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.
Good FX apps for randomization?
Hi there fellow music-makers,
I've been skimming through a lot of apps suitable for Audiobus 3, but haven't found too many that has random or modulation option for its parameters.
One good example is Dedalus (delay with pitch/distortion), that offers all kinds of ways to modulate the parameters, for example with an LFO.
Could you recommend any other good ones? Really just anything that can be used to add an ever-changing feel to the music. Also interested in MIDI tools, I'm only now beginning to dig into MIDI with iOS.
thank you! 
Comments
midiLFOs+any AU effect
Highly recommend Xynthesizr
Good'un.
Also, Turnado.
Moebius Lab - with all of the things that you can animate in the LFOS, it seems like you could easily get an "evolving", trippy sound.
And FluxFx
Yes I agree 100%... FluxFx has an effects sequencer that works very nice for automated evolving sounds. My 2nd recommendation would be Effectrix. Have fun...
If you like Dedalus, then any of the apeSoft or Amazing Noises apps; you can assign random and smoothed random lfos to just about any parameter. I particulary love using iPulsaret as a live processor within AUM. Randomization can be taken a stage further by using different effects apps in a few parallel AUM channels and assigning the 4 MidiLFO outputs to slowly fade the multiple AUM channels in and out, at different rates for each channel. Add some FluxFX into the mix and you're sorted...
+1 for Effectrix
thanks so much everyone!
Super helpful, esp. the midiLFO tip: I'd like to learn to create generative MIDI "environments", although I feel like learning to work w PureData (etc) would be just easier in the long run haha.
Also thanks for the parallel AUM channel suggestion, might look into picking AUM alongside Audiobus.
I noticed Audio Damage just published Grind Distortion which lets you modulate filter frequency, exactly what I've been looking for.
I've used Turnado live a few times, but it was surprisingly hard to get the dry/wet balance work smoothly (ie. it doesn't go from 1 to100 if you rank it up even a notch). Also the effects simply sound a bit plastic-y, if that makes sense, but yeah still very much worth tinkering with, or simply having in your fx chain.
Elastic Drums. Tons of possibilities through effects and automation, and the sampler IAP.
Cs grain and cs spectral.
from here, i ended up with Midi Designer pro 2 which basically solved everything and more (how to create a standalone template for controlling all your apps).
if there's someone reading this unfamiliar with MD2's programming powers, i recommend this youtube tutorial:
Could you possibly show a Screenshot or two?
Not really a lot to see on a screenshot I'm afraid. I usually use quite complex parallel AUM patches for live guitar processing; this is a very much simplified AUM drone setup, used purely in an attempt to demonstrate the principle.
iPulsaret is producing a drone (AUM channel 1). On channel 1 I'm using a bus send (A) to send some of the signal to a second AUM channel, which is further processed by Aufx Space Reverb (AUM channel 2). MidiLFO 1 is fading the reverb channel level (AUM channel 2) in and out using a Sine wave at rate of 0.02Hz, the reverb channel level swings between it's cc parameter values of 18 and 92, which is set in MidiLFO. Stria is producing a second drone (AUM channel 3). MidiLFO 2 is fading the third channel level in and out using a Sine wave at a rate of 0.03Hz; the level swings between it's cc parameter values of 44 and 96, again set in MidiLFO. I've not set the two MidiLFO oscillators to full attenuate or fully amplify the two drone channel levels, which would of course be parameter values of between 0 and 127. The lowest frequency of MidiLFO (0.02Hz) isn't quite slow enough to achieve subtle slow full fades, however you can modulate one LFO with another which will give slower speeds. In practice the subtle channel level changes chosen, coupled with the reverb send channel drifting in and out, give a sense of movement in space and the drone seems to shift and evolve too. I would typically use all 4 MidiLFOs with maybe 3 used to shift the levels of 3 parallel effects channels, and the 4th LFO would probably be sweeping an AUM LPF or auto-panning a channel. I wish MidiLFOs base frequency would go much slower though. Hope I've managed to explain the idea fairly clearly anyway ;-)
Wow!
Hehehe hehe.
Sure not :-DDD
But that's my fault ;-)
I will try to study, what you wrote!
Thanks a bunch!
Thanks for that.
