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.
Studiomux - Let's try it again...
I have a love-hate relationship with this app. Some time ago I'd moved on to using an iConnectAUDIO4+ to use iOS apps as MIDI/Audio sources in Live 10 (on macOS 10.14.4) but have recently found it a real pain in the rear when changing routings. Basically, with the iConnect, when shit goes wrong debugging is a massive headache. I have to change routings often and I sometimes can't get things to work right without major tweaking. Plus, it's just more hardware. For me, less is better.
Recently, I masochistically decided to try Studiomux again. I tested it with a few different iOS devices.
Amazingly it works perfectly with my recently upgraded iPad Pro 10.5" - I had an iPad mini 4 before. I couldn't break it - well, it did do a couple of unstable things but for the most part, it was pretty damn reliable. Multi-channel setup was no issue. I had multiple Moog synth apps running as IAA devices and no issues whatsoever sending all audio to individual channels/instances of the Studiomux Generator VST/AU in Live 10. I even used additional channels for some AU effects processing with good results. Amazing!
But some things:
- iPhone 6 doesn't work at all - nothing...no MIDI, no audio.
- iPhone 7+ only allows one channel of audio to work at a time. Use more than one and it pops and crackles like frying digital bacon.
-Some iOS audio apps really didn't work with it. EOS2 nearly ruptured my eardrums, while various other apps simply crashed Studiomux. - Both the iPhone 7 and the iPad Pro need to have their device volume muted or audio will be heard from the devices internal speaker. No biggie, I guess.
- In iOS apps with a keyboard, the keyboard will become unresponsive to touch - sometimes.
- In Audio/MIDI settings, only the iPhone 6 Studiomux device name is not identical to the actual device's name...ugggggh.
- Zerodebug does not respond to Studiomux related support requests in my experience. Is this app even still supported?
Has anybody solved these kinds of issues?
I'm pretty happy the iPad/Studiomux combo works and happy to have an alternative to IDAM (since IMHO IDAM is quite limited in useful application). I'd be even happier to be able to use the iPhone 6 or 7+ and Studiomux to run 2 or 3 iOS synths independently/simultaneously as VST/AU generator instances within Live 10 on macOS but this seems to be undoable.
Thoughts?
Comments
StudioMux is my main way of working. I have 4-5 devices streaming audio into my desktop DAW most days and it's completely glitch free. The only
But over the years I did find that the iPhone 7+ is pretty much useless for anything other than MIDI. However, I was at one point using a Mini 2 without problem.
I have nothing empirical to back this up but I think the problems are specific to particular iOS models and it doesn't seem to be connected to specific generations.
In general, I only use iPads in my current setup (2nd gen iPad Pro, 6th gen iPad, iPad Air 2, and the latest iPad Mini) but I do also hook up an iPhone XR occasionally as it's very powerful (more grunt than the 6th gen iPad).
Another oddity I've found is that some devices are more reliable when using ModStep (this also works with the Studiomux server). Obviously, this doesn't apply to iPhones as ModStep isn't available for iPhones.
Unfortunately, if you only have an iPhone 6 or 7+ to use with Studiomux I don't think you'll be able to improve on the performance you're getting (based on my experience, others might have better news).
As to the speaker playing at the same time, that's only to be expected as Studiomux isn't seen as an alternative soundcard at the iOS device end. On OS X it can be set up as an alternative soundcard and you don't need the AU/VST to route the audio (you simply use your DAW's audio in function). It might be worth seeing if this is more performant as I presume if you've used IDAM you're desktop/laptop is OS X. I use Windows as my main workstation so I can't comment (I use a Mac laptop when mobile, but still use the VST, probably out of habit more than anything else).
Sorry I don't have better news. The only ray of sunshine is that when you do upgrade to a later generation device, your experience should be far better.
How does Studiomux handle sample rate? Different generations of iPads output different sample rates.
i think it’s a shame the developer cant fix it.
i have iphone 7 and it doesn’t work at all
Over the years, I've worked at anything up to 24-bit/192k. But these days I work at 24-bit/44.1k and use oversampling where required on individual instruments and FX. I only use virtual instruments with band limited filters and that can often produce great alias free timbres without oversampling.
