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.

Request For Volunteers

Hi guys, I am looking to implement the knowledge Base a bit more with some basic essays or tutorials. I posted one today and will do a second re iOS and keyboard hookup. There are many other topics, of course:

The different categories of apps.
Midi Routing.
Audioubus and AUM
Effects
Multitracking and DAWs
Sources of iOS info (Doug, Jakob, etc)
Hardware
Inter app and AUv3
What is a Synth?
iOS Pianos
Sequence generators like FugueMachine
Sampling

One I personally would like to see is a ThumbJam tutorial, as it is IMO a gateway app for the beginner. Perhaps some of these already exist. Ideas for further topics also very welcome.
Thanks!

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Comments

  • @LinearLineman I have actually thought about this as well. This was also one of my intentions when I started my new website www.makemusicanywhere.com

    if you want to work together compiling some of these I can post them as articles on my website as a kind of one stop getting started section on iOS.

  • If you’re interested in Audiobus routing tips, here’s one I discovered a while ago.

    If you have an iOS device that still has a headphone socket, Audiobus 3 has made it possible to multitrack ANY audio producing app in stereo on a single iDevice regardless of whether it is Audiobus, IAA or AUv3 capable or not.

    Get a USB audio interface with stereo ins and outs and connect the outs back into the ins. Plug the interface into a USB 3 CCK and plug it in to the lightning port.

    Plug some headphones into the iDevice headphone socket, this is how you will monitor both backing and input together.

    Start up Audiobus 3 and go to settings.
    Enable Multiroute Audio.
    Load your DAW as an Audiobus input.
    When you select the Audiobus output for that channel, click on the option arrow next to ‘System Audio Output’.
    Select ‘Headphones Left + Right’, this will prevent the backing audio going to the lightning port, but allow you to hear it in the headphones.

    Now set up another Audiobus input.
    Select ‘System Audio Input’. Don’t worry about the feedback warning, it’s wrong in this instance, just click ‘Proceed’.
    Load your DAW again in the output slot.

    You shouldn’t have to do anything special in the DAW, just set up Audiobus 3 as the input to the track you wish to record on and arm it.

    Come out to the desktop and start up the app you wish to record.
    Go back to either Audiobus or the DAW and start recording.
    Switch back to your source app and use it to make some noises. You should be able to hear both the output from the DAW and the app you’re recording in the headphones.

    When done, switch back and halt the recording. If you then solo the newly recorded track, you’ll find you have a pristine stereo recording of just the new audio, with no bleed through of any backing.

    For me, this is huge. I have so many instrument apps that I’ve not been able to record easily due to lack of AB, IAA or AUv3, not least of which is Roli’s Noise, where the SWAM instruments are unavailable in the AUv3 version, yet they’re pretty much the only reason I’d want to use it.

  • @gmslayton, that sounds perfect! How would you like to proceed?
    @TheOriginalPaulB, would you please post that on the Knowledge Base forum with an appropriate title? That would be a big help. Any other essays you have at hand? Thanks!

  • Great idea I'll do one on midi control in AUM.

    Also it would be a great idea if everybody could convert their piece to PDF so it could be downloaded and stored offline.

    I would be happy to do the conversion for those who cannot produce PDFs.

  • @ageezz said:

    Great idea I'll do one on midi control in AUM.

    Also it would be a great idea if everybody could convert their piece to PDF so it could be downloaded and stored offline.

    I would be happy to do the conversion for those who cannot produce PDFs.

    Hi think the notion is that these are going through grow into wiki content. So, in my opinion, it is best to not do pdf embedding but to write up posts natively so that they can be further refined by the community as time goes on.

  • @LinearLineman Michael sent me a nice mail asking me to reconsider my decision to stop posting on the AB forums so here I am. :)

    What I mentioned to Michael was that I'm going to stay away from posting feedback intended for developers and stick to production tips and suchlike. Some of it will be generic and some specific to apps that I use on a regular basis so I'll let you know if anything I'm posting seems apt for the knowledge base. I've been posting a lot of stuff like this anyway, so it will be great if people are able to find stuff of this nature through a searchable knowledge base.

    BTW thanks for the very kind words ref the Roxy Music remix. I can't wait for it to be more widely available in digital formats, once the record company is happy that the vinyl run has fulfilled the exclusivity clauses the distribution companies enforce.

