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.

Do We Really Appreciate What We Have?

I made a track with Cubasis last night. I stopped in the middle and marvelled at what I had in my hands. The sonic power of it. The technology that allows foolproof recording. The relatively easy leaning curve. The vast array of instruments, synths and effects. MIDI. The iPad Pro2. The connectivity. The affordability.

My mom saw the first lightbulb in her faher's store. Folks came to marvel at it. They hadn't even invented the lampshade! It must have been like going to a planetarium. A naked bulb dangling by a wire. A primitive sun to dispel the night forever. And a little over a hundred years later I sit writing on my iPad, connected to the entire globe. Able to hear and share music with every corner of the planet. I am 70, so I sit somewhere between my mom and a twenty year old. Too often I forget the miracle of it all... me, who thought Dolby sound suppression was the second coming. When I was twenty technology for me was hooking an old pump organ up to a vacuum cleaner. And now I sit in the cockpit of a supersonic machine that can take me anywhere I want to go musically. And it weighs less than a pound.

If you are young do you fully realize what power you hold (not to mention video!)? Do you marvel at it, or is it too often "just" a lightbulb?

«13

Comments

  • The vanity of vanities. All is vanity.

  • edited January 2019

    @LinearLineman said:
    I made a track with Cubasis last night. I stopped in the middle and marvelled at what I had in my hands. The sonic power of it. The technology that allows foolproof recording. The relatively easy leaning curve. The vast array of instruments, synths and effects. MIDI. The iPad Pro2. The connectivity. The affordability.

    My mom saw the first lightbulb in her faher's store. Folks came to marvel at it. They hadn't even invented the lampshade! It must have been like going to a planetarium. A naked bulb dangling by a wire. A primitive sun to dispel the night forever. And a little over a hundred years later I sit writing on my iPad, connected to the entire globe. Able to hear and share music with every corner of the planet. I am 70, so I sit somewhere between my mom and a twenty year old. Too often I forget the miracle of it all... me, who thought Dolby sound suppression was the second coming. When I was twenty technology for me was hooking an old pump organ up to a vacuum cleaner. And now I sit in the cockpit of a supersonic machine that can take me anywhere I want to go musically. And it weighs less than a pound.

    If you are young do you fully realize what power you hold (not to mention video!)? Do you marvel at it, or is it too often "just" a lightbulb?

    As someone who started with an MS20, I still marvel at having an iMS20 on the iPad. Sometimes I just open it and look at it.

    I'm always going to complain about things that don't work, but do appreciate the stuff that does - particularly here in the UK where things are about to get messy.

    There also seems to be a worringly increasing number of early deaths around here. Heard last night about a friends brother-in-law. He'd gone to the doctor just before xmas with pains in his chest, then was diagnosed with lung cancer on New Years day. A week later he got pneumonia and died a couple of days later. He was 51. Heard just before xmas my sister has it too. It just goes on and on....so what I'm really appreciative of is still being around, and the friends and family that are still here with me.

  • Yes, of course, @e121. And I should know. I am almost dead.
    Still, one can be in awe, as King Solomon probably was when he thought up that eternal pithiness along with his great corollary, "This, too, shall pass".

  • edited January 2019

    I'm 41yo, so probably i'm not anymore in "young" category :lol: I remember 8 bit computers and 3 op fm chips :)) I started my music journey in late '90s with 8bit 4 mono tracks ModEdit tracker and DIY passive D/A converter build just by soldering a bunch of resistors on LPT port connetor - on 386 DX 40 MHz computer with 4 MBytes of RAM and 40 MBytes harddrive :-D

    It amazes me all the time, when i take iPad into my hands. Holding in my hands device which is way much more powefull than my computer where i was runing first Reason, 17 years ago. The fact that i can produce whole track in superb quality ready for relase on that flat small device is mindblowing for me.

    But what amazes me even more, is when i start thinking where will be technological progress lets say 15 years from now. Taking in accout that tech progress is speeding up exponentially, i can't imagine it. Nobody can. And not just in music tech - in medicine in first place ! I'm pretty optimisic in this area, cause i see lot of progress recenctly in research (following few scientific-relate portals), i'm prety surre most of nowadays problems in medicine would be just history 10-15 years from now

    I very much appreciate what i have in my hands, and my interstellar respect goes to all devs of apps i use, because thanks to them i can express all my musical ideas and thoughts in very intutitive comfortable way (namely Matt Borstel aka Blip Interactive in first place, and then @brambos , @giku_beepstreet , @ElliottGarage , @j_liljedahl , @Michael , FabFilter Devs, Audio Damage devs)

  • I am very sorry about your sister @MonzoPro. There are greater marvels in medicine than music. I hope she will get the magic she needs.

