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
When I see these kind of devices I always worry about how responsive those rubber surfaces are. I would choose an onscreen X/Y pad over most of physical pads I've played so far. This would be even more true to me with 3D touch enabled devices.
If i can trust what i read about it it should be a lot more accurate and responsive as a touch screen from an iPad or iPhone. Like with a Seaboard there are so much more sensors and whatever included just to "read" every slight movement, change, pressure you make. It´s like an iPad would be 7bit Midi against 14bit midi touch screen (just a bad example) or like the iPad/iPhone would be a cheap keyboard without any travel and those controllers are the piano with fully weighted keys......or so
BUT......sometimes i find the Seaboard too sensitive and it´s easy to get out of control......the good thing is you can customize that on a desktop/notebook. Not so on iOS devices i think.
I can say for sure that my Seaboard is so responsive. Velocity is such a joy. I prefer it over all midi keyboards i ever had (but that was mostly cheap ones anyway). The XY pad on the Seaboard is nice as well. But indeed here it could be better since it needs some pressure (even if it has no Z axis) to work proper.
The great thing with the Seaboard is i can touch (very soft) the surface without trigger notes to find notes befor i trigger them but still can play from very soft to very hard if i like.
A flat touch screen has pro too. Using X, Y and Z axis at the same time works much better of course on a flat screen instead of sliding over such keywaves.
Best thing is still to combine these things. IPads and iPhones are great as long as you have a visual feedback. But i really want to play without watching all the time on the screen and the feeling of tactile feedback under the fingers is so much better that i play with much more joy and expression.
But iPads/iPhones are of course great for apps like Model 15 or Animoog where you anyway just have 4 voices which can be handled good, even on small touch screens.
Been quite intrigued about the Touché. Didn’t contribute to its crowdfunding campaign, especially since it happened when my finances were quite low. But it could end up being a pretty cool controller. Pretty versatile.
Thing is, while many people have been down on the Lightpad Block, it’s slowly becoming a regular part of my setup. It has its issues (for instance, even after all sorts of updates, the original Lightpad still isn’t responsive enough to my tastes). And it obviously requires some practice. But, in the end, the Lightpad is pretty convenient little controller.
In case it’s not clear: that Block can be used as a fully-customizable XYZ pad, as a clip launcher, as a kind of MPC-like drum machine, as a set of mixer faders, and even as a step sequencer or a VJ controller, as well as its main use as a two-octave MPE controller.
Instead of switching between rubber covers, you press the side button to change modes. The rubber surface doesn’t change, but the LED patterns do help. In terms of haptic feedback it’s quite different from tapping a touchscreen.
Again, people have been dismissing it very loudly. So this may all sound strange. But, seriously, this little square controller is becoming a rather useful part of my setup.
Of course, my Eigenharp Pico remains a much more satisfying instrument. It has its quirks and it’s still not possible for me to jam on it as well as on my Yamaha WX-11. But it’s just such a joy to use!
What’s kind of funny about the Pico in comparison with the Lightpad is that Equator makes more sense with the entry-level Eigenlabs controller than with the ROLI one.
What do you like about the Eigenharp? I totally get the Linnstrument -- it's like a 3D Geoshred. But the Eigenharp I don't get. What am I missing?
@Wrlds2ndBstGeoshredr the breath controller! its like a role (seaboard/block) AND a breath controller! ..so good for winds and brass...
How is it better than an EWI?
@Wrlds2ndBstGeoshredr cant say if its better, never used an ewi. but I didn't think ewi has MPE or configurable internal software (scales etc). EWi is cool if you are used to the fingerings or however the notes are physically setup .... but my understanding is its a not MPE
Ah, so it has pressure-sensitive fingering pads? And it's microtunable?
microtunable>? im not even sure,I bet, but I never cared for that...
each key has , velocity , pressure (after touch,) pitchblende, and mod wheel, (so that four polyphonic/independent assignable CCs) ... PLUS the breath controller that isn't per key.....
TL;DR: Eigenharps are very peculiar controllers which do MPE and precise microtuning but don’t work directly on iOS.
Uh-oh!
@Wrlds2ndBstGeoshredr said:
Yes, EigenD allows you to create any tuning system (with fractions or cents, etc.). And you can assign any pitch to each key. In fact, if you get in its scripting system, you can even switch tunings, scales, and modes using sequences of notes (using a “language” called Bel Canto).
