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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MIDI file player for auditioning loops?

edited January 2014 in General App Discussion

I just got Derek's loop set and with so many of them auditioning them to find what I want to use is going to be a challenge. Does anyone know of a GM MIDI player with dropbox capability that could be used to listen to them without having to add them to a project one at a time? Something with file manager capabilities would be awesome.

Comments

  • Actually, I was just trying to provide advertisement for Audioshare. It won't properly play the file inside its browser but I can open in DrumStudio and audition it ok.

  • What was the problem playing the file in AudioShare? Note that the MIDI file player is only a single sine-tone voice, it's not meant to be a "real" MIDI file player but simply to make it easier to know which file is which.

  • edited January 2014

    You can open it in Symphonix Evolution and Symphonix Evolution Player as well (via iTunes or by mail).
    The notes will be assigned to one or another instrument depending on how the file had been created (answer from the dev).

  • Ah. Well that's what it was. I sent you an email describing everything, actually. But I'll summarize here as well.

    MIDI playback was not what I expected. I thought that it might be restricted to just a tonal voice but I also suggested the ability to load a soundset. I'm not sure if there is a basic set that comes with iOS, or how difficult it would be to add a GM MIDI, but perhaps the ability to use one as a setting would be pretty cool.

    Also, when I try auditioning the MIDI straight from Dropbox does not work as it does for an audio file. It loads and loads. I end up importing the folder and going from there.

    Otherwise, Audioshare works perfectly and I am amazed at how useful and necessary it has become to me and what I do.

  • bs-16i is superb at playing back midi files. It comes with a GM soundset and many more sounds as well. Many more available on the web also. It uses sound fonts. Various drum kits are also available for download in addition to the rather good ones that come with it. It is audiobus compatible and you can download midi drum loops from the web right into the bs-16i. I use it often and the results are superb.

  • The BS-16i is good at "Playing" midi files, but not for auditioning. You have to go through a lot of trouble if you want to play ten midi files to find the right one....

  • edited January 2014

    Click songs, pick the file and then close it is ready to go. Not that big of a process really and the results are excellent. But the great thing about it is that it does so much more than that also. A handy app to have at any rate.
    Also you can build a midi library right inside to pick from in addition to adding via safari which gives you the open in option to load files and it is quick.

  • It would be nice if @j_liljedahl's AudioShare had a way to load a GM soundfont so that midi auditioning could sound better. Complete GM soundfonts can vary from extremly tiny (less than 10 meg) to huge (nearly 2 gigs). A small GM soundfont wouldn't add too much footprint, and would possibly even allow to convert the midi clips to audio clips for export into DAWS..........but I digress....this isn't a thread for AudioShare feature requests. :-)

    ....but it WOULD be nice! ;-)

  • Yes. Audioshare is definitely the best option so far.

    I am able to open in BS-16i but it puts it into the inbox and then I have to load it and play... Audioshare excels because I can keep the loops on Dropbox and only pull those down that I really want to play with. And if I open in Drumstudio it works beautifully.
    AND - once I find which one I want to use I can use the general pasteboard to easily add it to my project.

    But, yes... a basic, small soundfont in Audioshare would be perfect. :)

  • The MIDI preview in dropbox in AudioShare should work, otherwise it's a bug.. I'll look into it when I find the time!

    Regarding MIDI file playing, loading a soundfont is not hard to do, and something I've been planning to add. This means one can replace the built-in sinewave tone with some other instrument. However, it's currently monotimbral, and going multitimbral is not very easy to do. The mechanism for playing MIDI in iOS (AUSampler) is quite limited, one must create one synth voice for each channel. Problem is, AUSampler is not very light on CPU, and having 16 of them at the same time will probably give crackles and drop-outs unless the soundfont is very simple. Currently this is not something I can prioritize, unfortunately.

    @wayni, I'll reply your email too :)

  • edited January 2014

    A Monotimbral soundfont player within AudioShare should be fine, since the majority of what I would audition would be midi drum loops anyway. :-)

  • Mono would be awesome! :)

  • A wav to soundfont converter in Audioshare would be cool...

  • That would be an IAP that I'd jump on!

  • Actually, I was referring to AudioShare playing a midi file with a selected soundfont and capturing the midi clip as an audio clip. However, a Wav to soundfont converter would be cool too! :-) I'd pay for IAP on it too! :-) AudioShare, no longer just a storage location, but an audio Swiss Army Knife! :-)

  • +1 as IAP or as independent app.

  • I'd rather @j_liljedahl stay on target with his work and instead work with another app developer to get Open In/Audioshare SDK integrated into their app as a seemless and fast experience for previewing MIDI files. There are already a gagillion general midi file players on the App Store.

  • I also seek wav to sf2 converter/compiler. need to make some multi-sample sets.

  • Since I have no need for a touch interface when creating or converting samplesets, I'm happy to do that on my desktop. I also have more storage space available than on my iPad.

  • I hear ya @PaulB i guess I prefer the comfort of my bean bag in front of the fire whilst refining/tweaking my audio library.

    A nas drive holds my entire sample library and any I like for a project get imported via wifi to Audioshare as my cream of the crop if you like.

    The desktop is easier just not as comfortable in my case as my old studio is now my 4 year old daughters bedroom :(

    Anything to make things a bit more mobile is ok with me.

  • @DaveMagoo said:

    I prefer the comfort of my bean bag in front of the fire whilst refining/tweaking my audio library.

    Pix or it didn't happen.

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