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 Store

Audiobus is the app that makes the rest of your setup better.

Hardware sampler/player vs iOS Sample player

13

Comments

  • SP404SX is great if you want portability and immediacy of use, it also uses SD cards for storage so easy transfer between iPad/computer and it has a boat load of effects you can use.
    Probably at the top end of your budget £270ish second hand but well worth it.
    I had one recently until I replaced it with a Pioneer Toraiz SP16.

  • @enc said:
    @andy plankton.

    Which did you choose in the end ?

    I went with the electribe 2 sampler in the end.

  • @AndyPlankton said:

    @enc said:
    @andy plankton.

    Which did you choose in the end ?

    I went with the electribe 2 sampler in the end.

    nice one. does it do oldschool type pitch shifting etc ?
    im looking for something to spin in "found" vocal snippets , phrases etc.

  • @CRAKROX said:
    SP404SX is great if you want portability and immediacy of use, it also uses SD cards for storage so easy transfer between iPad/computer and it has a boat load of effects you can use.
    Probably at the top end of your budget £270ish second hand but well worth it.
    I had one recently until I replaced it with a Pioneer Toraiz SP16.

    how do you like the Toraiz?

  • @kobamoto said:

    how do you like the Toraiz?

    Love it ! Quick and easy to use just like the Boss/Roland SP series, the feel of using it reminds me of my old SP1200, not aurally but in he way OS is, I find it intuitive whereas I always struggled with my MPC’s.

  • did you try the digitakt yet, just curious if so how you liked the feel of that one? I don't have an toraiz but I have an digitakt, it kind of feels like an sp1200 to me, but also kind of like the sp-303 as well, I have a feeling because of it's size and the way you can flip samples that it's going to make it's presence known more and more at beat invitationals.

  • loosely related:

  • @kobamoto said:
    loosely related:

    Unnecessary brute force. Sp404 has midi IN!
    http://www.spikenzielabs.com/SpikenzieLabs/DrumKitKit.html

    Also piezos aren’t the best options for banana orchestra... better makey makey approach!

    Even Korg could give you a more polite solution with littlebits or directly cliphit. The first adding easy midi out to your makey or frankstein controller and the second, even without true sampling cappabilities but ideal for bananas

  • I don't think Phil is the type to take the easy route :D

  • @kobamoto said:
    did you try the digitakt yet ?

    I haven’t used a Digitakt, I had considered one prior to the Toraiz but when I looked at the manual online it seemed “complicated” to me, however that’s more a reflection on myself than the machine.
    I’ve owned a lot of samplers over the years, only a few have felt transparent to me where the OS did not get in the way of my creativity.
    I currently own the Toraiz, an OP-1 and a Circuit, however the Circuit has been in the box since I purchased it due to shortness of available time at the moment.

  • @kobamoto said:
    I don't think Phil is the type to take the easy route :D

    Him doesn’t usually sells hardware neither, I dare say...

  • @CRAKROX said:

    @kobamoto said:
    did you try the digitakt yet ?

    I haven’t used a Digitakt, I had considered one prior to the Toraiz but when I looked at the manual online it seemed “complicated” to me, however that’s more a reflection on myself than the machine.
    I’ve owned a lot of samplers over the years, only a few have felt transparent to me where the OS did not get in the way of my creativity.
    I currently own the Toraiz, an OP-1 and a Circuit, however the Circuit has been in the box since I purchased it due to shortness of available time at the moment.

    Although it looked great from the first minute I saw it, I felt the same about the Digitakt, maybe because I once tried an Octatrack hands-on and immediately knew that this ain't gonna be my machine ever.
    I've used all kinds of different old school big and smaller hardware samplers, until I saw this recently:
    Then I watched this great tutorial:
    Long videos but these are of the few ones worth watching from start to end.
    2 weeks later the Digitakt was mine. After finding a few quirks, giving elektron support tickets and waiting for firmware version 1.05 (a big Thank You to elektron!!) I have to say that the little guy has become my go-to sampler.
    My only real complaint is that I strongly believe that elektron would do good to provide a firmware capable of stereo sampling.
    Otherwise, I am very satisfied on many levels.
    I's still an expensive machine compared to the budget samplers but you get a very powerful box with extensive sample manipulation, MIDI control and sync features and, not to forget, an 8-track MIDI sequencer too.
    I even got used to the strange chromatic keyboard somewhat, thanks to the 12-semitone button lights and high quality step buttons.
    I'm using it with a Roland JV and Korg Triton and the Digitakt will even send Bank Select and Program Change messages so my multi-timbral programs setup can be stored all inside the Digitakt. Plus seven remaining Midi CC per track that you can set arbitrarily for each step if you like. A small but well thought-out machine IMHO with a fast workflow. And I can use it with my choice of MIDI hardware and an iDevice connected to its class-compliant USB MIDI port simultaneously!