One thing to keep in mind is that Eigenharps require the EigenD software which is only available on macOS, Windows, and Linux (including Raspbian, with caveats). It doesn’t directly send MIDI over USB. So, no way to plug it directly into an iOS device.
But they’re very interesting devices.
In a way, it’s a completely separate playing “paradigm” from other MPE controllers which makes a whole lot more sense for wind instrument players.
Other MPE devices take an approach which is close to the trombone, but with quantization. You hit within a zone and there’s a specific pitch associated with that zone, which you can then slide as much as you want in both directions. Makes a lot of sense for guitar and keyboard players, but it does require some practice to hit just the right spot, AFAICT. Typically, these controllers are setup in 12TET. Contiguous zones are 100 cents apart. You can mostly do microtuning by turning off quantization and hitting spots which are away from 12TET. (The most recent update to GeoShred, with diatonic mode, makes for something different, but you still need to think of zones.)
On an Eigenharp, each key is linked to a note and that note can be any pitch whatsoever. You want one row of keys to be in pelog and the other to be in slendro? Completely doable with a text file placed in the right location on your computer. So, each key is perfectly in tune (within the tuning system) and you don’t have to use pitchbend if you don’t want to. Then, each key its like its own mini control surface. And it’s unbelievably sensitive. You barely touch the surface of a key and it already sends very precise data. Everything is about subtlety.
It’s a very deep controller. Got my Pico last Summer and barely scratched the surface. (Not literally, of course. It’s not a surface like the ROLI Lightpad, LinnStrument, Soundplane, or Continuum.)
For a very simple example, the device has its own loop-playing mechanism. While that may not sound very useful, it can be pretty neat to turn loops on and off while playing.
A slightly better example is that EigenD is a plugin host, so you don’t have to rely on MIDI. You can send whichever dimension you want to whichever plugin parameter, mapping things in EigenD itself. The resolution on each of these is higher than MIDI.
For an even better example, EigenD includes two physical modelling synths, one for cello and one for clarinet. These don’t use MIDI at all. They’re really just responding to breath and, in the cello case, “bowing” with the pitch strip. Haven’t really been searching for realistic instruments that much, but playing the clarinet model really got me to understand things in a different way. For a while, was practicing scales over and over again. Felt just like music school, which was actually a cool thing in this context.
One thing to say about breath control is that it also shifts the playing away from note-on/note-off in a way that other players may not really realize. People who play drums or keyboards tend to think of notes in this kind of “gate” model, and MIDI is based on that. Each note has its own envelope. Playing legato does change that model a bit, but mostly by chopping off the attack portion. Aftertouch feels like an afterthought.
With breath control, you often think of phrases, which tend to correspond to your breath. It sounds so obvious but it makes a huge difference. Sure, breath control can be a bit like aftertouch, in terms of changing a note after it started playing. But creating patches which respond well to breath is more about controlling envelope at the level of a whole phrase. (Hence the well-known trick of modulating the cutoff frequency of a low-pass filter using CC#2.) As @RubenDari said, breath control on the Eigenharp applies to all notes/channels at the same time and there’s an obvious logic to that. But it’s also useful to note that the breath pressure sensitivity is really very high, and you don’t have to send it through MIDI. So, you can have something close to CV using your breath, which is pretty cool. (And has been giving me ideas to create other devices, eventually.)
As for other wind controllers, they work in a very different way from any MPE device. (Also own an EWI-USB and a WX-11.) The basic idea of any other wind controller is that you use fingerings similar to those of a key-/valve-based monophonic wind instrument (saxophone, recorder, clarinet, trumpet/tuba/euphonium…). Which means that you require multiple fingers to play a single note. In this context, polyphony can be quite tricky. Which is part of the reason it’s such an amazing experience to play one of these with automatic harmonization, à la “Michael Brecker” (who used Robby Kilgore’s rotating chords system for the Oberheim Xpander). In those situations, you play monophonically and the synth creates chords from that single-note input. Very different from playing polyphonically as on a keyboard or string instrument.
For several reasons, it remains much easier for me to play melodically on the WX-11 than on any of my other controllers (Eigenharp Pico, EWI-USB, Lightpad Block, and Alesis Vmini). And it’s still easier to play chords on a piano-like keyboard than on an Eigenharp or Lightpad.
But the Eigenharp opens my ears to completely different things.
Linnstrument has a truly different feel. The surface is different in tactility… a little more friction. More importantly, you have much more dynamic control with regards to pressure. This translates into more expressive possibilities. The same is true for the Seaboard.
