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.
OT: Microtonic PO-32
Pocket Operator hardware mixed with Sonic Charge Microtonic drum synth. Very Nice.
Dear Microtonic user. Today we are proud to reveal the fruit of an exciting collaboration with Teenage Engineering: the PO-32, a small version of Microtonic in the form of a Pocket Operator. It has got the same high fidelity and flexible sound as you know from Microtonic (except that it is monophonic and four simultaneous channels only). In fact it is 100% patch compatible and you will be able to transfer drum sounds from the VST to the Pocket Operator via the built-in microphone on the pocket operator. See this in action here
It also features 16 fun "punch-in effects" that you can record onto patterns and all the other features that you would expect in a Pocket Operator. We will soon release a free upgrade of Microtonic (version 3.2) that includes the sound and pattern transfer features.
Please notice that the first series of PO-32 is a limited edition for $139 that includes Microtonic AU/VST. Since you already own Microtonic you might want to wait for the next batch of PO-32 that will be sold without Microtonic for $89, on top of which you will receive a little discount. The second batch will start shipping first week of april. We will send you another email as soon as we have all the details.
Best Regards,
Magnus & Fredrik Lidström
Sonic Charge
Comments
So much Yes for this.
So dope. Love this collab!
Kalle Paulsson PO-32 playlist
The updated VST looks much sharper
Just got mine delivered today.
Haven't even played around with the VST yet, already impressed with the hardware. The automation capabilities, effects, and song mode make it a big win.
If this had an ipad companion app, I'd be all over it. Not even the full Microtonic app — just the synth engine (single channel, no MIDI so no cheating on price) in order to create and transfer sounds.
Would be cool to have that as an option. Microtonic is definitely a nice companion to have though, especially with the First Decade content download. Ridiculous amount of stuff to easily throw on to this little device.
...And the VST is proving to be a funky little beatbox. I've sort of had it on my radar for a while now, and am a big fan of Permut8, liking what I'm seeing so far in MicroTonic. Haven't transferred sound just yet though, and as I understand it some of the sound gets lost in translation. Will report more.
The vst is the best drum synth/box, to my tastes. Kind of an iElectribe range of sounds
Does anyone know if there are any plans for more pocket operators this year?
Yeah, my thoughts too, though I should note that I bought 4 of the earlier Pocket Operators ranging from $45 to $60, and it'd be a little rough paying more for that form factor. They sound great, and are actually sneakily intuitive to program and use. But the physical hardware is not built to last - even changing the batteries is terrifying (difficult to remove them and avoid bending/fatiguing the connecting prongs), and the devices can't be turned "off", so you have to change batteries every 1-2 months.
This PO-32 did look like it offered something cool, but realistically, we have a lot more sampling, editing, and beatbox functionality as iOS users in a device (iPhone) that is basically the same size (and far more durable).
Good points. I have and enjoy the po-12. Would love it more if it used 9v battery that wasn't perilous to remove so that I could hook it up to an adapter more easily.
If this had an iOS app, I'd probably sell the the PO-12 for this. Can't imagine needing both.
You can hear it in the demoes. Sound is close enough to 1:1 that I couldn't differentiate them in a blind test. I mean, the guy got it to work on the PO hardware. Certainly he could pull off an iOS port.
My mistake, I thought it wasn't 1:1. Good news.
If you're already on an iPhone, I can see how that might factor in. If not, the roughly $500 difference is pretty significant.
Main things I'm looking for in hardware and software is, does it bring something unique, something I can use? Is it something I don't already have? This fits that bill.
Finally got a chance to transfer some sounds, did so over both speaker and line in, and two of the channels didn't have the same pattern as in MicroTonic. Not sure what's going on there. Other than that though it sounded the same after a brief listen. Even had the same slight high pitched ring after stopping the pattern playback. It's one of the good things: I'm finding the device to be filled with nice little glitches that give it it's own character.
Would love to see more POs like this, ones that let you expand the sound options more. Gives the device a bit more life span.
Interesting interview with Magnus