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
Here’s a demo tutorial of an Audulus patch in AUM which uses audio, MIDI, envelopes, filters, and oscillators for synthesis (the patch is an IAA instrument effect). There’s a link in the video for the patches along with a detailed description of what all of the controls do. The PIP explanation is as slow as molasses but at least you can see and hear what’s going on with the patch at the same time.
The big Nebuchadnezzar synth is really, really not optimized. It's almost a year old and I've learned a lot more about building more efficient patches since then.
If you're all interested in a really powerful and LARGE synthesizer, check out this one:
It's available as a part of the Forum Patch Collection
https://forum.audulus.com/t/old-audulus-forum-patch-collection/105/1
And yeah, in general, to the crackling comments - it was discussed earlier, but it's largely a problem on higher res screens and is caused by a change Apple made.
That said, you can create much larger patches on a computer than you can on iPad. So don't open a HUGE patch and then think "Oh, well, Audulus is just glitchy." It's not. Other iOS apps never have to deal with the problem of having made something on the computer (or a higher-CPU iOS device) that you can't open on your own. I feel like we get dinged for that when people don't realize that you can make patches that are still super deep and yet don't crackle.
Also, to people who feel overwhelmed by Audulus - there are more and more standalone synths that come with Audulus and are posted to the forum. These are synths you can just open up and start playing as if they were any other synth app.
Also, please don't overestimate the complexity of modular synthesis, or have a lack of faith in your ability to understand it. It's impossible to learn it all at once, but if you take it step by step, it becomes a lot easier to understand. If you learn modular synthesis too, you'll get a lot more out of your current synths and will no longer be a preset blaster. All of your synths that you use have "wires" - some many more than the patches posted here - they're just hidden.
Straight from the incredible dev himself!
I already stated it a few times, but I will repeat it as many times as necessary. This app is incredible, even if you never build a single thing for yourself. This app has a community of users who like to build things and share them. You can download these and use them fairly easily.
This app is like having a mini music app factory in your device that you can use to build, or just run custom built music tools. Need a tool but lack the skill level to build it? Make a request and someone may build it for you, but at the very least you will get a lot of assistance that may just enable you to build it yourself.
I am very happy to have finally seen the light on Audulus 3. It is the most powerful app on my iPad, with incredible creative potential waiting inside.
Thanks! So glad you're digging it. And yeah I think Audiobus peeps are going to go wild when we release AUv3 and AUv3 MIDI plugs too. You'll have the most versatile multieffect/instrument with Audulus on iOS!
https://forum.audulus.com/t/note-beat-audio-midi-fx-synth-demo/496 This is rad. At the end of your video things start to get really dynamic. An excellent example of Audulus as an effect in AUM. Eat your heart out @brambos
Thank you, if Audulus weren’t such an accessible programming environment and other users on the Audulus forum hadn’t contributed to the modules I used to create it, there never would have been a video. I did use Rozeta as a MIDI source for the patch and enjoy his apps plus he’s been a very helpful developer here and generous sharing his insights.
I only mentioned @brambos because he seems to get all the girls around here.
What does this mean exactly, that we will be able to create our own AU synths and effects? I have always been put off by the price of Audulus, that and the fact that only SunVox has a decent timeline among all the iOS modulars.
Ability to create my own AU synths and effects would likely have me leaping off the fence. Is this going to happen any time soon?
Ability to create my own AU synths and effects would likely have me leaping off the fence. Is this going to happen any time soon?
That seems like it would be a tremendous thing. Is this in the plans? I have held off on purchasing this as I think it's way above my cognitive and time level at this point. But as Wim already said, like a moth to a flame ...save me..!!!
Not as standalone apps. They would still run inside Audulus, I assume. I think he is referring to connectivity. Right now, you get one IAA instance, (for me) best applied as an Audio effect. You only have Midi In now too. AU would allow multiple in/out for Audio. Midi out will open up this to use with many other apps. Right now, it is more of an endpoint type of app. The AU updates will make this usable in input/Fx/output positions, and AU midi is pretty great, as all the Rozeta fans know already.
Also, take a trip over to the Audulus forum. There are polls for new feature requests, and the dev is upfront about what he is working on to add to this beast. You should find a lot of useful info over there.
To my mind, one of the great advantages to Audulus is to approach synthesis with humility, in order to understand simple concepts that broaden one's ability to get more creative in the long run. Here is a patch that addresses waveforms. There is a link to a video in the description on the forum, which explains some of the mathematical expressions like converting frequencies to octaves.
So the approach is a matter of discipline moving toward simplicities -- more subtle appreciation of principles.
Wavetable Synthesis for Dummies
Was having trouble downloading a parachute from the audulus forum since upadating and new web forum. Used to be able to “open in” audulus before. Not the case anymore ?
I had to download the patch and rename the extension to .audulus for it to be able to use “open in”. You could also use the Files app support and browse to where you downloaded.
Since the forum moved over to Discourse, there has been an issue downloading patches in iOS, with several workarounds. Apparently the forum designers at Discourse are working on it.
I only bought it because I really like the icon.
Good ‘ol Anarchy symbol.
you'll never be able to build any 'reasonable' synth in such an environment.
The interactivity on the circuit level steals way too much cycles from the CPU.