  • I'm using the Zoom AR-96 for sampling and synthesis, has it's quirks like USB midi only, but I'm using it more than my circuit.

  • I think it's an amazing statement that for the most part people have been willing to spend $700 smackaroos on for what is most part a 8 mono tracks sampler, with very little sample time, no transient detection, or slicing of any sort outside of manual. .... sure it has midi tracks too but the unit has had great success in sales while the midi side of the machine has been a mess for the most part until now. Even though I bought one I think it's ridiculous and it shows just how much improvement can be made in the iOS realm.... for an app that would have given half the features of the digitakt and the mpc live in an iOS app on my iPad I'd be willing to pay $200-250 easy. Of course we would squawk at any prices even close to that amount but we can't keep having it both ways... people saying devs can't make money, people saying apps can't do sh*t, we could spend allot more and still spend a hell of allot less than people spend on groove boxes and still get allot more than people get on groove boxes if everybody just had the will.
    one of these aspiring devs that already has the community's trust needs to do some crowd funding and put up a road map in stone that tells us we'll get to touch the waveform like Samplr, will get the features of Patterning, we'll get comprehensive slicing and editing, we'll get some interesting fx instead of those tired old bit crusher, distortion, etc... If they would ask us what we want, tell us what we will get, and if we agree to it... it would be a piece of cake to make a happy partnership.... P.Lock every damn thing under the sun.. why?... because the people want it and will you pay you a boatload of cash for it..... put in slicing up the wazooo why?.... because people want it and will pay you a truckload of cash for it, put midi in and out in it, make everything mappable why?... because people want it and will pay you a hefty ransom for it, it's not even rocket science at this point, what people really want is documented!

  • It’s not that simple though, you buy a hardware sampler you get a physical item and you’re pretty much guaranteed that it will keep it’s capabilities that it arrives with unt the day it dies or you sell it to make room for something else.
    However software no matter how good isn’t the same, to me the biggest problem is the probability of an OS update that renders the app useless in some odd way then being unable to use it until someone releases an update.

  • there's gotta be a way, if you look at the ratio of development that goes into the average synth app compared to the average beat machine app there is just no comparison, and the devs that do put that much into a beat machine veer off into making it a convoluted daw rather than just putting in everything that everyone wants in a sampling beat machine. I guess my opinion is that look at whats in the digitakt and the toraiz..... compared to an iPad app there is not very much there, and yet still the iOS platform refuses to produce something that people want more than a toraiz or a digitakt

  • @kobamoto said:
    loosely related:

    Thanks for sharing that!

  • edited February 2018

    @kobamoto said:
    there's gotta be a way, if you look at the ratio of development that goes into the average synth app compared to the average beat machine app there is just no comparison, and the devs that do put that much into a beat machine veer off into making it a convoluted daw rather than just putting in everything that everyone wants in a sampling beat machine. I guess my opinion is that look at whats in the digitakt and the toraiz..... compared to an iPad app there is not very much there, and yet still the iOS platform refuses to produce something that people want more than a toraiz or a digitakt

    The novation apps with novation hardware BUT iOS11 makes them useless (well and optimization @AmpifyxNovation because Garageband works flawless)

    Edit: also BM3, looptunesDj and some I probably miss. Said that I’m looking for sp555 once again.

  • @CRAKROX said:
    It’s not that simple though, you buy a hardware sampler you get a physical item and you’re pretty much guaranteed that it will keep it’s capabilities that it arrives with unt the day it dies or you sell it to make room for something else.
    However software no matter how good isn’t the same, to me the biggest problem is the probability of an OS update that renders the app useless in some odd way then being unable to use it until someone releases an update.

    well, that's apples versus oranges - noone forces you to update your IOS.
    A hardware sampler doesn't have wifi or internet connectivity - strip that from an iDevice and they are par. What works will continue to work, just as hardware.
    I don't see any difference using my iPad One on an ioDock as a standalone box.
    (running SamplR, Werkbench, BeatSpiral, LoopSeque and record in Multitrack DAW for example)

    @kobamoto probably wants to emphasize the point that developers rethink approaches under some imaginary hardware idea, which means delivery without much options to fix things later. Atm most apps are virtual construction sites o:)
    But I'm much less confident in his 'users will buy because they want...'

