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
The dev wrote me that the drop down list problem will be solved within 24 hours. Great support !
I love the output I get from this
- I have the VST, and I definitely will get the app too.
Then I can attempt to run both platforms at the same time with different tempos
Wow! They solved the menus issue. Great fun with mustiple instances in AUM.
Great
Looks as though preset saving in the AU doesn't work still, you can save but when you reload the AU there's no sign of the preset.
But it does work if you save in the host luckily eg apeMatrix AU presets.
I am still getting crashes of all instances of Riffer if I’m running 4 in AUM and try to adjust the steps in the bottom left corner. 3.works Ok but 4 goes kaploui!
Caved in and bought this just now. Spent quite a bit of time with the Steppolyarp randomiser, and found it pretty uninspiring. Loaded up Riffer, and the first dice roll produced a really good, usable riff. I guess the clue’s in the name.
I’ll see how I get on with this after a proper go with it tonight, but first impressions are good.
So how does one send a channel 5 (pad 5) to GR-16 from Riffer?
Ok, liking this, the riffs it produces are totally usable. Had 2 instances triggering 2 Kauldron synths with a Ruismaker tapping away in AUM, and it sounded really good. Adding a bit of variation by changing the octave works nicely, and generating a completely new riff while jamming didn’t muck things up either.
Two things would make this better for me:
Some way to save a few patterns, and trigger them from a few buttons at the bottom. Kind of a basic song mode, and if these were MIDIable, even better.
Bigger text/controls. Some ot these are ridiculously small and fiddly, even on an iPad. There’s no shortage of space, so it can be done.using some of these is very hit and miss, so a bit of a UI fail there.
Happy with this so far though - I think it will definitely earn its keep in producing some nice little riffs and loop fodder.
It doesn’t seem to allow midi channel selection. So I suppose using a midi utility would be necessary.
If you are trying to send only to CH 5, you could use the midi channel filter in AUM. But you are likely using 4 other instances on CH 1-4, so then you would need to look at GR-16 to see if it can sort the midi channels internally. Don’t have GR-16 so not sure, but I have a similar problem using BeatHawk.
First, GET GR-16!!!!
Thanks.. Guess I will have to dig a little deeper.. It’s such a breeze just shooting sequences to whatever channel in StepPolyArp (and receiving midi too .. for the ARP).. I guess feature request..
Bless..
Other than the convenience factor, is there any other good reasons to get both the App ($7)for my iPad and the plugin ($49) for my iMac/Logic? Having an ICA4+ interface, won’t I pretty much be able to use my Logic plugin instruments (Omnisphere, SampleTank etc.) into my iPad/AUM or Audiobus/Riffer? Is the Riffer app and the Riffer plugin the same in functionality?
I waffled during the sale a few weeks back, and so missed the boat.
I suppose in some alternate timelines I did actually get it.
I’ve been on the fence until today, and gave SPA and other apps such as Rozeta a thorough going over to make sure I wasn’t duplicating something I already had.
So far, it seems to have a proper place in my toolbox - which is basically down to the ‘riffs’ it’s producing - they’re far more musical and usable than what I could generate previously.
Have you tried controlling your Mac synths via WiFi? I’ve been able to trigger synths (including Omnisphere) previously with Steppolyarp via WiFi MIDI, so I’m going to test out Riffer tomorrow. It won’t record the MIDI data like a proper VST, but it’ll play the notes for audio recording.
Yeah this is really useful and playable, and it seems the devs are open to adding midi input. Agree about triggering. You can save patterns though, best do it in the host as I think the app AU save/load has issues.
Ah right haven’t tried it in standalone mode yet, I’ll give that a go
Ah, no I meant that you can save a pattern as an AUM au preset, or apeMatrix AU preset, eg in the AUM AU gui box thing. I find this is also a good way to save patterns/presets
Yeah I gotcha
Going to have a play triggering synths on the Mac with it later.
Late to the party but picked this one up today after reading about dev responsiveness and AU support. Like Monzo, I was immediately struck by the musicality of the riffs--had a nice jam going in a jiffy. Was happy enough with that but then picked up a guitar and strummed some chords behind the riff jam and wow. The musicality quotient jumped through the roof. It just sounds wonderfully organic for my kinda compositions. Welcome to "the band" Mr Riffer!
It’s excellent. A nice way of building poly sequences I’ve found, is to loop a couple of times while recording, playing with the octaves as you overdub. You can get a nice big range of notes that way, which is good for pads.
How much density with each layer? Seems to get a little too busy with too much density.
I tend to have it on about half, and then go over a couple of times adding a few high and bass notes.
Ooops sorry, I hit quote instead of edit.
I was not going to get any more apps until NS2 but this app is calling me ... whispering ... dancing along in polyphonic lines that I've never heard before ... yet the song is the same ... you know you want to ...
Yep, gotcha. This app just helped me get over the hump on a tune that I've been struggling with for a fair bit of time. Paid for itself already. Nice bit of kit.
I thought I'd be duplicating what I already had - in particularl StepPolyArp, but this does bring something new to the table.
I had a muck about with it yesterday and got a bassline and melody line for a new track in just a few minutes. Felt a bit like cheating...but no-one will know
But you just told us!! Horse Gas is a cheater!!! Honestly, I think it's fabulous. Whatever gets the inspiration moving ahead. I dearly love all these tools.
Did you get it? Some of the controls need attention as they're too fiddly, but it produces excellent results.
Not yet. I'm still at work. Shhhhh ...supposed to be working.
Is there any iOS video ,or it’s exactly the same with the desktop version (and watch those instead ) ?
Epic guide from Doug: