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.
Comments
Wait... what?
Not sure if you're trolling, btw, so i'm editing my post to state that you can have just one section with the length you want (or automatic)
I tried GarageBand again as like many of you, I would love a simple but professional standard audio/midi timeline to export my stems from AUM to. I have BM3, but I am one of those who doesn’t get on with its layout. GB seems like it has huge potential. Current form is not good for me - I am another hater of the swipe instrument screens and want more editing. Maybe an update will solve this? Roll on Sept 12th!
Been thinking of trying Audio Evolulution Mobile as an alternative - looks well thought out.
It’s tricky this ios DAW thing. We all want a DAW that sounds and acts ‘professional’ but is trim and touch friendly. Will there ever be the perfect companion? Unlikely - should really stop complaining and just use the damn things!
This is what I do, I just use it despite its limitations. If I had an iPad, I’ll certainly use Cubasis or BM3. Advantage here for GB is still close to perfect AU support/rendering and loop mode. I’ve tried during one year to do everything live and dawless but at some time a timeline is needed when you work with audio and on iPhone GB was the only real option for me and I’ve started to appreciate its capabilities after having learned so much using lot of iOS apps in a way they were not totally made for, thanks to iOS modular environment and way of thinking. Also, GB is a good iOS music production symbol, with its limitations and bugs (think about most iOS apps poor real-time midi timing thanks to no use of midi time stamps)!! I think new Stagelight (still in beta) has HUGE potential, very very close to Ableton and if they add AU support it will certainly be a game changer for lot of us. It’s much more interesting than AEMS IMO.
If you don’t mind wiring things together, Xequence plus AB3 and/or AUM ticks all the boxes you mentioned above as far as I can tell, as an alternative.
I skipped the thread, just wanted to say I gave up on GarageBand about 10 minutes in because of how it works.
It's not like the ProTools, Auria that I'm used to.
It’s perfect for midi and AU, but for recording various audio parts a traditional DAW is (unfortunately!?) necessary. For example, if I want to record saxes sections or various sax solo parts with my mic, using AUM and Xequence will be useless, I will need to make one takes solos even if a solo part is at the end of the track, or I will need to use AUM file players or BeatHawk to import my sax parts and trigger them by midi using Xequence. I’ve tried it, it’s not manageable for complex tracks. If I didn’t play the sax, I’ll use only Xequence/AB/AUM. I still use that trio for my AU. But in my case a traditional DAW is still necessary. Also I like to work on audio parts/loops by split/transpose/time stretch them and a DAW is a good tool for that. GB performs surprisingly well here too.
I’m not trying to sell you on any alternative - just tossing out information. For lightweight, universal handling of audio recording, MultiTrack DAW is excellent, and can go in as the destination in AB3 easily. It supports State Saving as well (as does Xequence), which is a big bonus. MultiTrack DAW has great support for different audio resolutions if you’re looking to go beyond 16bit 44kHZ.
Thanks for that info, I will take a look at Multitrack DAW again
I use a lot of tools but I’m primarily a Cubasis user. However I do find myself in GarageBand quite often because there’s something very creative, for me, in its environment. Sure there are lots of limitations and work-arounds, but I’m so used to them I guess they don’t bother me as much. I’m glad they’ve enhanced it over the years and apparently will continue to do so...I’m always looking forward to what Apple will add to it in its next big release.
Not trolling. I know how it works and I just prefer how the timeline in other DAW's work. Maybe I've missed something though?
Eg. in BM3 or Ableton I can loop a section of the timeline and record a drum take. I don't need to worry about count in or any of that stuff and can take my sweet time to get to the drum set, do unlimited takes and pick the best one. That's not essential but it's convenient. It doesn't matter so much when you're actually at the iPad.
@wim @Janosax you can sync Beatmaker 2 (NOT 3!) via MIDI sync to Xequence, which will give you perfectly synced audio tracks to work with. (they will be in perfect sync INCLUDING absolute song position).
Not saying that this is perfect, as BM2 is essentially abandonware and has its share of bugs and limitations, but AFAIK it's the only current way to get "real" audio tracks together with Xequence.
(if anyone else knows "something with audio tracks" on iOS that syncs reliably to MIDI sync, let us know!
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Xequence has beautiful GUI, BM2 is.... ugly! Lol. And its workflow is tortured IMO, much more that GB. We already talked together about that but how looks an app is truly important to get inspired. GB looks toyish but is at least ok for me and not too oldschool.
