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 Store

Audiobus is the app that makes the rest of your setup better.

iOS as Live Instrument

Anyone out there besides @OscarSouth use an iPad or iPhone as a live instrument? Note that I'm not referring to using iOS as a sound generator or as a looper or other production tool. I'm thinking of using the iPad as an actual instrument that you play live. For instance, maybe you are a Samplr performance artist... Or you use GeoShred or ThumbJam or some other expressive controller app as your main instrument.

I'm also interested in ideas about good ways to feel secure playing a relatively "breakable" piece of gear in a live situation. Anyone find good ways to protect the investment while retaining good ergonomics?

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Comments

  • just strap it to your arm like cashiers do, open Animoog, shred, and try to look fly

  • As mundane as may be, putting equipment into nicely fitting/good looking cases is absolutely important to this process.

    Equipment ready to go:
    http://www.elfinbow.com/elfin-bow-music?lightbox=image_rcz
    Different gig same rig, during the show:
    http://www.garyedwardjones.com/photos?lightbox=image_1jdp

    Gotta get packing down and setting up to an art that you can perform on auto pilot (and also get your 'fault checking' process down to a second nature so that you know exactly what can go wrong and how to deal with it when it does). Same mentality goes for software prep. Every detail should be meticulously prepared and explored/rehearsed/tested extensively enough that any territory that can go wrong is 'mapped', and how to deal with it is rehearsed.

  • Do you have a backup iPad, @OscarSouth ?

  • This guy does:

    In this TedX talk:

  • And I want that iPhone holder !

    Suction cup? I watched the whole video and couldn't figure it out.

  • edited March 2017

    @lukesleepwalker said:
    Do you have a backup iPad, @OscarSouth ?

    Nah, would be too expensive and anyway, if something fucks up then it's too late. You already screwed it up! My mentality is more to prepare for success rather than mitigate failure.

  • Haven’t done it, yet.
    It’s a longstanding dream of mine to have a very compact setup to bring to gigs, along with my sax.
    Main thing for me would be to have one good synth, to be driven by my Wind Controller. A MIDI chorder would also be nice to have. Don’t need much in terms of extra bells and whistles (unless the music calls for whistles and bells, of course).

  • Ecco cello (David Fernandez) has been live with loopy since at least 2011.

  • That guy has a natural resting spot for the iPhone on the bridge of his cello. Lucky bastard.

  • @supadom said:
    Me

    Ah ok, got it Not me

  • @supadom said:

    @supadom said:
    Me

    Ah ok, got it Not me

    And I wouldn't. I have my principles ;)

  • @supadom said:

    @supadom said:

    @supadom said:
    Me

    Ah ok, got it Not me

    And I wouldn't. I have my principles ;)

    Well no, impaktor's gotta be counted as an instrument right?

  • @lukesleepwalker said:
    That guy has a natural resting spot for the iPhone on the bridge of his cello. Lucky bastard.

    I was thinking the same thing. Cello being anchored to the floor has a good 0 point for controlling effects. Great performance.

    However, I also tried to imagine if that 'goliath' song was performed by bunch of people i personally would find it more immersive/exciting. That could have a lot to do with one person being not as visually entertaining as the whole band. I find panning loops left and right helps with the audio but visuals are tough to better.

    There's always (to me) something strangely boring to watch a one man band shows unless it is just a person with a guitar or whatever.

    It's was good to hear that Ecce managed to escape the typical looping pitfall of recorded audio sounding worse than the live audio. It is often the case that loopers end up sounding like someone singing in front of their ghetto blaster karaoke style rather than a living breathing thing.

    I guess I'm the inside man so can't have an unbiased opinion on the matter of looping but it is really nice to see these performances. I especially enjoyed the talking/philosophy etc.

    Thanks for sharing

  • edited March 2017

    @supadom said:

    @supadom said:

    @supadom said:

    @supadom said:
    Me

    Ah ok, got it Not me

    And I wouldn't. I have my principles ;)

    Well no, impaktor's gotta be counted as an instrument right?

    Yep, that certainly counts. Good one!