  • @jonmoore
    Great to hear that you are gonna stick around. I am learning a lot of things from your posts.
    B)

  • @CracklePot said:
    @jonmoore
    Great to hear that you are gonna stick around. I am learning a lot of things from your posts.
    B)

    +1
    Welcome back @jonmoore !
    It’s always better to keep the doors open than to close them... 😎

  • @LinearLineman said:
    Hi guys, I am looking to implement the knowledge Base a bit more with some basic essays or tutorials. I posted one today and will do a second re iOS and keyboard hookup. There are many other topics, of course:

    The different categories of apps.
    Midi Routing.
    Audioubus and AUM
    Effects
    Multitracking and DAWs
    Sources of iOS info (Doug, Jakob, etc)
    Hardware
    Inter app and AUv3
    What is a Synth?
    iOS Pianos
    Sequence generators like FugueMachine
    Sampling

    One I personally would like to see is a ThumbJam tutorial, as it is IMO a gateway app for the beginner. Perhaps some of these already exist. Ideas for further topics also very welcome.
    Thanks!

    • using multiple IOS devices simultaneously
  • @LinearLineman said:
    @gmslayton, that sounds perfect! How would you like to proceed?
    @TheOriginalPaulB, would you please post that on the Knowledge Base forum with an appropriate title? That would be a big help. Any other essays you have at hand? Thanks!

    Maybe create a Knowledge Base topic that include links to the relevant @gmslayton page. (Not sure if folks realize that a formal wiki is coming to audiobus.us and that the Knowledge Base topic is basically a placeholder for gathering content that will be transitioned to the wiki).

  • McDMcD
    edited April 2019

    @jonmoore said:
    @LinearLineman Michael sent me a nice mail asking me to reconsider my decision to stop posting on the AB forums so here I am. :)

    Good news for me. You actually convinced me to buy a Desktop Plug-in for $50 and taught
    me about the (Desktop) PluginDoctor (that was you right?).

    Wait. Let me think about this... $50? I could have bought 10-15 Apps. Who am I kidding.
    I will still buy those Apps to try and imitate the Desktop Plug-in's Presets.

    TIP: There's gold in creative insertion of pitch shifts. Who has an App Chain to simulate
    Shimmer Reverbs for example? Bueller?

    Back to this thread: Videos? Essays? PDF's? Are you guys starting a Magazine or Publishing Business? AudioBus University?

    Wiki def. (Hawaiian) quick.

    For @Michael, bolting on a Wiki is not trivial but there are many to choose from. It doesn't look like Vanilla Forums (open source project) has a Wiki module. Unfortunately, the editor should be uniform across the Forum and the selected Wiki code-base.

    Please feel free to ignore me... but let me know so that I can write about you.

    My Knowledge is (dis)organized as a "Maze of Twisty Little Passages". XYZZY. Poof!

  • I’m definitely in, but don’t like doing things twice. If there’s going to be a wiki, I think I’ll wait for anything but postings that come up in the regular process of answering questions for people.

  • @LinearLineman said:
    @TheOriginalPaulB, would you please post that on the Knowledge Base forum with an appropriate title? That would be a big help. Any other essays you have at hand? Thanks!

    Done.

  • Didn't know the Knowledge Base.
    I'm used to just enter the main page and wander around :lol:

    Gonna take a read on the topics there later and see if I have any knowledge to drop :wink:

  • edited April 2019

    @gmslayton said:
    @LinearLineman I have actually thought about this as well. This was also one of my intentions when I started my new website www.makemusicanywhere.com

    if you want to work together compiling some of these I can post them as articles on my website as a kind of one stop getting started section on iOS.

    That's such a wonderful idea. Seems like I get an email every day asking if I can tell them more about getting started with iOS music making, how they can use Synths with other apps, etc. Most have never heard of Audiobus, AUv3, etc
    (Synth One seems to be a lot of people's first exposure to iOS Music making)

    Some of the most common questions:

    • How to connect to a MIDI keyboard / what kind of MIDI keyboard should they buy
    • How can they record an iPad Synth into their desktop DAW (especially Windows machines)
    • What options are there for recording iPad Synths within the iPad

    Now, I can just say "go visit MakeMusicAnywhere.com and the Audiobus WIKI. Then bug Mitch for more questions!" :D

  • @gmslayton said:
    @LinearLineman I have actually thought about this as well. This was also one of my intentions when I started my new website www.makemusicanywhere.com

    if you want to work together compiling some of these I can post them as articles on my website as a kind of one stop getting started section on iOS.

