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.
FM Essential Update
With today's update you can save your own presets in your DAW--which takes the app to a new level. I wouldn't call it the easiest FM synth to program, but I twiddled around and came up with some interesting sounds in a few minutes.
I'm still waiting for @brambos to come out with Phasemaker though.
Comments
Should this be live ?
Is there an IAP for full unlock?
@DeVlaeminck It's live on my iPad. Version 1.1.0
@samu Sadly, no.
I'm really close to launch. I've been delayed by some annoying Garageband shenanigans
You're not alone with the 'GarageBand' stuff, Poison-202 also suffers from silimar issues
It's time for the GarageBand team to step and and create a fully working host for AUv3 testing
Indeed. They confirmed it's a bug on their end and will be fixed in a next update. So I guess I can prepare for takeoff.
Sweet! Did Apple leave any ETA(Estimated time of Arrival) for the update?
Checked the app store for the FM essentials update but it isn't live here in the UK App Store yet. It only seems to be available in the US App Store for some strange reason.
So you can now save presets? How exactly? Within the DAW but not the app?
I think 'inside the app/plug-in' and the plug-ins are 'refreshed' to check for new patches when loaded.
But I still think it's 'restricted' when an MX Version 2 keyboard is connected...
Man on deathbed summing up.
Not the app. Within the app if you click save, it sends you to the page that tells you need to unlock the app by buying a MX BK/BU/WH series Yamaha synth.
I was able to save new patches in AUM and Auria Pro (but not Cubasis or Garageband). Unlike iSEM, the presets you save can only be found in the DAW where you saved them.
I think FM Essential is just a marketing tool to sell synths, and to provide additional value to people when they buy. People want it to be a real app on its own, but I doubt it ever will be.
But Phasemaker is coming, which is a full 6 Operators, profoundly easier to program, and will come with presets. There's no comparison. Real cause for celebration. Thank you @brambos !!
Except this is one of very few AU instruments and it is, after all, free.
Made me spit coffee. Because it's true.
The FM Essentials update is now available on the UK App Store. However, I don't see the point in Yamaha mentioning preset save support using as AU on any DAW when the only DAW on iOS where saving presets is possible is Auria Pro and AUM. Anyway, Phasemaker is far versitile and superior than this with the 6 operators and 42 algorithms even though the effects are better on FM Essentials.
Can't you just open FM Essentials on Auria Pro/AUM? The problem is probably with the other hosts (Garageband has a known bug, for example), not the AU itself.
I think what Yamaha means is that 'state saving' is now allowed/working when FM Essential is loaded as AUv3 into a host. That did not work in the previous version.
Unfortunately it went out with the last cleanup because i dont have any yamaha synths so i can utilize 100%
So, just looking on the bright side for a moment, haven't we just got a DXi soft synth we can use multiple instances of on an iPhone (AUM) or baked into Auria. And we can save whatever patches we make in either of those platforms.
All for free.
Seems pretty good to me.
AUM also opens up every single parameter to midi cc control too. (Auria may do the same, I haven't checked).
I just have to work out how to program it.
The factory patches sound very nice to my ear.
I didn't get it: how can this app be bad in any sense?
It's not 'bad' but 10 presets and 'nag-ware' makes it annoying.
Perhaps I don't feel so annoyed because I tend program my own sounds most of the time, specially on FM synths. I found the sound of this app simply top notch. But yeah, nag-ware, don't like it!
Don't you save your work, though?
I usually bounce to audio after I'm done, but I think FM Essentials save states into Auria, right? So it's a way to circunvent any user preset limitations, I think. To be honest, though, I mostly use DXi, and now I'm exploring Phasemaker - both apps allow for apparently unlimited user patches, and DXi can even export each patch as a text file (which is quite useful).
It saves to AUM. I've just made about 10 patches.
Getting the hang of it.
So it's confirmed.
It'd be interesting to find out what it asks the MX mkII for over midi, and find a way of supplying that data. I mean, merely as a hypothetical academic thought exercise, of course.
Connecting to the MX mkII unlocks all the presets and also allows the usage of the UI to save patches (making it possible to share them between hosts) instead of saving relying on 'host based' AUv3 'state-saves/presets' which can not be shared between different 'hosts'.
But on the positive side at least 'state-saving' works...
Does anyone know how to edit the 'scene' ball in the centre of the UI ?
Doesn't seem like there's a way to determine which parameters appear within it.
That's the same kind of 'limitation' that Yamaha Synth Book had.. (together with other 'hidden' parameters not exposed in the UI).
I'm going to save myself a lot of frustration by deleting both FM Essentials and Yamaha Synthbook from my iPad until Yamaha 'de-criples' them...