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
@crouchie welcome back to the fold, good to see you're writing and producing again. The whispered vocals are really spooky and effective, and the sinister saw-like synth that comes after the first verse is really threatening sounding as well.
The change just before 3 minutes has a lovely icy feel to it with that cold chimey synth in the background, and overall the track is really evocative and atmospheric in places, with some beautiful cold melodies and some great synth patches.
The drums I'm not a fan of, but that may be a genre thing, I've never really liked those 808/909 drum sounds, I've always found them overly harsh and monotonous sounding (and I don't like the 303 much either so I obviously have problems appreciating large swathes of dance music
)
But as always, what I really like about your music is when it transcends genre, and moves beyond EDM, which is what happens with your vocals, and I like the sinister and claustrophobic feel of the whispered delivery in this song.
@Vorgon the first question has to be was the bass line played on a bass guitar? I'm going on the picture embedded in the SC track with the Ernie Ball bass strings, but the bass actually sounds sequenced - or maybe your playing is just very tight.
I think the vocals work much better in the sections where they aren't double-tracked, because the lower voice sounds a little flat and slightly out of time, and the higher singing sounds better to my ears. As an aside: singing harmonies is really hard, and the idea is good, so keep plugging at it, because with practice you should definitely be able to pull it off since you clearly have the raw material to work with here (you can sing in tune, although not quite pitch-perfect). The harmony section at the very end works nicely in accapella though.
The production overall is good, although the vocals sound a little muddy, not sure if it's an EQ problem or if it's the reverb, but they could do with a little adjusting to make them sound clearer. All the instruments sound great though.
Thank so very much, really kind of you to give such detailed feedback and you are very encouraging as always. It was a case of just trying to work with what came out onto the iPad. I'm thinking that I'm going to try to make my backing less detailed and make the whole thing more vocal in future, if only to try to get more stuff done. Thinking I'd limit myself to a number of stems and then see what happens. It just takes so long otherwise eh? Thanks again and am loving being back in the club
P
For me it's always the vocal that takes the longest, I'm jealous of those that can knock them out
IMO you should definitely concentrate on making your music more vocal-based - it's your vocal that makes your stuff stand out, the vocals are excellent.
@JohnnyGoodyear sorry to hear about your friend. I guess we're getting to that age...
So the words, especially the ones in the background parts, aren't always intelligible, but maybe that's deliberate. The music itself is quietly unsettling, and provides a foreboding backing to the spoken word. I like the change in tone at the two minute mark, the shift into quieter more restful sounds that gently lead us to the conclusion, the ending...
The best thing about the piece is the imagery, the succession of images that paints a vivid set of pictures. Poetry is always more evocative when it speaks in pictures rather than telling us directly what we should be hearing and feeling, it leaves the meaning open to us, and makes the personal universal. Even if I have no idea what your friend meant to you after listening to the track I do get a sense of life, and loss, delivered in a series of snapshots.
Oh the video is great, the images are very well chosen and fit the track perfectly.
Hey @richardyot thanks very much for such considered feedback. I'll definitely revisit this tune in the next couple of months to shorten it, clean up some of the vocal lines and soften the main guitar hook. They are all great suggestions. Thanks again for listening....and giving me a reason to buy the amplitube fender 2 collection
No worries, good luck with the Fender 2 collection, it's one of the few guitar-based IAPs I don't own.
@Love3quency nice ambient sketch. I would say if you are going to flesh this out a bit more it's not so much length it needs but maybe more purpose. I know you've conceived it as an ambient piece, so it doesn't want too much purpose, but I think it could do with some more defined melodies, and also possibly a sense of progression and evolution. It's nice and dreamy and drifts along, but it would be good to have the sense that we are maybe (gently) drifting somewhere. I think a melodic hook, even a subtle one, would help me to drift along with the tune, wherever it is that it is taking me. Somewhere nice presumably.