If you try to rebuild something rather straight like DRC you'll quickly notice the amount of complexity and the weakness of the building blocks.
Another aspect is that modular control is quite distant from what dedicated screen controls of regular synth apps do. The one single knob you see may drive several parameters at the same time in various amounts.
(on another platform I have a standalone synth which was compiled from a modular patch, but got a new control layout - you wouldn't even recognize it's heritage)
Modular is great fun and inspiration indeed, but very few will have the time to really dig deep into it. Personally I prefer it for 'special tasks' built with a dozen or so modules, but these in top quality.
I'd appreciate if the developer(s) would focus more on that, instead of the current 'high complexity - sacrifice tone' approach.
Sorry, but none of the examples impressed me in any particular way. A lot of pseudo-random tinny bleep-glitch, as the example labeled 'LARGE' above.
This is just my personal impression on sound (admittedly I have a high powered alternative on one of my systems), but at least I bought an early version of Audulus.
It's not intended to diss, but to improve thoughts about the app's further developement.
Less, but better (quoting designer Dieter Rams)
@telefunky - Audulus runs really efficiently and there are even more efficiencies yet to be implemented that will make it run very quickly.
It sounds like to me you're admitting you bought an earlier version of Audulus and have not revisited it since it's been updated, so it's not really fair for you to give your assessment of it, as if you're familiar with Audulus as it is now.
"Another aspect is that modular control is quite distant from what dedicated screen controls of regular synth apps do. The one single knob you see may drive several parameters at the same time in various amounts."
"Regular" synth apps are modular synths where you can't see or change the wires connecting the modules. There's plenty of synths that have a single knob that changes multiple underlying parameters.
"(on another platform I have a standalone synth which was compiled from a modular patch, but got a new control layout - you wouldn't even recognize it's heritage)"
You can do this in Audulus easily. There are also more and more standalone synthesizers for people who don't want to learn how to do modular synthesis.
I think people also get wrongly intimidated by modular synthesis when they read posts like yours and assume it's difficult to understand or do. It's not. It's a huge topic and you can't understand it all at once, but you can break it down into bite sized topics and grasp it from there. Once you do, you'll get more out of your fixed architecture synths and not be a preset blaster.
http://docs.audulus.com/nodes/
Each one of these has a little lesson in modular synthesis. They're written so that middle schoolers can understand it.
There is no "sacrificing of tone" - I just put in several new analog-modelling VCAs, VCFs, and really deep sounding phaser and flanger effects.
You are diss-ing insomuch as you're clearly unfamiliar with what Audulus is right now and judging it against an early version you bought yet posing as if you're speaking with authority on the current version.
Your comments are vague enough to sound like you're making a real point but lacking in enough specificity to be useful to anyone, especially us devs. I'm also sure the more high powered modular you're referencing is more expensive, has been around longer, has more devs, and does not and never will work on iOS.
I toyed with Audulus for a bit at one point (I do admire the app)... but the learning curve is too steep for me to keep it around since my need for such abilities is beyond my current level of expertise enough to make it unnecessary. I admit to a less-than-pedestrian understanding of sound synthesis.
If you understand sound synthesis already, Audulus is easy. But if you don't, Audulus is still easy to use. You can use Audulus to learn about synthesis. You don't have to jump into the deep end to get a lot out of it.
If you learn more about Audulus, it will teach you more about the synths you already have
@Telefunky I have to agree with @Audulus_Mark about your assessment of Audulus coming from an uninformed place. It’s a programming environment and the results you get depend upon your knowledge of synthesis and the ability to utilize the existing modules and/or create your own in a creative way.
It’s fine to have tastes with respect to what you enjoy in music; however, it’s fallacious logic to assume just because someone produces a particular music using an instrument or app which isn’t your taste, it doesn’t mean it’s the only type of music people can make with it.
Audulus 3 is a significant improvement over the previous versions and the developer is working hard to add new features to the app. The user community on the Audulus forum is very knowledgeable and helpful. To dismiss all of their individual and collective efforts seems superficial.
Your lack of appreciation with respect to the whole concept of modularity in music software design makes no sense to anyone who has even a limited knowledge about what goes into such projects.
@Audulus_Mark just want to say keep doing your thing! You do a great job informing about Audulus and building the community.
This is where I think Audulus could shine when it supplies AU Synths and Effects. Having access to hundreds of simple plugins will give so much choice and flexibility, if it is easy to apply these things in AUM or Cubasis or similar.
@gusgranite @infocheck thanks!
@Jocphone - exactly! We started a thread on the new forum about getting a nice suite of AUv3 effects going. The first AUv3 will be the audio effect and then we'll have the MIDI one to make MIDI effects (like arpeggiators and sequencers).
https://forum.audulus.com/t/auv3-effect-submit-yours-here/503
This is sounding very tempting. Looking forward to hearing about the release when it drops.
I'll definitely make sure to tell people here about it when it does
Yeah really looking forward to AUv3 Audulus. It's going to be a game changer for the platform I think
@carnbot agreed! Just wait till you can host AUv3s inside Audulus too! You'll be able to integrate them into your designs, like say having Moog's Filtatron inside the feedback loop of a delay to create an analog-emulating LPF delay.
I was already excited about Audulus and AUv3, but this has my totally freaking out now. The all-powerful app is coming soon...