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.
My Journey With Acoustic Apps
As I forked over $5.99 for the new Beathawk Woodwinds pack I asked myself why? Why am I buying another bunch of so called acoustic instruments that simply do not cut it? Hmmmm. Something tricky is going on here, but just wtf is it? So, let me make a few observations. And please correct me if I misspeak.
And IMO at every turn goes without saying..
With the exception of GeoShred ( and, strangely, some of the Beathawk choirs), the only decent acoustic emulations are iOS pianos. Actually quite good if one is not too critical, and I, myself, have been a champion of Ravenscroft 275. However, with the acquisition of a Kawai MP11se and the help of this sagacious forum I can now record the onboard Shigeru ( Japanese for way too expensive) pianos and I have left poor RC275 in the rubble of my shattered acoustic dreams. And is the Shigeru the answer? No, but better. I still have to deal with a murky bass section and tin treble, but the sound is richer.
When I first encountered the iOS platform (with no desktop VST experience) I was like a kid in a porn shop. Unable to get my hands on the real thing the paper thin simulacrum of musical pussy got my gonads agoin'! It was all there, at my fingertips, forgive the parallel, to tweak at will. So a lot of sins were forgiven. But, like that babe in the bar after a few drinks, she didn't look so good in the morning (and neither did I).
In fact, the acoustic apps I had, IFretless Bass ( now superseded by the onboard Kawai bass), Beathawk acoustic, iSymphonic strings, Sopranotron, and Sensual Sax inspired a rush of creativity that kept me up for nights on end. So am I grateful? Yes. Could i create all that crap the same way again with similar enthusiasm? No. Because in listening to those two Synthonies several months later the sound was disappointing. Was a large part my engineering deficiency? Yes. Was that the whole picture? No.
The illusion, I have lately realized, is promulgated by the sound of each acceptable iOS instrument standing alone ( and the new Beathawk oboe is not one of them! Only @McDtracy has the only decent iOS oboe. He made it late one night in his basement lab, high on Grieg, and will not share till he has managed every instrument thrust audio layer and unleash a musical tsunami that is, dare I say it... A Game Changer!). The new Beathawk flute sounds great, alone for example. But when you combine these instruments it all becomes a murky blur (at least in my hands). Please post examples you have made to the contrary, please! But not solo instruments. I am talking groups of instruments, (strings and horns for example). Yes, piano, bass and flute, no problem, they occupy their own, tidy, frequency zones.
Ok, so now I am thinking it is the shared common frequencies that mushes them all together like creamed spinach. But it is similar circumstances with a real orchestra, no? Yet you can hear the individual instruments, no problem.
(Again, engineering masters amongst us, please show examples and briefly explain how you did it).
6 Finally, where does that leave me, and possibly others like me? Well, I will not combine acoustic sounds anymore unless there is real musical definition to each.. Or at least try my best. I will select only instruments that come closest to something resembling a virtual imitation ( forget reality. It seems out of vogue these days, anyway). And I will concentrate on either piano centric stuff with one or two instruments, or on the unchartered (for me) waters of Technobop,
Synthswing or HypnoZenHop. Maybe I will even be inspired by a master like @WillieNegus, to buy a mic to plug into my UR22, and add septuagenarian retroenigmatic koans to my hopefully highly differentiated musical forays.
In other words, a workaround!
Please send condolence cards to LinearLineman c/o Dead IOS Acoustics,
Batteningmybrainsout IN.
Comments
Hilarious post but to be fair, even the new strings and brass instruments of Logic Pro x sound kinda “synthy” also. I think some of the ROLI noize instruments are decent and also Sampletank 4 for desktop has just been announced . I’m holding out hope that the forthcoming version 3 for iOS will be improved in this regard (acoustic realm).
Hilarious post BTW...
EQ and panning can help a lot to keep it from going all to mush.
I had the same problem trying to use Blocswave, before they added a simple 3-band EQ.
Now it sounds much better.
And there is a flip side to what you are saying about these instruments sounding great when soloed.
It will usually be the opposite case if you solo individual tracks in a well mixed project. They sound deficient on their own, but sort of puzzle piece together into a whole orchestrated composition that sounds full, but the different voices don’t step all over each other or crowd each other out.
I think you just need some EQ. I’m not good with such things myself, but it’s definitely how you get them to sound good together.
Thanks for the comments. Still hoping someone will post some successful examples. I am not even skeptical! I would, in this case, like to be wrong.
