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
Thanks Andy, good to know. I have the same clean vs. dirty guitar thing going on with my current track. I'll make sure the clean tones are getting enough space in the mix, I appreciate the feedback!
Welcome to the club, let the hazing begin!!! Haha, just kidding. This is a cool track, I like electronic music with some teeth, and this track definitely has some! I like the heavy guitar sounds too.
For suggestions, I found that one percussion sound, I'll call it the cowbell, distracting to my ears. I think if you're panned it to one side, it might sit better. the kick, snare and vocals are all Sitting in the center, and putting the cowbell there too might be too much. This particular thing reminds me of an Aerosmith song, might be a Walk the Way, but on that track, the ride cymbal bell is hit on eighth notes, and every time I hear it, it jumps out at me and distracts me so I can hear nothing else. ...and that song has done just fine, so take this FWIW.
I also think some more dynamic contrast might help. There is a lot going on, a lot of the time. A lot of it is very cool, but adding some space in places might give the big parts even more impact.
Looking forward to what you come back with next month!
I don't listen to much ambient music, so I'm afraid I don't have much constructive criticism. The production was very clean. I could hear everything we'll, and I like the distortion on the vocals. Nice job!
@Jumpercollins, not really my cup of tea. Interesting mix, though. Lot’s going on, a lot of texture. I just prefer a bit more structure.
@AndyPlankton, that’s a great tune. Got a groove going there. Lots of layers, wonderful mix. I could see that going in some dark, sweaty club with the lights down low. Lovely, nasty White Stripesish guitar sound.
I always struggle with drums, so I usually resort to loops, or Funk Drummer/Soft Drummer, or the GarageBand Drummer - at least that way I know I can have a decent groove underpinning the track.
However yesterday in another thread someone linked to this site, and it looked pretty interesting:
http://www.xpresspads.com/finger-drumming-video/
So I took the $39 dollar plunge and bought the course. I've told myself if I stick with it for a few months I'll allow myself to buy an AKAI MPD218 (they're cheap anyway, and in the meantime I can use the iPad instead). I'd love to build and perform my own grooves and not have to rely on 3rd-party stuff.
@AndyPlankton Very cool track. I like EDM/electronica but don't know all the intricate genre labels. To me something sounds good & reaches me or it doesn't. I dig all the sounds involved and echo what @richardyot says about the kick drum. A more thuddy pronounced kick would make the whole thing lock together. Very cool brother, look forward to more.
@Jumpercollins Great video for a unique, slightly SCARY track, lol. Scary & spooky in a good way. I mean those white noised voices give the track this desperate mood, quite chilling and so cool. I like audio verité & music concrete as well as atmospheric soundtrack stuff, just because a song doesn't have a V-C structure doesn't mean it isn't a "song".
Cheers
>
Yeah I get what you mean about the cowbell, all the Drums coming from the circuit which does not have pan....I have been building stuff that I could also perform live and trying not to do too much post production that cannot be done with the live stuff, this is great feedback for me to judge when I need to cross that line into post production trickery or by using a different (stereo) drum sound source.
Point taken .... this is either laziness or eagerness to upload and share.....not sure which
That’s where I was in my head when I was making it
The Amplifi TT can sound great, I really like it.
I am exactly the same, not bothered by genre, it what it sounds like that counts....I didn’t even know this would be classed as EDM LOL..
Yeah I am going to revisit the mix and the kick is on the list for adjustment
Personal therapy this month. While it speaks of Marie Antoinette and Joan of Arc this is really a round up of the current state in the house....
The Prayers of the Wrong
The 16th of October
1793
No one here’s alive
Except for you and me
And you have been beheaded
For that thing about the cake
And your sister Joan is waiting
To be brought out to her stake
30th May
1421
300 plus years before
The same journey around the sun
All my girlfriends have been martyrs
It’s the way I seem to go
The sound of it is sorrow
I’m a traveler through time
Only here to sing my song
How awful are the prayers of the wrong
There's something medieval about your structures, I feel transported to the Court of King Rick and expect malevolent jesters to be lurking hither and yon etc.
I've got a think about cymbals. Like them in theory, but they annoy me in practice. Wonder who invented the cymbal right at the beginning? For all of that I am seduced by your grind, this IS a pre-dated grunge of some kind. Sounds like it's always just on the edge of falling to pieces, but is plainly still under control (the bass I think).
@JohnnyGoodyear, could you get a bit darker please?
That’s a great piece of music; if a piece of music is to succeed, it has to create a mood, and you most certainly did. I’m at a loss for the connection to the house, I’m assuming you’re talking about government? Anyhow, the sparseness of the arrangement, the low, nearly spoken words, the whispers, that’s good magic going there.
Very professionally turned out bit of schmutter there Mister. Thought the reverb sounded fine. As regards more general feedback I prefer the verse feel/tune to the chorus, it really had a Stanard/B52s feel to it, quirky and clear and telling its story well. I did feel that the yellin/llewellyn was a bit over-used by the end, but that might just be me. Being hyper-critical, I did also wonder about the first synth break (1.15 or close to). Nothing wrong with it, but maybe there's a better choice out of the ten thousand patches out there....but that's just toast on my part. Should add, in constructive balance, that I was surprised and pleased when the monstrous guitar came in towards the end. Not my kind of sound, as such, but I thought it was very suitable there....again, a polished piece of work, well done.