@Bluepunk this one is a bit of a stream of consciousness for the irrationally angry, two minutes and twenty seconds of pure spite, directed at what I'm not quite sure - but I've made a mental note to try and not piss you off in any way
The musical backing is pretty intense, your fingers must sore after laying down those drums, all those fast and furious drum rolls and spiky guitars. And despite all the speed and fury the timing is perfect, not a sloppy beat in sight.
The vocals are delivered with the right amount of spite, I can feel the spittle on the microphone from here, a properly angry (and slightly terrifying) performance.
I'm just glad I'm not called Simon, else I would be paranoid right now.
Thanks @richardyot
Agreed, it was my first attempt on my new iPhone. I have not made ambient for ages, mostly house and dnb
I know what you are saying about the missing elements and will work toward that for sure mate
Cheers for listening
@LostBoy85 that's excellent, a really good song - and genre-wise probably one of my favourites of yours as it has a more indie feel which is what I dig.
The melodies are excellent, the hooks abound, the dynamics of the song are great, the vocals are wonderful, and the backing vox are also fab. A very good, and well constructed song. I also really like the guitar riff in the intro which you reprise at the 3 minute mark. The guitar tone could be better but that might be fixable in the mix (it's a little too bright and brittle for me).
Mix-wise I think the drums are too loud, they drown out the bass and guitars and dominate the mix completely. They definitely need to go down a bit. For a song like this one I would try and feature the guitar more, it should be a guitar-driven sound (after the vocals of course). I would also probably have a second rhythm guitar chugging away in the background to flesh out the sound a bit: the arpeggiated sections probably sound a bit bare which might be why you turned the drums up so high. I think with more prominent guitars the mix would sound a lot more dynamic (not that it sounds sluggish now), and also the guitar riffs are so good they should really feature more.
I would also dial up the backing vox a bit towards the end, just to give the song a bit more of a finale, and rather than the abrupt stop (hey I'm not one to talk here) have a fade out.
These a re minor niggles though, because it's a great tune and with some more production polish I can totally picture hearing this on the radio. What I would suggest is to leave it for a few months and revisit it with fresh ears so you can fix the mix and production issues, or maybe get someone to remix it for you to bring it up to it's full potential. For what it's worth I'm revisiting a few old tunes at the moment rather than writing new ones, and coming back to things later is a good exercise, it really helps to add an additional layer of polish to tracks with potential.
@trackedout a couple of things stood out here: firstly the vocals are really clear, not buried in the mix like you usually have them, and also this is much tighter sounding than usual (well at the start anyway, it does get looser at the end), although I actually like your looseness because somehow it doesn't sound sloppy but deliberate.
I like the aggression and the spikyness of the sound in this one, some nice sharp riffs being played. The ending probably drags on a bit too much (not really a fan of drum solos) I would cut that bit out (you could lose the last minute of the track IMO, just fade out at 3.20). Also the mix sounds a little thin and trebly to me, you could probably brings up the bass guitar and tame the high end a bit.
I really like the vocal, and the melodies and the guitar riffs. Your singing does have a hint of J Mascis (Dinosaur Jr.) which I've mentioned a few times before, but not so much that you sound like you're ripping him off, you've got your own voice and it sounds damn cool and lends a real vulnerability to your songs. I also like how the languid quality of the voice contrasts with the more aggressive backing.
The washy guitar thing at 1.30 is great, I love that kind of mad instrumental in a song. Anyway, well done, it's a great track.
Looks like you've taken this one down @DefRobot, if you have an updated link I would love to listen and review.
Thank you kindly. I must say that I'm learning a great deal from all your thorough reviews and proves the ears are finely tuned. Just as importantly, you have the will and unselfish attitude to hone in on and inspect the detail, make educated/knowledgeable comment about that detail, and then provide alternatives for us to try out. Thanks..... Appreciate it.
Well in that case I didn't do you justice since I didn't nitpick your mix
I agree with Johnny, you need to try and make the vocals a bit clearer, so that the words are easier to follow.
