainly plays just fine when set to 96k. It's just AudioShare that wasn't letting me use it. I loaded Dhalang set to 96k into AudioShare, then when I changed the hardware settings of AudioShare to 96k, it said it wasn't able to make the change on this hardware. I assumed that meant the iPad didn't support it. Not important though.
I could tell a difference in 96khz from my desktop install offline render, but I also had a couple physical synths. I'll likely just keep everything at 44khz though... the difference wasn't significant enough for messing around stuff.
I'll try the piano roll looping thing on offline render again. It only did it that once. If it does it again, I'll drop you a note. Otherwise, I'll assume user error.
I tried and like doing the Main record out while messing with the mix, etc. live. Did you say that the State Machine course doesn't play, etc. while doing an offline render? I thought something was a bit off while doing the first offline render.. the State Machine wasn't actually changing states for the render. And that's why the Online recording sounded correct, because the State Machine was actually running.
It's incredible that this is your first Sound App. Is that correct? Stunning really. I think once the word gets out what this thing is actually capable of, and folks get over the somewhat intimidating appearance of the interface, the word will spread like wildfire.
Thanks!
@Hypertonal just tried again. Double checked everything. Had Piano Roll set to loop. Offline Render for 3mins. Only recorded one pass of the piano roll. Didn't loop in the offline rendering.
I've captured the screen on my piano roll to see if you see anything that could account for this:
Isn't it actually kinda weird idea to render a sequence generation without actually hearing/knowing what It will be like ? For a standard workflow, I have thought it's better to record generations to piano roll and edit them and then render, or record and mess with generators live. But offline generation is a fun way to generate unknown stuff.
This is actually third iteration of the same musical software paradigm/idea. First I developed a PureData patch collection of microtonal and generative/algorithmic ideas but no-one else could figure out how to use them, and I got really frustrated not being able to save the current setup in PD. So I started to write the patch collection into a unix/C/jack program that would allow easy save of the whole system, this software was named "hypertonal". It was also too difficult for anyone else, because of unix-like keyboard commands and other cryptic stuff, and the UI was really horrible. Third (and maybe not last) iteration is this one, made with a "commercial" quality and usability - or at least I tried my best this time
I have studied software development and have had jobs working with actual software users and testers to get that part right ..or to right direction. It's really all about the users when developing this sort of stuff.
Ok, I see whats the problem. You have only the master loop on. Piano roll SubTime is the toggle for individual loop points (in magenta color) . it means that the piano roll track has it's own time space that it loops to infinity
@Hypertonal Ok. cool. thx!