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.

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

Proper MIDI Sync to external gear

Hardware groove boxes, sequencers, synth arpeggiators, keyboard workstations and other gear that can send MIDI clock are often the MIDI clock masters in a setup with multiple machines because they usually have a solid clock source and their transport control can be operated with real hardware buttons, allowing for tight start and stop operation in sync with a live beat.

Integrating an iPad into such a setup can be a lot of fun: You can add sequencing, synths, samplers, FX etc. synchronized to the beat - much like apps are synced over WiFi using Ableton Link in the pure software world.
To be able to do that, you have to use iOS apps that can follow external MIDI clock and START/STOP/CONTINUE messages from these machines.
From my long experience with such apps, I can say that not every app supporting MIDI slave synchronization does this well. Some are rock-solid anytime, some require later iDevices to run smoothly, and some are just too unreliable for regular use.

Intending to make this thread a list of apps that can sync tightly to external MIDI clock from other hardware going into an iOS-compatible MIDI interface and a discussion about issues when syncing apps to MIDI, let me start with a (certainly incomplete) list of apps that seem to be solid and tight enough:

Loopy HD
Beat Machine
MoDrum
BassLine
LP-5
Genome Midi
StepPolyArp
thor
DM1
GlitchBreaks
Samplr (no menu for external sync but it works anyway :)
BeatMaker 2 (user experiences vary but on later iDevices slave sync seems to work well)
Modstep
FunkBox
iSpark
Sugar Bytes Effectrix, Egoist and Thesys

Comments

  • Good list and good idea for a thread. None to add, unfortunately, but reckon @gonekrazy3000 or @supadom might have other apps to contribute.

  • Thanks for the list.
    MidiSteps is pretty solid as a sync clock master

  • edited January 2018

    @DYMS said:
    Thanks for the list.
    MidiSteps is pretty solid as a sync clock master

    You're welcome!
    An iOS clock master won't help when you already have a hardware clock master. There can only be one single clock master in a MIDI-synced setup, that's why "clock slave" capability is so important in iOS apps doing anything rhythmic.
    Korg Electribes, Digitakt, Octatrack and other elektrons, Roland MC series, Yamaha RM1x or RS7000 or QY/RX/RY series, many new sequencers for modular systems, most Davé Smith sequencers and arpeggiators, AKAI MPC series, ... the list is endless.

  • Gadget works well as slave

    MIDI Link Sync is pretty solid and enables syncing Link apps to external clock although I would prefer more apps to slave to MIDI Clock natively.

  • @rs2000
    Sorry, totally misread the slave part. My bad.

  • encenc
    edited January 2018

    Thanks fir the list. Great idea for a thread.

  • @rs2000 said:

    >

    From my long experience with such apps, I can say that not every app supporting MIDI slave synchronization does this well. Some are rock-solid anytime, some require later iDevices to run smoothly, and some are just too unreliable for regular use.

    >
    Can you expand on that ? Maybe in a separate thread. Be good to hear how you set up.
    Been getting into iOS and hardwear with mixed results.

  • What about DrumJam ?

    Haven't tried myself but it mostly runs rock solid as a slave using IOS apps only. DrumJam has lots of midi in and out settings and think it's worth a try.

  • @enc said:

    @rs2000 said:

    >

    From my long experience with such apps, I can say that not every app supporting MIDI slave synchronization does this well. Some are rock-solid anytime, some require later iDevices to run smoothly, and some are just too unreliable for regular use.

    >
    Can you expand on that ? Maybe in a separate thread. Be good to hear how you set up.
    Been getting into iOS and hardwear with mixed results.

