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 Store

Audiobus is the app that makes the rest of your setup better.

How stable is bm3 now?

I abandoned it early on when i had crashes and lost all my work. Thinking of giving it another shot.

Midi au well represented?

Comments

  • edited December 2018

    I find it super stable now. I can go a couple hours without crashing. When they happen now I am suprised... heh. Yah it was rough/horrible for a while, constantly saving after every few taps. It is such a shame that so much good faith was lost with that huge update gap with it left in the state it was in. But yah, so much more stable and functional now.

    Midi au works for playback but you currently cannot record the midi notes it generates. It has been confirmed by intua that it will get recording and they are on it.

    Also. And I am not just trying to soften it, there were some significant AU updates that iOS had that I think needed to be reflected in the various hosts which may have helped. Anyway, i love this thing and am prone to making infinite excuses for it. You have been warned! ;)

  • @AudioGus said:
    I find it super stable now. I can go a couple hours without crashing. When they happen now I am suprised... heh. Yah it was rough/horrible for a while, constantly saving after every few taps. It is such a shame that so much good faith was lost with that huge update gap with it left in the state it was in. But yah, so much more stable and functional now.

    Midi au works for playback but you currently cannot record the midi notes it generates. It has been confirmed by intua that it will get recording and they are on it.

    Thanks. Think i’m gonna wait a bit more then. Until midi gets done. Gadget and aum never crash for me and it’s been ages since auria did.

  • edited December 2018

    I've been using it for live performances since 1.03 or something and the sampler/AU hosting/mixer have been rock solid for me, never had a crash live and only had a rare crash when I push it in new unknown directions while experimenting at home. Haven't used the timeline that much but in what I have used it for, I've not had any issues at all since 1.08 or around that area (had some timeline crashes before then).

    MIDI AU effects (MIDI in, different MIDI out) are represented well and work very logically; Rozeta Suite works great in this way if you conceptualise the modules as MIDI effects (some MIDI control data goes in, different MIDI comes out). There are a few areas of possible functionality that aren't fully covered yet (including audio effects with MIDI output), most of these have been addressed by Intua and promised as additional features in coming updates (most notably recording MIDI AU generated data onto the timeline).

  • edited December 2018

    @vpich said:

    @AudioGus said:
    I find it super stable now. I can go a couple hours without crashing. When they happen now I am suprised... heh. Yah it was rough/horrible for a while, constantly saving after every few taps. It is such a shame that so much good faith was lost with that huge update gap with it left in the state it was in. But yah, so much more stable and functional now.

    Midi au works for playback but you currently cannot record the midi notes it generates. It has been confirmed by intua that it will get recording and they are on it.

    Thanks. Think i’m gonna wait a bit more then. Until midi gets done. Gadget and aum never crash for me and it’s been ages since auria did.

    Yah we all have different tolerance levels for crashing. My crashes happen typicaly when I add that one extra AU over the limit or start automating something new I never automated etc. The same thing happens for me with AUM. To me it seems like the flakey IAA or AU standard is likely the biggest culprit. I mean, even if there were harsher memory restrictions that said ‘no more memory for AU instances/won’t load’ I would be fine with that instead of ‘yah sure I’ll load that!’ crash/burn etc. But yah, for crash free living Gadget is king within it’s closed walls.

    You may really like NS2 if it’s Obsidian synth floats your boat and you are not too big on AUs. To me it surpasses it already and will likely have a much sweeter update path. Just $.02

  • Has crashed for me few times in the last week when using auvs. Fine though when using samples and the iaps

  • Praise that sampler. It’s what it is all about. I was really hoping NS2 would be my sweet AU host/automater and BM3 would be the sampler but alas it is not to be that imagined workflow. I gotta stop wasting time imagining workflows with unrelease apps, particularly when beta cultists rave from street corners about the daw end times and salvation awaits etc.

  • edited December 2018

    I feel my usage might be slightly different from others, as 99.99% of the time I will never change anything inside the session or write to the timeline -- I just load up a 'live session' that I spent a lot time 'perfecting', which then receives (up to) 16 channels of MIDI data from hardware/other devices and sends the output of (up to) 16 channels of audio data on to the next stage downstream (DAW or FoH) digitally via iCA4+.

    I'm running probably 15+ different AU instruments and effects in that session as well as at least a dosen sampler instances and 5-6 built in effects (plus a few IAA effects -- AUFX Space and Dub). My processor usage is definitely on the very edge (half of it basically goes immediately to running Model D on an Mini4 at the lower buffers!) but I know exactly what is going to tip it over the edge and what effects I'm going to experience when that happens. Overall it's a 100% stable system.

    If I was tweaking and changing, dropping things in and out and doing loads of automation on the timeline, then I'd probably get more crashes. As all my automation is just external control signals coming in (the entire session is hosted on one back) then I'm pretty confident that nothing I can throw in there is going to cause an issue. I don't even touch the screen while using it and just have the 'Pads' view open so that I can see which channels are receiving data at any given time.

    Might be useful to get an insight into it's usability from a different perspective though..