The documentation for Studiomux doesn't make it clear what's going on with sample rate between DAW and iOS but my assumption is that the sample rate is set by the DAW as Studiomux isn't outputting audio via the iOS DAC, it stays in the digital realm and is played back via the DAWs ASIO soundcard. I've never encountered sample rate mismatches between different iOS devices and Ableton via Studiomux so it would seem logical that the Studiomux server and its VST/AU routing plugin is doing some behind the scenes management of the process.
I've read other Studiomux users stating that they attempt to match the sample rate for each iOS device as well as the desktop/laptop DAW. But the fact the there's no mention of this type of workflow in the manual leads me to believe that those extra management steps are superfluous.
Getting back to sample rate strategy in the DAW, I've settled on 44.1k/24-bit and a buffer of 512k as it's a good balance between latency and performance. And as mentioned, I oversample where needed on an instrument FX basis as this is generally a better use of workstation resources.
But my DAW strategy is defined very much by the type of music I produce and the instruments I'm recording. When I'm working with mainstream artists such as Bryan Ferry, acoustic instrumentation is recorded at 192k into Pro Tools and I then take the stems into Ableton for post production and remix duties (having first reduced the sampling rate of the stems to my Ableton preference).
With Studiomux, the main thing that some people find hard to manage is latency. Most of this originates in the iOS device as StudioMux/ModStep don't have any kind of PDC (plugin delay compensation). Having dug into iOS host PDC a little further recently, it appears that Auria Pro is the only host that has implemented PDC for AUv3's (and that only happened very recently). The latency problem isn't too bad when using instruments alone. But if you have an instrument and FX chain, that can sometimes compound the latency significantly.
For years Ableton's PDC was rubbish so I'm used to managing latency manually with track delays. For some people it's a challenge too far. But even Pro Tools only got reasonable PDC features in recent years, so most desktop producers are used to keeping things in step via manual adjustments. Plus on the desktop many plugins don't report their latency correctly to the host so that adds to the fun and games!
I'm not sure how Studiomux handles sample rate. The buffer size is the only available setting in the app.
In the macOS Audio/MIDI settings you can change the Studiomux created devices' sample rate (with the bullseye icon) but this has no noticeable bearing on its operation.
There are three SM devices listed in my system. If I change a single In or Out sample rate on any device they all change to match.
I can also change the samplerate of my DAW or the SM devices mid-session and there is no problem generated.
FWIW, I never select the SM device as the primary audio I/O device in Live. iPad Pro (perfectly) and iPhone 7+ (not perfectly) work even when I have a different device set as main I/O.
I've also tested changing the sample rate in various synth apps to no avail. Anyway, I think Studiomux must override the individual apps' settings.
I wish Zerodebug would spend some time on fixing this app/server!!!!!
Thanks, jonmoore.
I think you've got some pretty solid info there - very useful, thanks for that. I didn't see your message immediately so am replying nonsequentially.
I use VST/AU as I'm trying to work with 'Instrument Rack' devices in Live 10. Originally I was working across multiple macOS and WIN10 devices so IDAM was a no go.
When my WIN10 machine died some months ago I went 100% Mac - no other choice! I started testing out IDAM on the MacBook and it works quite well but it doesn't exactly jive with instrument racks in a very intuitive integrated way. There are workarounds but Studiomux looks to be a nice way to stay within 'regular practice/efficient use' parameters.
Anyway, I'm sold on using it with the iPad, I had just hoped to have it work with the old iPhones but now know it's not gonna happen! Maybe at some stage I'll be able to upgrade to a next-gen iPhone for a very compact solution to this problem but it's a high cost to solve this particular issue.
Thanks again.
Ah, so the audio is sent as a digital stream through the Lightning>USB cable directly to your PC, and I suppose if there are mismatched sample rates, Studiomux server and/or its VST plugin magically handles the conversion? Plus plugin latency may be an issue, but I'm used to nudging stuff manually anyway.
I always thought Studiomux sounded 'too good to be true', and I'm on Windows, so I guess I just have to try it.
I too used the iCM4+ and iCA4+ but having only 1 user preset available stunk, and to change basic routings requires flashing the firmware (!) so I got rid of them and now just export wavs from iOS to PC. So Studiomux has always been on my radar but have read many complaints.
