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
yeah - that's kind of one of the things I'm thinking for the clouds mode but I want to do other things as well. my model is kind of the grains generation in Mutable clouds eurorack module but at a note scale. (I'm interested in using harmonic series for note generation too - which is related but not quite the same)
Cool, thanks, that made me rush off and get Scalebud. I shall investigate.
Wow. First off: awesome reply. Makes me actually learn stuff. Thanks!
I will check out Harmonizr. I do have/love Navichord, however, I was thinking more of the automatic generation of scale-fitted chords, in a (controlled random?) chord progression, more than inputting the chord progression myself (for which I actually use a combination of Navichord and/or Suggester.
I have had lots of fun with iBassist and the lumbeat drummers of late, however I've noticed iBassist is extremely prone to crashing when I use both the notes/chords out in addition to the actual bass out (which I have tried letting iFretless handle the sounds for). iBassist basically crashes every 10 minutes in that set-up, and according to general feedback in the FB group I'm not alone in this. Hope there will be a stability update.
Also, I do have/love Gestrument Pro, which is my fave tool right now. The possibilities for exploration are almost endless. Incredibly well thought/developed through app.
Fun (useless) fact: I built the first proper/commercial web site for Imogen Heap when she was in the band Frou Frou. Now we are talking 2002 or something though. I can't say I've kept more than cursory tabs of her ever since though, but she seems to embrace new technology a lot though!
Harmonizr was designed to be that Vocal Harmonizer product that Imogen, Laurie Anderson and Jacob Collier use to sing like a choir using the keyboard to pick notes.
For what you want to do there's probably a better app. But if you want to harmonizr a vocal or a Guitar line it's the real deal along with @Virsyn's Harmony 8.
But for just picking chords out of a scale it might not quite be the right approach. I think you have to choose 1 chord at a time and it only responds to notes in that chord so not quite the right idea.
ScaleBud maybe. I don't have it.
@McDtracy
I always thought major chords are out of the 1st (root) 3rd and 5th degree of the scale. Are you sure it’s 1,4 and 5?!
You are correct.
What he meant was, using the Major scale, if you build chords from root notes using the first fourth and fifth scale steps, you get 3 different Major triads. Also referred to to as the I. IV and V chords, which are Major chords when using the Major scale.
All chords in these scales are stacked 3rd's (add 3 to any note).
Major Chord = M3rd + Minor 3rd
Minor Chord = Minor 3rd + Major 3rd
Diminished = Minor 3rd + Minor 3rd
When I say 1,4,5 I'm showing that the 1+3+5 chords on scale notes 1 (C), 4 (F) and 5 (G) are major chords.
So even in a C Major scale there exists 3 Major Chords C, F and G.
When you move to a melody around the root of D using those same notes the Major chords in D Dorian are still wait for it C, F and G.
Minor scales (with Aoelian) being the most common historically are built in A and include C,F,G majors on the 3rd, 6th and 7th scale tones.
Thanks for asking and more importantly thanks for reading to understand. It makes the effort worth something to me.
Ready to blow you mind? See if you can follow this too.
All these chord rules and patterns apply starting on any Note and when writing they just show the sharps (#'s) or flats (b's) in a key signature.
In most case Sharps and Flats are the black keys with the exceptions where there isn't a black key between E-F or B-C. E# is F for example. Weird huh?
But important because in that scale all the F's are already F#'s so E# keeps the pattern working.
The pattern in the major scale we are following is:
1 (whole step up to )
2 (whole step up)
3 [HALF STEP UP]
4 (whole step up)
5 (whole step up)
6 (whole step up)
7 [HALF STEP UP TO]
8
On the piano there are no Black Keys between E-F, B-C.
The 3-4 scale steps and 7-8 scale steps.
Starting from C go up a 5th and build the major scale on G with 1 sharp (happens to be the F#) and do it again in a cycle adding #'s and you can continue up to 7 Sharps (C# Major).
Starting from C and dropping a 5th you land on F and can make a major scale using 1 flat (Bb in fact) and can continue looping down 5ths until you assign all 7 (Cb Major which happen to be note for note identical on the piano to B Major).
For a computer program these repeating patterns make some things like transposition of scales really easy (just add +5 or subtract -6 or any interval measured in 1/2 steps).
The mathematical mind and the musical mind often share the same "flat" (that's a UK term for apartment). Hope that didn't fall on deaf ears.
If it seems confusing and you don't get it... We just need to try another way of showing you the patterns and "rules" that make the Western Traditions work. Indian Music has many, many more scales and associated rules that I've never studied.
To really get exposed to a universe of scales check out the free App "Wilsonic" and know that the developer is leading the AudioKet team on Synth One. That's why Synth One has such interesting capabilities for alternate scales which to our western minds sound very strange and tend not to emphasize chords as much but more melodic uses of scales and drones for tonal roots.
@McDtracy
Hey bro, thanks A LOT for taking the time and explain it in detail. Now I see the 1 4 and 5 you meant. I. Thallium could follow your post very far but you lost me at the end... haha
I learnt music theory not for one year (just with different websites, books, youtube etc) and somehow (at least for me) I learn it in incremental steps.
This whole mode thing Dorian, Phrygian and therof is beginning to unfold for me, after I watched almost every video I could find and read uncounted articles and sites.
Boy, music theory is hard stuff and keeps my „pumpkin juicy“...
I love learning stuff - thanks again sir!
@CracklePot and thanks to you too, I totally got instantly what I was missing in the post above
You can take music theory pretty far into the realms of abstraction.