Okay, if you want another underwhelming oboe, take this:
😬
These are some classical instruments from Korg Module, put together in Gadget, just to give you an impression. The strings are not too bad in my opinion, the brass could use a bit more punch though. This is completely unmastered, because so far I have only uploaded straight from Gadgetcloud. I have a slightly mastered version (Grand Finale) on my iPad, which sounds better. Yes, some EQing can do a lot of good.
So, I‘m also interested in finding the best orchestral sounds on iOS, for when I finally find myself prepared enough to move on from Gadget to a „real“ DAW. Anyone with suggestions?
[Still no Humor font so read accordingly]
@LinearLineMan You are on the heroes journey for the grail. Remember the journey is essential to give your life meaning. Otherwise... (I'll give you a moment to consider no music at this point in your wasted existence. Harsh but it should get your attention).
Every sound in IOS can be altered. Buy a bad sound and you can change it.
Timbre (pronounced Tam-ber) to avoid the audience running away to avoid falling trees. See the story of the 1901 performance of Vivaldi's "The Seasons" at Tanglewood when the tempermental Hoboken conductor stopped the performance to scream at the Oboeist "Tim-ber, Tim-ber, tim-ber". Dozens we're hospitalized in the panic that ensued in that forrest setting. The pro's say Tam-ber to avoid such lawsuits.
Timber describes the spectra and envelope of a tone. Master Spectra (EQ) and Envelope (Filtering) and your 2/3's of the way to making bad sounds tolerable for your particular ears. I know that word "Master" means 30 years of drudgery and you tune out immediately thinking "been there, done that". There's must be easier ways to fix this without slavery to the master (again... Blessed Connie).
For Spectra (EQ) get FilterStation - it has 2 controls to tweak until you like the sound. Fool's play. If it works follow up with FabFilter Pro Q 2 or is it 3 now). Mastering has multiple meanings, you see.
Some fools think an Equalizer should make all frequencies "Equal". No. Go to your room. EQ allows you to adjust "Timbre" to your tastes. If something sounds thin... increase the MID's. Capice? It's like corn starch for the gravy. Are you sensing the power of this approach. You sample and adjust to taste.
For Envelope --- let's just forget envelope and change the whole attack here. Envelope's are fun and easy but only can be tweaked on individual notes are you have 10 fingers so... not a great place for you're problems these overlapping envelopes of timbre. I'm getting a Uni-bomber flashback so let's fly away to...
REVERB: Do you like the clarinet right against your ear or in a room with excellent acoustics for acoustic music... like Carnegie Hall? Yeah. Forget envelopes. Big mistake bringing up envelopes in the first place. Buy great envelopes that might need (1) Spectral adjustments via EQ/Filtering and placement in better rooms with Reverbs.
I know you have Kleverb but if you want something spectacular consider a Reverb that simulates "Impulse Responses" (IR).
"Who on 1st?"
"IR"
"UR?"
"No UR is on 3rd."
"But who's on 1st?"
...
OK. Back to pontificating about fixing bad Apps. Note BAD is you word. They are all excellent if they don't crash.
I found AltiSpace which uses IR's to generate reverberations and simulate spaces. I locked an Oboe in the Taj Mahal and he played like his life depended upon pleasing me. I let him out and give him a ten'er for the train to [insert London area suburb here].
I was also altered to the $6 iConvolver but haven't looked into that cave yet. There's a world of IR's recorded out there. Models of rooms, amps, mics, and an IR Reverb can load that IR file and reproduce a given signal modifier to perfection. Of course, we're limited to the chips in the iPad so Perfection is a small island off the coast of Nirvana: Close but as the signs indicate "No Cigars".
Frankly. Kleverb and {what the hell} Pro Q2 are the tickets. IR's might be too many choices here but $6?
Let me know how the $30 Pro Q2 works out. It's the best no doubt and you only want the best.
The one thing you just can't fix is poor vibrato. Everyone records it and it either floats you boat or ruins the illusion.
You can add vibrato with an LFO but can't get rid of a bad one.
Write if you get work. Turkey. Sad.
@LeonKowalski, I have actually heard this previously. I like it a lot as a piece of music and you do maintain discrete tracks. I had forgotten I bought KayPro, I will have to look into it. I absolutely think you will do better sonically with iSymphonic and Beathawk. Cubasis seems the logical next step if you are focused on these types of compositions, and then on to Auria as you master the techniques. I look forward to hearing more.
Maybe "Killer" will apply to you after all.
@McDtracy, perhaps your funniest post especially considering the humor font is not on. I think the damp environment in your basement and the mushrooms you are growing there are improving your S of H.
I am messing a lot with the Q10 EQ. Seems pretty detailed to me ( meaning most of it I can't hear). How will Pro Q2 help me
more ( unless it has a ton of presets. I am a Preset Man.)? I still don't know what "Q" is and when I twizzle it am not sure what is happening, I think the tech you describe is at the stage similar to my dad fiddling in the back of our 1955 Dumont tv. I need a flatscreen milieu, know what I mean?
