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.
Apps / Experiences that you find relaxing or "flowful" ?
Hey!
I'm looking for some apps that make you feel relaxed or in a state of flow for a workshop I'm doing. Anything that feels physical, reactive, playful or contemplative - something that absorbs you. I'm only really interested in sound generators (i.e. not DAWs). Some examples that I know of:
- Kaossilator
- PlayGround
- TC-Performer
Thanks!
Alex
Comments
Refraktions (love this one)
Moodscaper
Pianoscaper
Gestrument
Wotja
Bloom: 10 Worlds
Ephemeral
SpaceCraft
Polyphase is very good for this
Riffer
Autony
Reflection from Brian Eno can be also interesting even if you cannot do more than...just listening
Samplr
As always.
Never disappoints.
No matter how much hardware I use, I always use Samplr. And yes apps like Spacecraft and Borderlands.
I also find that Reclice is a ridiculous fun and deep app to lose it in.
Streemur 😅
Dot Melody is great in it's simplicity, it is pretty much perfect in every aspect. Very "Flowful"!
Another app classic for ya: Borderlands
Wow Borderlands has some lovely lissajous figures
Spacecraft
Aparillo
Korg Electribe Wave
Xynthesizer
Polyphase
Moog Model 15
Aphelian... So visually nice and midi it is unreal
Patterning 2
Spacecraft
Refraktions
The "scaper" apps...
So many
ThumbJam
Ribbons
Steel Guitar
NeoSoul Keys
GeoShred
Gestrument Pro is at the top of my list in this category.
Don't forget KRFT! 😉
Cubasis is like a Cadillac for me.
Bebot 😄 (seriously tho... put lotsa delay on the Theramin preset and glide through the galaxy)
WaveMapper (the XY interface is outstanding. Set “morphing” to high for smooth transitions. For iPhone, MiniMapper is similar).
SampleWiz/MorphWiz
Samplr
Spacecraft
Shoom
Thumbjam/DrumJam
Aparillo (setting the FM to harmonic intervals makes it less dissonant. Great built in effects)
....while putting everything thru ShimmerFX and watching Frax HD. 👾
@haulin_notes Your Bebot tip fits nicely with my list. It seems we relax in a similar fashion.
Cool! Something about a continuous/gliding scale that’s relaxing. Dr Bebot is my music therapist. 😌
ChordMaps2
ThumbJam
@haulin_notes @shamanmoon @lukesleepwalker @reasOne + all
Thanks a lot guys. Some really interesting apps there!
2nd question ... how would you characterise a chilled/mindful/flowful musical experience on iPad? Feels like it's something about making music in the moment with no particular end goal in sight (which is obviously quite different from trying to create a finished piece).
Surely a big difference amongst iPad musicians would be the question of productivity. And that changes day to day for me, and I suspect for many others. But there are days, especially when I'm tired due to the day job, that I don't care about being productive and just floating in a river of sound is preferable to watching TV or surfing the net, etc. (And I often learn a few things from these "unproductive" sessions that I use later when trying to accomplish something specific.
Your inclusion of mindfulness is interesting because I think it goes in a different direction. You are making a connection between creative flow and meditation? I think they are quite different. I'm not big into meditation but have worked at it some--even just mindfulness within my everyday life takes a bit of effort
Getting into a flow with music on the iPad takes away thought, so to speak. It's not accurate to say that it's mindless but rather that I relax control of my thoughts. It's "easy" to get into the flow and an hour disappears without perception that time was "spent" (with all connotations to economics intended).
Two cents.
It is hard to describe. My take on it is, I am creating without force or effort. Not creating raw energy, but playing with it, or guiding and directing it. A lot of the time I play with my eyes closed, to focus on listening, feeling, and reacting. There is usually some apps auto-playing or generating an audio context for me to play with or off of.
For tempo, I usually stick to slow/moderate tempo. Something close to a relaxed heart rate. For sounds or timbres, I find the rounder, mellower sounds relaxing. Sounds that are too buzzy with harmonics (or inharmonics) become too stimulating and take me out of the zone I am trying to enter and stay in.
When things get really going and flowing, it is similar to being carried along by a gently flowing river. Some of my best relaxation sessions end with me opening my eyes and having to take a moment to remember what time of day it is, or even where I am. I have also had moments where I suddenly become aware of what I am playing, or that I am playing at all, and I have no sense of how long I have been playing for.