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
Damn!
Thanks a lot for your advices. I tried all this and nothing has changed. Which iOS version do you have ? I'm on 10.3.3
Same here. That's really strange. Hopefully @VirSyn can help you out
I just tried it in AUM as well, no issues even while pressing different tabs wildly while playing on the AUM keyboard
No crashes...for me on AUM.. a gate feature would have been awesome for this app? After mucking around just got my head around the link unlink bit ...
Same, can't get it to record AU automation in BM3
Can you see any AUParameter names if you try to manually add AUv3 parameter automation to track or pattern?
(Some AUv3's I have do not show any AUParameters and that makes automation impossible).
Yes, i can see the names but drawing some automation doesn't seem to have any effect
@VirSyn
Just wanted to check how the bark Spectrum works in correlation with the decibel scale on the right?
Is it supposed to correspond to the Db scale on the right?
if yes, then it does not make sense when I compare it to the VU meter on AUM?
If no, some sort of VU metering would have have been really beneficial ...although red bars indicate gain reduction ..again numbers would been great...
sidenote: ive also noticked the Virsyn apps does not scale properly in Bm3
iPad Pro 12.9 iOS 10.3.3 Some problems with size Bark Filter in Auria Pro
Please fix it
Looks like they just updated with AUv3 parameter automation though! (Yet to test in BM3)
@Denzkps Does this happen with the new version 1.1.0 too ?
It's working great in Auria Pro on my iPad Pro 9.7 with all the latest FYI.
Sorry but yes
iPad Pro 12.9
You know I was raggin on the app and want more new ideas from Virsyn.
I really mean I want new stuff.
I used Addictive today, that is literally one of the best synths on ios as a whole. The quality alone is ridiculous.
Reslice is now required every session.
I would love to see some groove type model like the old POLY but a 2018 version.
Or do some sample/waveform app in which you can edit the waveform and use these effects.
I would love some new instruments/generators from VIRSYN.
(and universal at that)
want cube synth pro
@virsyn Just noticed you can change the width of the bands (in all but filter. Im sure you know best) Looks excellent and deep, Il have to study why you might want that now.
Bug?
One think with the update, I had previously only used this on my Air2 and I could draw the filters very quickly by dragging my finger across the bands. I just installed the latest BF on my mini 2 and when I try the same it misses some of the band. The faster I draw the more bands and skipped.
Lets try a better explanation, with the default filter I draw a diagonal line to cut high frequencies. I get .....
This is very noticeable with the AU in AUM but is only just using the IAA.
While this certainly doesnt negate the app it is a bit annoying.
Love your apps
I massively love this app, @VirSyn
I prefer it over Audio Mastering, Final Touch and Grand Finale, but still need to compare them in detail.
Still, there are open question, as I could not find any manual for Bark Filter.
Is there no manual????
My questions:
1)
Having Compressor, Auto Gain and Limiters Off, Output Gain at 0 dB, there is still a difference between On / Off button toggling.
What does it do in this case?
It should not filter, not compress, not gain and not limit - so, what does it do???
2)
What does Auto Gain do exactly?
It increases the part below the threshold, whatever value this is set to?
And to what level? To the threshold level?
3)
What does the limiter exactly do?
Limit what exactly and in which way exactly, including its ratio, attack and release number.
4)
Why is there no documentation about such important things?
5)
The coloring seems off. When the filter is off, the unfiltered Audio is displayed in yellow.
But when you enable the filter, this changes to the unfiltered Audio being blue and the filter Audio becoming yellow.
Seems illogical and confusing. Why is that so? Could you change this?
6)
Why don't you add a settings page, where the 27 bands could be defined instead of being predefined? This would open lots and lots of new possibilities!!!
7) EDIT: There is a visible indication of the compressors work, and I seem to see the volume display in the upper middle to change in different ways when the limiter is enabled. Could you explain this a bit more? I would prefer the same display for the limiter as for the compressor, as a toggle to change between modes.