It's like Math... simple and elegant really but concepts can be stacked up on each other until you just loose the ability to follow the narrative. Mere mortals give up somewhere but usually because of bad teaching. Anyone can get pretty far with good teaching and a desire to succeed. Not unlike playing an instrument. But tedious for most of us.
Art is expression and there isn't the need for a lot of theory to express.
You really only need so much theory to do a lot. And with Apps you can just jump to making complex layers of sound and rhythm and forget the theory completely.
Just as some programmers skip the mathematical core of the field and start making things without learning about Lambda Calculus. Don't ask. It's deep.
But if you're intrigued look for:
Abelson, Harold & Gerald Jay Sussman's Text Book
"Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs" (SICP)
in PDF or in a YouTube lecture series. The deep voodoo of programming in LISP using recursion: code that invokes itself over and over until arriving at an answer. Like a a Christopher Nolan plot (Memento, Inception, Interstellar, Doodlebug).
I often pipe Autony into Quantichord and then into a synth. I know this was mentioned elsewhere (https://forum.audiob.us/discussion/29690/quantichord-from-laurent-colson) but I didn't see it mentioned here.
Brilliant app but still finding the knobs flaky. Trying to dial in a sequence length and when I lift my finger the value jumps +-1.
Excellent. Knob frustration is much less now : )
I do agree the 'value jumps when lifting a finger' thing can be a bit problematic when using the knobs with higher granularity/resolution (ex, length) when compared to knobs with less variables (ex, Root).
This seems to effect many Apps though, so not sure how the behaviour could be improved unless you have some sort of scaling (ala Thor Synth) where the control becomes finer as you swipe further from the knob.
Maybe you could keep vertical knob adjustment like it is now and adjust horizontal movement to act as 'fine'
tune?
hmm - will have another tweak in a further iteration!
One issue of course is that everyone expects knobs to act in different ways! and looking at other apps there are all kinds of ways of doing this.
I'll see if I can do anything about the lifting the finger thing though
You could always add a ‘double tap the knob, and enter the exact value’ feature. That usually solves the squirrelly knob issue for me when the app allows this.
I would expect a double tap to reset the value to its default.
Yeah, sometimes it is that way.
Sometimes you can tap or double tap the value display to enter exact values, but I didn’t think Autony’s value displays could support that. They look like display only, no box or button looking container.
I think entering values is more useful in this case. Default value reset seems more useful for synths and sound designing, like when there are a lot of parameters to keep track of, and you want to get back to the previous sound.
I think the current knob behaviour (hoho) is pretty good, I was just throwing some random ideas out there.
I did find some parameters a little fiddly to set precisely @anickt pointed out.
In my experience, the "finger lift" syndrome seems to affect many Apps that have controls with a wide range.
It seems to be an inherent problem with capacitive touch screens but maybe some tweaking might help minimise it.
Thanks for the update & good luck.
@pagefall, I just downloaded Autony 1.2.1 (latest update) and the knobs-behaviour feels worse then before! I find it almost impossible to dial in the scale I want, etc. Values like that (scale, transpose, root, clock, var. length, transpose) are important to be precise; I hope you find a way to handle this better: listbox for scale? 'number-buttons' with left and right arrows for decrease/increase?
I think I read that you were working on responsive layout for iPhone?
Yeah I have to agree with the new knobs being the worst of the 3 iterations so far.
The first method worked the best. Yes, you know best @pagefall . If you try to work in everyone’s suggestions, you will ruin your beautiful app. Just implement the ones you feel fit your vision for your app.
This. You will not be able to please everyone @pagefall, stick to your vision and do incremental enhancements that fit with your vision of the app, and it'll turn out great, I'm sure.
:-)
ha ha - yeah not winning on the knobs front am I?
Hehe, well, most knobs in here, myself included, love the app, so that battle you've won already.
But there will always be suggestions for improvements etc. I would see them as just that, suggestions.
These knobs are on the right track for being usable (as in pertaining to usability) - except they "snap" to max value in the middle of using them for some reason. Knobs with discrete values also don't need to be continuous - they could be notched. Double tapping can return to default. Tap and hold or triple tap (eek!) could provide a text box. There's lots of apps with usable knobs out there.
I do love the app functionality.
As someone who owns a lot of apps, I feel like the predominate standard is vertical movement. The most successful to me:
Generally, when there is a non-numeric list selection, such as root note or scale, I prefer a pop up list. Selector arrows that scroll through short lists are OK, but I really don’t like being forced to scroll through a longer list, such as available scales. I like a pop up that shows me all the available choices, scrolls if needed, and selects with one touch on the right value.
Just my two cents. I’m OK with the knobs as they are, though they could be improved.
I don’t have your app yet. It’s on my list though.
I’m not as picky about the knobs control as obviously others seem to be. But, I think this developer handled the issue best with a settings panel that gives you 3 different choices of how the knobs can be turned.
SynthDrum Kick by DesignByPaul
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/synthdrum-kick/id1362619238?mt=8
Sure. But often resorting to adding a setting means you couldn't solve it right in the first place, and can lead to a mess in the end if that continues - especially in mobile.
(I'm a UX designer and user researcher by day... usually).
Again, I love the functionality and have no regrets on the purchase! This is just the usual "it could be better if..." stuff, none of the "omg i hate ur appz" going on here.
Also see the synth Thor for knobby ideas. Every one seemed to loooove that.
I’d love to see you do away with the knob forbthe scales altogether and have a list pop up instead
Exactly this