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.

(Fixed!) Audiobus 2 runs way smoother than 3

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Comments

  • edited January 2018

    No. Running au3 zeeon into audioshare in AUM via IAA port

    Au3 apps running straight out to system audio output drop in cpu priority immediately when their UI is closed.

    In audiobus 3 If you route them to loopy/audioshare or similar stuff problem goes away even with UI closed But not in AUM

  • edited January 2018

    Try it

    Audiobus set latency to a low value

    Zeeon -> system output (like headphones or speaker out)

    Use hold on the keyboard and close UI. Crackles start but open UI and issue goes away

    Routing output to loopy or audioshare resolves it tho. Now you can close UI and no crackles

    Confused. Its not breaking my work flow but possibly symptomatic of a deeper issue with au3 and cpu priority in general but this might be a workaround that could fix the underlying issue

  • edited January 2018

    Just test what you say on iPhone 7 Plus this is the same behavior as you describe, I can confirm your experience.

    In AB3/AUM, Dubstation 2 has cpu spikes and audio clicks when UI closed, but when UI is open everything is perfect. Don’t make sense at all, and I think this is the way iOS works at this time, it’s not very stable at all, and we have to be aware of each source of bug/spikes/audio issues to avoid it and maintain workflow.

    Considering AB3 vs AB2 I had better luck with AB3 last times, don’t know why but I use it with great succes over AB2 even on complex low latency projects since several weeks now. AB2 in certain contexts has more audio dropouts than AB3 which appears to be more stable and consistent.

  • edited January 2018

    Very helpful @Panthemusicalgoat, thanks! Nice concrete setup to reproduce! I’ll get on this

  • edited January 2018

    @Michael said:
    Very helpful @Panthemusicalgoat, thanks! Nice concrete setup to reproduce! I’ll get on this

    On complex AB3/AUM projects with 2 versions of Loopy at the same time (iPhone 7 Plus iOS 11.2.2) with several AU fx in AUM for real time processing of audio mic, at 128 buffers, everything become perfect when AB switching bar is hidden, with AUM cpu meter in 44 % range. With switching bar opened, cpu is between 50 and 60 % and there are occasional audio drop out every 30 or 60 seconds, sometimes more or less. All of these observations are without even touching screen. I can give AB preset if needed. Hope this helps.

  • Good news, folks; I think I've gotten to the bottom of this, although I'll need some confirmation. It certainly is solved with my dev device, an iPad Air 2 on iOS 11. Seems to be due to that wacky iOS audio bug that causes DSP performance to drop with certain UI stuff. I've found a workaround that seems to avoid the problem.

    If you'd like to help me test it (assuming you're not already signed up): http://audiob.us/testing

  • Awesome! You're always wrestling those pesky ios audio bugs. Thank you!

  • Nice thanks to that!!!! Just subscribed for testing.

  • edited January 2018
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  • Good point, it was vague; mind you, so’s the bug :D

    To be specific, I rewrote the animation in a different way that doesn’t seem to cause degradation in performance on the audio thread. So you should just see general performance improvements (less glitches, ability to load more stuff); I can’t be more specific than that really.

  • Really appreciate your work!

    Could you do the same for AB3? Don’t really care for pretty graphics etc, or even make the mixer optional in settings to save CPU power. Honestly I never use the AB3 mixer although having it is nice. But optional would rock!

    Thanks!

    @Michael said:
    Good point, it was vague; mind you, so’s the bug :D

    To be specific, I rewrote the animation in a different way that doesn’t seem to cause degradation in performance on the audio thread. So you should just see general performance improvements (less glitches, ability to load more stuff); I can’t be more specific than that really.

  • @MusicMan4Christ said:
    Really appreciate your work!

    Could you do the same for AB3?

    Do you mean AB2?

  • AB2 is perfect as is for me. No mixer and I wonder how much cpu horsepower would be saved in AB3 making the mixer as an optional in settings.