Yep, Turkey is a mess. Join the club.
"Q":
Q is by far the most useful tool a parametric EQ offers, allowing you to attenuate or boost a very narrow or wide range of frequencies within each EQ band. A narrow bandwidth (high Q) is particularly useful for removing unpleasant tones.
There, I answered my own question. I am a mighty EQ Man.
Removing unpleasant tones... Yep, can use that. Available as a preset? "Remove all unpleasant tones" Press here... Or better, "Place fingers in ears".
Oh right I might have posted this before. Getting oblivious (if I remember that word right, haha), but thank you for the kind words. Actually, I have iSymphonic and some of its soundpacks already. But I read more and more hints towards Beathawk, so I might have to check that out. Someone said that the choir sounds are quite nice in It, right? I‘m really searching for good choir sounds...
I’ll second this line of thinking.... it’s been a while back, but for 2-3 years I worked with a talented young group of musicians as engineer and mixer. A couple of great singers in there, guitars bass drums keys etc... it was definitely a two step thing; recording you had to get the best “solo” sound, especially with things like acoustic guitar and the vocals.
But mixing was all about taking things away... making a choice about what was the idea that had to be out front and carving out space in the mix for that. In my case this was almost always vocals first, and depending on if was tenor or baritone usually stomping the crap out of those frequencies, eq wise, on every other instrument in the mix. Like @CracklePot mentioned, soloing those other parts usually sounded off. I ended up tending to solo busses or groups when I wanted to tweak, I.e. drums and bass, bass and rhythm guitar, lead and background vocals, so I could always “hear” in context.
I’d add one more to the mentioned panning and eq, and that’s the volume fader. Sometimes just fading in from zero until it just registers may be enough.
Just try being extreme with eq one time. Take a project and save as... find your “muddy” instruments and set all their eqs to minus max. Then put a medium sweepable notch at zero one move it back and forth. You’ll find what part of that sound means to you and the mix.
And I’d guess my take away is that in a way trying not to be a musician while you’re mixing may help. Even though a given solo sound may have inspired you, once a track is taking form maybe that’s not the right patch to use anymore. That’s kinda the wonder of midi, being able to swap out that glorious string section or snare from god with maybe an inferior one that sits better as the mix develops. Or maybe that part needs to be an octave higher or lower. I know you’re a jazz guy where the whole ballgame is about listening to the whole, just look at mixing the same way, but your instruments are eq, panning and volume...
The Digital Sound Factory Orchestral IAPs available in Audio Evolution are coming the closest for me currently and I've tried many many many. Like almost all of them though, the Audio Evolution Orchestrals do not include tremolo string sections which to me are absolutely indispensable for fake orchestral music. You can't have your hushed mysterious Bruckner beginnings without them. For tremelo strings I still keep going back to the hoary old Squidfont soundfont. (Actually, Squidfont SF2 is still kind of great - none of its instruments sound very good on their own but they play together as a family quite well.)
You can also work up your tracks with not so great instruments in your MIDI roll of choice and then export the MIDI to Notion where you have the closest thing in iOS to a truly comprehensive menu of articulations (not just pizz/stac/tremolo but fluttertongue, col legno, open brass notes, etc etc). And there you don't have to create a separate track for each articulation but just write it in per note. Some of the instruments in Notion are a bit disappointing though (e.g. the solo violin). And you can't really perform live into it on its in-app keyboard, which is more for pitch entry.
I like to improvise up my fake orchestral stuff so it's Audio Evolution Orchestral IAPs plus Squidfont tremolos (AW supports imported SF2 instruments) for me at the moment.
I am impressed by string sounds in Roli personally. The closest to acoustic I have experienced so far.
I used it on my end. It was on. [It's usually stuck on when I write].
Dude. For the time you saved not typing "ense" and "umor" it cost me several seconds. Gettin' grumpy. You know I love puzzles.
Damn. I keep forgetting. You live in Cubasis. You have all the best tools Cubasis has to offer. Pro Q2 gives you the Best EQ available in an AUv3 product. Probably a good investment given the things that irritate you: "thin, murky, mushed, creamy". Those could be names for EQ Presets. The one's you'd need to avoid preferring "Rich, Full, Balanced and my favorite 'Underneath the piano'". I know you've spent some time down there soaking it in or was that me? Sometimes it's hard to tell where I stop and you begin. The 'shrooms are talkin'.
