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.

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

Current Workflow and suggestions

Hello,

My current workflow is tracking BM2, no effects. Export to AUM. Add in the audio units and IAA effects. Mix this all in AUM and then mix down to Lurssen.

I have yet to truly do a song this way and I’m just starting to mix things in AUM. I have 6 tracks loaded up with effects (about 4-5 each. Read: ADverb2, Reamp, Kleverb, Korvpressor, AudioReverb, VirtualRoom Pro, Pro Q2. The last two effects are on nearly every track.) with plans to add more tracks. I think I’m just starting to push the limits of AUM/ iPad 2018 and I havent even added in vocal tracks yet. I’m getting a bit of crackling and DSP is consistently peaking at 114%.

So my questions are - can I do something to improve? Ideally I’d like to be mixing 10-20 tracks in AUM with ease. I know a lot of you guys must do this to put out your SOTMC submissions (maybe not in AUM).

Should I just bunker down and learn BM3 and mix in there? Will I have the same kinds of issues with iPad limits? Don’t really want to get into an iPad vs PC limitations discussion - just want to see what has worked for people, what’s possible, e.g. how many tracks have you put into a song, how many effects on each track, what DAW/ workflow has worked.

Thanks in advance.

Comments

  • My advice would be to ignore everyone’s advice and ask yourself “what do I REALLY need to make pleasing tunes”. It’s probably not as much as you think.

    Personally, I stick with stand-alones and milk them for absolutely all their worth. This affords me more time to make music, and less time spent on troubleshooting

  • edited February 2019

    Well, for starters, any tracks you can commit to audio file should get rendered out and reloaded as audio files. There is no freeze type of function in AUM, so you would record your track output and reload it to a AUM file player without the FX.

    That should free up your processor for when you are ready to work on the vocal tracks.

  • Curious what kind of music you making? What kind of instruments etc?

  • edited February 2019

    It's not about iPad versus Mac/PC but simply screen estate.
    An iPad has a lot of pixels (I've used it as the main monitor for a Mac Mini with it's native resolution via the Duet app), but what's displayed is tiny and hardly 'touchable' at all ;)

    The other way around with an an iPad DAW app you get maybe 8 tracks into the vertical space available, add 2 automation tracks (example) per audio track that you want visible at the same time, then only 3 tracks already exhaust the screen available.
    If automation is drawn within the audio display, the space for adjustment gets tight, so you have to zoom - which is mostly an inconvenience on it's own.

    That's (imho) the most relevant reason why most people stick to desktop mixing.
    From the audio pov several apps proved that mixing quality in IOS can be great IF handled properly (which applies to desktop as well, of course).

    Considering your idea to use AUM as a mix engine, I'd add another iPad as a pure midi controlling device that you can use (in the traditional way) like an analog console.
    At least if it's about more than 6 channels, as you may have busses, too.

    You may also consider to distribute the mix process over the song buildup.
    With some strategy you may submix 3 elements, then work on the next 2, make another submix and so one.
    Recently an example (with stunning results) of that approach was posted.
    https://forum.audiob.us/discussion/31101/scott-van-zandt-master-of-ios

  • edited February 2019

    Thanks everyone for your responses.

    @db909
    I suspect you’re right about what I REALLY need when it comes to FX. I probably don’t need to tweak so much etc.

    @CracklePot
    This is already what I am doing - unless you are suggesting that I render the audio files with the FX as well. That makes the most sense and then remix with vocals. Maybe I can do the traditional FX like reverb etc and then save the EQing for last.

    @AudioGus I’m doing a wide variety of songs but most tracks will have live recorded guitar (both acoustic and electric), GarageBand for drums, iFretless Bass, synths, NeoSoul, piano (usually bs-16i with Salamander), strings. Maybe some extras if I think of it. Then vocals. Double the lead and triple the harmonies. I could use a chorus for thickening instead of multitracking. Any insights would be greatly appreciated.

    @Telefunky I’m not too concerned about real estate on the screen. I don’t really mind having to scroll back and forth or up and down. It’s more about using the FX I would like without getting a crash or crackle in the mixdown. I always laugh about getting a second iPad - don’t really have the funds for something like that. I like the approach of sub mixing - do you have suggestions or should I google Scott Van Zandt?

  • You can read it in Scott's comments on his Soundcloud site (he gets asked a lot about that and answered about the process and apps he used).
    The track posted here was in Gadet and Garageband iirc.

    According to my own experience (I also use AUM as a main tool) glitches are almost inevitable if you switch control surfaces (to tweak fx).
    At least I hear them live, though I dunno if that would be recorded in the same way.