It is much appreciated.
I usually use quite complex parallel AUM patches for live guitar processing.
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I use iOS combined with guitar hardware in my live loop set and I've been getting into using AUM IAA/AB channels with an iRig Pro and the Midi Guitar app switching channels/instruments (temporarily) with a QWERTY BTkeyboard until my get my Blueboard. At the moment the Midi Guitar app is processing the guitar on only one channel, I have thumbjam and several others loaded into AUM and I'm un-muting the channels with the keyboard when I want that instrument playing. It works "okay". But there are stray MIDI notes from time to time. Even stuck notes on occasion. When this happens live at a show it bothers me quite a bit even if most of my crowds don't really know what's going on but I'm trying to prevent this from happening. It also causes unwanted results while using other apps on the same ipad. I am very curious to hear what your doing based on your statement. Or other tips or AB threads for live guitar processing with iOS...Thanks
yup, absolutely. after a weekend of figuring out AUM (which was pretty easy since i've done similar generative setups with hardware & software before) and trying the kinds of setups you described, i am convinced! Especially Apesoft apps having the ability to insert lfos or midi cc to almost any parameter is a great thing. im doing some sound design work currently where i want to create "organic" material that i can then edit on a daw for the final version, and these apps are simply perfect, and fast, for this line of work.
thanks!
I keep hoping for a user definable timed, per channel, auto fade button in AUM. A simple trigger button below each channel level control, with a drop down menu to set time (0-60secs) and initial and final level parameter settings (0-127) midi triggered of course ;-)
The built in AUM mid controllable filters, panning and mid-side processing are all very useful for adding movement and variation in a multi-channel patch. I'm also looking at the Sonic Logic app to build custom midi controllers for AUM. The app has a configurable midi button with timed transitions between user set midi values. It's only capable of 2 second transitions at the moment but the developer has promised to increase this to at least 30 seconds.
An update on the idea of enhancing evolving textures by using midi auto fading of parallel AUM channels, loaded with different recordings or multiple drones, synths and/or effects. I purchased the Sonic Logic midi controller app a couple of days ago; it is so easy to set up timed transitions for midi cc fading of AUM channel levels. Sonic Logic now offers up to 60 second timed transitions, and you can set different rates for the cc value rise and fall times. For example; one press of a toggled time transition button, and you could have midi cc values increase from 0 - 127 over the course of 46 seconds, and you could set the second press to return the cc value from 127 - 0 over the course of 15 seconds. Obviously the cc values don't have to be from 0 - 127; min and max cc transition values are easily set in the app, and the values are easily inverted if required. I'm loving Sonic Logic for this particular feature...
Interesting topic! What I find limiting with LFO’s is that they are very predictable. And when I want unpredictability it gets very extreme and out of hand quickly (S&H or LFO controlling a second LFO). In Bleass Dragonfly you have a ‘wild’ controller which adds some flutter into the modulation. Are there any other effects (or midi LFOs) that have an option like this built in? Or are there other handy solutions for this?
All our products can be randomised, you can even choose which parameters to randomise and select between 3 stages of randomisation amount.
And then there is MMM / MMMm which is free and lets you randomise everything over MIDI
https://gs-dsp.com
^this 😄
UA Silo and LO-FI-AF have excellent randomisers - you can vary the amount from minor tweak to complete change and it's excellent for creating the beginnings of new ideas.
You may want to check into StepBud from Cem Olcay, an app which has a very reasonable price and which can send a series of random CC and PC values across any desired range of values very easily (and do a lot more), and has its own sequencer that you can use to time the sends. There are many ways to generate random CC and PC values using other apps such as Mosaic, Drambo, Streambyter, among other and those already mentioned, but for me StepBud is very convenient. If anyone is interested in a demo of it in action, I can create one and post a link to the video.
This is a beautiful and powerful app. An excellent choice for controlling multiple MIDI controls using LFO's, and it has some really neat modulation types to choose from including Random Walk, Random Oscillator, Uniform S&H and all sorts of other choices that look interesting. I've only used it a bit, but it's very easy to work with.
I love StepBud but it really bothers me that it still has a very major bug where moving some sliders can cause weird audio glitches. @cem_olcay any chance of that finally being fixed? 😁