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.
Module Ivory vs Ravenscroft Spec for Spec comparisson
Both are roughly equal in size. Korg are a very stable and reliable developer especially on iOS but Ivory is an IAP and Ravenscroft is a dedicated app and for the piano alone, significantly priced.
For some reason my ears tire of listening to sampled pianos and I suspect it’s because of some subsonic looping of the pcm waves or maybe I’m using bad headphones. I’m tempted to get Ravenscroft if it truly does deliver an authentic organic tone and expressiveness.
Question for people who’ve got both: which performs better?
- Other30 votes
- Korg module6.67%
- Ravenscroft76.67%
- Ik IGrand6.67%
- Colossus10.00%
Comments
The only real reason to go for Ivory is that you can use it in Gadget. Otherwise Ravenscroft is a much nicer instrument to play IMO. The only drawback is that it can crackle. Also the timbre controls on the Ravenscroft make it very versatile sound-wise, you can have a very dark piano, a very bright one, and everything in between.
I wonder if iOS 12 has reduced the crackles?
https://forum.audiob.us/discussion/27181/piano-world-cup-finale/p1
Not sure, I'm still on iOS 11 until SampleTank gets fixed.
Try the Beathawk piano, came in second in the piano cup and crackle free. I use Ravenscroft, no problems. Love it.
I have the BeatHawk piano. Doesn’t feel very expressive, besides it’s only 3 bucks. I am however totally willing to be persuaded into getting Ravenscroft if it in fact runs reliably.
what‘s broken? haven‘t used ST much on 12 yet
@LucidMusicInc unfortunately, I don't think anyone can give you a guarantee of that. At least they put a volume control on the pedal noise! Roll of the dice.
ST crashes if you adjust any of the dials in iOS12, a fix is on the way. AFAIK that's the only serious problem that's been reported with the new OS, so it's much better than most years.
ah, indeed any dial movement crashes ST. good to know they are already fixing it.
only serious problem I have so far with iOS 12 is Bluetooth no longer working as expected, and I hear a fix for that is on its way too
OMG OMG OMG 😮
I’ve invested a lot in ST, and I didn’t know this.
Going out in the streets shouting, I need a fix, probably will get me arrested, so I hope a fix is on the way.
I don’t use it as much as before, but I need the Miroslavs
Sample tank was excluded from the poll for several reasons. 1 no velocity layers and 2 it’s unstable, always has been and likely always will be. Igrand got no votes. Ravenscroft won the poll!
I’m in a similar position. I love the tone of the Acoustic Grand in BeatHawk but it seems to lack a layer or two at the extremities.
@kuhl>; @Kühl said:
I’ve invested a lot too. They’ll fix it . It’s still the best all around sound source on iOS if you load it up with IAP’s.. Not all the sounds but many of them. I love it
Also what @richardyot said. Ravenscroft all the way
Hello,
I know it's an old thread but I own both Ravenscroft since the release and Ivory more recently.
Here are my conclusions on very specific items that counts for me when dealing with virtual pianos :
Ravenscroft | Ivory
Noticeable latency | Very little latency (thanks to Korg Module ?) => Ivory wins
No half-pedalling | No half-pedalling => Equal (both loose)
Other technical criteria :
AUv3 | Not AUv3
Thanks, @Paulo164 . Didn't know this thread existed, so it was a worthwhile read.
I love piano sounds, although I'm no expert. I got Korg Module about a year ago before I heard of Revenscroft and looking back, I think I'm okay with that decision. I had Gadget 2, so it unlocked 5 Gadgets for me, and I'm able to use Gadget on my iPhone and iPad.
I do hope Korg doesn't give up on migrating the app to AUv3. Since it was built in the JUCE framework, I hope it'll be a lot easier.
Ravenscroft seems to be the winner, although I'm saying this more to myself so I don't get GAS and get the app immediately. It's okay to have the second or even the third best app. How you use the sounds will dictate your mastery, versus getting the best tool.