  • @Telefunky said:

    @CRAKROX said:
    It’s not that simple though, you buy a hardware sampler you get a physical item and you’re pretty much guaranteed that it will keep it’s capabilities that it arrives with unt the day it dies or you sell it to make room for something else.
    However software no matter how good isn’t the same, to me the biggest problem is the probability of an OS update that renders the app useless in some odd way then being unable to use it until someone releases an update.

    well, that's apples versus oranges - noone forces you to update your IOS.
    A hardware sampler doesn't have wifi or internet connectivity - strip that from an iDevice and they are par. What works will continue to work, just as hardware.
    I don't see any difference using my iPad One on an ioDock as a standalone box.
    (running SamplR, Werkbench, BeatSpiral, LoopSeque and record in Multitrack DAW for example)

    @kobamoto probably wants to emphasize the point that developers rethink approaches under some imaginary hardware idea, which means delivery without much options to fix things later. Atm most apps are virtual construction sites o:)
    But I'm much less confident in his 'users will buy because they want...'

    Update iOS not forced, for those security patches you need so you can connect safely to the internet. Mmmmm.

  • edited February 2018

    you don't need security patches on a sampler that isn't used to browse the internet.
    That stuff is totally overestimated - there is no trade information on my music iPad anyway, not even email. I don't load free software for either I don't like the approach or I suspect false flag operation under the hood.
    Whichever way you turn it - to compare 2 devices you have to setup equal conditions. ;)
    I've had a Roland SP808 myself and this can be easily faked on an iPad - with an operation that's lightyears ahead of Roland's obscure shift-button-handling and it's nested routing menus...

  • @Telefunky said:
    you don't need security patches on a sampler that isn't used to browse the internet.
    That stuff is totally overestimated - there is no trade information on my music iPad anyway, not even email. I don't load free software for either I don't like the approach or I suspect false flag operation under the hood.
    Whichever way you turn it - to compare 2 devices you have to setup equal conditions. ;)
    I've had a Roland SP808 myself and this can be easily faked on an iPad - with an operation that's lightyears ahead of Roland's obscure shift-button-handling and it's nested routing menus...

    Maybe, but you mentioned not being forced to update and then instantly quoted as a feature of iOS internet connectivity, this would eventually only have limited use, with security risks, connection to Dropbox etc. without updating apps or iOS itself. My iPad 1 apps have little connection from inside the app themselves because the protocols have changed. So compromises have to be made if you decide 'now' is the correct time to 'freeze' your iPad in a permanent state of utopian bliss.

  • edited February 2018

    that seems a misunderstanding - I didn't mention any internet connectivity in the first place, but to just shut that part of the OS down.
    It's in fact what you call 'freezing the device state' and I did that numerous times (with desktop systems, too).
    No hardware sampler has any connectivity but it's analog or digital io lines.
    Which can also be replicated with dedicates iPads, but people obviously can't resist to use the tablet for other stuff as well ... ;)

  • edited February 2018

    @Telefunky said:

    @CRAKROX said:
    It’s not that simple though, you buy a hardware sampler you get a physical item and you’re pretty much guaranteed that it will keep it’s capabilities that it arrives with unt the day it dies or you sell it to make room for something else.
    However software no matter how good isn’t the same, to me the biggest problem is the probability of an OS update that renders the app useless in some odd way then being unable to use it until someone releases an update.

    well, that's apples versus oranges - noone forces you to update your IOS.
    A hardware sampler doesn't have wifi or internet connectivity - strip that from an iDevice and they are par. What works will continue to work, just as hardware.
    I don't see any difference using my iPad One on an ioDock as a standalone box.
    (running SamplR, Werkbench, BeatSpiral, LoopSeque and record in Multitrack DAW for example)

    @kobamoto probably wants to emphasize the point that developers rethink approaches under some imaginary hardware idea, which means delivery without much options to fix things later. Atm most apps are virtual construction sites o:)
    But I'm much less confident in his 'users will buy because they want...'