What about Xequence DAW version??
@SevenSystems : Hopefully this will be fixed in BM3.1
My curiosity is peaked enough that I may try some tests with Xequence > AB3 > MultiTrack DAW. Of course, if only concerned with capturing audio from various apps then absolute midi sync isn’t that big of an issue really. And it’s only important because whatever DAW does the job needs to be universal. But I’m curious, and I haven’t dusted off MTD for awhile and I’m rather fond of it.
@SevenSystems : Good to know: Although I correct rly ha e BM3 , it’s be worth it to have BM2 if it runs that smoothly in tandem w Xequence .
I'm going to wager that there are probably more people using garageband than any other DAW on IOS. This is for a few reasons, I believe. One, it's free. Two, It's been around longer and also exists on MAC computers. It also has some really great sounding instruments and features. What's stopped me from using it...is the same thing that has stopped others...but I'll also bet that new features with ultimately fix this, like implementing the features all the other DAWs have now.....which reminds me..I'm going to post a thread now, mentioning what I think is still missing on the platform and see if other's will add to the list... a wish list of sorts...Not a complaint.
I agree there is a bit of the snobby attitude to Garageband. My son uses it at his primary school (he is a teacher) so it cannot possibly be used as a serious DAW can it!
Dan Baker has a host of Garageband videos on YouTube and it is incredible what hidden features he unlocks. In my own world I think Garageband is worth rediscovering. Cubasis for me ( which I have supported from the outset) is getting just too fiddly/complicated for me.
I wonder sometimes whether the “boys toys” element in some of these fantastic music apps takes over from our prime objective for creating music.
But wouldn't it be better if the features weren't hidden in the first place?
Hah, yeah, that "instrument selector" where you have the honor to scroll through one instrument per screen at a time (on an iPad!) was also one of the pinnacle GarageBand "Anti-features" for me
Here's the thing though... in a way, this is kind of genius. My five year old son can use GarageBand. Is he any good? No, not yet. But the fact that Apple built this is such a way that a child can understand how to navigate and play around is pretty amazing.
Couple that with the fact that sure, it's not the most deep, but offers enough under the hood to keep more experienced musicians happy, I think is incredible...
@Jomodu Thanks for the Dan Baker tip - checking him out right now. Until Nanostudio 2 comes out, or Reason Compact gets a few more features to make it a good sketchpad for export to the desktop version I'm probably gonna be sticking with GB...
+1
It's not genius, because the end result is neither good for the kids (too complicated) nor for professional producers (too limited).
True "Genius" would be to SIMPLY make TWO apps. One for the kids, one for the producers. Or do you know a car that is used for Formula One racing and Granny's Groceries at the same time?
I think this is kind of subjective. If you're Hans Zimmer, sure - I wouldn't recommend GarageBand. I think for most kinds of electronic music (like EDM, Trap, whatever the kids these days listen to) there are better options. But for what it costs and what you get, the value is undeniable.
I'm not trying to convert anyone lol, at the end of the day we're just making waveforms, right? How you get there doesn't really matter.
Of course. I'm also not dissing GarageBand in particular here. It's more of a philosophical discussion. There's a general tendency in the past decades in all areas of society to mix things that don't belong together, with a sub optimal end result. Starts with Lemon-Apple-Tomato-Guava-Juice and ends with GarageBand
Bashing bashing bashing!!!!
As an « advanced » user I find whole iOS music production environment quite limited. GB makes no exception. But to make certain jobs done, at least on iPhone, it’s the only viable option especially when you work on audio and uses mainly AU instruments and fxs. Even Cubasis is not able to send properly midi clock in loop mode, and has pretty poor midi timing or some rendering issues. For sure GB is consumer grade, for sure you have to search features, but they’re here and quite good from iOS standards point of view. Still wait for iOS ultimate touch friendly innovative DAW to be created for every musicians needs. Who will dev it?
@Janosax I've already started basic work on an audio engine in Xequence, but unfortunately I can't clone myself and/or compress time (time.zip!)
Hey nice to read that!!!
Question for iOS11 users with macOS garageband/logic too...
Which is the minimun OS version that let us share project beween icloud?
El Capitan? Sierra? High Sierra?
I know GB is supposed to be simple but I get lost every time I use it. Always pressing The wrong thing. I have better luck with BM3.