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.
Input Gain/Gain Staging with AUv3
As I'm adding instruments, I like to get everything hovering at around -10dB without touching any of the sliders on the main mixer - a habit I'm picking up from Reason tutorials.
I'm curious as to whether or not there's a workaround for this when working with AUv3s that have limited parameter control (something like iSymphonic Orchestra, for example) in DAWs without channel strips (Nanostudio 2, for example).
Comments
Isn't there a simple "Gain" AU with a single slider from -90 .. +90 dB? If not, I'll make one
-10db is ok - heres the comparison Analogue 0db = -18b in digital . Theres loads of info on the net
Was thinking just yesterday it would be cool that has auto gain stage like the Hornet AU Auto Gain Stage
plugin for desktop OSX
I just re read your post Yes indeed needed with some VU meters
Are you aware of fact that gain staging in digital daws is myth an completely useless, or meaningless, because you cannot overload or clip audio in channel and channel level has zero impact to mixing quality no matter if it is -30dB or +20dB ?
(rant of believers starting in 3 ... 2 .... 1 ....
)
Here comes a rant of a believer; you absolutely can clip audio going in and out of plugins. So I wouldn’t say gain staging is useless in the digital realm. Only that it needs to be done with gain and not channel volume.
It is actually a little tricky to get output gain right in AB, without losing some degree of mixer flexibility over individual channels. If I play Model D and Ruismaker with moderately bassy signals (nothing crazy or subby though) then the output (through studio monitors) is garbage with no low end. If I turn down Model D then the tone of the kick will come back and Model D’s bass will be much bigger with an all round cleaner signal.
Normally I’d just turn down the master fader in this kind of situation, but there’s no such thing in AB3, so gain staging becomes important in terms of balancing a strong signal/desired tones with audio quality of the output.
No, you cannot. Until you in 32bit floating point domain. If there is plugin on iOS which converts input audio to fixed point and then processes it in this format, please let me know which one...
Of course there can be some plugins which intentionally are made to work best at some speciffic input gain (mostly some analog gear emulations, for example some waves plugins needs -14 dB on input - but thats different story)
But from pure DAW mixing perspective you can put all faders all way up, you can go even to "red" and totally overload individual tracks - then you put down master fader and there is no clipping .. Because master out is only place where clipping can occur.
Additionally, If you have daw with 32bit floating point mixdown option (on iOS this is possible just in Nanostudio 2 to my knowledge) there is no way how you can introduce clipping in your final mixdown :-))
Sorry, i explained deeper logic behind all of this soo many times i have no more energy to go again throug this, just try do a bit study how modern daws mixing engines works...
Not sure how this works in Audiobus because it really doesn't have any "master fader" - it is mixed together by iOS itself if i set "speaker out" on multiple channels ? In classic DAW you don't need take a care about individual track volumes, just on master to avoid clipping on your audio interface...
@Michael how this works with Audiobus ?
You're talking about fader volume, and what you say is in fact true. But I’m talking about gain.....and gain levels going into a plug-in. Absolutely nothing to do with faders. Zero. I might suggest you study up on the difference between volume and gain as it would change the shape of your argument. And if you’d like to hear what clipping a digital plugin sounds like I’d be happy to send you some evidence
which plugin does clipping ? be speciffic.. not saying it is not possible, there are various bugs in plugins this may be bug too... properly coded plugin, processing audio in 32bit floating point precision, should not clip in any way (until it is not part of it's functionality, like clip distortion :-))
plugins which have different output based on input gain (eg. they do nonlinear processing) like distortion, overdrives, or compressors, usually does have build in knob for adjusting input gain. If they don't have it, of course you need adjust gain before plugin...
my post was related more to myth that just putting down levels on tracks to lets say -10 dB makes mix sound better
regardin reason tutorials - check this one to see why this doesn't make any sense :-)
At least regarding Nanostudio i can ensure you that until your master is not clipping, nothing is clipping, it works there exactly same way like in Reason in that video i pasted above
Just try this simple test
now you hear again unclipped clean sound (just with eq applied), even through it is "clipping" in child tracks :-))
That's exactly wht about is talking guy in that Reason tutorial :-)
If you're using ANY plugins that are emulations, they typically require a certain input level or they'll either not be effective enough, or overly effective and overly-color the sound. Which means gain staging. Further, it's just good process, helps remove this as a potential issue from the chain, and often can make it easier to start mixing.
...
And AUM
Actually Audiobus does do the mixing internally, so there's no technical reason why there couldn't be a master fader for almost all use cases. I will, in fact, be adding one soon.
One situation I often encounter where a dedicated "gain" control or plugin would be useful even in the digital domain is when different plugins simply have vastly different output levels, but I don't want vastly different fader settings for them
i.e. I have 2 basslines, the output signal from the synth for the first one is 18 dB louder than for the other, but I still want both at the same perceived volume and same fader position. In that case I'll need a -18 dB gain plugin or pot.
That’ll be very handy!
This is a use case I run into regularly. When I mix in Harrison Mixbus there is a small trim pot above the fader, which is excellent for balancing signals before mixing with the faders. @Michael that may be an easy feature to counter this issue, if that’s something you’re looking for.
The main culprit for this for me by the way is Moog Model D — various parts of the app sound very different as you turn up its internal master volume, but when you’re at full there (which is usually where I want to be!) then the output is just waaaayyyy too hot going into ABs fader!
still very rational and logic reason compared to belief that just putting all tracks to -10dB will give you better sound
Essentially. I'm German after all! My hedges have always been cut at right angles!
Recently had discussion with one guy, experienced producer with lot official releases...
When he started with this fairytale i was like "noo, you are f**king kidding"..
He wasn't.
Yeah i had german boss in my previous job. I pretty much know what means "Ordnung must sein !!!"
Actually when I still mixed in the analog domain, there wasn't hardly any channel where I didn't crank the input gain all the way up to overdrive the EQ section, so... the opposite of gain staging
(sorry but with this forum software, it's impossible to enter a laughing emoji (colon D), it always gets "corrected" to 
)
I'm only like that in my job(s) though. In personal life I give zero ducks
Yup, I had taken all of this into consideration when I posted this, since I was already aware that Reason (and Nanostudio 2) are 32-bit floating.
There does exist a second function for such a feature - setting your levels at the input gain level so one could then use the faders for automation.
As a novice, I'm interested in a variety of different implications. lol