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
@Telefunky In my mind, Maxima always was a compressor, limiter and leveler (normalizer).
And now you say, that it is something different.
That's at least confusing to me.
Also, you say "apps like maxima" - so there are more?
And then, those apps are useless if the signal contains no peaks?
I don't have that impression from Maxima.
Could you please give more details about what you mean?
I am curious to learn more.
Other question:
What do you think about the Cornflower Compressor?
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/cornflower-compressor/id1234071352?l=en&mt=8
It features Knee and Gate, which not all apps offer.
@tja I don't know what's inside Maxima and which math achieves it's core functionality.
But it must be a tricky thing as such 'apps' (general term including desktop) are rare and obviously not very popular. Which is quite bewildering.
I only know 2 of them that have the low distortion feature, the Saw Studio Levelizer and Anwida's L1V, the latter is practically distortion-free (with reasonable settings).
Pro-L on desktop and the old Pro Tools Maxim are less tolerant in this sense.
Someone measured Pro-L (the 3rd harmonic is 40dB higher than Levelizer's) and with Maxim it's my ears telling the difference.
Levelizer is my main dynamics tool and it has eased the process of both track loudness balance and final mix adjustment a lot, which would apply to Maxima as well.
It's very fast and convenient for there's no bothering with attack/decay settings and the general tonal balance isn't affected (except the natural side effect of the ear's different frequency response with loudness).
That's specific to Levelizer, while the L1V and Maxima have additional controls for timing.
(possibly the reason for L1V's superior operation, dunno Maxima's figures)
But I don't need extreme settings and compensate with double processing (say 2 steps of 6dB each if 12dB is the target) in rare cases that require it.
I usually preprocess (during cleanup) and render such files anyway before I put them into the mix, so there's less automation and realtime processing.
Somewhere in the middle between classical compressor designs (DBX, L2A, 1176) and these 'pure math approaches' is the Drawmer DL241 and it's emulations.
http://www.drawmer.com/products/pro-series/dl241.php
(the manual gives some hints how to operate the unit in various situations which may be helpful in a general context as well)
I found the Pro Tools emulation of the Drawmer unit somewhat similiar to what Levelizer does, and it has a nice soundprint - but of course it's way more demanding in setup.
That's why I suggested the threshold line as an indicator when processing kicks in to Fred.
You immediately see it on the waveform and even a deaf could set it bulletproof - while a thing like the DL241 needs significantly more experience for a good result.
Imho tools like Maxima and Pro-L are those literal workhorses, while emulations of vintage gear are the icing on the cake - you want both.
Since I have a fairly good set of tools on desktop (on which I arrange anyway), I don't have that much need for IOS versions, but I'm curious about what's available just like you.
@Telefunky That was a massive reply. I needed to read it 2 times. Thanks a bunch.
Going to read that webpage you quoted.
Just asking:
I own Audio Mastering, Final Touch and Grand Finale.
Also Bark Filter and Maxima, as I wrote.
Do you have any opinion about the others?
I can only assume that they contain "classical" compressors and limiters.
I think, at the next Auria sale, I will get Pro-L2 and maybe Pro-C2
I've heard some good tracks made with Audio Mastering (if it's by iMusicAlbum) and got FinalTouch, but never really used it.
My personal problem with with multiband based 'loudness maximizers' (on individual tracks) is that they alter the sound image of the final mix.
I carefully choose sources and fx and hardly ever eq. Instead I pick a different mic and/or use dedicated reverbs for specific instruments.
The reverb thing is my main problem during IOS mixing, for obvious reasons the 'toolchest' I'm used to on desktop doesn't exist on the tablet.
(but it's not a general flaw - just my personal taste, preferences and beeing used to)
For this reason I lack the hands on competence to judge these apps in detail.
The best thing (stating the obvious here) is to use your ears and compare with significant pauses, sometimes several months can be very revealing.
If you continously work on a single track for hours you loose any sense of objectivity.
