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
I'm pretty fed up in the middle need to spend energy to a large extent influence the listner’s mood that's for sure. But I like the headphones.
Yeah, that's pretty standard procedure. Pronunciation units are everything, my nice akg headphones have 23 Pronunciation units, far better than the 2 Pronunciation units that apple earbuds have. My custom in ears have 17 Pronunciation units but I only went for the single driver as I don't need much vocal in them on gigs...
But on a serious note, the fit on any "in ear" headphones is everything for bass, so depending on your ears you may need different tips. My ears don't fit any generic ear buds, so I had to get custom ones.
Yeh. Helped a little, but have to literally mash them in to get the bass I’m used to. But that’s just me I guess. Maybe it’ll help my mixes to have a more flat reference point.
Well, at this price point it’s not inconceivable that you could have gotten a bad one.
I dunno. It’s both ears, so that seems unlikely.
Not gelling with these at all. I tried for over an hour and it just ain’t coming together. Oh well ... glad you all like ‘em. I got more than my $12 worth in chuckles from reading the manual that came with them, so no regrets.
Makes note in file as regards Wim's oddly constructed ears
Happy end to the story. The secret lay not in mashing the things into my ear canals, but for some reason, twisting them around to a different angle. All good now!
Angles are important.
I find that having the buds pointing into the ears works best.
Just received these headphones few days ago.
Warning.
Biggest garbage in a long time. After not even a week of light use, low end is completely gone. Just piercing highs.
I guess you get what you pay for. YMMV.
I hope you guys have better luck.
I found the same thing. Once I adjusted the angle, I got much better bass response.
Careful. Bought two, first one fell apart within the first week. Sound is reasonably good.
Sounds like the Samson SR850 over ear headphones cost about $25
Which by the way got loads of very very good reviews, Google it when interested
Got mine the other day, unsurprisingly they are not as good as my Sony buds that cost about 6 times as much.
Are they 6 times worse? Nope. Handy backup pair.
I must have gotten lucky. I guess not much room for individual quality control. I have noticed that sometimes i have to hunt for the best insert position. Oh well.
Well, just in case anyone out there is as dumb as I am, they go in with the wire exit facing forward, not down. Then the wire is designed to go back over your ear and hang down the back. This, combined with replacing the default ear pads with the big ones made them finally fit and sound right. Somehow I missed out on the gene pool that produced that instinctive knowledge in the rest of the species.
Yeah, I had that too. I ended up using the smallest of the rubber add ons so they lodge well into the ear canal. I’ve also tried using them swapped left with right with cable going straight down as I’m not a fan of the over ear method and the golden earrings dangling around but found that it dimished bass response too. Funny lil things. Time will tell if I’m gonna use them much but definitely good to have them around.
Do they block outside sounds or noise well?
I’ve had my cheap skull candies and they do an awesome job at Bass and noise canceling.
Yes. The housing basically fills up your entire ear cavity, and then the rubber insert is blocking your ear canal. Not much gets past that.
That said, I don't really use these for casual / every day listening. Simple and cheap buds that have the basic sound you like are more convenient. I use these more as one of my references when mixing as they are less colored than my other earbuds. They're closer to the response of my ATH cans, but more convenient and easy to have around when you want them.
I would recommend the Sennheiser sounding Headbuds, which have powerful noise reduction and block all external sounds or noise. Complete midrange, lots of bass, wide sound field and wonderful separation
Here's the deal with any and all earbuds. Get some replacement surrounds that are made of memory foam and use them, and they make all the difference on any earbud.
I bought these that the OP suggested, and they are awesome, with memory foam surrounds.
HOWEVER - the cord is made of some super grippy rubber that sticks to itself and makes them the most annoying to deal with. HOWEVER, even with this annoying cord, I use them as in ear monitors at work and think they are amazing.
