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
I’ve resisted trying it because of subscription - like to hear more tho.
...another one collecting data. Can‘t use anything that needs log-in (even when „only“ every other week or something, internetconnection always offline when playing my sets. But I guess that‘s the future, people always online, since they „don‘t have anything to hide“. Thus now is the time everyone‘s trying to get the most possible amount of data for future monetarisation (is that a word?..). Also subscription, no way I‘ll use this. My two cents, cheers, t
Yeah, it’s great except for that stupid suscription model. Worked out great for Cakewalk, eh?
fail
It looks interesting and you get really high quality and a big amount of content until the end of your life.
But i also have a kind of border in my mind about subscription and music production tools.
I would be more interested in this here for iOS as well:
File system for your samples?
No, it actually analyze all your samples (without changing and/or moving anything of course).
Easy said it can create new drum kits f.e. out of all your samples with an A.I. It will learn what you might like and so on.
It looks like the kind of system that's made for a subscription model---an online plug-in with access to a big library that's always updating... I think daily. If it was just a static product---sample player with included loops---they could sell it as such. It's just another option for consumers.
If I needed something like this, I could see paying the subscription.
This is the first subscription based plugin that makes sense to me. I’ve used it a dozen times in the few days I’ve had it. The fact that you can use what you’ve made after cancelling?! That’s how’s its supposed to be. I’m not surprised they don’t continue to let you use your own loops if you cancel. Wouldn’t really make sense to have the full function of a plugin you’re not paying for.
Like everything, it's not for everyone. I'm not 100% sure how it works, but if the music a person makes with it belongs to them, and remains theirs, then it can be a useful tool with access to a well-organized library of constantly evolving loops.
As far as I can tell, I think this product is primarily aimed at producers who work with deadlines. They need a large amount of high quality content that they can get to quickly, find what they're looking for and manipulate to fit their project. It could be a backbone of the production, or just one track or effect. In any case, it's used for business.
This Arcade is probably useful for hobbyists too, as it provides a lot of canned material that fits together without need for experience, talent or skill. That's a new level of recreation these days, and a great way for people to enjoy music like they haven't been able to before. It's entertainment, and a subscription to it isn't that new of an idea.
The subscription model is relatively new for music-making, but then so is the whole online technology. It still takes talent, skill, hard work, and something to say to make meaningful music and a career that pays the bills. The cost of a subscription for good tools may be well worth it to someone with those aspirations. If not, there are many other options.
What if it’s not just producers on a deadline or people without talent or skill who find this sort of thing useful? What if someone could create most anything from scratch and still find platforms like this creative and useful? It really isn’t as black and white as many make it out to be.
I sound like I’m trying to sell this app. LOL. I’m not affiliated in any way.
First of all, there are many independent producers who make music for business who are not skilled composers and spend relatively little time on that important aspect. For example people in film and video production of various types — industrial, advertising, webcasting, wedding, etc. use canned music, and an online app like this can take their personal creations to a new level. Then there are many who are skilled composers but don’t work with their own samples, and don’t have or want a huge sample collection on their hard drive they have to organize and manage. Where time is money, being able to launch a plug-in right in their DAW and have access to all the loops they might need is a wise decision for their workflow. They can easily stop the subscription at any time, and it’s not going to impact what they’ve done in the past because that music is finished and out the door. Then, as @DCJ says, you have talented musicians who might just like this app enough to subscribe to it for no other reason than they like it and it works for them. If they decide they want out at some point, they’ll deal with it. With rapidly evolving technology, I think most of us have adjusted to these kinds of changes many times. In some cases, I wish I'd rented rather than bought.
So do whatever’s best for you. It’s a big world, and if this Arcade app is good, it will find buyers.
@Dawdles : Great comment
I’m not sure I see the great value in the app unless one really likes the functionality, the library and how it’s organized, needs quick access to a lot of ready to go loops, and is going to get their money’s worth as they use it rather than as a longer term investment. I’m not in the business where I need quick access like that; I have lots of loops in lots of places, many apps for playing with them, but I mostly only use loops for jamming. I probably wouldn’t buy Arcade if it was a one-time purchase, but if I have the time to mess with it, I might use the trial, and then possibly rent for awhile if I’m liking it a lot.
I heard it’s cpu intensify on the laptop so doubt it will come to iOS any time soon.