I LOVE GeoShred… I could rock that shit all day. But don’t be fooled that it is a substitute for the Linnstrument. In fact, before GeoShred came out, I told Roger that I called GeoSynth the “poor man's Linnstrument.” He was positive about GeoSynth, but didn’t think it was a Linnstrument replacement.
The pressure/friction thing is a really good point, especially for stringed Instrument players who use pressure as part of the tools of expression with an instrument.
Been enjoying this thread.
I’m happy to report that I’m having great results with the Aftertouch app using 3D Touch on my iPhone 6s Plus.
Plugged into Roli Noise (as an AU) or Volt you get some fantastic expression.
One day I might stretch to a light pad (can’t really justify the money for a seaboard to myself) but right now it feels like the Aftertouch app is the answer.
The new iPads have 3D Touch too don’t they?
Got my eye on the Dreadbox Medusa. Grid controller w/ 3D expression pads like Linnstrument.
No apparent support for slides like Linnstrument. OTOH, has an onboard hybrid synth engine that sounds interesting.
ROLI’s Lightpad M is among my favourite controllers. Did try the Seaboard Block in an Apple Store (during a ROLI-focused workshop-type thing). But the Lightpad M is much closer to my needs. It’s remarkably versatile and the responsiveness is (finally) where it should be. Of course, there’s a learning curve, as with any instrument. Adept keyboardists might prefer something closer to a traditional keyboard, which is why the Seaboard is so important (Roland Lamb was trained as a pianist). But the Lightpad M is really a new type of instrument. “Way of the future” kind of thing.
The original Lightpad disappointed a lot of people. It wasn’t responsive enough and it was only supported in a few ways. Firmware updates and associated software really improved its usefulness, but it’s still RSI-inducing, depending on what you play with it. (Of course, it works quite well when you mostly want to trigger things instead of using the full expressiveness in “5D”.)
The Lightpad M was exactly the hardware update ROLI had to do to make things work.
It’s smaller than any other dedicated MPE controller (LinnStrument 128, ContinuuMini, Eigenharp Pico, Joué, SoundPlane, and K-board Pro 4). Comparable in overall volume to an iPhone running some MPE app. But much more satisfying than a screen-based controller, IMHO.
Nope.
Can you set up the Lightpad to a guitar strings layout? I'd love to have a Linnstrument, but the cost is prohibitive.
Well, you can change the grid in many ways and some people have done something similar to a string layout.
https://roli.com/stories/lightpad-block-littlefoot
(It’s also fairly easy to switch between layouts which have been saved on the device: press the side button to move to the next one.)
The “default” layout, the 5x5 grid, has notes organized by fourths. So it’s a bit like having five strings with five frets (though not in standard tuning: EADGC instead of EADGBE). Several guitar-focused apps have had a similar layout. You could probably rearrange those to come closer to guitar tuning. Haven’t noticed a setup with six rows but it might work (the full grid is 15x15 so you could conceivable have two lines per row; might be difficult to play).
Something a Lightpad doesn’t do out of the box but could probably be programmed without too much work is to make each “string” monophonic, as in GeoShred. Haven’t investigated that but it doesn’t sound exceedingly difficult for someone who understand its little programming language (not me, but there are people out there who do).
Of course, it’s not a great idea to buy a product based on a feature it may or may not have.
My suggestion, if some Lightpad M blocks are available on demo at an Apple Store near you, is to try one. As with any instrument, the way it feels is as important as its list of features, if not more.
In my case, since Apple Stores in Ottawa didn’t have the devices on display, was told by an Apple retail employee to just buy a Lightpad and return it if it didn’t suit me. Felt weird, but did that.
Almost did return it, as it was still fairly early days when responsiveness wasn’t all there. As silly as it may sound, the Equator Player which came bundled with the block kind of sealed the deal for me because it worked really well with my Eigenharp. Since then, bought the full version and been quite happy with it (though there’s no bridge with Equator sounds in Noise). Also bought the full version of Strobe2, as it’s fun, flexible, and expressive. And a one-year license for Max 7. And a bunch of other things on both desktop and iOS. Had the Lightpad M been available at the time, it’d have been an even quicker decision to do all of this.
But… YMMV. You might find the device really offputting, for whatever reason.
Gaz Williams hates it, though it’s not clear to me if he tried the Lightpad M. Taetro changed his tune about ROLI devices, especially after trying the Lightpad M and Seaboard. Some people (typically keyboardists) swear by the Seaboard and disregard the Lightpad.
To each their own.