  • @AudioGus said:
    Praise that sampler. It’s what it is all about. I was really hoping NS2 would be my sweet AU host/automater and BM3 would be the sampler but alas it is not to be that imagined workflow. I gotta stop wasting time imagining workflows with unrelease apps, particularly when beta cultists rave from street corners about the daw end times and salvation awaits etc.

    My new fav internet term: beta cultists

  • It's astonishing, in how many ways Apps are used and glued together for workflows :o

  • Yeah BM3 has been mostly stable for myself. The AU midi sucks now though!

  • edited December 2018

    @OscarSouth said:
    I feel my usage might be slightly different from others, as 99.99% of the time I will never change anything inside the session or write to the timeline -- I just load up a 'live session' that I spent a lot time 'perfecting', which then receives (up to) 16 channels of MIDI data from hardware/other devices and sends the output of (up to) 16 channels of audio data on to the next stage downstream (DAW or FoH) digitally via iCA4+.

    I'm running probably 15+ different AU instruments and effects in that session as well as at least a dosen sampler instances and 5-6 built in effects (plus a few IAA effects -- AUFX Space and Dub). My processor usage is definitely on the very edge (half of it basically goes immediately to running Model D on an Mini4 at the lower buffers!) but I know exactly what is going to tip it over the edge and what effects I'm going to experience when that happens. Overall it's a 100% stable system.

    If I was tweaking and changing, dropping things in and out and doing loads of automation on the timeline, then I'd probably get more crashes. As all my automation is just external control signals coming in (the entire session is hosted on one back) then I'm pretty confident that nothing I can throw in there is going to cause an issue. I don't even touch the screen while using it and just have the 'Pads' view open so that I can see which channels are receiving data at any given time.

    Yah I find I am using BM3 more as a groovebox that is a part of a system the past couple months. I set up a session of tracks that are intended to be more like jammable instruments working with just a few bar loops. I then just perform the parts into my PC daw, using the fact that BM3 does trigger playback based on midi clock for overdubbing. The only drawback is this portion is not mobile but, dayum, it sure does work well.

  • I’m barely rarely crashes with it now.

    Last week, I was getting crashes every five minutes and did all the normal maintenance along with restarting iPad and it was driving me crazy. I know Apple etc say it’s not needed, but it was only after upward swipe closing all other apps that BM3 started working great for me again.

  • @AudioGus said:

    @OscarSouth said:
    I feel my usage might be slightly different from others, as 99.99% of the time I will never change anything inside the session or write to the timeline -- I just load up a 'live session' that I spent a lot time 'perfecting', which then receives (up to) 16 channels of MIDI data from hardware/other devices and sends the output of (up to) 16 channels of audio data on to the next stage downstream (DAW or FoH) digitally via iCA4+.

    I'm running probably 15+ different AU instruments and effects in that session as well as at least a dosen sampler instances and 5-6 built in effects (plus a few IAA effects -- AUFX Space and Dub). My processor usage is definitely on the very edge (half of it basically goes immediately to running Model D on an Mini4 at the lower buffers!) but I know exactly what is going to tip it over the edge and what effects I'm going to experience when that happens. Overall it's a 100% stable system.

    If I was tweaking and changing, dropping things in and out and doing loads of automation on the timeline, then I'd probably get more crashes. As all my automation is just external control signals coming in (the entire session is hosted on one back) then I'm pretty confident that nothing I can throw in there is going to cause an issue. I don't even touch the screen while using it and just have the 'Pads' view open so that I can see which channels are receiving data at any given time.

    Yah I find I am using BM3 more as a groovebox that is a part of a system the past couple months. I set up a session of tracks that are intended to be more like jammable instruments working with just a few bar loops. I then just perform the parts into my PC daw, using the fact that BM3 does trigger playback based on midi clock for overdubbing. The only drawback is this portion is not mobile but, dayum, it sure does work well.

    It's a great way of working with it. I sometimes even sequence MIDI from my DAW on the other device (Harrison Mixbus) which sends to BM3 and then let the BM3 audio come back in to be run through Mixbus's (amazing) channel/mixbus DSP and mixed. Finally, I would print the incoming audio to the timeline to export it, but I just experimented like that and never worked on anything serious that way. Mixbus can send start/stop data from it's transport, so I could just as easily record the incoming MIDI to BM3 too. So many cool potential workflows!

  • @OscarSouth informative, thanks. Might give it a go then. I want rozeta and au’s in something that is more song oriented than aum (which is fun of course and mostly fits my jams bill).

  • @AudioGus said:
    I find it super stable now. I can go a couple hours without crashing.

    :o This is full 120 minutes without crashing Super stable!

  • edited December 2018

    @supadom said:

    @AudioGus said:
    I find it super stable now. I can go a couple hours without crashing.

    :o This is full 120 minutes without crashing Super stable!

    Yup, the new compromised standard! (HELP ME) ;)

    I also do a long-press-power-switch-memory-reset-thingy between loading sessions... SOB

    Translation: not a musician

  • @vpich said:
    @OscarSouth informative, thanks. Might give it a go then. I want rozeta and au’s in something that is more song oriented than aum (which is fun of course and mostly fits my jams bill).