I said I don't have it so follow @richardyot's advice. It's without peer. Like your piano skills on this Forum (unless there's this lurker that studied with some genius for 40 years and just reads but never writes here. WTF lurker. Don't you have things to be doing? Record some of that shit.)
"Q" is a targeted frequency in a filters design. Electronic Filters resonate (they can even feedback to create infinite sustain... some guitar players just woke up. "Tell us again about the infinite sustain, George."). It's just a single frequency but they make multi-pole filters to cover more frequencies. Anyway that "pole" Q frequency can hold up a whole frequency tent and notes around the Q note are also attentuated or amplified accordingly.
Imagine a row of amplifiers that control the volume of a single frequency. Filters single out the waves at that frequency and let you dial them up or down. Graphic EQ's literally give you a row of volume sliders. They are backed by that many filters. Parametric EQ's provide several filters and their Q's and let you define the slope of volumes around those Q's.
"twizzling" is the key. Listen, twizzle, listen, twizzle... until you need to go to sleep... save the settings to re-visit when you're hearing returns to normal.
OT - Have you ever notice how Negus and Negate start with the same 3 letters? (Kind of a Forum joke in very poor taste, huh? I came, I stooped, I deposited. I can't recall the original Latin for that Roman Bumpersticker (tm). Let's not blow this thread into pure absurdity... I know you only care about the stats (attention whore).
I think anyone still reading has habits similar to ours.
Not TL; DR "Too longl didn't read" but LL!II "Look Long! I'm In".
When I get TL;DR and they create a summary I think... dude, I don't control your fucking eyes so don't take over my mouth. Yeah. Control freak much?
With respect to TL;DR I have resorted to just reading headlines to follow the news. No articles just a steady diet of the headlines to news website. Still waiting for...
"DJT Indicted by the US Federal Court." Tick-tick-tick... I'll settle for any Trump getting sworn in to test the system at that level.
Can you lie (obviously) under oath and avoid penalty? Recall OJ. Juries are fickle so there's still that. A jury of non-peers... just fans.
It's a real fire alarm... "this is not a test". The system's either going to work and following the "Rule of Law" as defined in our constitution or it's going to follow "Darwin's Laws". This has happened before in my lifetime. Google Spiro Agnew. The system can work or fail due to bad actors. Google Reagan Contra's. I'll only select the examples that work for my POV.
Don't we all? The Rule of Law is blind and as a result pretty easy to manipulate. Heroes will emerge... or not.
All iOS. Not me
It is no doubt a ton of work to get something that sounds this good with iOS. Hats off to Scott!
I think panning and reverb settings go a long way in mixing orchestral instruments to sound like a real fake orchestra. Lots of info out there on the PC side for MIDI mockups. But iOS is pretty limited in the area due to RAM and CPU, but it is possible. I would say much easier with a PC and a $500-$1000 dollar sample library and reverb plugin
Maybe I’ll post a recent Notion remixed in Auria project I made. A song I wrote a year ago, but got Auria Pro q and r and made it sound better (?)
@Jmcmillan, I had been thinking about @ScottVanZandt in regard to this subject. So glad you posted it. This is the example I was searching for. He really nails it. The guy is a true master. Not just of iOS production but musically as well. Hard to believe he does not do this full time and reap the rewards he richly deserves. In addition he is a truly nice and modest guy. What a combination!
Well, I made no pretense that it isn't my own limitations and here is the proof. Hard to believe Scott managed it all with a little EQ! These are heights I will never reach, but maybe I can improve a bit. In the meantime I will stick to my less is more plan. And mess with that dang EQ!
And one more little tldr, as the topic of accessing acoustic instruments i can’t play is largely why I was drawn into synths and keyboards...
First off, I’d agree that acoustic emulations are behind the times on iOS. There are some really good ones, but there are wind and string VSTs out there now that are beyond belief - IF played by the right hands.
Which leads me to this point - with any emulated sound, it must be played emulating the player. I love piano, but consider how many body parts are involved in making a single note on a sax. The bleeding edge VSTs all rely as much input the keyboardist can supply with two hands, but even then the result is dependant on the keyboardist’s understanding of how the actually player of that instrument plays. Being a string guy, pick, pluck, mute, hammer, slide, bend, tremolo are all instantly available per note, while being framed within a given neck position. I.e. it’s all about articulation, and the ROMpler approach has generally limited keyboardists to choosing one articulation at a time, and the new VSTs have finally opened that door to emulate the real time level of expression a string or wind player has.
A couple of older examples that have always stood out to me are Patrick Moraz’s work on Yes’ Relayer album, and Jan Hammer’s work with Jeff Beck. Just using for the most part their pitch bend and mod wheels they totally emulated the guitarists they were trading licks with.
