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.
Komp Create -- hand writing notation currently free
„Komp Create“ by Semitone, LLC
https://itunes.apple.com/de/app/komp-create/id1103355632?mt=8
currently free, usually 29.99 or 14.99
nicely designed app, actively developed, Apple pencil support etc.
haven't tested it much yet, obviously not as deep as Notion but completely free currently, and first impression is really good
Comments
Excellent, thanks. Diehard Notion user here, but always willing to try something new.
Underwhelming. Note entry is buggy. Notes would just disappear at times, no matter how carefully I drew them. Doesn’t provide any feedback on when you have added too many notes for the measure. When I tried to insert notes, sometimess it worked, sometimes some of the notes around would disappear. Only export options is MusicXML. One thing I would really love from a notation app on iOS is the ability to add in other sound libraries, not here, or in any other notation apps I’ve seen.
Consider you the Godfather of these types of things so will not bother, but instead go back to promising myself I will spend more time with Notion (which I really like but have not spent enough time with
)
Lol, @JohnnyGoodyear.
So, Notion experts, is there a way to change tempo on mxl / midi imported files?
Thanks.
Thanks for the heads up, @nick
Thanks for taking a look at our app Rick. What format would you like to see available for export and what sound libraries would you like to see made available for use? As for the notation input, we keep on working on making it more and more accurate. It is a very hard problem and we decided (for better or worse) not to use the same MyScript libary that all the other apps are using to add handwriting support.
Midi export for sure, that way it can go into a daw. I do that with notion all the time. For sound libraries, anything AU, or IAA. That way anything new that comes up would work. Isymphonic, sample tank, beathawk, thumbjam, oriental strings. It would be truly fantastic if you could do key switches, that is, change the sample mid piece, to allow the composer to go from legato to pizzicato, for instance. Then it would have the capabilities of the desktop.
@SemitoneGene, I would also say, that another export format would be as both a single wav file, and as stems, individual wav files. If you could use external libraries, and do key switches, then give the ability to export as stems so the results could be imported into a daw for mixing/applying filters, you would have something that would begin to rival what products like Sibelius do. I guess it depends on what you see the future being for the product; as a simple notation app, or a music creation app.
@rickwaugh MIDI export and audio export of combined and single tracks will be easy to do. I'll add that to our list. Our first goal is to just get handwritten music notation working reliably and effectively. If we can accomplish that, then we can figure out ways to make variations of the technology more accessible.
@SemitoneGene, of course. That makes perfect sense.
@SemitoneGene Just a couple questions.
Is Apple Pencil supported?
Someone left a review claiming this was a subscription app, but it looks entirely free to me at the moment. Why did this reviewer say it was a subscription app? (I stay far away from subscription apps unless they are Dropbox, Spotify, Netflix, or anything with online storage/updated content.)
Great to see these important features added! Thanks for jumping in here. Having an active dev presence is super encouraging.
And I do want to second @rickwaugh with the AU/IAA request. Even though AUv3 is definitely the future, a lot of good orchestra samplers are currently IAA so having that as well would be great. And coupling this with the ability to change sample/instrument target on the fly, this would be a game changer for iOS notation apps.
I’m really looking forward to see how this plays out!
I’m a diehard Symphony Pro user... Notion on the desktop. I use to port MusicXML from SP to Notion iOS. Then I import the Notion file from the cloud into my desktop Notion. Once there, I listen to my creation with the symphonic sound packs I have bought. I’m mainly into string quartets and wind Quintet chamber music.
Allhtough im a guitarist I’ve yet to write for the classical guitar. It’s too close to home.
My style is tonal, contrapuntal music. Perhaps a late romantic, with Mozart & Schubert as heroes.
I downloaded this app and will try it out. I guess it will be updated as frequently as the version history is showing.
The great thing for me, was the absence of sounds, as I often find sound interfering with what I want to write.
It’s difficult to explain, but I find tinkering with a piano cheating. Your preprogrammed fingers do the composing instead of your imagination
I have actually made the Chaconne of Bach for classical guitar into midi. The violin version was too high for the guitar. It’s great in Auria Pro with the Lyra sampled guitar.
(I’m not the dev, just answering from what I’ve found). Yes, Apple Pencil is supported.
Looks like that was done away with in the 1.5 update. FWIW there is no longer a “Store” item in the menu at all. Also doesn’t appear to be limited as someone said, anyway at least I was able to extend past 32 bars. Probably need @SemitoneGene to chime in on the official state of things there.
BTW I think the app is slick. It has a nice look and feel, and I like that you can train it on how you draw things.
I added AU/IAA support as a feature request on the site, but everything on the existing roadmap should probably be finished first (e.g. grace notes, dynamic/expression playback, clef changes, text tool, etc).
@SemitoneGene
I wrote a little crab canon with the Apple Pencil just to try it out.
It’s a good app, I have to admit that. And, I’m going to use it. But for now, the Pencil is plagued by poor precision and I’m allowed to write more notes in a measure than is allowed.
It kinda feels like the app wants to finish my note before I’m done writing it. It’s also troublesome to change a quarter into an eight or a sixteenth.
Dragging notes arond is exxellent btw.
If I use this app enough, I think I’ll ask @SemitoneGene to have some premium features behind a one-time-fee paywall ($14.99-$19.99 sounds reasonable) so SOME money can be tossed his way. I don’t like subscriptions, but I DO like supporting hard-working developers. Like recently, Xequence was updated and had a 12-controller per track IAP. I didn’t need it (at least at first before I found out I can access synth parameters in Gadget by viewing a list), but I bought it anyways.
@jwmmakerofmusic Yes, the Apple Pencil is supported. It is the best way to use the app, although you can use your finger or either a passive or active stylus if you don't have an iPad Pro.
We tried various pricing models, but what it really came down too is that until Komp can handle both handwriting recognition and provide a reasonable set of notation features, it isn't worth much. We just apperciate people using the app right now, finding issues and suggesting features. We have some ideas about how we might actually make some money later on, but this is all predicated on actually being able to compose with Komp.
Gene
So essentially it’s a free public beta that we get to keep fair enough
Very fair. I have played a little with it (Apple pencil works well). It's an attractive app, but especially because you guys are at work on it. This motivates me to keep trying from this end as well