    Hi Mitch, I did a detailed description of how to create Animoog timbres and as you’ve got a YouTube video of record on the topic, I thought it might be good to do another on the topic.

  • Thanks @ageezz, please proceed at your leisure. And thank you @TheOriginalPaulB.
    @chandroji , does that mean you will write or video on the subject?
    @espiegel123, I was most certainly aware of your postings and thank you. They kept a little discouragement away. Thanks for keeping the fire alight.

    @wim. I understand. Your instructions on any topic are perhaps the clearest and most complete of any I have read. Can you search your posts for previous sets of instructions? They are totally valuable.
    @McD, I know you have posted a lot of coherent analysis (we’ll agree to forget your inchoate ramblings on the humor font and the Logic Rumor thread and we still love you) about many topics. Please dig around. the piano poll analysis of iOS pianos for example. There is so much stuff out there already.

    @jonmoore, I can’t tell you how great this makes me feel. Firstly, you got to see the star of this circus in action. His judgement is to be trusted. Kind of like King Solomon and Gandhi combined. Well, his decision to cut the app in half wasn’t his best, but he did make Samplebot (what is that?j. @Michael is truly the best. Secondly, I think a lot of us have breathed a sigh of relief here. This forum is known (at least by me) for its tolerance and bon homie (?). What happened in the course of events fell far from the standards and empathy we have come to expect here. Equally we hope @brambos is feeling okay about things. It is presumptuous for me to say “we”... so shoot me, but I think we’re right. Finally, the thread degenerated badly and was closed by a guy who said he believed in freedom of speech, demonstrating once again that it is only a thin veneer of civilization that keeps us from eating each other and that the new moderator is a hypocrite. I am proud this forum has withstood yet another test and shines brighter than ever. It seems a lot of those lurkers out there in the shadows are the better angels of our nature. Welcome back, Jon. You were missed (in theory, anyway).

    As for the whole wiki conversion point of view, let me remind you it is yet another burden for our humble leader. Are there any volunteers to help him out with this? Also @Michael knows how many hits there have been on the category. I would like his opinion as to whether he thinks there is sufficient interest.
    Thank you all, and @michael especially.

  • McDMcD
    edited April 2019

    I started a FAQ thread (like "Dear Abby") to save answering similar questions with
    new users over and over... just use a single link. Go FAQ it.

    Everything there might make sense in the Knowledge Base like @aplourde's
    explanation of Granular Synthesis. I didn't understand it. I think they are like
    "Sand Castles" made in outer space. Read on.

    Q: What is Granular Synthesis?

    A: (from a post by @aplourde re:SpaceCraft Granular)

    SpaceCraft is a bit of a departure from “classic” granular synthesis, but considering classic granular tends to the experimental or academic more traditional tonalities aren’t a bad thing, just different.

    Classic granular deals with clouds of micro-sounds, typically 1 - 50 ms, the idea being that the individual grains are not distinguishable, but from the cloud the aggregate character emerges. Typically, those grains are sampled stochastically from a source, again adding to the indistinct tendencies.

    SpaceCraft differs in that a good portion of the grain control window has grain lengths that are clearly discernible snippets of the source audio. Also, the grains are individually played instead of “smeared” in a cloud of grains. Finally, the sampling is deterministic, with regular LFOs oscillating from the selected point instead of random selection.

    This is not to say SpaceCraft is wrong, it’s a different approach that yields more controlled and traditionally musical results. Contrast this with Borderlands Granular which has a more “classic” granular approach (micro-sounds, layering of grains, random selection of grains from within a bounding box). Amazing and beautiful instrument, but it does tend towards more abstract sounds.

    Even the sequencers of both emphasize their different approaches:
    SpaceCraft has an arpeggiator that plays traditional pitches in series.
    Borderlands has a motion recorder that captures your movements of the grain clouds traversing the samples.

    How would you differentiate the granular and its uses from other types of synthesis?