  • @supadom said:

    @supadom said:
    Me

    Ah ok, got it Not me

    Where is the rooftop vid?

  • I am playing an iPad for audio (Noatikl/IFretlessApps/Cyclop/Turnado/Borderlands/etc) into a Macbook Pro for video manipulation(VDMX, clips and live) and routing/frequency-manipulation (Logic, binaural). Ambient drones developing into percussive/rhythmic hacks and vice versa. Always have a second iPad plugged in with same setup. If pad 1 fucks up, I switch channels inside Logic and go on, since everything is freely improvised, nothing to be noticed, in most cases... .

  • I used my iPad as a live instrument, using (the incredible) GeoShred to control (the brilliant) Addictive Pro.

    I use something like this to put my iPad Pro on, and more recently my Linnstrument (still controlling Addictive Pro).

    http://www.staggmusic.com/en/products/view/musq5?backp=1

    Completely adjustable height and angle and pretty solid. Works perfectly.

  • @charalew said:
    I used my iPad as a live instrument, using (the incredible) GeoShred to control (the brilliant) Addictive Pro.

    I use something like this to put my iPad Pro on, and more recently my Linnstrument (still controlling Addictive Pro).

    http://www.staggmusic.com/en/products/view/musq5?backp=1

    Completely adjustable height and angle and pretty solid. Works perfectly.

    Thanks for the tip on the stand. What is it about addictive pro that works so well for you? Sorry, I don't have that app so I am unaware of the spells it casts...

    Geoshred reminds me of a modern day MPE lap steel. Completely misbranded.

  • RE Addictive Pro, there are lots of great iPad synths and I've ended up buying most of them. I've been messing around with a lot of them for a long time and came to the conclusion I needed to settle on just one if I was ever going to get any actual music done!

    I ended up with Addictive Pro as my go-to synth because it's really flexible and seems to be capable of pretty much everything from fat warm strings to hard edged metallic leads. I also really like the interface i.e. drawing in the harmonics (partials) levels and the spectral filter by hand. Just seems so intuitive and the way a synth on a touchscreen interface should be in contrast with something like Model 15 which emulates cable patching and from my point of view is just to cumbersome to use to be my go-to synth even though I really like the way it sounds. The other thing about Addictive Pro is that's it's AU compatible which is a big bonus. Just which they'd make it MPE!

  • I've been using Geo and this iPad holder:
    https://www.k-m.de/us/news/169_3_new_ipad_holder.html

    I had the holder attached to a metal window hinge on the wall. The iPad was very firm, didn't move at all. As mentioned before, it is important to have a good holder, especially for apps like Geo. I hit the iPad quite hard during a performance, similar to a keyboard player hammering on its keyboard.

  • Still always think about this one from Squeeze. One of the first uses of iPad as an instrument that I can remember. Piano solo at 2:28

  • edited March 2017

    @lukesleepwalker said:
    Does this look fly?

    Way fly!

  • It's funny reading this topic knowing that some developers don't believe in live playing on the touch screen at all.

  • @db909 said:
    It's funny reading this topic knowing that some developers don't believe in live playing on the touch screen at all.

    Really? Like who?

  • @lukesleepwalker said:

    @db909 said:
    It's funny reading this topic knowing that some developers don't believe in live playing on the touch screen at all.

    Really? Like who?

    Just some folks who took too many marketing seminars, but that's ok. We all gotta do what we gotta do. No big deal.

  • I will say this: put me behind a curtain playing Geoshred and I bet 99 out of a 100 think I'm playing a physical instrument. I'd love an MPE surface that would give me a bit more touch sensitivity. The glass is pretty one dimensional despite Geoshred developers heroic efforts.

  • edited March 2017

    I will say this: put me behind a curtain when I play ThumbJam because I will never do those antics in front of a real audience. :D

    (And I also get your point @lukesleepwalker. I don't have geoshred but Animoog, Steel Guitar, Guitarism, ThumbJam, and others are very convincing. )

  • for sounds that doesn't really need velocity input, a tablet can be used as a musical input device. Be it as a synth/sampler, or MIDI controller.

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