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
Some people including myself are wishing for a more streamlined workflow that minimizes the amount of apps and configuration necessary to get going and making music. Which is also why I recently never even bothered using AB and just tried to do things with AUM only. The ideal single app for me would have been Aumdiobusflow, a collaboration of @j_liljedahl, @JohannesD and the AB team. Because that's not happening but AB3 seems to be coming very close to that vision, my somewhat selfish hope is that AB3 can actually do everything AUM is capable of now and more. Which would unfortunately be an AUM killer... But that would be the ideal app imho. And maybe this new situation would cause AUM to get some more advanced features to have an edge over AB again for some time?
Sometimes capitalism works!
Of course stability is a major concern as well, so if AB3 gets all these great features but is struggling with all kinds of bugs and overall unreliability it's not that useful for a live performance. And AUM has proven to be rock solid... But I hope AB3 will be just as reliable.
I wouldn't describe AUM as 'rock solid', I suffer from regular (about 5% of the time) lost recordings when using the internal recorder and quite a few IAA apps don't play nice with it. It's one of my most used and loved apps, but I wouldn't trust it in a live environment.
If AB3 can provide a more solid platform for multiple app use it'd be my go-to app for live stuff.
Have to concur that I have this 'lost' recordings thing once in a while, always after a rare masterpiece of course...
Oh, I never even tried that.
Oh, that part has been clear from the start!
My thing about spending isn’t about buying new versions of apps which are currently compatible with AB2. My guess is that some apps will be paid upgrades (including AB3 itself) but maybe not so many of them.
My thing is about buying AB3, AB Remote (once it’s updated), Johannes Dörr’s new MIDI filters, and biting the bullet on AB-compatible apps which become more useful with the advent of AB3, making them a more attractive purchase.
When you add new modules in Gadget 3 (which people expect to be free but may end up costing quite a bit) and BM3, it can add up.
Don't really use it for recording so can't comment on that. Have clocked up hundreds of hours of jamming/rehearsing/performing (and on some big stages too) and never had any crash or glitch. This is even using routing setups where I can push my Air2 and Mini2 waaayy beyond the point of stability if I pushed the wrong buttons. AB2/AUM. Just gotta know your equipment (software possibilities vs hardware limitations) and do your due diligence and prep properly!
Precisely. Been holding off on those purchases.
Apologies to everyone for my insistent posts on app costs. Mostly meant that, thanks in large part to things like AB, the iOS musicking ecosystem is too compelling for my current financial situation.
Will refrain from making further comments about costs.
Have to agree with you both. I love AUM, but iOS in general is just not a 'rock solid' environment in my opinion. It can be decent. It can be great at times, but live use rock solid I do not find it
I think the benchmark for that was set by 30 page threads discussing the cost of Gadget. I didn't feel that you were bringing cost in obnoxiously here. I'm also in a tough spot at the minute (we had to move to Ireland on very short notice which meant rebuilding my freelance business here from day one) and so it's something I'm considering carefully too.
AB3 is a necessary purchase though, since I actually use these tools in that business! Check out http://www.elfinbow.com/ by the way to see the first album I performed iOS instruments on as a session musician (it's been in production for a long while since I recorded my parts but was released last week). Samplr, Crystalline and the AUFX apps were used on this one! (as well as a couple of bass instruments which I've customised to give me more scope for interesting performance possibilities).
edit (and apologies for digressing!):
I was just browsing her page and noticed that all the visible pictures are of me or my iOS equipment.. haha!
http://www.elfinbow.com/elfin-bow-music
Ha! Good point!
That’s actually the issue which brought me to this forum.
Makes a lot of sense. Part of my point was that AB (or AUM) can bring a lot of value to an iOS device.
Cool!
Thanks for sharing.
There’s been a lot of talk about use of iOS instruments in production contexts, but relatively few examples apart from “proofs of concepts” and such. My guess is that there are quite a few musicians using iOS devices in the studio or on stage but people are waiting for a sort of breakthrough.
Yeah, people come up to me pretty often before/after gigging with iOS instruments and tell me about what they're up to with iOS. Lots and lots of bedroom iOS musicians and people starting to get it out on stage. One guy told me about a 'Samplr guitar' body that he'd DIY'd for his iPad. I'm absolutely sure that we'll see more and more iOS music appearing in the ebb and flow of music performance and production, over the coming years.
