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.
Looking For Creative Suggestions For An Upcoming Performance --background story/situation included!!
So, I have a 3 hour performance booked for an installation event. I'll be sitting with cameras on me and a projector screen behind me.
I was planning and prepared for a live coding performance using iOS for synth source/FX. However .. I had to tear down my performance OS a few days ago to get my system into a state to teach a data analytics university class on short notice as a guest lecturer. Needed some tools that my 'rapid setup/teardown' performance environment didn't let me access, and the Ubuntu repositories were offline at the time (taking down that OS would have been a bigger setup again later).
Anyway, in that time the Hackage repositories have gone offline, meaning it's impossible to reinstall the live code language and impossible to get my machine ready for performance. Maybe it'll be back before the performance - maybe not.
insert.irony("the performance is booked by the same university whose data analytics dept I was lecturing for, for an event relating to their film & media dept")
Solution -> take a MIDI keyboard and go iOS only with looping and such like.
I've not performed an iOS only performance in a while and have no setup ready made, no repertoire/samples prepped and no time to invest in it, so I'll be winging it on the hoof. thankfully I have a lot of experience and equipment for the task, so troubleshooting will be a minimum and I'll run a two device setup with a little caution, in order to avoid a total train wreck audio dropout situation.
So.. I'm looking for suggestions for easy/low hanging fruit that looks/sounds cool and doesn't take a lot of setup time (IE setting up on the fly). I've got all my 'go to' apps, lots of experience with them and the iOS platform, a large apps library to choose from etc.
What've you got?
Cheers guys! Be Creative!
Comments
I'm not entirely sure what you will be trying to get across during the performance/lecture....but
Groovebox with the newly added Launchkey support is pretty instant, and solid, so won't fail you mid performance/lecture, blocs wave as it's sidekick for looped samples.
You could use a regular MIDI keyboard for this also...but Launchkey has the advantage of the pads being able to be used in scale mode, also for drums, and to select/mute parts.
The only real gotcha with this one is the link phase between the two relies on you pressing play at the right time initially.
The advantage Groovebox/blocs wave has in this situation (you have no prep time) over most other setups is the ready made presets and patterns, and blocs with its key/tempo matching.....just use a minor key (as blocs only supports minor) and your good to go.
It'll just be atmospheric music and the general purpose 'coolness' aspect of music tech while the gallery is happening.
I'm not actually too invested in the Novation area (besides Blocs Wave, which I think I'll have a play with for the reasons you mention!).
AUM/Rozeta combo may be good for this.
Just get yourself a ukulele and sing bawdy songs through VoxSyn fed from a mic.
What are we? Animals?
Aum, Rozeta (mutating), and various outputs always pleases me
Animoog on an iPad set up for the accelerometer. Always good.
Then maybe something like Samplr and/or iDensity on the other device for pads and textures and sample triggering. And or Borderlands?
All those apps are nice to look at people performing on.
For drums, if you want them, maybe something like FutureDrummer or DrumJam or Patterning going in the background with occasional tweaks?
I also like Beatonal as a way to trigger stuff live. You could use that to sequence Animoog at times. And/or for extra drums.
That’s what I’d do anyway.
First thing I thought of: Rozeta and AUM
Indeed we are.
@OscarSouth whatever you end up doing, please post some video. I’d be keen to see how it turns out.
Impacktor also looks good live
Hackage just came back online after 2 days of downtime! (I had a script running to notify me the very moment it came back
)
So.. There will be live code! There will be iOS! (AUM & Rozeta definitely included) documentation will be captured!
TC-11 would be good for this.
Or TC-Data driving any combination of apps in AUM or audiobus.
Great visuals and sounds...