  • @mjcouche , if I read your post correctly,you are using reverb and room simulation as insert effects. You will reduce processor load enormously by setting up aux channels and doing reverb and room that way.

  • @mjcouche said:
    Hello,

    My current workflow is tracking BM2, no effects. Export to AUM. Add in the audio units and IAA effects. Mix this all in AUM and then mix down to Lurssen.

    I have yet to truly do a song this way and I’m just starting to mix things in AUM. I have 6 tracks loaded up with effects (about 4-5 each. Read: ADverb2, Reamp, Kleverb, Korvpressor, AudioReverb, VirtualRoom Pro, Pro Q2. The last two effects are on nearly every track.) with plans to add more tracks. I think I’m just starting to push the limits of AUM/ iPad 2018 and I havent even added in vocal tracks yet. I’m getting a bit of crackling and DSP is consistently peaking at 114%.

    So my questions are - can I do something to improve? Ideally I’d like to be mixing 10-20 tracks in AUM with ease. I know a lot of you guys must do this to put out your SOTMC submissions (maybe not in AUM).

    Should I just bunker down and learn BM3 and mix in there? Will I have the same kinds of issues with iPad limits? Don’t really want to get into an iPad vs PC limitations discussion - just want to see what has worked for people, what’s possible, e.g. how many tracks have you put into a song, how many effects on each track, what DAW/ workflow has worked.

    Thanks in advance.

    Broadly speaking I can say this

    If you are designing presets or kits.

    Do that.

    If you are making music do that.

    When those 2 get mixed up too much for me it hurts productivity

  • @mjcouche If you can, depending on how you are using it, put the reverb fx on a bus channel, and then use bus sends in Aum to send audio from each track to it.
    Using the same reverb will give more natural sounding results and use a lot less DSP....reverb is pretty DSP hungry.
    You may need to use reverb on some tracks where you are deliberately wanting a different reverb

  • @mjcouche : the advantage of a DAW is that you can freeze tracks when you approach CPU limits. With Auria Pro , the total num track is LOTS of you make use of freeze.

  • @mjcouche said:
    Hello,

    My current workflow is tracking BM2, no effects. Export to AUM. Add in the audio units and IAA effects. Mix this all in AUM and then mix down to Lurssen.

    I have yet to truly do a song this way and I’m just starting to mix things in AUM. I have 6 tracks loaded up with effects (about 4-5 each. Read: ADverb2, Reamp, Kleverb, Korvpressor, AudioReverb, VirtualRoom Pro, Pro Q2. The last two effects are on nearly every track.) with plans to add more tracks. I think I’m just starting to push the limits of AUM/ iPad 2018 and I havent even added in vocal tracks yet. I’m getting a bit of crackling and DSP is consistently peaking at 114%.

    So my questions are - can I do something to improve? Ideally I’d like to be mixing 10-20 tracks in AUM with ease. I know a lot of you guys must do this to put out your SOTMC submissions (maybe not in AUM).

    Should I just bunker down and learn BM3 and mix in there? Will I have the same kinds of issues with iPad limits? Don’t really want to get into an iPad vs PC limitations discussion - just want to see what has worked for people, what’s possible, e.g. how many tracks have you put into a song, how many effects on each track, what DAW/ workflow has worked.

    Thanks in advance.

    It's possible to mix in BM3 and not bad for it. The same iPad limits apply which can be overcome if you save mixing to the very end.

    If you use processing in the recording/tracking process you want to bounce all of that and then do a proper mixdown.

    Even then, BM3 lacks groups/busses and some things I find essential for mixing.

  • The first thing to check is whether you can increase the latency in AUM, that should be an easy win if you can push it up to at least 512, if not 1024 as long as your plug-ins can support it (not all AU effects can go above 512).

    But just to give you some perspective: I usually mix in Auria and can comfortably mix 30-40 tracks while running 20 live plugins at a buffer setting of 512 on a 2017 iPad Pro, which is very similar in performance to your 2018 iPad. In Auria with audio tracks you can actually increase the buffer to 4096 while running the native plugins (FabFilter and PSP). At that point you can literally have a hundred live plugins on a recent iPad.

    The above applies to mixing audio obviously, with MIDI tracks the limitations kick in much sooner. However it's still possible to have 20-30 live MIDI tracks in NS2 or in Cubasis, as long as not too many external synths are involved.

  • Thanks again all. I’m going to try using less reverb, more sends, and when the reverb/effect is a part of the sound, I will freeze it first. I’ll also check into upping the latency if necessary.

    Im sticking with BM2 for now as it works for me. I have been considering other DAWs but idk if I need anything else. Reaching the end of my app acquisition syndrome and ready to start making more music/ learning these apps.

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