I'm trying to make iOS into an 'instrument' rather than a 'production environment' myself. The Elfin Bow job was the beginning of the cumulation of that direction of work. I turned up to the studio with my gear (basses and 'iOS instruments'), set it all up in the live room, ran the appropriate DI's to the console and performed through the tracks under direction as I would on any other kind of instrument on a studio session. Do that with a Macbook!! Audiobus (and AUM) makes it possible to work in this way and Audiobus 3 should streamline the process a lot more.
I was also working as a touring musician in her live group (as well as a few other contemporary artists in the Northwest) and did a dosen or so concerts with her, but I had to drop out for the time being for 'un-named geographical/political reasons'. I'd still recommend her group though if anyone can catch them in the UK. Very good musicians and exceptional songwriting.
Jonatan has had has access to the Audiobus 3 SDK and can fix any upcoming issues.
There might be some track/icon related stuff that he might have to adjust AUM to, the basic functionality will not change. So to my knowledge even if AUM does not receive an update, the changes from Audiobus 2 to Audiobus 3 are just cosmetic, not functional
I'm trying to do the latter myself as well. We should develop a thread for like-minded folks to share successful ways to approach iOS as an instrument. I was playing Geoshred the other day and thought to myself: this is so close to being as compelling as playing a physical instrument but there's something about the iPad sitting on a table that just misses for me in some small but meaningful way. To that point, can you explain the "Samplr guitar body" comment a bit more?
Agreed! People will think about the late 2010s as a time when mobile device start to become more prominent. Some of us were musicking on Palm Pilots a long while ago, but it’s only now that these things are getting real traction.
Part of the story might come from Raspberry Pi and other tools for “Digital Making”. There have been great projects with these, already, but the kids who are currently learning both music and coding through Sonic Pi are likely to innovate a lot of the music we’ll hear in 10 years.
There should be more stories about this kind of session. Maybe people take it for granted but there’s something really neat in what these devices afford.
We sure do live through interesting times. And music is a nice way to avoid some of the negative stuff.
I'm up for that!
My solution was to stick it all in a cool looking briefcase so that I can roll into the gig, open the case and be ready to go (oh and about 1000 hours of preparing intricate AUM routing setups). You can see that setup in one of the pictures I referenced before.
From what the guy told me, he'd just cut out a guitar body shaped mount for the iPad so that he could run a cable from it and walk around the stage using it as if he were a guitarist. Sampltr!!
Ha! That'd be fun. Although how would that work ergonomically? I think someone has to figure out a way to get the iPad horizontal enough that it makes sense ergonomically attached to a person rather than a table or stand.
OM Guitar has an interesting take on this, there is a companion app for the iphone that handles the chords while you play the strings on the iPad. At one point they sold a body to strap the ithings to as well but I don't think they do that any more.
I really want to see an all iPhone band just absolutely kill it with one finger playing.
Thumb only?
I've gotten quite adept with Figure with just my thumb.
@OscarSouth , that's because some of us are quite green at this and to the untrained eye, some of the "mixer/routing" comments can be a bit confusing.
Why name it audiobus 3 if it's another app? Why not audiobus pro or audiobusser or audiobus platinum etc?
Since I have restricted the number of apps I use I am finding iOS far more stable. I am now back to thinking that iOS itself is about 97% stable with audio issues being fixed by plugging a pair of headphones making up the 3% instability.
Any further instability is dpwn to poorly written or tested apps that while they behave perfectly well on their own, will misbehave when used in conjunction with other apps.
I don't trust iOS any less than I would a windows laptop for live use.
Yes, a windows laptop would score no higher in my mind either. In many ways, Windows just isn't any where near as reliable if you use it for other things too, as I do my iPad.
Did I mention how well my iPad copes with porn sites that would send Windows to the clap clinic?
Exactly, it is the multi use that opens the door for instability...if you use the same thing for the same task all the time it will be 99.9% stable. )
I'm sorry but I do not know what you are talking about....IAmPureAndInnocent.com always works though
Maybe 99% given the fact that rarely are all needed apps updated within the same OS upgrade of that particular moment in time. Even software driven hardware fails to be absolutely perfect.