Funny sidenote: people spent big bucks on interfaces with distortion figures barely measurable. A hard driven DAW stock compressor may wash much of the great tone away, but the final stage in many (loudness oriented) mastering jobs can turn up THD from 0.001 into the mid 1-figure percent level.
Most (perceived) loudness gain comes by a clever arrangement of sources anyway.
Don't let them play all together for extended periods. Leave some space and single parts can get more impact naturally.
If the mix is well balanced, apps like Maxima and Pro-L are all that's needed to adjust the final loudness.
But if you have to master an album, a dedicated app can be really usefull.
It helps to achieve a more unique and better 'glued up' impression of the whole thing.
(it's more about polishing than about deep changes)
@Telefunky Thanks again, trying to live after that now.
This is at the same time absolutely true and absolutely impractical for studio work with (ever more) looming deadlines. My personal substitutive for this is the extensive use of reference material, respecting genres et all (you won’t want to reference that mellow ballad against Rammstein’s “Du Hast”). That seems to work as an anchor to objectivity in my workflow.
Of course, if you’re in the bleeding edge, “to boldly sound like no one has sounded before”, the utility of reference material is somewhat weakened to an extent. Luckily, most material that is submitted to a mixing or mastering engineer is pretty much derivative and conventional, so it’s usually easy to find reference material.
Ans answering the OP, these are my favorite compressors (limiters and maximizers not included) on iOS:
FabFilter Pro C2
PSP Chanel Strip
PSP BussPressor
FabFilter Pro MB
PSP OldTimer
FXpansion ChanComp
That last two ones are compressors with a strong character: they will change the sound (in a positive way, IMHO).
I fully agree to the deadline aspect. In a commercial context ear fatigue can be compensated by working in several projects in parallel.
The hint of a very long pause is more related to improved self learning. At least I frequently observed stunning differences to the original 'feel' of a track if listened to a month or even a year later. Sometimes it was 'oh my god... what a shit...' while in other cases new details revealed.
@tja obviously isn't running a mastering service, so I found it worth mentioning.
(btw I'm far from considering my own abilities perfect)
As a service provider you have to comply with the customer's target market, and so may have to squeeze the shit out of something if the job requires it.
But reference material is a good idea nevertheless. Analyze and (frequently) play it over your monitors AND some hifi consumer gear to mentally adjust your environment.
@Telefunky You don't know "TJA - International Mastering (incorporated)"???
Webbased services
Which iOS compressor is or can be most like a MXR Dyna Comp or Boss CS3, for use with a guitar in live performance to get that country sound?
AmpliTube has a red compressor that will get you close and a D-Comp that’s modeled on the Dynacomp.
Bias FX also has red “Dynacomp” and blue “Boss CS” emulations.
For that really squashed clean or slightly broken up country sound, I prefer the AmpliTube versions, but that’s mainly because of the IAP Fender 1 and 2 amp collections, which really excel at those classic sounds. I’m sure you can get there with Bias FX and ToneStack as well, but I’m less familiar with using those apps for the sound you’re after.
Are you using a dedicated guitar app for your live work?
The Dyna Comp is a funny one, listening, and taking a look visually at what it does to the waveform of a guitar, on recorded material, it can be emulated by a conventional compressor set with the ratio high, like a limiter (infinity to one, or something high, like 30 to one ratio). It differs from a limiter in that the attack is very slow, like 20-30 ms, so it lets a little "pop" through on the attack of each note. Last, the release is fairly fast, like 50ms, which makes the compression obvious sounding. Then the threshold is like the comp knob, the lower it is, the more compressed you get (and the more you have to crank up the makeup gain to compensate). That's the Dyna Comp sound.
The clones of the Dyna Comp/ Ross Compressor, like the Keeley, often add a "Blend" knob, that blends in some of the uncompressed sound, (a la "new york compression" like people do on drums) which affects the sound of the transient in a nice way, and fakes lower ratios. It adds sustain while keeping the beginning of the note more natural sounding.
A personal favorite of mine is running a clean DI guitar through Klevgrand's Korvpressor AU before the effects chain. A little squish goes a long way with it; it really helps define the sound.