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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Issue: Sound Distorted at Output (with all apps) ?!

ambiannnsambiannns
in Support and Feedback

Hey,

I am new to Audiobus and I really like it. There is one issue which prevents me from using it as intended however.

The sound arriving at any output app sounds noticeably distorted as soon as I add the output. I tried adjusting the levels of both the input and in the Audiobus 3 mixer and the sound is still distorted (even though they have plenty of headroom).

I recorded a screen capture video which shows the steps I go through:
1) normal sound when output is set to built in output
2) distortion begins as soon as recording app (Blocs Wave app) is added as output
3) attempt to adjust levels to avoid distortion
4) recording with distortion
5) playback of distorted recording

Link to screen capture (includes sound) and the recorded audio file:
http://drive.j28.us/temp/audiobus/ab-a.m4a
http://drive.j28.us/temp/audiobus/ab-v.MP4

I tried adding Loopy app as the output too (to make sure the issue is not in Blocs Wave app).

Could anyone provide insight on why this is?

Thanks!

Comments

  • SamuSamu

    Could be a sample-rate mismatch, what iOS device and iOS version are you using?

    Have you checked if there is a difference when using the headphone output?

  • ambiannnsambiannns
    edited May 2018

    iphone 7+
    ios 11.2.1

    i have not yet. i'm traveling and i don't have the lighting to stereo converter with me. i will get one soon and try it.

    is there a way to somehow measure the rates?! i was also thinking of getting effect in (between the input and output) which has gain... to see if i can lower the signal that way (and see if that has to do with it)

    one other thing that i noticed: in one of the apps that i tried to record with the input gain is at 100% and the slider is greyed out (i can't change it). maybe somewhere on the signal chain (at a part that i cannot affect via the apps) the gain is set to 100%...

  • SamuSamu

    Some iPhones are 'locked' to 48Khz when not using the lightning adapter or head-phones...

    Could it be that for example Blocks wave expects a 44.1Khz input and when it gets 48Khz it's crackle town?
    As far as I know AudioBus 3 can not set or select the sample rate it works at but apps like AUM can.

  • ambiannnsambiannns

    i will try the headphone output and/or aum... and report back if it works. :)

  • ambiannnsambiannns

    recording directly via aum works. no sound issues.

    i will test the headphone jack with audiobus x blocs wave later.

    i cannot figure out how to send the output(s) from aum to blocs wave. i'm assuming there is a way to do this?

  • SamuSamu

    @ambiannns said:

    i cannot figure out how to send the output(s) from aum to blocs wave. i'm assuming there is a way to do this?

    Live input can not be sent/recorded from AUM to Blocswave but you could do the recording in AUM and import the file to Blocs wave as a work around. Not an optimal solution I know...

  • ambiannnsambiannns

    wow. that's really strange. there has to be a way around this... like through an effects unit (used as an output) or something... but i know very little about aum... i'll try to go around this when i know more. :)

    thank you. i will post again after i try recording with the headphone jack on.

  • RUST( i )KRUST( i )K

    Sample Rate.

    I use Audiobus 2 and AUM so unfortunately I can't help.

    I try to use AB3 but always run into an issue personally.

    I am constantly trying to make it work but just won't for me for one reason or another.

  • MichaelMichael
    edited May 2018

    Sorry about the delay getting to this, @ambiannns - been flat out with GDPR preparations =)

    The others have the right idea about checking to see if it's a sample rate issue first - I'll be very interested to hear if the headphones stop the issue happening. With that said, the sound to me doesn't sound like a sample rate issue, but something else entirely - it sounds a bit like what happens when the audio system gets totally overloaded. Sample rate issues sound like a really badly-implemented pitch-up or pitch-down, or regular clicking, like this:

    http://ds.michael.tyson.id.au/6OOjuAojnN/Recording.m4a

    But, nevertheless, headphones is the first test, so we can see what we're dealing with.

    After that is to try a couple of other outputs. I did some exploration and was rather astonished (and mortified) to discover Loopy seems to have developed an Audiobus receive issue at 48k too. I've since worked out what was happening, but it'll require an app update. So maybe try putting, say, AUM in the output slot in Audiobus.

  • MichaelMichael

    BTW, I've just uploaded a build of Loopy to fix the glitching issue. Not 100% sure if it'll sort out your particular issue, but it's worth a try. Will be out in a few days.

  • ambiannnsambiannns

    hey,

    i just tried it with headphones plugged into the lighting converter.

    the issue is still there. :(

    i have tried different outputs << the result in loopy is the same.

    sound wise: the clicks you are talking about are also there, but in addition to them there is noticeable distortion in the sound too. if try to record a drum loop from elastic drums even with just a kick drum sound i get a much lower quality and a few of the frequencies (which i can hear when elastic drums is routed directly to the built in output) are definitely not there.

    what do i try now? :)

  • ambiannnsambiannns

    i just recorded another loop with headphones on. it might be the sample rate issue because the clicks sound very similar to the ones in your recording.

  • MichaelMichael

    Damn! Although now I think about it, I'm not 100% sure the lightning output runs at a different rate anyway. Just out of curiosity, I invited you to the Loopy TestFlight beta, in which I fixed the bug. Would you perhaps take it for a spin, just to see? Otherwise I'll keep thinking about what might be going on - off to bed for now!

  • SamuSamu

    @ambiannns said:
    i just recorded another loop with headphones on. it might be the sample rate issue because the clicks sound very similar to the ones in your recording.

    Hmm, I just tried with Lightning->3.5mm jack on my iPad Air 2.
    After it's attached I can NOT set the sample rate to 44.1K in AUM. It's locked at 48Khz.

  • MichaelMichael

    Well there you go! Cool, okay, that's good to know. Any luck with the Loopy beta, @ambiannns?

  • ambiannnsambiannns

    i just saw the invitation (i was traveling over the weekend). i will try it later today and let you know. thanks.

  • MichaelMichael

    I've just released the update, too, so you could just grab the update

  • RUST( i )KRUST( i )K

    So far so good loopy beta not distorted and quicker loading

  • ambiannnsambiannns

    Hey,

    Sorry for the long delay.

    I am confirming that I can make a clean recording in Loopy HD, routing via Audiobus 3.

    Blocswave signal/recoding is still distorted (with and without headphones plugged in). Does this mean the issue is with Blocswave and not Audiobus 3? If yes, should I report this as a bug somewhere in Novation world?

    Thanks!

  • MichaelMichael

    Let me get in touch with them and we'll see what we can figure out.

  • MichaelMichael
    edited July 2018

    Actually, I'm not seeing the issue here on my iPhone X. I put an app in the input (I used Samplebot), then Blocs Wave in output, and it seems to be working fine. Can you tell me more about your setup?

    Edit: Huh, okay, I'm getting a little clicking and such if I add and remove Blocs Wave from the setup a few times. Maybe an issue on their end, I'll ping them about it anyway.

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