    I hear you man but we've spent a zillion dollars on our devices and all of these apps, when is someone going to take the chance...... never?.... if not we'll never know, drop the electron sequencer top cream features, as well as the mpc top cream features, sp404 fx, and midi in /out / onscreen pads and a bunch of knobs mappable and why would nobody buy it, it's not like we have anything like that on the platform. It's not that there aren't any customers, we're all out here buying digitakts, toraiz sp16's, sp404s, and mpcs....... $700, $1200, $400, $1000
    and we all own iPads and iPhones already . give us those things and I think we'd drop a heavy buck or two easily, and we would still be nowhere near the ballpark we had to pay for those other instruments.

    throw patternings sequencer in it, and quantum's sequencer, you're almost already there, and look how much those 2 apps will cost you... close to nothing compared to what they're capable of.

  • https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/groove-rider-gr-16/id1318750537?platform=ipad&preserveScrollPosition=true#platform/ipad
    This is the top app right about now - you can also search the forums on here and see that it has a lot of interest it does what KORG Electribe does and more -

  • A hardware sampler doesn't have wifi or internet connectivity - strip that from an iDevice and they are par.

    Sorry but that isn’t correct as illustrated by your comment about needing a dock !

    I happily use both hardware and software samplers but they are in no shape or form equal they both have different strengths and weaknesses however you cannot beat a tool designed for a job (sampler) to a jack of all trades (iPad running whatever).

  • edited February 2018

    @CRAKROX said:

    A hardware sampler doesn't have wifi or internet connectivity - strip that from an iDevice and they are par.

    Sorry but that isn’t correct as illustrated by your comment about needing a dock !

    I happily use both hardware and software samplers but they are in no shape or form equal they both have different strengths and weaknesses however you cannot beat a tool designed for a job (sampler) to a jack of all trades (iPad running whatever).

    I’m agree and maybe that’s why there isn’t a true app counterpart to hardware. AFAIK the inner latency of the system makes iDevices a bit laggy in sync terms so at that point a well coded hardware solution will be more thight everytime... so maybe developers find that asintotic wall and drop the effort...?

    I’m not true sure about that inherent lag but sounds common sense to me and I believe some dev in some moment in the past drop me that line when I was asking about midi clock.

    Ableton link has improved the inter-device communication (being mostly slaves from the global transport and minimizing the jitter issues) but my gut says it’s not short vision more than iOS limitation. With the latest iOS11 even link started to drift...

  • edited February 2018

    counting peas or what ? :D
    An iPad could work standalone and even sample a mono channel by it's mic or a modified input cable, which is somewhat limited - but it could be done.
    A dock is just more convenient - and if you dismantle a 'Sampler' you'll also find a processing unit, an io-unit and a powersupply.

    It's all the same - restrict yourself to one music app and it's really comparable.
    In that case the iPad is the faster system if 'shut off' from within the app.
    You could as well switch between a couple of apps, but once you start contemplating about inter-app data exchange you're off the track.
    THAT is something no sampler-manufacturer supplies.

    The lack of functionality you suppose has nothing to do with device capabilities.
    It can be done in IOS devics as well as on dedicated hardware.
    That it is obviously NOT done may be related to developers' individual backgrounds - some are really smart, some are ... well, never mind. ;)

  • @Telefunky said:
    counting peas or what ? :D
    An iPad could work standalone and even sample a mono channel by it's mic or a modified input cable, which is somewhat limited - but it could be done.
    A dock is just more convenient - and if you dismantle a 'Sampler' you'll also find a processing unit, an io-unit and a powersupply.

    It's all the same - restrict yourself to one music app and it's really comparable.
    In that case the iPad is the faster system if 'shut off' from within the app.
    You could as well switch between a couple of apps, but once you start contemplating about inter-app data exchange you're off the track.
    THAT is something no sampler-manufacturer supplies.

    The lack of functionality you suppose has nothing to do with device capabilities.
    It can be done in IOS devics as well as on dedicated hardware.
    That it is obviously NOT done may be related to developers' individual backgrounds - some are really smart, some are ... well, never mind. ;)

    I’m not sure if was targeted towards me or not since english isn’t my natove tongue, sorry...

Sign In or Register to comment.