  • @MusicMan4Christ said

    Could you do the same for AB3?

    The beta is for Audiobus 3 not AB2

  • edited January 2018
    The user and all related content has been deleted.
  • Oh I see. Cool thanks!

  • Well I have good and bad news. Bad news au3 bug persists. I think this morning when I tested it might have been a fluke or I didnt test long enough

    However the aufx:space and tonestack running at 64 buffer seems to work now in audiobus 3 just as it did back in audiobus 2. So that bug is totally squashed

  • edited January 2018
    The user and all related content has been deleted.
  • @Michael said:
    Good news, folks; I think I've gotten to the bottom of this, although I'll need some confirmation. It certainly is solved with my dev device, an iPad Air 2 on iOS 11. Seems to be due to that wacky iOS audio bug that causes DSP performance to drop with certain UI stuff. I've found a workaround that seems to avoid the problem.

    If you'd like to help me test it (assuming you're not already signed up): http://audiob.us/testing

    I have been testing v3 on iOS 10 for a while now and haven't noticed any issues. I haven't been looking at cpu meters or comparing against v2 but I'm liking the idea that I can get some more performance power, does this fix only apply to iOS 11?

  • @MusicMan4Christ said:
    AB2 is perfect as is for me. No mixer and I wonder how much cpu horsepower would be saved in AB3 making the mixer as an optional in settings.

    None, actually - the meter doesn't do anything until you use it, and then it only does a quick multiplication on the audio, which is super quick.

  • @Panthemusicalgoat said:
    Well I have good and bad news. Bad news au3 bug persists. I think this morning when I tested it might have been a fluke or I didnt test long enough

    Yeah, this is one I've reported to the Core Audio team yesterday, and they're actively looking into it (or something very like it) already, happily. So, just a matter of time (but not something I can fix myself, unless I get super lucky finding some arcane workaround, which is unlikely).

    However the aufx:space and tonestack running at 64 buffer seems to work now in audiobus 3 just as it did back in audiobus 2. So that bug is totally squashed

    Great!

  • edited January 2018

    @BlueGreenSpiral said:
    does this fix only apply to iOS 11?

    I'm not sure, actually - dunno what iOS version the bug crept into, and annoyingly I don't have any physical devices running iOS 10 I can try it out with any more.

  • @Max23 said:
    The biggest bug is still the tab to fix thing, it takes the fun out of ab by just quickly throwing things together. Half of my ab presets just don’t work anymore, I’m about to give up on that
    and only use well working setups.

    Mind emailing me about that one in more detail, just to remind me? There are a lot of things that cause it, so I want to make sure we're talking about the same thing.

  • @Michael said:

    @BlueGreenSpiral said:
    does this fix only apply to iOS 11?

    I'm not sure, actually - dunno what iOS version the bug crept into, and annoyingly I don't have any physical devices running iOS 10 I can try it out with any more.

    I don't have anything running 11 so I am going to decide that I got a performance boost!
    Thanks for that :)

  • The user and all related content has been deleted.
  • edited January 2018

    The dsp fix really helped with speed tho. Wow this is so much better

  • The user and all related content has been deleted.
  • edited January 2018

    With this beta I’m now able to use audio physical input with 3 AU fx going to loopy at 64 buffers, it’s pretty stable and a gift for sax playing/looping. Never had this on my iPhone before, I’m really happy with that. When I add AUM in the AB routing/setup, audio is not as stable I need to go to 128 and to loopy view. AUM has more glitches when I navigate in the mixer. Doesn’t seems to have improved things a lot here. So it seems Apple have some work. I understand now why iOS musicians keep their older devices non upgraded.

  • That’s great!

    Yeah, they’re working on it now. Gotta say, I’m glad it’s not me, quite the thing to debug!

  • edited January 2018

    @Janosax said:
    I understand now why iOS musicians keep their older devices non upgraded.

    Alchemy and the soundpacks in my case, Camel Audio going AWOL was a blessing in disguise for me!

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