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.
NanoStudio 2 official thread
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I prefer the word enthusiasm to hype. That’s what I got from it. I don’t think the beta testers make money off sales, so it doesn’t make sense that they were trying to mislead anyone. Much of it is subjective. So all the enthusiasm got me interested, but I wasn’t buying anything until I read the manual, watched videos, listened to some music from it, and decided it was worth the time---time being the most valuable commodity. I haven’t had time yet to exhaustively explore everything, but I like the app and still feel it was a bargain at the price.
I’d be curious as well. Sometimes it takes a bit to break in a new pair of shoes
I think when you use one main DAW or Groovebox or Sequencing Environment for awhile, muscle memory kicks in and doing those same things in a new app that you don’t have to think about in your ol’ trusty app, it can be frustrating. For me, the real opinion formulates when I first understand the intended workflow and then start to commit it to muscle memory. If I get to that point and then don’t like that workflow, then it is an educated opinion. Doesn’t mean i’m right or wrong, it means that personally it doesn’t jive with me. As I continue, if more and more of those things happen then not, then i’m probably not going to pass on the app. But it can’t just be one time for me, because I might not see the end to end intent of the workflow until I really work thorough something all the way through.
The other is if the features I need for what I need to make my own style of music aren’t there, then it will probably be a showstopper. If I can’t do something mission critical to my music making, then i’ll shelf it...UNLESS, there’s an acceptable workaround for me. One man’s work around can be another’s tack hammer to the forehead. Nothing wrong with that. It’s where you choose or don’t choose to put your efforts in to make music.
I do all of this by trying to finish a song end to end with everything I normally do to complete it, from idea’s to device’s to sequencing to mixing to automation. All of those things because sometimes if all but one of those things is perfect but one is less desireable then I say, is that negative going to taint the overall use of this app for me where a I can’t get past it or meh, I can live with that because these other things are so great.
I think if I don’t do that whole process, then I’m not giving the app a fair shake. But for sure, that all starts with understanding it’s specs up front before I even give it a go by reading the manual. If i’m asking does NS2 have sample slicing? then I obviously didn’t read the manual. How do I record an audio track?...didn’t read the manual. I can’t blame the developer if I didn’t read the documentation that tells me exactly what and how it does what it does. If i’m Reading the manual and it sucks, then that tells me a lot about what the app might be like.
I don’t go through this process as much with individual synth or effect modules, mostly I can eyeball it or listen to some audio that tells me if I will like the sound of it, but my DAW environment is completely different. I live in that more than anything else, so it’s got to gel with me, so I do the most research I can and commit to it for awhile to give it an honest shot.
I’ve definitely self over hyped things because I really wanted it to be something that it ended up not being. But that’s almost always on me because I impulse bought it and didn’t follow my process.
I see how much I am getting done now with my NS2 mixdowns building up in Cubasis and I get super excited to think of how things will be in a year from now with NS2 updates / muscle memory workouts.
Wow... KRFT and NS2 are awesome together. OMG what a combo!
Oooh... interesting!
It just clicked as NS2 has everything you need. Link, midi learn to macros, fantastic automation editing etc. Could never do it well in BM3 or Cubasis or AP etc etc.
Anyway, once you have a good general template set up in KRFT and NS2 you can just start from there each time. The speedy fast jammy improvs of KRFT ready to be edited with that beautiful NS2 workflow. Ahh, could never come close to this with anything not on desktop. I am stunned at how well it worked so quickly.
Anyway, not sure why but I had to use AB3 with Midiflow Adapter to send KRFT to NS2. Soon NS2 will have native AB3 so this is a temporary step from the sounds of it.
@drez very wise words !
@AudioGus hm i think for direct krft -> ns midi routing nanostudio needs to register it's virtual midi input in ios midi inputs list. Other apps will be then able to show NS in their list of available MIDI outs..
i saw this on matt's todo list in relation to some request for controlling NS from xsequence.. will ask him, this would significantly improve NS connectivity with other apps..
I came to NS2 with an open mind, having never really used the original Nanostudio. I've been using it since launch and so far I'm really enjoying it. IMO it's definitely the best linear sequencer on iOS, and I also love the super-flexible routing.
I think NS2 manages to combine ease-of-use alongside powerful and flexible features, which is actually something that is very hard to pull off. It has the same kind of flexibility that I would expect to find in Auria, but with an easy to understand UI - this shows how much thought, consideration, and care went into making this app and it's UI.
If it continues on this trajectory I think it could end up as the best overall DAW on the platform. We'll see how things shape up once audio tracks arrive. For the time being I still do my final mixing in Auria, but I'm open to keeping it all in NS2 if the app is up to it.
And FWIW I routinely use a lot of other DAWs, I'm really open-minded as to where I create tracks. I've made full tracks in Gadget, GarageBand, Cubasis and BM3 and I like them all, but they all have serious shortcomings one way or another. At the moment Auria is the most complete DAW on the platform, but development has slowed so there isn't much progress in terms of ironing out some of the issues the app still has.
