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 Store

Audiobus is the app that makes the rest of your setup better.

A very simple Task, but impossible to do with all this stuff??? Really??!???

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Comments

  • edited July 2018

    @Samu yeah, sorry about that... I was rather referring to the fact that Cubasis still isn't able to re-channelize MIDI Thru correctly, which I find slightly surprising, given that it is really simple (see above) and is a basic feature of ALL their desktop products :D

  • @SevenSystems said:
    @Samu yeah, sorry about that... I was rather referring to the fact that Cubasis still isn't able to re-channelize MIDI Thru correctly, which I find slightly surprising, given that it is really simple (see above) and is a basic feature of ALL their desktop products :D

    Yeah, there are plenty of small 'glitches' in Cubasis, that's for sure.

    When an app uses 'Core Midi' it will always (as far as I know) prioritises hardware input and we as user have NO control over that. (We would need some kind of system level control panel to change the 'port order' for CoreMidi ports).

    Now if we could set for example iM1 or iOS Sound Canvas to only listen to a 'Virtual Midi Port' (Cubasis or any other App) things would be a bit easier...

    As much as I love iOS Sound Canvas for it's 'classic' 90s sounds It's a shame Roland seems to have no interest in it anymore at least I get ZERO replies on the e-mails I've sent to their support...

    Korg on the other hand should add an option to use Virtual Ports in all their apps or better yet make them AUv3!

  • edited July 2018

    @Samu said:
    When an app uses 'Core Midi' it will always (as far as I know) prioritises hardware input and we as user have NO control over that. (We would need some kind of system level control panel to change the 'port order' for CoreMidi ports).

    Now if we could set for example iM1 or iOS Sound Canvas to only listen to a 'Virtual Midi Port' (Cubasis or any other App) things would be a bit easier...

    As much as I love iOS Sound Canvas for it's 'classic' 90s sounds It's a shame Roland seems to have no interest in it anymore at least I get ZERO replies on the e-mails I've sent to their support...

    Yes, when I still had my hardware studio, I had TWO JV-1080s in it, so I love Sound Canvas as well :)

    iOS gives apps lots of information with each MIDI packet and lots of flexibility how and what to connect to (sometimes too much :D), it's "only" a question of exposing the relevant options in the UI of the respective app...

  • @SevenSystems said:

    iOS gives apps lots of information with each MIDI packet and lots of flexibility how and what to connect to (sometimes too much :D), it's "only" a question of exposing the relevant options in the UI of the respective app...

    Ok, so in practice it would be possible for the Korg Devs to 'fix' iM1 so that it only listen to for example Cubasis, that would solve a lot of issues.

    iOS Sound Canvas has a 'port setting' but it's not possible to disable CoreMidi so in the worst case everything 'double triggers' causing a phased sound :)

    I mean as crazy as it is. If I have two or more controllers attached to my iPad (which is quite easy, Midi thru the UR-242 and the nanoKEY Studio) both will trigger iM1 and there is no way to choose which of the two controllers to use in iM1... (Ie. no proper Midi-Port selection).

    Since I'm using the touch screen 95% of the time (nanoKey with Gadget mostly) this is no big issue for me personally.

  • edited July 2018

    @Samu, yes, that's all up to the apps... an app can either create a virtual MIDI destination, and then other apps decide if they want to send to that particular destination or not, OR an app can look for other apps that have virtual SOURCES, and then decide if it wants to connect to that to receive events. Same goes for the other direction. It's slightly confusing and the documentation from Apple isn't good, so I guess that's where all the confusing and half-baked MIDI implementations in iOS apps come from... :)

  • edited July 2018

    Hope I understand the problem?
    Is it a Problem with the NanoKey Studio, Cubasis or is it an IOS problem?

    The same behavior I can see within Auria Pro.

    I can address all the eight iM1 Multis in Cubasis or Auria and play/record them with the virtual screen-keyboard with no issues. When I connect the Nanokey I hear always the instrument on channel 1 in iM1.

