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
This is a very clever sequencer. The midi editing is very easy and intuative. I have some issues with sending midi to aum hosted instruments. It sends midi to several aum channels even though I specifically chose one. It worked fine when sending to only 2 instruments but as soon as I add a third instrument the midi mapping go nuts. Despite the bugs I think the app has huge potential when AB midi and Link is added.
@fattigman: Happy to hear you like it. Regarding the MIDI channel problem: Could you give a bit more detail about your setup, or maybe even send me the Xequence project? You can do that by connecting your device to iTunes, then navigating to the "Apps" section and under "File Sharing", there should be a Xequence entry and on the right there's a list of your projects (.xeq extension). If you have time please send me the file to ae -at- seven.systems. Thanks!
EDIT: There's a specific section in the Quickstart Manual which covers setting up AUM with Xequence. You can find it in Settings (the "..." menu at the top) under "Help / feedback".
I'm guessing your problem is on the AUM setup side. You need to tell each AUM channel to only listen on one midi channel. If you don't do that then it'll pick up everything sent to "AUM Destination" from Xequencer.
@wim @SevenSystems I'm sorry, it was me that messed up the midi setup. Instead of choosing a specific midi channel I chose all channels except the one I wanted (inverted choice). My appologies. @SevenSystems congrats on a great app. When AB midi and Link is implemented this app will be my app of choice for midi. Thanks
@fattigman, glad you solved it. Happy music making
@fattigman said:
@SevenSystems
I had an issue with AUM too. I tried to investigate and report it as a bug but had difficulty reproducing it. Figured maybe it was user error.
The first time I linked the two, the AUM was receiving Ch1 on Ch2, Ch2 on Ch3, and Ch3 on... Ch3. After switching back to Xequence to check my outputs, Ch3 moved to Ch4. I then noticed I had Xequence’s metronome on Ch1, shifted it to Ch16 and Ch1 to 3 were received on Ch 1 to 3 in AUM.
I started a new project and monitored midi in MidiFlow but couldn’t reproduce the issue. At least, the incoming midi signals were all on expected channels no matter what I did (including pushing the metronome to Ch1).
Not a big deal, but thought I’d mention it here.
@TheMediocritist: Sounds interesting. Assigning MIDI channels to the outgoing data is very simple and low-level so I can't think of a way for that to get messed up (it would be more probable for destinations to get jumbled up). Let me know if you have a surefire way to reproduce it.
I’m in and I love it!
Linear, this is me man! Awesome job can’t wait for the updates asked for above from all those that know way more than me
That reminds me, I need to progress (i.e. start) my semi-rural soundscape track.
I’ll see your Doom! and raise you a 3D Monster Maze on a ZX81.
Is there a way to back up and restore projects without using iTunes? I use Linux systems. Thanks!!
Same here!! It is the most complete and robust linear midi sequencer for the iPhone.
Congratulations!! I’m sure you will like it!
And developer who gets down like this surely gives a fuck about the app so I am in.
I had to dive into this for my own MIDI OUT functionality (and the Volca seemed to be misbehaving). Unfortunately the Volca Sample doesn't do SPP (perhaps other models do). It only listens to MIDI Clock and Start/Stop/Continue.
I could get it to behave correctly by sending MIDI Clock and a Start Command. Just sending Start without MIDI Clock does not work, neither does Continue.
@SevenSystems Hmm, out of curiosity, does Xequence send MIDI clock all the time, immediately after play but only when playing, or on and after the playhead reaches the position it sent as SPP?
Only while playing, and: As soon as you hit Play, it immediately sends an SPP for the next beat position, and exactly on that beat position, it sends a Continue, followed immediately by the first clock and then subsequent clocks as usual. It does not send the "Start" command at all, because the apps we tested worked without... the MIDI spec also says that this is supposed to "Start the song from the beginning", but as errr, we didn't want to start "from the beginning", I just didn't use that command. Maybe I should have another look at how exactly the spec says it should behave...
Thanks very much for the info, great to hear from another developer directly. I didn't use the "Start" command at all because the tested apps worked without it and the spec sounds a bit strange... "Start from the beginning of the song"... we didn't want that, so we didn't use it
But I may have another read in the spec...
@RUST( i )K, nice to see you jumped in! I tried those whitenoise sleep apps too, but now I made myself a "custom noise generator" with Sunvox, precisely adapted with love to my ears' EQ curve
If iTunes doesn't work under Wine, then I'm not sure. You can of course use iCloud to backup your device, which would include the Xequence projects as well. But as for manually accessing them, I don't think there's a pure Linux solution.
That's why I will add "Open In" functionality so that you can then just do about anything (email, upload to Cloud, etc.) with Xequence project files.
Yeah of course.
You have withstood incoming for 48 hours.
I bought it due to your obvious dedication and believe in your product.
Once I start trying it out, I will start bitching don't worry.
Honey moon almost over! LOL
The white noise was for my better half, we were down in Florida finding a place and she didn't have her home set up.