    I recommend to start with the free LP-5 app. It contains a couple of audio loops and does properly sync to MIDI clock from external sequencers/groove boxes.
    Attach your MIDI interface to iDevice and hardware MIDI out to MIDI interface Input first, then power-on your hardware.
    Run LP-5.
    In LP-5, open the settings menu (3 dots, upper right), go to MIDI and under "Input Connections", find your MIDI interface and enable "CLOCK INPUT" so it lights up in yellow.
    Load loops of your choice by long-pressing on an empty clip and choosing a loop on the bottom file browser, e.g. Factory Library > PL HardStuff Drums.
    On your hardware, if you hadn't done that before, set it to send MIDI clock to MIDI out.
    Hit PLAY on your hardware. LP-5 should start in sync with your hardware and both should run in perfect sync.
    If not, please report. That's one of my first tests to make sure all settings are correct.

  • Loopy has generally very good sync but I’ve had problems syncing it to Circuit. It would occasionally misread the tempo, pitchshift to wrong tempo, then pitch them back and sound super mushy. After that I’ve just decided to have loopy as master, which works fine.

    I think generally iOS has made a great progress in terms of sync. I remember times where it was a misery to try and sync anything to anything. Blood, sweat and tears. Now we have it all and most of major developers got it right. Good times.

  • edited January 2018

    @supadom said:
    Loopy has generally very good sync but I’ve had problems syncing it to Circuit. It would occasionally misread the tempo, pitchshift to wrong tempo, then pitch them back and sound super mushy. After that I’ve just decided to have loopy as master, which works fine.

    I think generally iOS has made a great progress in terms of sync. I remember times where it was a misery to try and sync anything to anything. Blood, sweat and tears. Now we have it all and most of major developers got it right. Good times.

    Well, Midi slave sync works stable since iOS 4.3 on iPad 1 (I still have one :), this is quite a long time IMHO ;)
    The only thing that won't run smoothly on this old model is realtime audio time stretching like in Loopy HD.

    @Supadom: Would you mind capturing/recording the Circuit's full MIDI stream (incl. sync messages) of such a problematic sync scenario with Loopy and send me the midi file?

  • Samplr has issues with slaving to midi clock, any jitter will garble up the audio. There's some detail, and workaround here:

    https://forum.audiob.us/discussion/9751/recording-out-of-samplr

    Modstep is buggy with song position pointer- it starts playback any time SPP is received, which limits its usefulness with an external daw, but may not be an issue, if your external midi gear doesn't send SPP.

    Patterning slaves very well to midi clock.

    Loopy is very robust, in how it handles slaving to midi clock. Not many things, hardware or software, that slave audio to midi clock, can do it right.

  • @Processaurus: Thanks for sharing your experiences!
    Indeed I've only tried syncing Samplr with hardware which seems stable enough.
    Thanks also for the Modstep hint, that means that Roland sequencers and workstations won't work with Modstep because they rely heavily on SPP-based positioning inside the pattern/song. Good to know because I haven't tried every possible combination.
    I agree with Loopy being robust and the fact that slave-synced audio often does not work as expected - therefore this thread and the invitation for everyone to share their own experiences.

  • Funkbox is what I use to sync all my hardware/apps.

  • @supadom said:
    Loopy has generally very good sync but I’ve had problems syncing it to Circuit. It would occasionally misread the tempo, pitchshift to wrong tempo, then pitch them back and sound super mushy. After that I’ve just decided to have loopy as master, which works fine.

    I think generally iOS has made a great progress in terms of sync. I remember times where it was a misery to try and sync anything to anything. Blood, sweat and tears. Now we have it all and most of major developers got it right. Good times.

    I find that my Circuit has horrible midi drift, so always use it as slave with MidiSteps or Loopy as the master.

  • @DYMS said:

    @supadom said:
    Loopy has generally very good sync but I’ve had problems syncing it to Circuit. It would occasionally misread the tempo, pitchshift to wrong tempo, then pitch them back and sound super mushy. After that I’ve just decided to have loopy as master, which works fine.

    I think generally iOS has made a great progress in terms of sync. I remember times where it was a misery to try and sync anything to anything. Blood, sweat and tears. Now we have it all and most of major developers got it right. Good times.

    I find that my Circuit has horrible midi drift, so always use it as slave with MidiSteps or Loopy as the master.

