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.
Who are your top 5 developers?
I was just thinking about some of the star developers around here whom I look up to and respect, and was wondering whether our individual favorites are similar or diverse. So just wanted to throw out a general question to y'all to name your top 5 music app developers. Note that for someone to be in your top 5 you should not only love their apps but also their 'brand' as a dev - how they treat their users and the community, their business models and marketing techniques etc.
And since I'm asking the question, let's keep it simple and take my name out of the picture.
I'll go first (in no particular order): Jesse (Sonosaurus), Hans (Blue Mangoo), Jonatan (Kymatica), Sebastian (Audanika) and Michael (A Tasty Pixel)
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Can't do it. I would just add Christopher Rice (Echo Pad) and David Blake (Jam Maestro).
-Chris/Holderness Media
-Rim/Auria
-Jonathan/AUFX
-Sebastian and Michael/IAA Developers??... I forget
-Marcos/Samplr
Rim (Auria)
Jesse (ThumbJam)
Michael/Sebastian (Audiobus)
Jonatan (AudioShare)
Jim Yonac (Magellan)
I think they're all pretty awesome. Certainly my familiarity with Jesse, the Audiobus guys, and Rim make me lean toward them, but honestly I've been impressed with nearly all of the dev's I've interacted with on here.
Order be damned:
Michael (loopy/Audiobus)
Jonatan (AudioShare, aufx)
Chris (Echopad)
Jesse (ThumbJam)
Matt (Nanostudio)
All apps I couldn't live without, all appear to be swell fellas.
Rolf (nlog, nave) gets an honorable mention because I see he and Jesse similarly in regard to innovation and quick incorporation of iOS music standards. He also shares some great consumer digestible insights on the development side of things.
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Many unsung heroes in app land. I feel that there could be too much progress here too fast. We barely get any time to digest the sonic and haptic potential of any new app before something else pops up. I am particularly impressed with apps from Rudess, Vasiliev and that chap who did I Am Sampler and its brethren. Some amazing talents not just in app development and business but incredible aural experiments. Some of the greatest inventors of our time.
Honoured Morris
for me it's Michael, Jesse, Jonatan, all are top in the field and all people who have been happy to help when I've been in need. Also respect for Rolf too for his vast knowledge and community contribution, and Patrick Madden (secret base design) who comes up with really technical innovative apps that help the community despite there only being a smaller niche for it.
What y'all said.
Plus Nic (Audeonics - MidiBridge, MidiBus (soon)).
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Michael - a million thanks for the great communication and personal attention to each and every Loopy issue I've encountered and for continuing to refine and perfect the app.
Not to mention Audiobus! And here must be added Sebastian.
Jonatan - one man powerhouse of iOS effects and creator of Audioshare, the most useful utility I own and use every day for making music.
Canis of Wooji Juice has been a cool dev for taking suggestions seriously and communicating in depth about his apps Hokusai and Grain Science.
Jesse of Sonosaurus has been very involved in iOS from early on... thanks for Thumbjam.
Chris of Holderness has been pretty serious about updating and perfecting his EchoPad and listens to users.
Rolf (nLog/Nave developer) both incredible for the attention to detail and audio quality.
Yonac... I can't stop with just 5, there are some amazing developers. Marcos Alonso for Samplr. Wolfgang Palm for Wavemapper which sounds incredible. Many more not mentioned.
I am really appreciative of the small developers, who usually tend to update often and put their heart into their work.
Awesome responses - thanks all! Great "to-meet" list for next year's WWDC-AB dev meetup
Man, I am honored to be mentioned here guys, thanks!
I am really inspired by Sebastian and Michael, Jonatan, Marcos Alonso, Jesse, Joe Zobkiw, Rolf, and Jim Yonac.
I think this guy is pretty much amazing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobuyoshi_Sano
Made many of the KORG apps for iPad and Nintendo DS and is a composer as well.
@Sebastian nice one. He/they made I Am Sampler too. It's simple and it's magic. Alas, dead on iOS7 but they're reportedly working on it.
I didn't see it mentioned, so I'll add @Rhism to the list. Guitarism is great, and his involvement in this forum has certainly been appreciated.
syrupcore said:
I Am Synth, too. Love that thing.
@funjunkie27 I'd disqualified myself in my original posting since I asked the question, but appreciate the nod
Awesome to hear from some of these "hero" devs themselves - to hear about the heroes' heroes
Chris I hope to get to know you more this coming year - you're one of the names I knew would get thrown into the mix pretty early on the thread 
I missed that in the original post @Rhism, but still deserved. I wonder why no one ever uses the poll function for these types of questions. Might be interesting to see actual numbers on some of these.
There's a poll function?!?
I assume so. If you scroll near the top of any thread and look over to the right there's a block to indicate if a poll is tied to the thread.
It doesn't appear to be working (or at least I haven't figured out how to make it work). I just tested it.
It goes without saying that Michael and Sebastian are on my list (although didn't Sebastian say he's technically not a developer in another thread?).
My other 4:
I tend to give higher marks to communicative devs, so even though I really like BeatMaker 2, I can't include the Intua guys in my list.
Other special mentions:
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Sebastian said:
He was in a band with Yasunori Mitsuda! Chrono Trigger bro
@Simon great question. I really respect GB for what it is, and Figure too. And I have a soft spot in my heart for Frontier Design (would they be considered "big"?) because iShred is the grand-daddy of all guitar strumming apps.
Also honorable mentions to 2 more indies: Mark Jeschke (DrumKick) and Arno Van Goch (Drums by Asrodot) - I suck at finger drumming so I'm never able to get much out of their apps but I really like both of them for the concepts they stand for.
BTW would WaveMachine Labs (Auria) be considered big or indie? I honestly have no idea how many people made that app - by the looks of it I'd think it's a big team but these days you never know.
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I have to put Jacek from Beep Street on the list
Since you asked... I really dislike IK. With their relentless ad popping, IAPs and cluttering the AB apps page with multiple variations of their stuff. And they are ugly.
Steinberg on the other hand do pretty well for a behemoth. They hired a couple if guys to talk to users. I think they have a genuine interest in iOS and a decent road map for their product, which is a good one.
I wish Native Instruments would get in the game in a real way. Also Ableton, but probably never happen.
Propheads are doing the right thing, and even though Thor is a port, it is fantastic. Hopefully they will do more.
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