@richardyot Hello mate, thanks so much for your fantastic review. I actually agree with everything & you're not the first to mention the guitar tone. Haha! I guess I just got excited that I could even USE guitars...ish!
This one was definitely a case of just trying to not to overthink things so that I could get the bloody song done! So yes I think I will revisit it in the future for sure.
Cheers mate!
Apologies for my first mix disappearing!
I've stripped down, messed around and twiddled some knobs.
I've also remixed my song.
Big thanks to all that gave tips and advice. I hope the work I've done is evident
Hello, I know didn
t contribute much to say something your songs the past weeks. But I hope. you tell me, what You think about this new song. It took me several weeks. I had many tracks when Auria corruptet my Song. I moved around many regions and first tried Midi tracks. Then it f..up. So I had to start again with only a few tracks remaining. You will hear it. It is without any Quantizing. Used Funk drummer, Yamaha Montage ( cause it is more easy for me to fiddle with sounds than on ipad), a drum loop vom Beathawk, a persussion- loop from Afro- latin a SM 58 with my excellent voice. It is old school Wanted to create something like super funky 1+1+1=3 by prince. But auria destroyed my funky Guitar-track. But I´m white. So the result is something between Jay Graydon and Barry White. I dont know ;-). It was fun. But i Can`t hear that song for the next few weeks. Have to rehearse with the Live Band and look for the flowers in the garden@studs1966 : Love it. very pro. I take this in my car too. Wish I could produce like this.
@defrobot great job on the remix . I feel like we got to hear the demo version before it hit the studio and then the studio version.. it's night and day. You took everyone's advise and made use of it. Good job. Without the forum I'd be even more lost than I am now . And my mixes are still crazy , I can't imagine where I'd be without the help of everyone here
@Franketti funky very flunked out, I like the keys solo . It's all jamming and together on that part for me... the bass is awesome... vocals are great to good job on this one
@richardyot thank you for listening and reviewing my track of the month, I appreciate everyone's input. I wanted to say that washy guitar thing at 130 you loved wasnt guitars , it was my vocals ran thru jam up pro and AmpliTube on as many distortion effects I could put on and just made noises then bussed them all and compressed the life out of them , I was in a hotel by the beach bored out of my mind and guitar less and had to finish the track so I improvised it. I'm glad it sounded like guitars cause that's what I was going for
Bonus points. Love it.
@marliess : good Guitar Part. Don't like the hihat sound. But like the Song and the mix.
@LostBoy85 : I'd like to have a Voice like Yours. The Song Sounds quite pro
Excellent. More of that please.
My entry for the month, I've revisited a track from last year, re-doing the vocals completely. I've also dialed back the overall compression on the mix so that it's more dynamic and less harsh.
Lyrics in the spoiler:
I listen to the distant thunder waiting for the rain
I'm watching shadows moving under clouds on hazy plains
There's miles and miles of space between us Skies are looking grey
There's nothing left to feel but loss, and nothing more to say
And the rain
far away
will it come?
will it stay?
I hear the thunder in the distance, It's still far away
There's sheets of rain beneath beneath the clouds, and they're heading this way
There's nothing much to do but wait and hope it blows away
We fill our lives with hopes and dreams but the rain comes anyway
And the rain
far away
will it come?
will it stay?
For the curious, this is the original version:
https://m.soundcloud.com/richardyot/distant-thunder
The vocals in the newer one are clearly better, although still not quite as good as I would like, especially in the first verse.. Maybe I should get @Bootsy to sing it...
Thanks mate. The hardest part is warping the vocal acapella in time to the project your doing. Especially, if they are way off the BPM mark.
@richardyot Wow what an atmospheric song! Love the feel to this and the slide guitar.....then it builds again towards a splash ending.
Put me in mind of Noah and the whale.
Lovely song
@richardyot I can't find your entry for the month .. have you not put one up?
3 posts above yours, 4 posts above this one.