    When I connect my Arturia MiniLab Keyboard I can switch through the Midi-Channels in a second so no problem here.

    So why KORG forgot a simple Channel switch within the NanoKey Studio what can solve the problem? 😎

  • @chandroji: The problem is with iM1 and Cubasis. In IM1, it should be possible to configure the MIDI sources it listens to. Instead, it always listens to all of them.

    In Cubasis, the MIDI Thru should change the channel of the incoming MIDI data to the channel of the instrument of the selected track.

    That way, your keyboard wouldn't need channel switches at all, because MIDI thru with re-channelization is what MIDI thru has been since the Atari days ;-)

  • @SevenSystems said:
    @Samu, yes, that's all up to the apps... an app can either create a virtual MIDI destination, and then other apps decide if they want to send to that particular destination or not, OR an app can look for other apps that have virtual SOURCES, and then decide if it wants to connect to that to receive events. Same goes for the other direction. It's slightly confusing and the documentation from Apple isn't good, so I guess that's where all the confusing and half-baked MIDI implementations in iOS apps come from... :)

    Agreed, I'd be happy enough if I could choose 'Cubasis' in either iM1 or iOS SoundCanvas when Cubasis is actually running and hope that those apps would then ignore all 'other' inputs but unfortunately that's not the case yet :)

  • edited July 2018

    @SevenSystems
    Thank you! Now I start to understand a little bit more after your explanation. No need for channel switches when the Midi trough works properly.

    So who failed? IM1, Cubasis or both?
    And why I can observe the same behavior in Auria Pro too?

    Sorry for asking again, I just try to understand...

  • @chandroji said:
    @SevenSystems
    I start to understand a little bit more after your explanation. No need for channel switches when the Midi trough works properly.

    So who failed? IM1, Cubasis or both?
    And why I can observe the same behavior in Auria Pro too?

    Sorry for asking again, I just try to understand...

    The 'apps' fail when they can not select the input-port to listen to.
    iM1 fails here because it 'listens to everything'.

    In iM1's case it could simply ignore other inputs (or give us an option to select a port) once connected as an IAA-Instrument but it still keeps on listening to 'everything'.

    It feels like this is a 'mess' in IAA implementation, ie. apps should ignore other inputs once connected as IAA-Instruments or the host could send it's virtual port name to it and that's the only thing it should listen to. (meaning multiple tracks from the host could be sent to it using that virtual port).

    It's a mess and since AUv3 is the 'future' we'll have to have some hope that at least Korg is aware of the issues...

  • edited July 2018

    @chandroji said:
    I start to understand a little bit more after your explanation. No need for channel switches when the Midi trough works properly.

    So who failed? IM1, Cubasis or both?
    And why I can observe the same behavior in Auria Pro too?

    Both.

    iM1 in providing a mechanism to choose from which sources to get MIDI (which leads to the problem that it isn't usable with MIDI Thru because it will always get input from BOTH the "MIDI Thru app" AND the actual hardware controller AT ONCE.)

    Cubasis in simply copying the MIDI channel from the input to the thru, instead of changing it to whatever channel is selected for the instrument on the current track (which is a single line of code).

    I didn't test MIDI Thru with Auria Pro... but if it's the same problem there, then it probably all boils down to the fact that most app developers are hipsters that have never used an actual MIDI sequencer in an actual hardware studio with an actual hardware controller on an actual Atari in 1985 ;) ;) ;)

  • edited July 2018

    @SevenSystems said:

    I didn't test MIDI Thru with Auria Pro... but if it's the same problem there, then it probably all boils down to the fact that most app developers are hipsters that have never used an actual MIDI sequencer in an actual hardware studio with an actual hardware controller on an actual Atari in 1985 ;) ;) ;)

    That could very well be the case or simply a 'ooops we didn't think about the scenario'.