    Yes, that might be it. I was very impressed at first because Turnado synced to it super tight and some of the rhythm based effects stayed on even when I stopped circuits (for a bit of drama) but that drift would make it impossible for Loopy to stay on course.

  • I'm trying to find out if garageband supports incoming midi clock/sync ... hard to find out but I guess it's absence from this thread means no ?

  • I would say beat machine manages to approximate the tempo, but it doesn't sync to bar lines. You only have to change the incoming tempo to see it lose sync.

    Loopy HD seems to manage both well.

  • @bibenu said:
    I would say beat machine manages to approximate the tempo, but it doesn't sync to bar lines. You only have to change the incoming tempo to see it lose sync.

    Loopy HD seems to manage both well.

    Yes it does :smiley:

    You might be interested in the latest versions of Groove Rider GR-16, Beatmaker 3 and KORG Gadget. They all sync to external MIDI clock well, and they follow tempo changes easily.

  • Rozetta suite apps slaves well to external midi.

    Factory's sequencer.

  • @rs2000 said:

    @bibenu said:
    I would say beat machine manages to approximate the tempo, but it doesn't sync to bar lines. You only have to change the incoming tempo to see it lose sync.

    Loopy HD seems to manage both well.

    Yes it does :smiley:

    You might be interested in the latest versions of Groove Rider GR-16, Beatmaker 3 and KORG Gadget. They all sync to external MIDI clock well, and they follow tempo changes easily.

    Thank you. May follow up on those if I exhaust the possibilities on Loopy HD ... which, at this stage of my looping education, is some way off. ;)

  • edited January 2020

    @supadom said:

    I think generally iOS has made a great progress in terms of sync. I remember times where it was a misery to try and sync anything to anything. Blood, sweat and tears. Now we have it all and most of major developers got it right. Good times.

    Interesting thread this one... are you saying that internal iPad MIDI sync (not Ableton Link) now works properly? I was doing lots of music exclusively on iOS from 2012 to the end of 2015 and internal sync between apps almost drove me insane!

    I've recently returned to making music with a new setup - Logic X Pro on a Macbook Pro, using iPad apps as my software instruments via the IDAM system - and I'm having much more success than before with getting solid sync.

  • edited January 2020

    Hi,
    I use a Yamaha multi pad with an iPad air 1. Beat maker 3 and midi link sync works fabulously to drive the yammys sequencer.

    I'm a drummer. I use a foot switch to tap a tempo and the loops I have in bm3 are locked pretty good. I can be playing drums ...left foot taps with my playing... Tap tempo in bm3 is excellant. Miles better than the yammys tap. Then I hit a pad on yammy which sends midi note to bm3 focus actions and loop plays. A beautiful thing!

    The link sync app sends midi clock to the yammy which again is miles better than the clock the yammy spits. And the real time audio stretching in bm3 is the best I've ever heard.
    In this setup I don't care about where the one is. I dictate the one:-)

    I also have a setup I use in my studio where I use my old..90s... Aphex studio clock which listens to my kick and snare and sends midi clock to my iPad. Like a 90s hardware version of Beatseeker. Too much gear to move for live. Should a listened to my dad and played flute or harmonica:-)
    Flow

  • @Acetone said:

    @supadom said:

    I think generally iOS has made a great progress in terms of sync. I remember times where it was a misery to try and sync anything to anything. Blood, sweat and tears. Now we have it all and most of major developers got it right. Good times.

    Interesting thread this one... are you saying that internal iPad MIDI sync (not Ableton Link) now works properly? I was doing lots of music exclusively on iOS from 2012 to the end of 2015 and internal sync between apps almost drove me insane!

    It's all up to the apps, not iOS.
    Proper MIDI clock sync has been possible since iOS 4.3 on iPad 1 but only relatively few apps had code that really worked.

    The issue with "internal sync between apps" often was that the apps required a third app that provided a virtual MIDI port over which the clock signal had to be routed.
    Samplr is one example.