  • I remember watching Captain Kirk and Co talking into their communicators and thinking how magical it was.

    @MonzoPro said:
    so what I'm really appreciative of is still being around, and the friends and family that are still here with me.

    Everything else is just gravy

  • I don’t think we do appreciate what we have as much. I think technology in many things is lagging behind our expectations. We want new things faster. That is why Apple is lowering prices of iphones as the latest models don’t excite us enough to buy them as it cannot keep up with our quest for faster technological progress. Hence sales have started to drop.

    As an aside, I remeber starting my journalistic career churning out copy on a Royal mechanical typewriter complete with carbon paper. You were only allowed to xxxxxxx out two typing slips per page. Any more and you had to retype the whole page -Typex was not even discovered then.

    Oh, the joys of Alan Sugar’s Amstrad computer and locoscript. I think we all live in a less appreciative society now with a much shallower degree of patience.

  • @Jomodu said:
    I don’t think we do appreciate what we have as much. I think technology in many things is lagging behind our expectations. We want new things faster. That is why Apple is lowering prices of iphones as the latest models don’t excite us enough to buy them as it cannot keep up with our quest for faster technological progress. Hence sales have started to drop.

    As an aside, I remeber starting my journalistic career churning out copy on a Royal mechanical typewriter complete with carbon paper. You were only allowed to xxxxxxx out two typing slips per page. Any more and you had to retype the whole page -Typex was not even discovered then.

    Oh, the joys of Alan Sugar’s Amstrad computer and locoscript. I think we all live in a less appreciative society now with a much shallower degree of patience.

    If it's always been there, you appreciate it less....
    My 12 year old never knew what a CD was let alone a vinyl LP....she was also astounded when I described the time when the UK got its 4th TV channel.

  • @LinearLineman said:
    I made a track with Cubasis last night. I stopped in the middle and marvelled at what I had in my hands. The sonic power of it. The technology that allows foolproof recording. The relatively easy leaning curve. The vast array of instruments, synths and effects. MIDI. The iPad Pro2. The connectivity. The affordability.

    My mom saw the first lightbulb in her faher's store. Folks came to marvel at it. They hadn't even invented the lampshade! It must have been like going to a planetarium. A naked bulb dangling by a wire. A primitive sun to dispel the night forever. And a little over a hundred years later I sit writing on my iPad, connected to the entire globe. Able to hear and share music with every corner of the planet. I am 70, so I sit somewhere between my mom and a twenty year old. Too often I forget the miracle of it all... me, who thought Dolby sound suppression was the second coming. When I was twenty technology for me was hooking an old pump organ up to a vacuum cleaner. And now I sit in the cockpit of a supersonic machine that can take me anywhere I want to go musically. And it weighs less than a pound.

    If you are young do you fully realize what power you hold (not to mention video!)? Do you marvel at it, or is it too often "just" a lightbulb?

    +1000

  • I surely appreciate what I have in my hands (l’m talking about my IPad...). What I fear with this endless race for more is that the human interactions are fatally decreasing. I am “able” to produce a whole song of my own. In the past, it wasn’t that easy and people were forced to meet, talk and co-create. Now these marvelous IPads gave me the impression that I am self-sufficient and at the end...well I have so much fun to produce music but let’s be honest, I produce shit-like musics. Maybe I would be better with less...

  • @AndyPlankton said:

    I remember watching Captain Kirk and Co talking into their communicators and thinking how magical it was.

    I think I’ve posted this before, apologies if I have, but I remember as a kid watching Space 1999 on the telly. In one episode, some geezer had a box which lit up with shapes and colours, and played weird synth sounds as he moved it about in the air.

    I wanted one of those desperately - obviously they didn’t exist then, so I tried making one out of Lego. It wasn’t as good.

    The iPad is though.

  • @MonzoPro said:

    @AndyPlankton said:

    I remember watching Captain Kirk and Co talking into their communicators and thinking how magical it was.

    I think I’ve posted this before, apologies if I have, but I remember as a kid watching Space 1999 on the telly. In one episode, some geezer had a box which lit up with shapes and colours, and played weird synth sounds as he moved it about in the air.

    I wanted one of those desperately - obviously they didn’t exist then, so I tried making one out of Lego. It wasn’t as good.

    The iPad is though.

    You've gotta love Lego....something so simple that brings so much joy.

  • I agree about the lego. But.....once the children and grandchildren have grown up, grandparents get left with boxes and boxes and boxes of it !!!

  • I'm 50. I started with a Yamaha QX21 sequencer and RX21 drum machine with Casio CZ3000 synth. I later added an Apple Mac running Opcode Vision and a Foster R8 reel to reel. I had one reverb, an ART Multiverb and had to use it sparingly via sends.

