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.

Why make it easy?

Are iPad music makers just gluttons for punishment? I know I am!

http://tarekith.com/why-make-it-easy/

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Comments

  • Nothing worthwhile is ever easy...

  • Skydiving? Just one small step! :)

  • Got to get up there first...

  • edited March 2014

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  • Yeah, it's pretty crazy how quickly some of the bigger players like Waldorf and Korg jumped on board. I hear you about the innovation aspect too, iOS blows the desktop plugin market away in terms of just plain new ideas. Not all are great, but the few that are really standout.

  • Why iOS? Because it's cheaper, portable and tactile.

  • I currently have an ipad 3.. For the last 2 months I've been trying to decide wether to get an Air or a Mac for my next music investment. A year ago, the Mac would have been a no-brainer. Now with the quality of apps I've accumulated, I'm going with the Air.

    As a side note, I own a PC... You don't know punishment until you make music on a PC

  • Never had any trouble with a PC! iOS music production may be in its infancy, but much of it is based on existing VSTs or hardware emulations - MS20 and iMS20, for example. Although I wouldn't know where to start in creating an app, without a straightforward framework, which does indeed make it something close to easy for some people, we wouldn't be where we are today. Look at the leap in videogaming from PS1 to PS4. Quite astonishingly rapid advances in just 20 years, and that's all due to the tools in the back end. In five or 10 years we'll just be thinking our tunes into existence without any interface at all. Possibly.

  • I never had trouble creating my crappy music on a pc either other than trying to run on an underpowered cpu. Plus, I used Reaper and they released bug fixes and updates about once a week. I love iOS because of the low prices and portability. I like the touchscreen interface but you lose resolution using your finger as opposed to a mouse.

  • I prefer making music on iPad as opposed to laptop because:

    1. More convenient to bring iPad (lower weight, longer battery life, multitouch screen as opposed to non-touch screen plus keyboard) with me on my daily train ride, and thus more likely to make music on the train ride.

    2. Laptop is on its last stages of life - speakers failed several months ago, headphone out failed last month, who knows what components will fail next.

  • I don't think you can underestimate the significance of the touch screen, battery life, and portability. The price/performance ratio of iOS apps is also a pretty big factor.

  • For me it's about how compact and easy to use the ipad is, while delivering a ton of amazing sound and functionality, primarily for live performance. I don't have a band and I never wanted to be just a guy with an acoustic guitar. The ipad (along with some other tools) have changed the game for me. I can play solo and sound like a band. It hasn't yet ceased to amaze me. Though live performance got me started in ios music, I will use at least my soft synths for my next recording.

  • Hehe, I just sold a bunch of Elektron gear and bought a nice acoustic guitar. Been pairing it with the iPad and giving serious thought to making it my new live set up :)

  • Layer in some drum/percussion loops, synth pad and/or bass and throw in a harmony pedal...sounds amazing.

  • This is my first go at using this sort of set up:

    http://tarekith.com/mp3s/Tarekith-InSplits&Starts.m4a

  • Very cool, like it.

  • edited December 2013

    I compose ambient music.

    The biggest reason I use my iPad to make music because it's easier to just pick up and get going. I can take it anywhere, whereas with my laptop I'm stuck indoors due to its poor battery life. I'd much rather sit by the river than sit indoors. A touchscreen is also a much more immediate experience than a trackpad.

    I actually find it quite easy to compose with my iPad. The software tends to be simpler than desktop stuff. Being able to only use a handful of apps at a time within Audiobus creates a very focused workflow.

    My laptop setup is very minimalist: Reaper, iZotope Iris, Photosounder, ValhallaRoom and ValhallaÜberMod. I can work quickly with such little software, but again, being tied to an electric outlet is the main downfall, and why I use the iPad almost all the time.

  • What's wrong with using ipad and computer? Particularly with stuff like the iConnect2.

    I mean I know that the iPad has DAWS - but that is an example of something that I find far easier to do on the desktop. They both have a place imho.

  • edited December 2013

    Nothing is wrong with using an iPad, or using a computer and an iPad. I don't think many people actually followed the link to read what I wrote on my blog. It was just a humerous observation, not a request for reasons why to make music on an iPad. I'm obviously already on board with that :)

  • edited December 2013

    I think a few people misread it all.

    Personally I'm the same. What makes me pick up the iPad instead of just sitting my bum down infront of my daw is that iOS and touchscreens (actual usable TSs that is) is still such a new thing, and it's just so much fun seeing and using all the new stuff developers come up with. Just as it was like when software instruments started appearing on our PCs and Macs (and later became VSTs and AUs). It's a fun ride! (That also happens to be cheap;)

  • Yeah, reading comprehension fail :)

    I enjoyed the article and think you nailed it.

  • @PHᐃNTᐃSM said:

    The software tends to be simpler than desktop stuff. Being able to only use a handful of apps at a time within Audiobus creates a very focused workflow.

    Is a generally underrepresented sentiment in most desktop music vs ipad music discussions. Because of the touch screen having lower precision than a mouse*, limited system resources, limited code libraries (as compared to windows/mac development) and I would guess to some extent App Store economics most ios music apps are very straightforward and accessible. Add a touch screen (and low prices) and accessibility jumps right through the roof.

    * low precision = nested file/edit/blah menus and related complexity are generally avoided.

  • @jesse_ohio said:

    Yeah, reading comprehension fail :)

    I enjoyed the article and think you nailed it.

    Thanks!

  • edited March 2014

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  • edited December 2013

    iOS automatic defense squad to the rescue :)

    Edit: Above post edited & way trimmed down. Lol @ Simon

  • edited March 2014

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  • edited December 2013

    Ha what happened to the other 80% of your original post? Nah never-mind it's all good :)

  • Fair enough, I could see how it could be taken that way too :)

  • edited March 2014

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  • I must confess, I only read the thread title. :D

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