  • @rs2000 said:

    @Acetone said:

    @supadom said:

    I think generally iOS has made a great progress in terms of sync. I remember times where it was a misery to try and sync anything to anything. Blood, sweat and tears. Now we have it all and most of major developers got it right. Good times.

    Interesting thread this one... are you saying that internal iPad MIDI sync (not Ableton Link) now works properly? I was doing lots of music exclusively on iOS from 2012 to the end of 2015 and internal sync between apps almost drove me insane!

    It's all up to the apps, not iOS.
    Proper MIDI clock sync has been possible since iOS 4.3 on iPad 1 but only relatively few apps had code that really worked.

    The issue with "internal sync between apps" often was that the apps required a third app that provided a virtual MIDI port over which the clock signal had to be routed.
    Samplr is one example.

    What he said. App dependent and while some devs did their homework, some others decided to wing it. Not having a clear pathway provided by iOS didn’t help. Also having so many options caused people getting mixed up and using IAA and midi sync at the same time to various degrees of trouble.

    I found that sticking with regular midi sync works best for me with all apps I use supporting it correctly. Samplr has a drift but clock off set in Audiobus takes care of that. These days AUs seem to work automagically so that’s that.

    What a time to be alive!

  • edited January 2020

    @supadom said:
    What he said. App dependent and while some devs did their homework, some others decided to wing it. Not having a clear pathway provided by iOS didn’t help. Also having so many options caused people getting mixed up and using IAA and midi sync at the same time to various degrees of trouble.

    Yes, this is what I've been discovering / kind of already knew!

    Back when I was iOS-only I never understood why MIDI - which has been the industry standard since around 1980 - was such a pain on iPads!

    I've been doing some research on which apps have the best MIDI implementation and so far I've found one old app and one new(ish) one: Funkbox drum machine (from 2012 I believe!) & the Moog Model 15.

    Last night I gave Funkbox a try over IDAM into Logic on the Macbook, playing it on the drum pads on my Minilab keyboard. It's a pretty basic sample based drum machine, but it was working solid as a rock, with no perceptible timing or latency issues. It sounded great too - it may all be samples that you can't manipulate much but there are lots of different classic drum machines in there, most with several alt kits.

    I'll give the Model 15 a further go tonight...

  • @Acetone said:

    @supadom said:
    What he said. App dependent and while some devs did their homework, some others decided to wing it. Not having a clear pathway provided by iOS didn’t help. Also having so many options caused people getting mixed up and using IAA and midi sync at the same time to various degrees of trouble.

    Yes, this is what I've been discovering / kind of already knew!

    Back when I was iOS-only I never understood why MIDI - which has been the industry standard since around 1980 - was such a pain on iPads!

    I've been doing some research on which apps have the best MIDI implementation and so far I've found one old app and one new(ish) one: Funkbox drum machine (from 2012 I believe!) & the Moog Model 15.

    Last night I gave Funkbox a try over IDAM into Logic on the Macbook, playing it on the drum pads on my Minilab keyboard. It's a pretty basic sample based drum machine, but it was working solid as a rock, with no perceptible timing or latency issues. It sounded great too - it may all be samples that you can't manipulate much but there are lots of different classic drum machines in there, most with several alt kits.

    I'll give the Model 15 a further go tonight...

    Don't forget BeatMaker 3. The only audio and MIDI DAW with recording that has a working MIDI clock master and slave implementation. (Well, Gadget can do it too but I consider audio clips too basic to consider it an audio "DAW".)

  • I also discovered that Luis Martinez's Funk Drummer app now has MIDI out, and last night I was able to record the MIDI notes from that into Logic, and then play those notes on a different drum machine.

    This is great because that is a brilliant app for coming up with drum patterns, but it frustrated me a little before when I couldn't properly sync it to other apps when I was iPad only (five+ years ago). Now I can do all sorts of new things with it :-)

    I'm more into making electronic music, so I'm looking at getting his Future Drummer app - it appears to have the same MIDI capabilities. Does anyone have that app and what do you think of it?

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