    I bought Logic when it was called Notator and came in a big plastic box with an unfinished manual and a T-shirt. It worked better with my R8 than Vision, which didn't seem to like Fostex's time code implementation.

    I then upgraded Logic with each version until it eventually became Logic Audio (with all the synths and sampler as extras I didn't buy!) and I added a MOTU 2408 sound card.

    So I've gradually learnt each new feature over the years and built up slowly.

    When you have one synth it doesn't take long to find a sound! Today I have access to more stuff on my iPad than I spent many, many £thousands on over the years. Sometimes it's hard to even get started with option paralysis!

    I'm glad I learnt as the technology evolved.

  • @LinearLineman
    Great post. I'm half your age but I totally feel your sentiment.
    I originally typed a mouthful, but then deleted it in preference to simply say:

    Nope, many on this forum do not seem to appreciate what we have, hence why some people boast about having almost the entire catalogue of production apps.
    I've been in a position for years where I'm considering to buy one real synth for life (looking at the MinilogueXD now), but you know what? I have a shitload of powerful analogue emulated circuitry on a device that's the dimensions of my moleskine.

    I'll keep that money for now because this iPad and the apps and a couple midi controllers are all I need to have the experience of having £7k in equipment.

  • @Jomodu said:
    I agree about the lego. But.....once the children and grandchildren have grown up, grandparents get left with boxes and boxes and boxes of it !!!

    Grandparents still have imaginations too ;)

  • @Jomodu and @AndyPlankton .... there's always this:

  • @LinearLineman said:
    @Jomodu and @AndyPlankton .... there's always this:

    Awesome !

  • I’m constantly amazed at how much things have changed in my short life of 40 years - a timespan that now seems relatively minuscale to me; even multiplied by 4 or 5, doesn’t seem anywhere near like the incomprehensible distance it once did ...

    I often marvel at the power at our fingertips, but the rate of accelerating technological change is simultaneously frightening in a way— humanity has been thrust into a new technological age at the blink of an eye, before we’ve had time to learn to responsibly adapt to and wield it.

    I certainly appreciate the advantages of living in this era, but if I had a choice, I’d almost prefer to live when things were either a little slower - or in the future, after humanity got through the extreme chalenges and growing pains that we’re collectively facing now.

  • @LinearLineman ...Brilliant..Love the adjustable stool.

  • edited January 2019

    Is it a generational issue? I started on piano. My 1st setup was a DX100 synth, Alesis MMT8 sequencer, RX17 drum machine and Digitech DSP128 signal processor. Before switching to bass guitar in the early 90's, I had graduated to a Ensoniq EPS workstation & Roland D50 synth. I easily get overwhelmed at the options available on my iPad and try to keep things narrowed down. In fact, I'm now refocusing on bass guitar oriented productions(with drum machine backing) like I did in the early 2000's and guitar players were doing in the 80's, and quickly realizing how much can be done with so little. So my focus is on quality over quantity with regard to apps. I'm using Auria for my DAW. My "drum machine", however, is a setup in Auxy with Brazilian or AfroCuban drum machine on ch.1, Figure on ch.2 and Gadget on ch.3. In Gadget, I often run 2 tracks of Tokyo alongside a track of London and either Bilbao or AbuDhabi for my samples. It's a dream drum machine and pretty far cry from my RX17 LOL!
    My 15 yr old nephew began piano lessons a few years back and now learning guitar on youtube and coming along well with his electronic music. He doesn't know a world w/o rapidly developing tech, so his expectations are very different from mine.

  • My wife and I have this discussion often: LOOK AT HOW MUCH WE HAVE.

    I live in the first world, and I am extremely lucky to have been born here. I am afforded opportunities on a minute-by-minute basis that I don't even notice. The amount of money I made last year is just insane. That's not to brag - merely to remark that a monkey could do what I do and that they pay me this much is just ridiculous. I also never seem to have any of that money because I choose to live in the most expensive place in America.

    I say this to point out that all our complaints, fears, concerns, anxiety, etc. all have to be given perspective. I'm worried about the crack in my windshield spreading before I have the tax return money to fix it. But am I worried about my next meal? Am I worried about staying out of the cold one more night? These are baseline human needs - I'm so far removed from those daily, as I would think most of us here are.

    Now - this isn't to say that any of this is BAD necessarily. It's simply to point out how MUCH we have to be grateful for. I flew my wife and 2 kids to Europe last year. We got in a tube, sat in a chair and 10 hours later stepped out onto the other side of the planet. If that's not something to marvel over, I don't know what is.

    On my iPad I have a collection of every vintage synth I could possibly desire: Korg MS-20, Moog Minimoog Model D, ARP Odyssey, Mellotron, Hammond organ, Rhodes electric piano, Oberheim SEM, Yamaha DX7, Fairlight CMI, Synclavier.... I have a full recording studio with all it's outboard gear. I have guitar amps and effects.