And in terms of really emulating acoustic instruments, Marco Parisi’s work using the Seaboard is flat out amazing (granted he’s using some of these new VSTs that can maximize MPE input).
Point being, imho even with less than perfect patches, trying to be a string player or wind player and not be a keyboardist is key in fooling your audience there was a violinist on your track.
And specifically @LinearLineman, free yourself from fixed pitches and buy a Seaboard and some of the SWAM instruments for your shiny new iPad and you will be a happy guy.
TLDR over.
You have to have a minimum amount of expressiveness and velocity and/or volume automation in there to make things come to life. Then you have to balance and fill out the spectrum while highlighting what you want highlighted. More than likely, it’s just not a balanced spectrum with whatever you’re doing. I think that’s the biggest area where we all fall short from time to time and then wonder why things don’t sound like we want. Like try listening critically to the overall frequency balance without focusing on the actual composition.
On the flip side, what you may initially think is an EQ problem might actually be an octave problem, things aren’t playing in the optimal registers
I'm mostly an electronic guy, but I think that it's pretty understandable why there are less good acoustic offerings on iOS than on desktop for example, and that's to do with size I think.
Some of those desktop libraries are huge and there are no equivalents on iOS yet. Maybe in the future as devices are released with greater capacities and they become more commonplace and developers don't worry about app size when releasing certain types of apps.
If a certain instrument is 50 GB on desktop for example then I would like the iOS version to be 50 GB. Don't give me a lesser, stripped down version. At least give the option for the people who have the space to download the full version, and maybe offer the stripped down version as a choice too, for those who prefer that.
If I really wanted to do orchestral stuff I’d just sample lots of monophonic passages of classical music (and some chords ) and paste it together along w some I symphic or Sampletank to flesh it out a bit
What about crudebyte stuff? They are huge and to my ears sounding good.
Just a side question, buying a roli block m or how it’s called... which iAP packs will I get unlocked? I read somewhere only a few and somewhere all... which is it? Thanks!
@david_2017 Crudebyte is excellent. iSymphonic is one of the best for acoustic orchestral. BeatHawk is the only equal IMO. The Colossus piano is huge and very good but seems to crash in DAWs. There are other pianos besides that brown grand that are excellent in the app. ICathedral Organ is also very good IMO.
CMP is an older piano of theirs and might be ababdonware at this point ( tho perfectly operable as is). You can buy iSymphonic, CMP, Oriental Strings and iCathedral for around $40, I think. A good buy, but expect to spend a bunch more for iSymph I apps.
Hmmm, TBH I have never thought about Beathawk being an instrument I can use rather than a weird sequencing thing which never clicked. But you are right, I have to rethink this and may get the one or other pack after Christmas. Thanks for this inspiring thread
The choirs are great @david_2017 . I also use the brass ensembles a lot and am impressed with the mallets. String ensembles ok, tutti orchestra pretty good. The harpsichords in the Baroque pack are excellent. All just my opinion.
Do the Beathawk orchestral IAP have reverb baked into the samples or are they dry ?
I really like the iOS instruments like Sensual Sax and the like. I’m pretty sure I fail to make them sound realistic, but as long as I get the passion in the bit I’m writing, then it’s all fine by me.
When I hear pieces like The Firetrain above though, I’m cosy in the knowledge that iOS is able to do far better than I will ever likely attain to anyway
Another thing I think lacks to some degree on iOS is the playability - MPE and some touch screen apps help, but we seem to have to put much of the life into sounds by automation. That’s fine, but I would like more control over my sounds while I play.
I’m not too bothered by my instruments sounding like natural instruments, but I would like more use of the touchscreen and midi to let me actual make my sounds feel more like they are ‘played’
Finger Fiddle is in a class by itself on iOS in terms of being a sensitive touchscreen instrument you really ‘play’ - however, it takes a great deal of skill.
@Jmcmillan , you can hear all the demos for yourself here...
https://www.uvi.net/en/beathawkv1-expansions#choirs
What about Fingerfiddle? It has violin, cello and bass, Its a modeller rather than a ROMpler I believe, the sounds and playability are quite realistic (in that my efforts sound about as good as when I was thrown out of violin class at primary school!). It would be interesting if you multitracked individual performances. One of the things I noticed watching my friend (a real-life orchestral cellist) is that the players in a string section all use vibrato in different ways, even different speeds, and this adds to the richness of sound. Something you could simulate with Thumbjam (nice cello), FingerFiddle and the like.
@Jmcmillan .You can hear all the demos here for BH inapps...
https://www.uvi.net/en/beathawkv1-expansions#choirs