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
He wasn’t talking about stringed instrument players, per se .. He was talking about musicians in general. I was close to a member of his family so I’m familiar with what his stance was. As a drummer primarily I’m well aware of the fact that there are different kinds of “ears” I.e. playing in a rhythm section. And it’s entirely possible to play the piano if you’re tone deaf. But you won’t be a good musician. I’m not talking about wiggling your fingers on an Instrument. I mean hearing what you’re playing . There’s a reason ear training classes are a requirement in music colleges. And not just for string players. There’s no negating the value of being able to decipher the harmonic voices within a chord . This is my last comment concerning the issue which is so obvious it’s hardly worth discussing at such length .
Some people tried to bury the ear training comment with jokes so I was just showing support.
All joking aside I did not notice anyone saying "Do NOT train your ears". Maybe I missed such a comment.
Jokes aside, as someone who from age 7 was regretfully trained to play solely from sheet music for years and years, with never any training or encouragement to play by ear, I can absolutely agree that ear training is the most important thing one can do as a musician. I would be so much better of a musician today if those early years of 90 minutes a day practicing violin had been spent listening and repeating what I heard rather than with my nose buried in some concerto I had to reproduce from just a score.
When I finally busted out of the classical world and started trying to have fun playing with others, I was left in the dust. They could all play whatever they heard. I had to go off to see if I could find some guitar tab somewhere.
My viola and cello teachers used the Suzuki Method with me. Suzuki has you learn the music by ear first, then check against the notation. So students were - at the time - required to buy the CD that goes with the Suzuki book. Looks like the book publisher has moved on from CDs to audio streaming/downloads and something called SmartMusic.
Experienced string musicians in various folks genres (Scottish and Irish fiddle music, American bluegrass and Old Time, etc.) can listen to an unfamiliar melody and reproduce it in a short amount of time. I saw Brittany Haas learn a complicated Bulgarian melody in about 10 minutes. Players like her who operate in those genres are just used to learning melodies by ear. However, they do break down the longer melodies into sections A, B, etc. to facilitate the learning.
Revisiting the original question, I do like a lot of electronic music, and being able to play piano transfers readily to keyboard synths, keyboard MIDI controllers, etc. and is less expensive and error-prone than using a guitar MIDI controller solution.
OTOH, playing fingerstyle tunes on guitar is quite satisfying for me. I've grown more fond of playing the tunes on my electro-acoustic nylon string guitar.
Osmose might turn out to be the perfect marriage of keyboard interface with guitar expressiveness. Or it could be a debacle. We'll find out when customers like me start receiving units in December.
Viola/violin is kind of a pain in the butt to play compared to the other instruments but the control over volume, pitch, etc. with the bow is a unique experience.