Sweet! Would be very nice!
Precisely.
That’s a thoughtful assessment. My only hesitation: I don’t really need it. Cubasis is a workhorse, Modstep is an inventive environment, and Auria — all those fabfilters!
Still, how long does this sale last?
you can try your luckif you have twitter :-)
I was more than OK with Gadget, Cubasis and GR16 but the sale price of NS2 made me have a go at it.
Do I need it? Probably not.
But what I really like is the fact that you get both a nice drum and keyboard sampler - one that actually works (in contrast to Cubasis), and the Obsidian synth is so powerful that it might become my go-to synth together with Zeeon and GR16. In-app sampling is great too.
Apart from Obsidian, I would say BM3 is the more advanced DAW, including more really good FX, but NS2 is a bit more straightforward to use and for me it's a DAW reduced to a very sensible minimum set of features. I often hear people complain about the lack of audio tracks but I'm only working with shorter phrases and licks so it doesn't matter to me.
OK last question, probably asked a thousand times: slice to pads? I love the sampler in BM3 but always looking for a more minimal solution for sampling a loop.
None of that in NS2. I do run BM3 along side it for most audio editing. If it is simply chopping a small loop that you seek then Reslice in NS2 may do it for you if you already have it, but may not be worth the extra cost if you have BM3.
It is fun! Early tests indicate that the automation and everything records well. Have yet to do an extensive production session with editing and all that but even for exploring many macro parameters at once, dayum thats fun! Maybe NS2 could get its own internal macro macro screen if that makes sense.
That’s cool 😎 I haven’t been able to play much yet. I’m traveling in the Yucatán with my wife at the moment. I just bought NS2 because it was on sale, then played with it one evening after figuring out the basics... only to see if I was going to keep or refund. Love it! But I can’t iOS geek out right now unless I wanna get smacked.
I think he means > @AudioGus said:
Nice @AudioGus! I’m guessing this would work the same way into Xequence as well then?
Not it traditional way, if you want just chop some drum loop quickly and then trigger kick, snare, or some melody/sequence tomteigger it's parts..
doable if you want a more experimental appropach :-)
now your loop is sliced do 127 small slices, splited across whole keyboard from c-2 to g8
additionaly, if you don't want to trigger it from keyboard, you can route Slate midi (using misi send to obsidian in slate mixer track settings) and change notes for each pad to fit corresponding pad to proper "sliced" loop position
yeah, as i said, this is more fo experimenting, not for traditional sample slicing ...
Hmmm, I don’t have Xequence but I imagine it might.
Gonna try it out 👍
Amazing. You don't have Xequence? I fully imagined you thusly equipped. Odd. Like finding out Nixon was a knitter or something equally unlikely.
As regards the KRFT, still not getting it. You record audio and put it as samples on Slate?
I am certainly Xequence curious, particularly now that I see it could play fairly well with NS2. The ditty generator sounds neat and mayhaps it has the clip doubling / halving that I wish NS2 had.
Oh! An explainy of KRFT... it sends midi to NS2. Allows you to make cool little controly surfaces with buttons n dials an such that send notes and ccs n fun.
How about some other apps that play really well with NS2? So far we kate KRFT and Xequence. Any others?
Well, since it can't receive audio from other apps, until AudioBus capability is there, then we're really only talking about basically any app that can send midi to NS2. So, if it's a different type of controller, like GeoShred, ThumbJam, KRFT, Quantum, Aphelian etc, etc, then it could be useful with NS2. I don't see that there's anything special to consider here as far as one app playing better than any other with NS2. It's all just midi.
Xequence ... now I'm scratching my head over much special that it brings to the party with NS2. The piano roll is very, very similar, so editing midi isn't going to be much of a benefit. NS2 has a tempo track, Xequence doesn't. Xequence has a nicer keyboard I guess, and it has polyhymnia. Other than that, I don't see much reason myself to complicate things by sequencing NS2 using Xequence when they are so similar to one another piano-roll and timeline wise.
(P.S. please no-one misunderstand me. I love Xequence! It's one of my favorite apps on iOS.)
@wim: Ok thanks.. I just posted that because two different people were just raving about KRFT when used in conjunction with NS2.
I expect I’ve confused things @Telstar5. I was talking about recording KRFT midi into Xequence. Nothing to do with NS2.
Sorry for the tangent. 😀
yeh, I had some good fun with that after reading it. I always forget about KRFT. It's a really great app and midi controller. Just what the doctor ordered for breaking out of time-line doldrums.
I quoted you, but really, my thoughts were about Xequence + NS2, and why one would use them together. Just pondering out loud ... don't mind me.
Ok, no problem, Wim.. Thanks for the clarification on > @wim said:
I'm still blundering around, but despite myself finding some very cool opportunities with Egoist in NS2.