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.
I can’t have more apps, I need to stop!
I am done. For now.
I am not getting Reason Compact, the Electribe Wave or any other more apps, synths or effects. Why?
Because I have become an app collector. I want to HAVE the apps, I love just about any apps because I find them cool to have on my iPad but I don’t use them. That is the truth.
I wanted to make music in my spare time when the family is asleep and have fun but somewhere along the way the app obsession took hold of me. Maybe it is the low price, I don’t know. I never really learn the apps inside and out and I have come to realize how deep basically EVERY synth app is.
Therefore, I have decided to keep just a few apps that complement each other sound synthesis-wise and I like the GUI of, and my choice of iOS DAW. I also have a synth workstation as a controller keyboard with its own synth engine. In reality that is all I need, and some, for a long time. And frankly, enough to get my head spinning more than is healthy learning all of it.
Just curious, anyone else thinking the same or am I just totally crazy here?
Love the forum, love reading about all this stuff, so much good advice and skilled people!
Regards,
DMfan
Comments
I think the same, all the time. But then the new shiny arrives and everyone raves about it and I cave.
Welcome to 'Anonymous App-o-Holics'. You're not crazy at all
I too have way too many apps already and will do a BIG cleanup once iOS12 drops to help me 'focus'.
(I do have a soft spot for Korg apps so for me those will always find a place in my iPad as there's something about the 'Korg Sound' that really appeals to me).
Is a Drug..
And they know it
I have failed to understand why my brain thinks more apps to learn somehow gives me more hours per day...
😊
dito
I still resisted AudioLayer, StepPolyArp Unit, Pro-Q2 AU, Quanta, Looperverse and some others.
So far...
Hello. My name is DMfan and I am an App-o-holic....
Apps are like hardware, but worse, you may have apps you just didn't know you bought and as they're not taking dust somewhere, you may have just forgotten them and you can't sell them second hand to get new ones...
For me AudioLayer and Quanta where essential. They both ticked the box that said ‘Original app not yet in my toolbox’. Which translates to - if you have an app in this class/genre do not buy.
I did not have a sampler - AudioLayer did not disappoint- an excellent and used daily app. Quanta - I wanted a granular that was more controllable - as soon as I saw the mod matrix I just had to buy - plus it was by Audio Damage.
I have all the synths that I could possibly need with LayR, Model D, Zeeon, Ripplemaker and Nave being used daily.
Too many FX apps which all do a great job. Bram masterful Rozeta suite AUM and Xequence. Enough.
Am just waiting for Loopy Pro to land someday.
Yep I have a cut-off point which November. Then 6 months detox.
It takes great discipline and vision to say no...luckily I have neither
Hi! I am an App Addict too. Today i was succesful. I installed Reason Compact and i saw that it is just the Europa Synth. I uninstalled it. I have hope for the future.
I have gone a long way toward self cure by not updating to 11.
It also allows me to keep Alchemy on my devices. Bonus.
The problem is that this wonderful forum can force us to become an app-o-holic!
So many threads are motivating to buy new stuff...
Maybe it will be a good therapy to stay away from the forum and youtube channels like @thesoundtestroom . But I’m afraid we will miss something.. .😎
Yes - I too suffer from the App-A-Holic syndrome. And I’ve gone thru the same agony as the OP. When you think how (structurially) simple a guitar, piano, organ or whatever compared to the immense depth and complexity of synths like Animoog, BeatMaker3, all the heavy modular synths... and an artist who takes up a conventional instrument may spend YEARS perfecting skills on it. I bounce around between all the cool apps and make small progress at getting competent with any.
I’ve wondered of all the “real” musicians and artists making actual music/sounds - how many apps do they USE? 😸. They may have many, but I’ll bet there are only a few that are really needed. But what does WANT have to do with NEED?! 🤪
I slowed down big time, now some misc blah blah...
1.) BM3 which became the hub of my iOS process brought everything into focus as to priorities. No more sequencers or hubs. Rozeta was a nice perk and I think the delay of 3.1 has helped too in an odd way because I won't even think of moving forward with my plans until I really digest what it is capable of on the sequencing end.
2.) Cubasis is evolving nicely and good things seem to be in the works. Between this and BM3 eh, they will get me there quicker than jumping ship to other hub/host thingies.
3.) FAB filters coming to the game has made me just wait for more to roll out from them before even considering any equivalents by others. No other reverbs, no delays etc, FAB only from now on. These plugins will last me a decade or more, saving money.
4.) Synths: I have my fill of synths (Synthscaper, Kauldron, Zeeon, Model D, I mean WTF for real) and Synthmaster One was the cherry on top. I won't consider any others unless they are big name VST port of high quality. Unlikely Serum or Massive will come within the next four or five years so I will chill now.
Really I think just setting a monthly budget that feels right is the way to go.
I‘m even too lazy to update my apps anymore....over 60 are waiting right now.
I don‘t buy apps anymore and all i use now are about 5 apps.
There is just one app i‘m sure i will buy in the future. NanoStudio 2. I guess then i don‘t need anything more on iOS. Saturation already exceeded.
Deleting apps is what kills me. "But what if I find a use for it later?!?!?!?!"
And I never do.
Same problems here. I persuade myself, that is good for my synapses to learn new apps.
Sometimes I suffer, that I didn‘t get to make music, because of learning the newest stuff.