I believe myself to be a bit of audiophile - having Martin Logan ES Speakers in my house, purchased for us as a wedding gift, and after having them, just about everything else has to be of good quality or I feel like I am listening to some low end bluetooth speaker from 10 years ago. I keep this gift giver at arms length because they ruined my ability to enjoy sound inexpensively.
Hmm, if this thread is being resurrected:
There is a cottage industry of excellent IEMs and earbuds under 50$ on AliExpress (sometimes even amazon) these days. KZ is one of the more visible brands, but there’s tons more to explore: from the 5$ VE-monks (plus or lite) to stuff like TinAudio T2. This little website is a helpful starting point IMO: audiobudget.com
@Breezee You are correct, the ear tips matter a ton to the sound of IEMs. However, which type works out best is highly dependent on the individual’s ear canal, preferences, and the IEMs being used. Memory foam tips are far from a best for every user solution - even among foam materials alone. I, for one, tend to prefer single flange silicone tips for most applications.
a> @ohwell said:
absolutely- agree - I should have clarified --- that if you don't have a defined type that clearly work for you, these memory foam buds are a great one stop option that will massively improve performance on a set that you feel are underperforming - especially in the low end of the audible spectrum, which is where most buds fall short. Hell, there's a guy here that laser maps your ear canal and custom makes an insert for your individual needs, albeit, not my cup-o-tea.
I mainly wanted to chime in as a user of the ones in the OP, and voice my opinion on the cord.
@AnimalHeadSpirit, your approval of Apple earbuds was music to my ears. I have been ferociously trying to upgrade my listening and mixing experience with better iems than Apple’s base grade product. After trying out Mackie MK220s for $160 here in Turkey I returned them cause everything sounded great EXCEPT piano music, which sucked for me.. Reading so many reviews about enhanced bass put me off all of those since my music preferences are not bass heavy. So I am left with the Apples and my Roland headset, which has a lot more bass and in some ways less clarity.
I just thought I was weird liking the Apple buds, but your praise about them puts me right again about how subjective this all is. 😘
For wired earbuds, I’ve enjoyed the comfort of the sound magic e10 for two plus years. And they still work. They are soft sounding and do need EQ but they're the most comfortable for my ears out of dozens of buds over the years - including over $100 pairs. And now they're cheaper than ever on Amazon.
Apparently the e11 is out now but I have no experience with it.
Just found this tab open, was shopping for KZ headphones for a few days and forgot I started here in the first place.
Their lineup is somewhat confusing tbh, theres quite a few now.
My research indicates the old KZ ATE have been upgraded to the KZ ES4 if you want that type of response/low price point.
I opted for the KZ ZSA which is a step up with an aluminum case and an extra driver I think. Price is around $20 instead of $15 so still budget. The ZS6 in that range is supposed to have better separation but some say too bright so I skipped it. Theres a bunch more in the $30-$60 range I didn't look at. Some even have 3 drivers.
Also cool is the removable cord which can be replaced with a bluetooth cord for around $10, if I like the buds I might grab one. I got the corded version with a mic for my phone.
I recently got the KZ ATE thanks to this thread. I was skeptical and my first hour of listening wasn't great. But over a couple of days they really grew on me as monitors. Much more detailed and balanced than the Apple earbuds which is slightly jarring if you have gotten used to the somewhat hyped bass and lack of high mids. Apple earbuds sound nice but I think these are more honest and reveal details that can missing with Apple's earbuds.
Just did a shootout with these and my expensive IEMs and my Apple earbuds and a couple of others. While the expensive IEMs were more efficient and more true in the frequency response than the KZ-ATE. The KZ were much better than the others in the shootout.
But, during the shootout , I also discovered how critical it is to choose the right rubber covers for your ears. At first the ATE was much worse than my pro IEMs BUT I decided to check out the impact of the different covers that come with the headphones. The difference was huge on the bottom and low mids. If you get these, try all the included covers.
Also, I was reminded how hyped the Apple earbuds’ bass is. Satisfying in a way for listening but problematic for mixing if you plan on the music being listened to through anything else.