LET NO MAN ARGUE WITH THE DISCO BALLS!
And quite right too. You nailed a certain night in a certain year. Disco was so huge and I guess in places it must still be....yours is a very specific art. I imagine you (all disco balls to one side) in a darkened studio with house boys bringing you a succession of iced beverages while you attend to the science of what you do. I would really like to see a documentary on how you approach it all...
Not my preferred brand of salsa, but in the right room with very low lighting and the appropriate chemical encouragement I can imagine drifting off nicely to this. I might prefer a tad less echo/reverb on Bill's voice, have him a little more up close and personal, but that's strictly toast.
A new genre, nu-dance-reggae-gaze-metal. Like it. Perfectly good and boot-tapping as is, but would also make a decent canvas for full on vocals. In favor of the overall thumping.
This is an interestingly odd piece in that it mixes ambienty (technical term) drifting with a vocal/effects strand which is (to me anyway) anxious and somewhat creepy. I can't decide if the 'voice' is in trouble/needs help/is the victim or instead is the thing to be scared of....would not want to be tied down in an unknown room and hear this playing as the soundtrack of what was about to happen next...
Cheers Mr G. I would love to work with full vocals, I neither write or sing so am still waiting for a generous soul to work with who can add those ingredients to the dish
@AndyPlankton Many thanks Andy for your ears and words. I said the same thing about being a non writer/singer when I joined. The Gaffer and his Second in Command wouldn't hear of such nonsense and now look... Melody! Singing (ha) I find more fulfilling than crash riding to 'Bodies' ..... Please don't tell anyone else this. Thanks.
This is like two of my favourite artists in melancholic mood merged into one, Mark Oliver Everett and David Sylvian....Nice stuff.
I really would have liked another iteration with the vocal going for it, and have replayed the track several times waiting for it
Some nice imagery in the video too ...
Your secret is safe with me
Thanks Andy. David S. was one of the first miserable male voices that seduced me when I was too young not to be a bit embarrassed about it. I find him to be hit and miss, but when it works it really does...I don't know Mister Everett, but will certainly look now. Eels have always been material I've avoided because one or two people have suggested I knock them off on occasion and I've been worried about getting fed up/too influenced, but perhaps the time has come. Any recommendations?
Thanks Rick. I'm finding the older and more ostensibly suburban I appear to be the darker the treacle on the inside becomes. Scares the children and makes the horses cry. Quite normal, I'm sure...
Hey Johnny, first, before I forget, thanks for the constructive feedback on my track for this month, I appreciate it!
As for "Prayers...", I like this tune. Technically the mix is spot on, and I like the chosen "sounds" - it all fits. As for "what would I do..." at first I was thinking that it might be good to repeat the last three lines a second time for emphasis, especially since the track is pretty short as is... but then I thought about a comment you made on my track last month. I forget how you eloquently put it, but it was about the importance of the first line of the lyrics, and maybe how you pay special attention to it, or some such... I agree the first line is important to set the tone, and grab the listener. Anyway, as it pertains to this track - it might be cool to both start and end the track with those same three lines. hearing those, ending the stanza with "How awful are the prayers of the wrong" right up front would pique the listeners' curiosity.. "hmmm , prayers are typically awful, what's this about?" ...and then bring it back around to that at the end (as you have already done). Anyway, my 2 cents.. very nice work!
@JohnnyGoodyear Is there a very wry joke in those lyrics? I'm guessing yes, well I certainly interpret them that way...
It's a nice fragment, simple but makes its point. Love the whispered voices, and a decent vocal performance (but you knew you really ought to have practiced it a little more before recording, shortage of time I'm guessing).
Visuals are great, very striking and arresting, the choice of imagery is excellent.
It's an interesting piece, might be worth fleshing out a little more at a later date.
Thanks Richard. Spot on as regards all points. I sometimes find the more heartfelt the thing is the less I can bear to 'practice' it, but I know in the end the consumer doesn't care about that. I think @Shaken&;Stirred has a very sensible idea as regards maybe putting the title line up front a little more. Or adding some repetitions (perhaps with another verse) (thank you @Shaken&;Stirred!)....but -again- while some of these things may be a touch obscure as they come out I find it a hard balance, because yearning and loss are hard to communicate as strongly as one feels them and the more clearly they're spelled out the more watered down they feel (to me). Difference between poetry and text sometimes I guess....
Well each and every album has at least one gem on it...songs for all occasions there somewhere....I'm finding it hard to pick between Beautiful Freak and Daisies of the Galaxy as recommendations for THE first album, and Souljacker should definitely be experienced at some point on the journey.
Thanks Skipper. Appreciate it. I shall have a dig about. Just think, if I lived in Salford you could make me a mix tape AND I could go see Palace get trounced at Old Trafford at the weekend. Ah well...