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.
Should I buy AUM...I have DAW apps
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I see a lot of users of AUM think it is fantastic...I am wondering if I should purchase it. I have DAW apps Cubasis and Auria Pro, so I guess my question is, what would I get from AUM...or what is the difference between AUM and DAW apps?
Thanks in advance for comments/advice!
Comments
I can’t imagine life, let alone making music on iOS, without AUM.
I use it as a big old mixing desk that hosts a whole pile of AU and IAA apps, triggered via the brilliant Rozeta and StepPolyarp, and recorded straight in as a live jam.
I had Auria, but AUM allows me to capture spontaneous jam sessions, and basically have more fun making music.
Absolutely essential for me.
I am sure there was a similar thread somewhere that I can’t find !
Well,
If you don’t plan to record midi stuff and want a light host ,AUM is great . Among others it supports recording audio per channel plus midi controlling the mixer and audio file player ,perfect for live scenarios
I don’t mention other similar apps as Audiobus 3, apeMatrix,they have other pros and cons...
AUM is great for jamming, writing, and coming up with ideas. Much quicker to set up than a DAW. Essential IMO.
AUM is the best music app on iOS. It convinced me to buy an iPAD. It allows you to just flow along and be spontaneous. You can create and expand on a idea very quickly with the interface leaning you toward a more performance orientated sound.
With Cubasis and Auria, are there things you can’t do that you wish you could?
I think the same question everytime I see glowing talk of AUM. My takeaway is, if you're into live playing then it's for you. If not, if you're a studio rat (like myself), then maybe not.
Too simplistic?
I understand the perspective that AUM is more for "live" performance and a DAW is more of a studio tool, but I don't do anything I would classify as "live" performance, and yet still find AUM pretty useful. It basically allows you to do with AU extensions (and any other type of app-to-app connection) what AudioBus originally made possible with connecting apps about 6 years ago.
Also, an increasing number of iOS music apps don't even work as standalone products (or don't function well as such), similar to how VST's work on desktop. So think of AUM as your "host" for music apps, effects, and (now) MIDI apps, as well as a recorder for capturing a finished product. Yes, most/all of the DAW's also allow the same functionality, but I don't really want to load up a whole new project and set up all of the connections within a DAW if I'm just experimenting or doing a quick jam. ALSO (and that reminds me), AUM is quite good at saving those connections as a project, so you can quickly load back up all of those connections if you come back to it later.
So, in short, it can be used completely separate from a DAW, or in conjunction with one (as a mixer, FX/MIDI host) to enhance your DAW. Much like AudioShare, it's just an essential piece of software for iOS music.
I'd say when Cubasis gets the possibility to re-arrange the order effect slots without having unload & load them and track-grouping/busses then we'd be in a different situation.
Currently it's a pita to change the order of effects in Cubasis as an example.
There's no easy to way to 'group' tracks either.
All this is easy in AUM and that makes experimenting with sound a lot easier and more fun.
Also AUM's Midi-Routing is very good and only apeMatrix can challenge it.
In some cases, AUM can be a good interface between your DAW and another app. The best I can think of is Thor. You can't get it to be selected directly in Auria's midi tracks. But once it is set in AUM, you can connect it easily through midi buses.
That’s because it IS!
'One' of the great things about AUM which I Love is the set up speed. If I need to test an app, or a combination of apps, without hesitation I open AUM.
Within seconds I’m testing what was in my mind, or what I heard/saw/read about, (here or elsewhere).
If it don’t work in AUM then (for me) it probably ain’t gonna work elsewhere. (most things..)
As Daws/hosts, on my system at present, I have:
AUM
Auria Pro.
BM3 & 2.
Gadget.
Garage Band.
Don’t really create with them all, some are for reference and or testing.
But AUM is my go to, and of course for musical ideas/jamming.
No fuss, no having to save, or name, or loads of menus to get something going 'quick'!
Another reason (for me) why it’s so quick, is because I have made various templates for the setups.
Example; I have a template with a straight forward drumloop and 2 other empty tracks, all routed to a master channel. Just add a synth or a file to play, and bobs ya cousin.
AUM is a Swiss-Army-Knife roun these parts.
King
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/aum-audio-mixer/id1055636344?mt=8
—————
Added:
Recently added Pro-Q 2 to that ^ template for the spectrum display.
The channels also have pan setup n ready.
I would not be using iOS for music if it weren’t for AUM. I wouldn’t even have an iPad. It’s more than essential. Get it now.
Hi @samu, is there a way you can reorder effects in Channels in AUM? I could not find a way to do that yet but it would be super useful.
I use AUM a lot for my Live-Setup in combination with an Octatrack and other Hardware Synths. Those two are like made for each other
When i play together with other musicians, I can sync all my hardware to Ableton Link via AUM which is very cool. I can’t think of making music with the iPad without AUM at the moment.
And it works fantastic together with AudioBus, which you sure already have
I fall under 'studio rat' category more so than 'live guy'. For me AUM is a swiss army knife. It is a great tool for a broad range of fix it/fill it/hack it tasks and workarounds etc. If I did not have it already I would not think I need it and can't recall why I even got it in the first place but it likely involved a problem I was trying to solve. Odds are the first uses I had for it were never even repeated but it does get fairly regular use, particularly now that I am trying the audio routing / microphone / video recording thing out. I tend not to use it consistently in any one way but it gets loaded enough to have been worth the price of admission.
AUM is Swiss Army knife. 90% of the time i use it to try out a combination of apps, or to tweak a synth or something with a sequencer (Rosetta). You can also route the audio to a DAW (Ios or Lap/Desktop)
I agree. My only gripe with AUM is that it’s doesn’t have a sequencer. It handles AUs better than any other host IMO. I still don’t know how to use AUM fully like I do BM3 but I’m learning. I see people post their jam sessions all the time and I’m like... is that live or sequenced somehow lol
It's amazing and fast.
A caution:
If you get aum you'll need Audiobus 3 as well if you want too record your audio from yore aum session into any internal daw/Looper.
Yoo can track each Channel out thru Ab3 into any internal iOS app that allows audio in
Or maybe even a Swiss AUMY Knife. ©️
Have fun!
King
😂 zing.
+1
It should be said you can also record in AUM and just use 'Files' if you want to get tracks into something like Cubasis or BM3 (what I do if/when I want AUM recorded).
@dmnc , just long press on the effect, slide it to the right, and arrows will appear, then just move the effect node up or down in the chain
Is apeMatrix the Swiss Navy Knife?
Nah, it’s the Swiss APEY Knife. ©️
Enjoy!
King
I never felt the need to use AUM and a daw in a same session, i guess some do. But i try to stay away from app setups that are so complex that they require two hosts. I use AUM to load synths and fxs, and sequence with hardware, fantastic for that. Bm3 if i need a daw.
But if it’s Navy related, it’s a Swiss Matey Knife! ©️
Over and out!
King
@gsm909 hey thanks, i never realized that this works
I've never regretted buying AUM.
For me AUM has been a useful friend for BM3 simply because recording to audio tracks in BM3 has been buggy and I sometimes like to record audio while twiddling AUfx knobs. I just started doing the scalable AU stuff in AUM which to me is next gen / next level iOS stuff to develop. Very very needed and welcome new territory. I could imagine some sort of KRFT/AUM hybrid...