8) EDIT: Why is the default for attack and release 0,2 ms and 230 ms?
9) EDIT: You can easily create bands, but with the same swiping gesture you just cannot undo this again! So, you need to touch the small bands singly, which is annoying. Please allow the same gesture to separate bands again.
Thanks a bunch.
Again, this thing is rapidly becoming my most used app.
@VirSyn And one more question:
I have some understanding for having the single bands only be able to reduce the amount of threshold, ratio, attach and release, compared to the master settings.
But for the filter, I have NO such understanding!
Currently, you can only reduce the frequencies in each band, but cannot increase them, as any EQ could do. This makes the filter quite unusable - It nearly feels like an oversight!
PLEASE add proper filtering, allowing to increase and not only reduce frequencies!
Of course, this would also be good for threshold, ratio, attack, release and make-up of the band compression!
Of course, you can kind of increase frequencies with the make-up gain of the bands, but this is subject to the TRAR above and so no real EQ.
In general, please allow plus and minus for all bands and all parameters!
This would be a KILLER app!!!
also one of my preferred comp apps, I have had no issues about how app works as far as basics are concerned
I normally leave the limiter and auto gain off. Prefer to do gain staging separately
Triple band preset is my favorite
This is one of those apps wherein trusting your ears is more beneficial
@tja thank you for your nice comment :-)
to your questions...
ok, really deep manuals are victims of the app economy - highly specialised apps like BARK just don't have
the impact to make this feasible. We put the basics into the help pages, but for more you have to ask us.
1) I couldn't reproduce this here. Are you sure that all channel settings in the Filter and MakeUp page are set to 0 dB ?
2) When a signal is compressed, its amplitude above the threshold is reduced depending on the ratio parameter. Therefore the compressed signal is gain reduced. The actual gain reduction for each channel is visualised by the red bars in the spectrum display. The Auto Gain compensates for this gain loss in a way that a signal with full level on the input comes out as a signal with full level regardless of the setting of threshold / ratio.
Since this is a fixed level for each channel it does of course increase the noise floor too...
Instead ( or in addition ) of setting Auto Gain you can set the compensation individually in the MakeUp page.
3) The built in Limiter is a standard Compressor with threshold set to -0.3 dB attack time 0 ms and release time 100 ms.
4) see above
5) This is an optical illusion ;-) The blue line is always showing the input signal the yellow one the output signal.
With no filtering they are identical and the blue line is behind the yellow line. Sometimes you can see a tiny bit of the blue line shining through due to display inaccuracies...
6) The whole idea behind BARK ( see the screenshot of the help page you've posted ) is to have this filter behave
like a perfect companion to the way our ear is receiving audio. This is why we have fixed filter cutoff frequencies and bandwidths adapted to the "inner filter" parameters resulting from the scientific exploration from Eberhard Zwicker in 1961. Excerpt from wikipedia for Bark scale:
"The Bark scale is a psychoacoustical scale proposed by Eberhard Zwicker in 1961. It is named after Heinrich Barkhausen who proposed the first subjective measurements of loudness. One definition of the term is "...a frequency scale on which equal distances correspond with perceptually equal distances."
7) The visual indicators show the real output and are therefore affected by all parameters, it was just a decision for simplicity not to detail this further.
8) The defaults are simply a starting point with values which are most commonly used in standard compressors but of coarse not really comparable to a multi band compressor like BARK. Just wanted to have sensible ( hearable ) values here.
9) We actually had this in an early beta but it turned out that it gets in the way you can slide the corner band with the same gesture ( i.e. tap on the vertical line between two bands and move them, which only makes sense when you have only a couple of bands ) and decided to suppress this function.
Regarding the question about real level increase - there is at least a workaround: you can use the MakeUp Gain to make this happen ! This only works when the compression is on, therefore you have to set the Master Threshold to 0 dB in order to effectively wipe out the compression.
I already put this on my list for an update - making the MakeUp Gain working independent of the Compressor.