    And I can take ALL of this with me when I have to poo.

    This is absolutely awesome, complete and total overkill, and absolutely ridiculous. Thank you , first world - I am lucky to be a part of you.

  • I have a habit app. Seriously. An app that keeps track of me doing things I want to do. Over the first month or so I added many (many) things I wanted to check off on a daily basis. Now there's just one: Happy to be alive today?

  • edited January 2019

    @Daveypoo said:
    We got in a tube, sat in a chair and 10 hours later stepped out onto the other side of the planet.

    This is truly something remarkable and still a fascinating experience though I've done it more than once.

    Appreciating iOS? I would say yes I do. Simply because I wouldn't have the time, space, or money to even do all this on a laptop, I can't even imagine the hardware equivalent.

  • @klownshed said:
    I'm 50. I started with a Yamaha QX21 sequencer and RX21 drum machine with Casio CZ3000 synth. I later added an Apple Mac running Opcode Vision and a Foster R8 reel to reel. I had one reverb, an ART Multiverb and had to use it sparingly via sends.

    I bought Logic when it was called Notator and came in a big plastic box with an unfinished manual and a T-shirt. It worked better with my R8 than Vision, which didn't seem to like Fostex's time code implementation.

    I then upgraded Logic with each version until it eventually became Logic Audio (with all the synths and sampler as extras I didn't buy!) and I added a MOTU 2408 sound card.

    So I've gradually learnt each new feature over the years and built up slowly.

    When you have one synth it doesn't take long to find a sound! Today I have access to more stuff on my iPad than I spent many, many £thousands on over the years. Sometimes it's hard to even get started with option paralysis!

    I'm glad I learnt as the technology evolved.

    😄 I had an RX21 as well, and a Yamaha MT1X cassette four track.... then when we got a Korg Poly 800! 😲 WOW!
    It is incredible what you can get these days for very little- mind boggling. I often think about it in terms of- you can have a highly sophisticated synth on your iPad- for less than the cost of postage and packing of an average hardware one.... all in the blink of an eye.

    ‘Option paralysis’ - great term. I think many of us probably suffer from this....... still can’t wait for Gadget 2 to come out though with its six new Gadgets..... and then there’s Drambo.... 👍🏻

  • Too many gadgets for the QX21s two tracks. Yep. 2 track sequencer. Those were the days. :-)

  • edited January 2019

    I didn't have the intention to start a broader discussion, but by all means have at it. @Thomas asked if it is a generational issue. It certainly is for me. When I was a kid a remote controlled anything ( thank you Nicola Tesla) was the dream of dreams. Now a kid regards remote controlled everything like I viewed indoor plumbing as a ten year old.

    Maybe it is the connection of technology with an art form that is boggling for me. Indeed, as @cuscolima brings forth, the tech can be isolating, but on the other hand, no more personality differences, no more personnel and recording costs, no scheduling. Of course, you have to accept your own limitations and talents. Unless you collaborate as so many do. I guess, for me, sitting in a chair with a barely three dimensional rectangle for four hours, lost in a creative world is a thrill and I am an artistic thrill seeker. I rarely played the piano for more than two hours at a stretch. But with iOS (and, I imagine, with desktop as well) I can go all night to reach a desired goal. Of course, it rarely sounds as good the next day... or thru my 5" monitors instead of phones, but that is not the creative experience.

    That music making can take the form of an iPad and some software can be as mundane as the horseless carriage. But then again it can be an artistic Lambo on a twisty Alpine road.
    As exhilarating as the driver's skill. Or as terrifying.

  • edited January 2019

    @LinearLineman said:
    That music making can take the form of an iPad and some software can be as mundane as the horseless carriage. But then again it can be an artistic Lambo on a twisty Alpine road.
    As exhilarating as the driver's skill. Or as terrifying.

    Well, it's all tools, right? Tools in different craftsmen's hands beget different results. In my hands, it's more like a horseless Lambo careening down an Apine slope, but I'm working on it ;)

    BTW - thanks @LinearLineman , you've given me an idea for a new video.

  • We don’t

    I try

    Gratitude lists daily is a help along with meditation or prayer.

  • @LinearLineman I’m with you all the way. Just today recorded some trumpet on a track I’m working on as a birthday present for a friend. Used Cubasis. Last week I sent the backing track to a nephew in France and he put the piano down and his wife did the vocals. They sent the tracks back and I’m at the mixing stage. Fantastic. This is probably nothing to a generation brought up on this accessibility and ease. For me it’s a wonderful time to be making music.

Sign In or Register to comment.