    Back in the days I had 3 midi-interfaces connected for a staggering total of 6 midi Ins & outs :)
    (The Nord Micro Modular required 2 in&out for playback & editing, TX81z felt best with an In&Out on a separate port for SysEX and multi-timbrality, same with SY85, MC303, both the Juno-106 & ES-1 were fine with a 'thru' from any of the devices).

    But yeah, I think this is an issue that most users eventually bump into when they actually start using the apps.

    I've tried to avoid these issues as much as possible by using the iPad as a 'stand alone' device without any controllers and feeding the Audio to Logic using IDAM.

  • edited July 2018

    Thanks a lot for your explanation @SevenSystems and @Samu !
    Again I have learned something new from you, very appreciate it!👍😊

  • edited July 2018

    @Samu: Hehe, I had an emagic (back when they hadn't been bought by Apple and still made hardware!) Unitor 8, which had 8 ins & outs... and the SY85 was my very first synth and I still love its complex layered sounds ("Performance" mode), some of them still unmatched 25 years later!

    @chandroji always glad to brag with my endless oldschool knowledge :D

  • edited July 2018

    @CracklePot said:
    Going back to your original question ( skip the Gadget sidetrack), do you need Cubasis in your setup? Or is channel routing all you are interested in doing?
    I can see if I can help you with AB3 and MF Channels to setup your routing, if that is all you need to do.

    Hey @Crackpot my suggestion is actually valid. All I was suggesting was to use Gadget and the instances of M1 rather than M1. Considering that the others have confirmed its a hardware vs M1 issue, using Gadget seems to be the only sensible alternative, wouldn’t you agree? I never suggest OP stop sequencing in Cubasis.

  • @LucidMusicInc Not trying to downplay your suggestion. I just didn’t want to confuse the situation, since the thread had changed focus but I was asking about what was in the start of the thread. But the questioner seemed to Iike your suggestion more anyway, since I got the brush off in the reply. :*
    Sorry if the ‘sidetrack’ comment irked you. It wasn’t made with ill intent. o:)

  • @SevenSystems said:
    and the SY85 was my very first synth and I still love its complex layered sounds ("Performance" mode), some of them still unmatched 25 years later!

    The SY85 was dubbed 'Epic' in the -92 Future Music review and I agree :)

    Part of the 'magic' on the SY85 is the Licensed Aphex Exciter which is included in the SPX900(24-bit@32Khz with plenty of oversampling) based effects unit. Another contributing part of the 'magic' is the aliasing-overtones that are created when stretching single samples across the entire keyboard and the 'digital but still warm' multimode filter.

    While I did sample most of the raw-waveforms from the SY85 I'd still prefer to have access to 'rom dumps' for even more authenticity...

  • @Samu yeah, I would easily pay $50 for an iSY-85. :) I made my first "productions" back in 1998 entirely on one SY-85 in Multimode... the sounds in Multimode weren't as good as in Performance or Voice mode because they were obviously lacking the pre-programmed effects (I used the two effect units as delay and reverb sends in Multimode), but anyway... much better than doing everything in Impulse Tracker on the PC, which was what I was used to doing :)

  • @SevenSystems said:
    @Samu yeah, I would easily pay $50 for an iSY-85. :) I made my first "productions" back in 1998 entirely on one SY-85 in Multimode... the sounds in Multimode weren't as good as in Performance or Voice mode because they were obviously lacking the pre-programmed effects (I used the two effect units as delay and reverb sends in Multimode), but anyway... much better than doing everything in Impulse Tracker on the PC, which was what I was used to doing :)

    Lol, I wen't from C64 to Amiga(ProTracker, OctaMed, Music-X) to Cubase Score to Reason and currently iPad with 'loads of apps' and 'Apps', Renoise & Logic Pro X on the Mac.

    There is no iSY-85 but there is a sample based SY-85 Sample Player from Gospel Musicians which I've not bothered to get. http://gospelmusicians.com/tgx-85.html

    Trackers are and will always be part of my DNA :)

    All in all back to the thread topic, currently it's a real pita to do what the OP wanted to do...