Thanks @jonmoore as usual. @Vaultnaemsae great info there. Thanks for posting your experiences and also which devices have issues with Studiomux.
@jonmoore With headphones attached to your Mini 5, are you able to change the sample rate to any other than 48kHz? I can't in apeMatrix, AUM, AudioShare. I can in Poison-202 and Groove Rider and it's definitely changing - at 32kHz it sounds worse, as expected. Would really appreciate you testing this.
I swear everyone, myself included, has made a thread with, or have mentally uttered the phrase "I have a love hate relationship with studiomux". It's so hilarious. It's so fvcking amazing... when you get it to work.
As to date, I use it for multi channel audio from iPad 2018 to MacOS Mojave with Live 10's midi to the iPad. Somehow I've gotten it to work flawlessly a few years ago, every time I open it, no bugs. I'm counting my lucky stars and I ain't changing Jack shit in the settings.
Further iStudiomux info (from the perspective of an iOS synth/Ableton Live 10 user):
There are many synth apps that seem to not receive MIDI correctly through Studiomux. These apps must be separately configured in Live 10 MIDI Preferences so they can be routed MIDI via Live 10 MIDI I/O (on a seperate channel):
Addictive Pro, Analog Synth X, ARP ODYSSEY, Gadget 2, iPolysix, iMS-20, iMono/Poly, iM1, MitoSynth, NeoSoul Keys, Synthmaster Player, Syntronik, — MIDI should be automatically available but isn't!!! Grrrr...
Synths that don't work at all in Studiomux: Syntorial Primer, Cassini, ...so far...
My experience is
iPad mini 2 latest os and latest studiomux server
So far been able to have 2 synths, sunrizer and isem running happy into Ableton 10.
Can send midi via my Ableton push to either synth and record the audio back into Ableton, with no real crackles, last night left iPad plugged in for an hour, computer went to sleep, woke it up, and everything still worked
But
Even this simple setup, doesn't always work
Following a YouTube clip I followed also had 3 channels of Ableton sends, on these I placed distortion apps in mix and things worked great.
But
I have no real faith in it.
When it works it's great, when it doesn't, I have to do a full shut down of everything,
I seemed to have more problems with the old server, was worried to update, but felt I had nothing to loose.
I feel the documentation is barely a help, this app should be huge, but I almost feel like the Devs aren't that interested, real shame
I am on windows 10
Would be interested to hear other people's success or fails
Thanks above for your insights
what got midi working for me on windows 10 was to remove all vestiges of itunes, then use the alternate driver installation via copytrans as described on the studiomux page. i did that and switched from vendor asio driver to asio4all and midi became entirely reliable. i have not looked at latency and jitter because i don’t want to know, i am just enjoying it for now.
audio is still completely unreliable.
i want to live in the universe where ipads are rock solid class compliant usb audio/midi devices.
Everytime Studiomux comes up on the forum it just makes me realise that it's all something of a crapshoot. Some of us have very few problems whilst for others it's seems to be nothing but a world of pain.
Considering that it hasn't been updated in over a year, maybe the best advice is to only purchase it if you're willing to take a gamble on the outcome. The fact that ModStep functions with Studiomux server means that that's probably the wiser purchase (seeing as it's the exact same price). At least that way you end up with a fully functioning clip launcher based host if things don't work out.
Touchable Pro got a update today think that’s baby now that gets the loving !
To be fair, audio/midi is a bit of a disaster on windows.
Haven't noticed
And Zerodebug launched a user forum some months ago but very little gets addressed there.
I've finally decided to be brave and give Studiomux a try.
I've been using IDAM to connect my iOS devices to Ableton Live - but I really want to be able to get audio IN to the iPad as well on occasions. I've been hoping that an iOS update would come and allow this - even a stereo in would be great... but the waiting game means you have to leave your project on hold while you wait...
@jonmoore - is it best in your experience to use the AU / VST plug ins on tracks within Ableton Live or use Audio/Studiomux as a system/aggregate audio device and select it in the normal way per track?
Hmmpf! Annoying.
Of course - I should have realised. Studiomux does not seem to replace your normal iPad system in and out in the same way that plugging into an audio interface or IDAM does.