    Because you’re sampling another sound source, it’s very much dependent on what the sample is. That said, because of the discontinuities and/or layering, it will tend towards a more harmonically dense sound. Also, by virtue of the grains / clouds, it’s a bit harder to get sharp, clearly defined sounds (when you do get this with SpaceCraft it’s typically because you’ve stretched the grain out to a larger, defined snippet of the source). As such, granular synthesis is typically used for more pad-type sounds whether sustained or pointillistic.

    Instruments like Quanta, Tardigrain, iPulsaret use granular synthesis as the oscillators of more traditional synthesizer engines. Here, you can get whatever you want, as the granular cloud is pitched and further shaped with filters, envelopes and other modulation. Still, it will tend to more harmonically rich sounds than traditional subtractive synthesis that starts with a sawtooth wave.

    How have you used it in your tracks?

    For SpaceCraft, as a background pad sound. One tip: use a sample of the song you’re working on as the source for the granulations, especially the main melodic line. This retains a harmonic echo of your track, but re-contextualized. It also helps keep the sound from overwhelming the rest of your track.

    I’ll often do this live with Borderlands as it can continuously sample a defined-length buffer. So the granulations are a real-time processing of another source, providing a fractured “echo”.

    How would you characterize the sound? It seems capable of a kind of primeval grandeur not found elsewhere. I often search for pads that give an epic feeling. Seems more possible in granular for some reason... At least to me. Kind of like looking thru a magnifying glass makes an ant terrifying... By George... That's what the darn thing is!

    Granular is the sound of swarms, of aggregate actions, like a wave crashing on a shore. Yes, it can be epic! But, depending on how you use it, it can also be indistinct, a fog in the background that makes all the colors bleed together.

  • Article on Midi Control in AUM added to the Knowledge Base. Hope you find it useful.

  • @ageezz said:
    Article on Midi Control in AUM added to the Knowledge Base. Hope you find it useful.

    Lots of good info in your article. I think at some point it might be useful to do short screen capture videos of the action that’s being described with text so that people can view the video if it’s not clear to them how to do something.

  • I could actually use some help over on the mobile music wiki:

    https://mobilemusic.fandom.com/wiki/Mobile_Music_Wikia

  • By the way, for those wondering: the AB wiki is going up as soon as I've got the Audiobus 3.4 final build off to Apple in the next week or so.

  • @Michael said:
    By the way, for those wondering: the AB wiki is going up as soon as I've got the Audiobus 3.4 final build off to Apple in the next week or so.

    Yes! That will be great for the @LinearLineman's essay style content. If a word is new make a link to define it.

  • @johnfromberkeley I’ll have to give it a shot. It’ll help me to hone my wiki skills in preparation for the wiki here. Presumably it shouldn’t be too hard to post content created in once to both locations.

  • @InfoCheck said:
    @johnfromberkeley I’ll have to give it a shot. It’ll help me to hone my wiki skills in preparation for the wiki here. Presumably it shouldn’t be too hard to post content created in once to both locations.

    @InfoCheck produces excellent summaries, checklists and explanations.

    @johnfromberkeley: Is looks like the site is currently geared towards Mobile Hardware
    devices: Electribe is what got my attention. Are you hoping to expand coverage of IOS
    devices and the iTunes Apps to complete the options? I don't have any experience with those devices and would like to avoid hardware as a rule (tho' I did just order a Mobile
    Keyboard today). Long story.

  • @McD thank you, I will try to keep my knowledge base contributions both concise and relevant to a particular topic versus my posts in other areas of the forum where they can sometimes be long winded and tangential at times.

    I’ve appreciated the help, knowledge, and motivation forum users have given me over the years so I would like to do my part by contributing to the knowledge base.

  • @InfoCheck said:
    versus my posts in other areas of the forum where they can sometimes be long winded and tangential at times.

    I don't believe they are "long winded" or "tangential" - they are just larger Diamonds (more Carats). Good writing can breathe. I love it when the @LinearLineman breaks into prose just for the pleasure of expression and pulls out the most interesting imagery.

    I’ve appreciated the help, knowledge, and motivation forum users have given me over the years so I would like to do my part by contributing to the knowledge base.

    Do people know it's there? I like the Forum View that shows anything new in any category.
    Do we have that "Big Picture" view?

  • @McD : by design Knowledge Base is a little off the beaten track so that it doesn’t inadvertently become a discussion area. Soon the material will be transitioned into a proper wiki.

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