Good idea though.
Later!
Yes... I feel your pain. MIDI implementations are a bit of a Wild West thing nowadays. Even hardware-based sequencers from established brands like Korg and Roland take "artistic license" with the official specs
In most "Volca/Boutique" style pattern sequencers MIDI Start just means "start pattern or song, whichever mode is selected". Some need MIDI Clock, for others just a Start command suffices and it will take the internal tempo if no clock is being received.
I am testing MIDI Clock/Transport mostly with external MIDI devices since most apps have moved on to Ableton Link these days anyway, but bridging these two worlds is still a challenge.
Haha. Well to be honest, I have started that way too, but when I got strange behavior from other apps and things weren't clear, I started to browse the official spec. But if nobody adheres to it anyway, then it's probably moot and it's better to just test as many apps / hardware devices as possible.
I was afraid of sending "Start" because some apps might then reset their position to zero, which I had previously meticulously set with SPP?
Probably a good idea to include a switch "Send Start" that can be toggled per device, if problems arise?
Yes Ableton Link... it seems easier to set up, but when you look at the facts, actually seems to offer less than MIDI Sync? i.e. it cannot sync absolute song position? (And is not intended to...). The primary use case I added MIDI Sync to Xequence was using Audio tracks in other apps, because that's simply not possible in a pure MIDI sequencer. And for that you need "hard sync" to song position.
Quite frankly I have more issues with things that send "Continue" (e.g. my TB-03) than things that send "Start" because at least most hardware devices are pattern based rather than song based and most don't support SPP anyway. But yeah... MIDI is not an exact science and unfortunately there's no one single way to do everything right (as you probably are also well aware of
).
You should see Ableton Link as a big jam session where anyone and anything can join and/or leave whenever they feel like it. The protocol makes sure that every application/devices stays locked in the correct phase, regardless of time signatures. It's actually quite elegant and seems to match the workflow a lot of people have developed when juggling multiple apps simultaneously.
But yes, it's not a substitute for all the functionality MIDI offers per se, rather a different way of multitasking in a musical sense. And the great thing about it is that for software it's more robust than MIDI clock, and it works across all devices on the same network. It's a pretty cool innovation (I was skeptical at first, but I've become a 'believer')
The main advantage I find with Ableton Link is that it works, whereas Midi Clock (for software) is pretty unreliable. But Ableton Link was never intended for keeping timelines in sync, but more as a conductor. It makes it easy for apps to use a common bar line (or even work with different meters), access a common beat and to access a common tempo. That's particularly useful for stuff like LFOs and clip launchers.
The other advantage of Ableton Link is that the library does most of the work for you. I am implementing it for an open source project and I've been pleasantly surprised by how easy it is to work with.
I suspect (without any facts
) that Volca (Sample) treats start and continue exactly the same, as IIRC it can't be started mid-pattern even with its own interface. I presume you're sending continue and then the first clock 1-2ms later (as per MIDI spec). I wonder if the Volca gets confused for a tiny bit and tries to use its internal tempo before catching on. I could try to do some tests settings Xequence's and Volca's tempos the same or very far apart etc. For reference, though, ModStep seems to work. I wonder if it sends MIDI clock all the time and Volca has an easier time keeping the tempo locked?
Let me emphasize that this is in no way a showstopper for me, the app is awesome and I rarely even use the Volca - I just happened to test it with Xequence.
@brambos
@cian
Yeah I see the advantages of Link and how it's different from MIDI Sync. MIDI Sync is like a huge old machine with precisely crafted steel cogwheels that wants everything to hum along with micrometer precision, while Link is a pink Barbie doll inviting everyone to the virtual dancefloor!
Both have their uses and I'm looking forward to implementing Link. However, Ableton should probably have taken this opportunity (or maybe they still will) to also implement "hard" song position sync like MIDI clock, inside their more modern architecture. So that MIDI Sync can finally be forgotten about!
My replacement credit card has come so based upon the interactions with the developer I'm going to at least buy the base app. If the interface is as good as I'm hoping, I'm all in.
I would like the ability to switch time signatures (which isn't that uncommon in pop music), and tempo ramping (used to be a big thing for certain genres of dance music) - but it's not a showstopper.
Yeah I'm sending Continue and then the first Clock, not sure if 1 ms later or simply as the next packet in the PacketList with the same Timestamp... have to look that up. I'll do more tests with sync and other apps / devices anyway before the next update, want to get this sorted. Sending MIDI clock all the time though (even without Xequence in "Play" mode) would be quite some hassle to implement and I can't see that coming...
Thankful for every problem report. Actually problems are more important than "awesomeness". But I appreciate both
As far as I can tell, it does "something" with continue (and it's causing me major headaches). When I press "Play" on my Roland TB-03 it actually sends Continue. And it causes my Volca Sample to start playing at a seemingly random point in the pattern - essentially making my TB-03 useless as a master for devices further down the chain. The joys of MIDI chains