    I actually think it's great for that. It's BY FAR my favourite Rozeta suite host -- it all functions in a very mentally 'logical' manner and the BM3 implementation of patterns/scenes/timeline is exceptional for using MIDI control data to sequence them in deeper ways and build up full compositions. It flows logically from switching building up different BM3 patterns to coax different results out of your individual Rozeta patches, to combining those patterns with BM3 scenes to get the musical parts you want, then building structure with those scenes of parts on the timeline. I also love how the BM3 scales/chords come AFTER the MIDI effects, so you can further scale lock things, be creative and get massively different results just from playing around here (or do something as simple as setting the chord to 'octave' for octaved notes).

    Certainly, there are deep-tweakers among us who long for the modular routing of previous BM3 versions, but I genuinely love how it works now -- I never bothered with Rozeta in BM3 before now because it was too much hassle and cognitive effort to set up when I wanted to get in the flow of making music. Now, the workflow 'flows' and I find myself doing it naturally, even just to take lazy shortcuts sometimes!! Bram also submitted an update recently that refines Rozeta behaviour of a few modules for this style of implementation ('this style' including NS2, I believe).

  • edited December 2018

    FWIW, i had a really crappy crash last night. I was trying to record internal audio by routing midiFX on 2 synths while noodling knobs and what not. And when i hit Stop on the playhead, BM3 froze for about 30 seconds and crashed.

    My masterpiece of a real time internal recording was lost. I love the app but as of the latest update I’m finding it finicky with internal recording, midiFX hosting, and general instability at unpredictable times. I hope they can course correct and steer this thing correctly.

    FWIW, whoever figures out how to get midiFX to record correctly in the app will have my trust and focus. I had set up NS2 last night with a similar setup (minus the ability to record audio for now) and the session was stable and i never saved it.

    I think I’m going to try NS2 for a while...will route my midiFX through AB and record the notes into NS2 and see how that goes.

    FWIW, here’s what I’m doing to get midiFX notes into NS2...doesn’t seem to work in BM3 from my testing 😞

  • So I am getting that it is pretty much stable now, but like anything it will choke if you push it too hard. Plus occasional random crashes, like most iOS stuff.

    Does that seem about right?

    If anything, the constant crashing seems to be over, and it is much improved now?

  • It's totally unstable due to NS2 rocking the DAW world! It's "Death Race 2019" to add AU MIDI recording. (Hat tip to @Dawdles).

    Does anyone care if @Dawdles likes NS2? Probably not 'cause
    [Your favorite IAA based App Here]. He was on the Discord site.
    I'll check...

  • edited December 2018

    I haven’t used bm3 a lot in 6-8 months due to buying the mpclive, they literally serve the same purpose, while having way different ways of going about tasks...the akai is actually not as powerful in several ways, but it keeps getting more. What I have found though, is the mpclive being a hardware piece and the knobs and pads changing with different screens just becomes so powerful to use that you simply can’t go back to just a screen...or even a screen with a mpd226 is still not as flexible. Also rendering files from bm3 was lossy and confusing for me...which led to me buying the mpclive.

    For example...
    When you are in sample edit the MPC pads become sample audition pads for start point, end point etc, whilst knobs become start point edit course, fine, finest...so on and so forth...once muscle memory is established everything else is less desirable at best...the mpclive was a lot of relearning for me but now that I am getting on with it, the hardware parts play well in its use. I am now considering the mpcx

  • @CracklePot said:
    So I am getting that it is pretty much stable now, but like anything it will choke if you push it too hard. Plus occasional random crashes, like most iOS stuff.

    Does that seem about right?

    If anything, the constant crashing seems to be over, and it is much improved now?

    Yup yup

  • edited December 2018

    @echoopera : What happened to Stagelight ?

  • Still crashes a bit. Overall though it's improved.

    So many of the fixes in last updates are questionable. Outside developer help is needed...
    Somebody needs to simplifiy this app so that instead of having 10 ways to do the same thing there is only the best way.

  • @AudioGus said:

    @CracklePot said:
    So I am getting that it is pretty much stable now, but like anything it will choke if you push it too hard. Plus occasional random crashes, like most iOS stuff.

    Does that seem about right?

    If anything, the constant crashing seems to be over, and it is much improved now?

    Yup yup

    It is good to hear that. I have been focusing on the sampler mainly, but have been branching out slowly into the other areas of the app. For me, so far so good.

  • edited December 2018

    @Telstar5 said:
    @echoopera : What happened to Stagelight ?

    Nothing. Still needs aufx for midi though. Hope one of these three get it but i have a workaround for NS2 to get Rozeta midi notes into it.

  • Bm3 is much more stable for me since last update. I haven’t delved too much into AU midi. It mostly crashes when adding or removing au fx. Big deal for me now is that my exported stems aren’t glitched at the beginning , and I can switch sessions without crashing.

    I get maybe one crash a day now and it used to be many times an hour

  • The Race for DAW superiority is AU MIDI recording. Go!

  • Those with the best Kung fu hacking shall prevail.

  • Yep, BM3 feels mostly stable but waiting for MIDI in AU FX to work for Der Voco and Harmonizr. They work in AUM.

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