Now i have to relax, this was a lot of stuff...
Harry
Great post, thanks
I hope you can also consider making this AUv3 full screen compatible, would love the spectrum as a full screen display.
a cherished app
@virsyn Hello Harry
This is the first time, that I needed both Split View and Slide Over:
1) Bark Filter OFF
I retested this and made sure that all panels are fully set, beside Make-Up which was fully unset.
This time, I could only hear something when enabling or disabling, but I think my former observation was a mistake by me.
2) Auto-gain
Ah, thanks a bunch for the explanation. I suspected this, but was not sure, how this was implemented!
Also, I was not sure how Make-Up bands contributed to this. Thanks for clarifying.
3) Limiter
That's a valueble information!
4) Missing documentation
I understand your reasons.
But now you already wrote things down.
Maybe add at least a little web page or FAQ to collect such gems?
I am sure that others also would love to get more information!
If you need help, I am sure this forum can be of service, including me :-)
5) Colored Lines
Ahhhhhh
6) Bark Filter frequencies
I knew this explanation already.
But.
You would open lots of other applications for this App!
I swear.
And it would just be an additional menu entry to define the frequencies for each band.
But I can understand when this has no priority for you.
7) Limiter display
OK
8) Compressor default
OK, thanks
9) Band swiping
OK.
Idea: Swipe left to glue, right to unglue - or vice versa
Thank you very much for this extended reply!
This looks like it has a bigger CPU hit than Pro-Q2?
I like the simplicity of 'killing two birds with one stone' - 27-band graphic EQ with each band having its own compressor.
Seems like it could be a great tool for reeling in drum loops or BM3 drum kits with an overally loud kick drum, without having to go back and adjust each drum's level. A lazy method maybe, but wouldn't it be able to add a little oomph to my drums while also EQing and compressing parts? I'm just making demos, and my Air 1 can't handle an EQ and compressor for every drum and track.
Plus the pre and post spectrum analyzers is handy. But the CPU hit might be too much on my Air 1, even with one instance? Any thoughts?
Been playing with Bark Filter since getting the 11" (it's a bit more than my AIr 1 can handle).
For me, it solves multiple problems in probably the fastest and easiest way I've found - multi-band compression, EQ, and the basic -0.3db output limiter is handy. The input and output spectrum analyers and the gain-reduction meters are helpful. No bugs so far, automation in BM3 works great. Wonderful tool. Just what I was looking for to reel-in my overly-dynamic and ear-piercing glitch drumkits.
@ocelot glad it's working for you.
The more you work with Bark the more creative uses you'll find. A particularly impressive aspect of Bark is the steep dB value you're able to cut by. It's linear-phase, hence it being expensive with both DSP and latency; but those super steep cuts require linear-phase to create minimal artefacts. I find that really useful for carving out holes to be filled by other instrument layers.
This app used to crash all the time on my IPad pro. I have tested today and apparently the issue has been solved...don’t ask me how...
Good info Jon.
After using the Waves linear phase mastering EQ and compressor plugins on the desktop, I was expecting to only be able to use Bark Filter during the mixing and mastering phase, but its not bad at all during the composition and recording phase. Though I would have been disappointed if I still used the old Air 1. On the '18 Pro 11", with 1 instance of Bark Filter on a drumkit with 64 samples with lots of modulation, BM3s CPU meter held steady at a constant 5% at 512 sample buffer and the added latency from the linear phase EQs wasn't noticeable to me.
Pretty sure that throttling wasn't occurring since the CPU was constant at 5%, not fluctuating wildly like with less demanding AUs, and for anyone else, yes, I do realize that an app's CPU meter isn't the most reliable gauge, most audio apps run (or should be coded to run) on a single thread, etc., etc., etc.
No crashes yet, even when modulating Bark Filter. @cuscolima the last update to Bark Filter was a year ago, so maybe an iOS 12 update improved AU handling? No idea.