  • @Samu oh I worked with Kingmod (I think that's what it was called), FastTracker 2, and Impulse Tracker and had no problems... but it just doesn't translate to a touchscreen device very well because no keyboard. Anyway, yeah, back to topic :)

  • Wow I saw this and went what!
    Cubasis is my main midi workhorse! Truly and awesome app for midi! I have tons of midi tracks coming in from everything and records faithfully.

    @Pummelfee said:
    Ok, i was right. cubasis is unusable as a midi sequencer atm. But even with those "great" tools like audiobus etc. a mess....

  • wimwim
    edited July 2018

    But he’s right, it doesn’t work for what he wants to do. And what he wants to do is reasonable. The blame lies mainly with Korg and iM1, not Cubasis, but it is true that Cubasis doesn’t translate the midi channel as it should. These issues should be fixed and it appears to they are small fixes that just haven’t been prioritized by either company.

  • Wow, this thread turned really interesting and informative since yesterday. B)
    I really appreciate you all sharing your knowledge and experience. <3
    I have learned much hanging out here on the bus. :)

  • edited July 2018

    @CracklePot said:
    @LucidMusicInc Not trying to downplay your suggestion. I just didn’t want to confuse the situation, since the thread had changed focus but I was asking about what was in the start of the thread. But the questioner seemed to Iike your suggestion more anyway, since I got the brush off in the reply. :*
    Sorry if the ‘sidetrack’ comment irked you. It wasn’t made with ill intent. o:)

    Hey, thank you all for making my complaining thread to a real informative one. Actually it has NOT changed focus, it has focused the focus to the real problems.
    However, i found here the workaround for working with my nanokey studio (my standard iPad songwriting setup) and now with the different scenes with different channels i can select them directly wich is even better then a channel up-/down switch :-) (record on all tracks, loop and then jam track by track just with the nanokey studio is fun)

    The thread is helpful and i hope some cubasis dev is reading too....

  • I do wish the NanoKEY Studio had a channel switch though. That's the single biggest limitation of the thing IMO. Here's a link to a StreamByter script i wrote to alter the channel based on midi notes sent to the script. It wouldn't help with the problem of the iM1 listening to all midi, but it works in many other situations:

    https://forum.audiob.us/discussion/comment/516111/#Comment_516111

  • @wim said:
    I do wish the NanoKEY Studio had a channel switch though. That's the single biggest limitation of the thing IMO. Here's a link to a StreamByter script i wrote to alter the channel based on midi notes sent to the script. It wouldn't help with the problem of the iM1 listening to all midi, but it works in many other situations:

    https://forum.audiob.us/discussion/comment/516111/#Comment_516111

    That’s what Nanokontrol is for. :'(

  • @CracklePot said:
    @LucidMusicInc Not trying to downplay your suggestion. I just didn’t want to confuse the situation, since the thread had changed focus but I was asking about what was in the start of the thread. But the questioner seemed to Iike your suggestion more anyway, since I got the brush off in the reply. :*
    Sorry if the ‘sidetrack’ comment irked you. It wasn’t made with ill intent. o:)

    Hah sorry for calling you Crackpot... :D

  • @gusgranite said:
    is this thread a case for StreamByter?

    https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/streambyter/id1398712641?mt=8

    Doesn’t solve the issue in this case because of the way iM1 works.

  • edited August 2018

    @wim said:
    I do wish the NanoKEY Studio had a channel switch though. That's the single biggest limitation of the thing IMO. Here's a link to a StreamByter script i wrote to alter the channel based on midi notes sent to the script. It wouldn't help with the problem of the iM1 listening to all midi, but it works in many other situations:

    https://forum.audiob.us/discussion/comment/516111/#Comment_516111

    ...but for me the "8 different scenes with different channels"-solution is the best because i dont needed the scenes before and maybe never will, because i use the nanokey studio just for the ipad. mainly for triggering midi notes.

    and hopefully cubasis will have midi through with re-channelizing someday...

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