Although I've been using Garageband mainly for the past few months. Opened Gadget a lot less than I thought I would (but I do still use it a bit).
Hello @Samflash3 ,
In my opinion, both Ravenscroft and Ivory (German or American) are excellent. At first, I was preferring Ravenscroft because it was an ambitious attempt at recreating a virtual piano on iOS (per-note sympathetic resonance, velocity layers interpolation/morphing, etc.). But Korg Ivory is unbeatable when it comes to reliability and latency. I would say there are at least 10 ms between the 2 (when both are set at minimal latency), which is quite noticeable plus some crackles for Ravenscroft. In the end, I think Ivory is a bit underrated compared to Ravenscroft. The samples are crystal clear whereas the mics position in the Ravenscroft can sound a little too "head in the piano".
Finally, I read many people complaining about iOS having now enough piano apps compared to synths (see the reactions on Korg Module and the release of Ivory American D) but I honestly think there is still room for improvement in this area.
Korg + Ivory could be perfect if more of what is included in the desktop version was also included in the iOS version. Personnally, I am still waiting for (in decreasing order of importance) :
1. per-note sympathetic resonance and half+re-pedalling
2. the possibility to add more than 1 dot on the velocity curve (honestly, would it be difficult to add one more ?)
3. the possibility to define a velocity curve along the 88 keys
4. release samples combined with Note off velocity
5. una corda samples (okay, I can live without...)
Synthogy & Korg, if you are reading me !
Maybe eventually the surprise will come from a physically modeled piano app...
PS : I am not talking about the other piano apps because it is not the right thread for that :-)
AudioLayer with the full salamander piano sample set is an awfully nice piano and relatively light on CPU.
Thank you @espiegel123 , I didn't think about that kind of solution :-)
Do you know if AudioLayer handles piano stuff I mentioned above, like sympathetic resonance, release samples, half pedaling, etc. ? Does it handle layers interpolation (to blend layers continuously as velocity changes, so that we can't hear "steps") ?
Apart from Salamander which may already sounds very nice, do you know if it is possible to install other "professional" (I mean paid) piano soundfonts ? Is it easy, regarding downloading and installation ?
Thank you very much, that's a lot of questions !
AudioLayer handles release samples. Salamander doesn't have half-pedal samples in it. I am not sure whether AL is interpolating at layer boundaries or not. It doesn't have some of the bells-and-whistles that Ravenscroft has in terms of some piano-specific features. That being said, I suspect that the number of situations in which those will make a significant difference are limited for most (but certainly not all) players or situations.
Ok, it’s clear. Thank you !
Thanks. I do have Audiolayer. Where do I get a salamander piano? Also, I'm not sure if it can sample. Sfz
Edit: Saw the post - https://forum.audiob.us/discussion/32090/full-salamander-grand-piano-for-audiolayer/p1
Thanks.
Thank you for this detailed comparison.
@dokwok2, if you’re going to buy a Module piano, I recommend the American D over the Synthology. Superior, IMO.
Thank you! I notice it's about half the size as the original Ivory.
@dokwok2, I think you’ll like it. Second only to Ravenscroft, IMO, tho the BeatHawk acoustic is good, too.
I'm leaning toward "American D" over Ravenscroft because I think Korg's big enough to hang around and support it.
I got into iPads for music when they first came out, and I've seen products get abandoned. (Just deleted IKM's iElectric and iGrand for this reason.)
@dokwok2, I don’t think Ravenscroft is going anywhere. VI Labs is a pretty great company. Go for the RC275 if that’s your only issue.
iGrand isn’t much of a piano, IMO, but the EPs are good... I assume they still work, but my go to EP is NeoSoulKeys.
Just yesterday I put the finishing touches on a free Steinway that will load to the bs-16i app. It has become one of my favorite pianos and believe me I have tried them all (Module Ivory, Ravenscroft, Colossus, iGrand). You are are welcome to try this along with my version of the Salamander (Yamaha C5) and more. Check out the piano section of my site.
https://sites.google.com/site/soundfonts4u/