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.
Electribe users, how have you integrated IOS in your workflow?
I have been a tribesman for many generations.
I started off with the ea-1 and er-1. Sold them and than got back into the electribe with the arrival of the esx and emx models.
Nowadays I use and love the electribe sampler 2 as it is an awesome companion with mobile iOS rigs.
I sync midi with my phone and can midi map all 16 parts to various apps utilizing synths and drum machines, and sequence them on hardware than route the audio back into the unit and further tweak the sounds.
Also iOS provides the perfect food for my sampler and I can edit the samples on my iPhone prior to putting them in the electribe.
Typically I sample all synths as a C note and edit zero crossings before loading so I can loop them.
I also enjoy using single Cycle wavs and set it to loop, like a wave table synth does. Than mess with the filter and modulation effects.
I use a cme x key 25 to play in the step sequencing of notes and sometimes turn on the poly when doing so.
As far as apps to run in tandom with the electribe my list is long, but I would say the most heavily used are: grooverider, Zeeon, epic synth, Animoog, mitosynth, and elastic drums. They are the most reliable and potent.
As far as the effects go, that all depends on how many apps I have running.
I try to keep the effects fairly simple so things don’t get to weird or crash.
I really like eos2 and elastic fx lately.
If I am being portable I’ll take my Korg duo ex as an interface and a usb hub to link everything else up.
Since the duo ex has two stereo inputs and the usb on the back handles the iPhones audio this gives me one extra stereo input.
Than I am free to use a microphone, a gameboy, a midi vampire, or a portable synth or keyboard depending on how much gear I feel like hauling that day.
This little rig has served me nicely.
I use Braven brv-Hd speakers and they sound great and are compact and also double as a usb charger.
I should also note, when I do a lot of the pre programming it’s not uncommon to use Xequence, Miditure, xynthesizer and also arpegionome.
I would be interested to hear how you guys use iOS in your electribe rigs!
It’s great to be able to have a portable set up and get out of the studio sometimes.
When I’m at home I use a completely different set up. The heart of it is Commodore 64, Korg DW8000, Yamaha DSR1000 and other random toys.
I look forward to hearing your responses on how your electribe fits in your iOS workflow and am happy to answer any questions. Have a great day guys
Comments
I’d love to hear some of your stuff.
Right now my es1 is rather gathering dust as much as the rest of my studio since I’m banking for a decent audio interface with enough ins.
@stuck80s
+1 for saving the Commodore 64.
+1 for the homemade wooden keyboard (looks great).
I must admit my es1 mk2 is brand new and catching dust for about 15 years. At that time i just started using reason steinberg and it felt very limited using the electribe. I never sold it because of the nice fx section which can be used with external audio sources in case i ever need it.
I think this device will really benefit electribe/iOS users like myself. From what I understand the rav4 power bank can simultaneously charge my iphone while using a usb hub plugged in AND I can send and receive samples effectively w/ audioshare/GoodReader combo without having to use an external computer. Can any of you guys confirm this will accomplish these tasks before I make the purchase.
As someone who just got an electribe and been trying to use it with ipad hope people add some good ideas it seems like the only feedback I get is sell it for a digikat.
@alvingreen
It’s a fantastic machine once you learn it’s quirks. If you are a lemur app user there are 2 patches you can download for free that vastly help your workflow. One is for doing 8 bar pattern enabling and the other one allows you to use three separate oscillators at once. They are both on lemurs website. For me the fact that it runs off of batteries is a huge deal. It works great as a sequencer too (separately sequence 16 tracks, or different iOS apps) I was initially not that impressed either, but than I figured out how to use the poly feature on each sample pad and I realized I needed to dig deeper. I love how you can use the touch pad for different things too. Try changing the Arp patterns and hold down a few pads, you can than modulate and filter it further to get some awesome Arps going. Make your drums sound huge and stand out by using the reverb fx and add a little distortion. Also use panning so each channel in your mix stands out. Make sure you are running the latest firmware and figure out how to do the “erase the last part” feature, oh and learn how to chain patterns one after the other. On a side note, my friend “sauce” ‘s YouTube has some excellent videos on learning the ES2, but he doesn’t like the unit in regards to the older ESX1 model, however he isn’t focused on mobile production as much as I am on the whole internal battery aspect (he uses an esx1 and a car battery for busking out in the Denver area) also he isnt really into the whole IOS thing, which for me is one of the major reason I love the ES2. I don’t know too much regarding the digitakt, but from the videos it looks like a great device as well. In all honesty I dream about owning an octatrack someday. Let me know if you have any questions I am happy to help you out