They just keep coming and coming and coming....
I have always been addicted to some form of new media purchasing:
Record Albums in the 70's
Cassette Tapes in the 80's for the Car
CD's
$/month streaming services
and the Amazon purchasing of musical instruments and devices
Since I got addicted to IOS Apps I have lowered my monthly spend and stopped several other forms of financial mismanagement to feed my Attention Deficit.
The amount of stuff you can do with an iPad or Laptop for free is also amazing for those that literally have no money.
So, we confess... I've been bad but really I was a lot worse.
That's a pity you cannot make them stop or go away!
Just get SM1 and be done with it
The funny thing is, when I discovered this place, i remember reading threads like this warning us to not let this happen ... and it did. I let it happen. I have taken other folks advice, to learn a synth well is to compose a tune on it. So that's what I'm trying now.
But, I'm just starting to make pals around here and I don't want to stop coming here. So, as @AudioGus suggested, monthly budget. Or only buy something you've been researching or waiting for. Like ... Drambo.
@seachord, I hope I may speak as a "real" musician. Though I respect and admire all our great forum buddies my goal is finished improvised music. And, you are right, I have uninstalled most of the apps I bought early on, including Gadget, Sampletank and a host of others. I am posting my second iOS Synthony shortly. Thirty minutes of music using Ravenscroft piano, Beathawk inapps, iSymphonic, SynthMaster Player, IFretless Bass and Brass, Thumbjam, Sopranotron and, and.... That's it. I record in Cubasis and use its onboard and Inapp effects and Audiobus.
I only own the base iSymphonic, none of the packs. About $150 worth of apps, though I bought a lot more. I can make do with Thor and SM player for synths. I do feel the need for a few of the iSymphonic packs. Obviously I am interested in acoustic orchestral and jazz with a hint of synth but even if I was full on electronica I could probably get by with the same numbers of apps as I use to make a symphony, not all iOS musicians are like me. @Janosax is way good, productive, talented sax player, and knowledgeable about almost everything. So he is a "real" musician who loves apps ( and desktop of course). There is every kind on this forum. As long as it is not causing financial hardship I say, go for it! That seratonin rush of buying the new app is worth a couple of beers and you don't piss it away.
So here is the Synthony and what I manage with seven to nine apps.
Oh! But once deleted they are still lurking in the App Store to reinstalled. I had taken Gadget off, but brought it back to use just the synths with other apps. Never could quite get a handle on recording in it. In any case when it was reinstalled, all my previously saved (junk) was gone. I kill off many of the odd-balls to keep room for the new ones I’ve stopped buying...🤦♀️
My "Core" Apps
Might be a good idea to err on the side of caution with some apps. It's a habit that's very easy to get carried away with -- If I had the option of a do-over, I might do without at least 50 or so apps -- mostly redundant synths & effects.
The apps that I'd never part with are the groovebox type. Beathawk, Electribe Wave, Caustic, Groovebox, Egoist, Gadget, etc They're all a blast to use and inspire me to experiment in different music styles & stretch my abilities.
The apps usually cost no more than a night out at the movies and I personally get way more hours of enjoyment than any other form of entertainment, so I don't really have any regrets here. My 250+ paid apps might seem like a lot of money on paper, but it's surely no more than if I were a pack a day smoker for one year, but without any of the health consequences and a helluva lot more fun.
Life is short, so I might as well enjoy my passions. It's really about individual preference though - some people prefer sticking to & learning a small set of apps inside & out, while others prefer switching it up when the mood strikes them. As LinearLineman said, so long as it's not putting you in a bad way financially, there's really no wrong answers here. Just depends on your musical goals and what makes you happy.
I don't see why not buy every music app under the sun... I just calculate how many beers or coffees an app costs, and just refrain from buying that amount of beers and / or coffees, or I just make some mac and cheese instead of eating out for a meal or two. When you think of apps in terms of beers or coffees, I usually get the equivalent enjoyment out of the app.
Take Egoist... a slightly expensive app. Yesterday I spent 3 hours enjoying myself with it, that would have taken 9 to 12 beers to get the same amount of enjoyment, so it was a net gain. That said, enjoyment does tend to increase with beers and or coffees.. but that is another post.
Come to think of it, that might be a good punishment for bad apps, the DEV has to buy you enough beers to where you aren't mad anymore... I'm sure with BlockChain we could make a beer / meal micro economy to keep our DEVs - hell everyone - drunk and fed. Just a thought.
I find rotating my attention on them helps, i.e. picking a handful that you may have neglected (maybe even deleted, check the purchased history) and really digging in.
This eases the guilt that I haven’t really made the most out of something and gives me a focus away from the latest shiny thing.
The Ström/iDensity track creation thread is a great example of just using what ya got. If I could ever find time and focus on making music I’d be doing that kind of thing ... fewer tools better sometimes.
Just need to find what works for you and stop there.I use Patterning for drums and DM1 for backup.Isem,Animoog,Sunrise and Lorentz because they are great tools and they can give you all you need.Cubasis for the setup and some Audio damage effects like Pumphouse and Rough rider 2.
Getting sick with purchasing apps,only makes you not to make music,so next question is,what you do with your music,because seriously,I think most people in here simply wanna jam with apps and not actually do anything else apart from that,hence the app o holism.