So any apps that only get their audio input from the system bus will not work with Studiomux because they still get their audio input from the iPad system ( in this case the iPad microphone - because you would not be able to have any other audio interface plugged in at the same time )
Or am I missing something? Is there a setting to get Stuidomux to replace the main system IN / OUTs?
I use the VST but for no other reason than I have to maintain cross platform accessibility. OS X VST based Ableton sets will open on Windows and vis versa.
My main workstation is Windows but I have a permanent OS X slave and and my two laptops are OS X. And Live is set up an all machines (Ableton kindly allow me the extra installs).
I've never looked into whether it's better to set up as an aggregate device on OS X but instinct tells me that the VST/AU option is better as it's less likely to bump into sample rate conflicts (data stays in the digital domain until its translated by Ableton's main sound card. The aggregate device route is effectively using the iOS device as a secondary sound card.
Having said that I've encountered others that swear by the aggregate device route. And seeing as I use Windows as my main workstation operating system, I've not tinkered enough to formulate an informed opinion.
In my experience on macOS, there is no need to aggregate Studiomux with another device. Depends on your use/workflow, I guess.
Thanks for the reply Jon. I’m wondering if the PC version of Ableton Live allows you to put the studiomux generator vsts onto audio tracks so you can send audio to the iPad - because on Mac it says “only audio effects can be inserted into an audio track" It seems to work alright just using the studiomux effect vat but it worries me a bit only using half of it...
I was just trying using Gadget in one of the studiomux channels and it would not receive any midi that was sent by the Ableton Live track (using the Generator VST) - whereas Model D and EG808 AuV3 plug ins received their MIDI ok... not sure if it is an IAA issue or a Gadget issue - will have to try other IAAs and find out
Yeah - it probably makes sense just to use the VSTs seeing as they are easy to drop in on the DAW channels. I can't understand why the Studiomux audio midi device is 18in and 2 outs? It says it's got 9 input channels - the first pair is a mix of all other channels, then the remaining 8 pairs are the 8 channels. But what about the outputs? Can you only send a pair of channels into the iPad?
OK - I've also now tried out ThumbJam and that does not work either - although Animoog does - so it is not simply an "IAA does not work at all" thing. Any ideas?
@ricksteruk AFAIK You don't have to worry about effect vs instrument VST Studiomux. It's much the same with the VCV Rack VST.
This way of things only applies to Ableton as it's a little more flexible in such matters. There's nothing stopping you from from playing by the rules but it's not essential.
One other thing of note with regards to the way I have things set up is that I never send audio from Live to an iOS device, only the other way round.
...
....
@ricksteruk - this is what I was talking about in an earlier post (self quote above). You can get MIDI to these apps (almost all of them) but you have to first:
a) configure I/O for each app (they become MIDI devices) in Live's settings;
b) route the MIDI from Ableton Live independent of the Studiomux VST/AU i.e. on another MIDI track.
Is this the only option for audio into a pc if I don’t have an interface? I don’t need it for midi, midimux works pretty good for that still. Without an update in so long and seeing that there’s some issues, I don’t really want to gamble with it if it’s not going to work for the audio
Edit: disregard this, I just realized it’s built into modstep
How's Studiomux in 2020? with recent Windows 10 and iPadOS 13 updates?
I just downloaded Midimux and its server, and am impressed.
Hi,
Are you saying you have to flash the firmware in the icaudio4+ to save load presets? That's not been my experience. Do you use iconfig?
@FlowingRobes I could be wrong, but if you want to use the iConnectMIDI disconnected from a computer and iConfig, only 1 slot is available for saving the entire configuration. Are there more slots now? For standalone use? That was one nice thing about the old MOTU Timepiece, saving presets.
Hi,
I'm sorry I don't have the midi box,just the audio4+. So that was what I was referring to. But you should be able to use sysex to save \ transfer.
Sorry for the ot.
Edit..did a bit of research...I think I see what the confusion is....when you save the preset with iconfig, 2 files are created. One file requires a firmware flash, but the other..the one you want to use...does not. It just requires you to "play" the midi file into any midi in on the interface. Sort of like old school synth dumps.