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.
Stagelight rediscovered
Wow. I slept for too long on stagelight, I've had it since beta and bought the full version on release day, but due to mostly living inside AUM I've ignored everything else for a while too really enjoy AUM, and I always will it's amazing...
But recently I've had an itch to create clips and stagelight called my name... I also love modstep..
But there is something special about SL and how it feels... And I find the workflow really intuitive and fast...
But what I'm loving right now is its internal instruments! Some really REALLY really great sounds and fun synths baked right in... The control over each voice, effect and parameter is designed for effortless thinking and is all just right there! Super impressed with this..
I haven't tried to do anything midi like using steppolyarp or rozeta and I'm not sure if it is set up to be able to... Hopefully.. Anyone know ??
But with AUM and SL side by side, I'm feeling unstoppable
Comments
@Telstar5 and i were initially shocked it didn’t get even more love here on Audiobus. Got lost in the feverish anticipation of NS2 even though for me it’s a lot more fun and quicker to the groove. Pound for pound may have brought more unique features than any DAW since BM3. Clip launch, Drumtrack and Sampleverse are amazing. It’s not without fault and development has slowed but @OpenLabstechsupport and @MatthewAtStagelight are very responsive and currently working on new updates and fixes.
Also supports MPE and has Roli integration which puts right there with GB and Cubasis.
I feel like it has not got the promotion it needs, but that is true with a lot of iOS apps... Hopefully more people will take the time to really discover all the good stuff inside!
I am really impressed with these synths tho, they are fun... Really inspire me and are not complicated... Very strait forward, but the sound they can make is really unique and deep...
I wouldn't be against a separate audio unit for these synths to host in AUM or ab3 etc... Im pretty sure people wold jump all over that... Deff an idea 😁
The recording and clip launching is great... Ableton style, and effortless... You don't lose your creativity in the set up... A+ on that...
How does it do with midi sequencers tho ? I am away from my studio rn but was having problems figuring it out earlier
I really like Stagelight! But unfortunately no MIDI AU yet, and also no External MIDI out (even though the controls / ports are showing in the GUI they do nothing), and no Ableton Link.
Link was the biggie for me - I am having to use Gadget for our new project because with no Link we can't stay in time.
Looks can be deceiving, there’s no MIDI being routed from an AUv3 like Rozeta.
Can’t figure out a way to record or send the MIDI out from Rozeta to record on a track. Stagelight treats Rozeta as it were an AUv3 instrument and expects it to get its MIDI from an external MIDI source or from Stagelight’s piano roll.
I messaged them to see if au midi and link will be coming!
Also the guitar instrument sounds really nice, great ambient vibes can be made and the other instruments I've been exploring this Eve are so good!!
Works awesome on iPhone as well
Yeah, what @WillieNegus said for sure . One thing that seems to be overlooked is the modulation capabilities of Sampleverse which are quite extensive . People just never seem to mention it . The Electro Synth and Electro Pulse sonically don’t quite compete with Obsidian. Developers are great although they initially promised a few free packs per month with the ultimate unlock, that’s as someone said above, slowed down.
As for myself I just bought a Yamaha MODx today and considering the new Pioneer Toraiz Squid sequencer or maybe even Deluge in the future . I love the 10,000 arps in the Yamaha ,not to mention the 5.67 Gogabyte waveform ROM plus the small form factor of the 61 (I even have a small power pack to run it.. Believe it or not it’s super portable . I’ll definitely be using iOS for Auria, Fab Filter a d Stagelight bit today marks my letting go of trying to get iOS to do everything . I coulda bought a new laptop for what I spent today but I went hardware . I think I did the right thing. I still love Stagelight though. I can only imagine what Stagelight 5 will be bringing to the table .
I'm not a fan of obsidian tbh or ns2 , I've really tried to like it but there are a couple things that I just can't work thru.... While obsidian is a synth that is more capable of a creating a widely larger sound.... It being stuck inside ns2 makes me really have little use for it and I don't enjoy the structure of it, and it's rather thin sounding for me.... Not trying to dis on it cuz a lot of people really enjoy it and it works for them and I'm glad it exists, love seeing people enjoy iOS...
The synth and instruments in sl are just so fun and simple... And they look great! That inspires me a lot, just how the instrument looks... And how fast I can tweak the main things without going thru to much nonsense.... Not saying I don't enjoy more complicated synths as I do... Layr, model 15 , Sunrizer, drc are some of my favs and they require a lot more work...drc being the easiest to work on imo of that bunch..
But I'll agree that sl synths have a very particular character and sound and they are stuck there for the most part, but for that I really dig em... They fit in perfect to the host even on the iPhone... And the structure is really something more devs should look into....
I create clips, that's how I've done things for years since I got ableton days after launch... And stagelight has done an expertly excellent job at bringing this to iOS while still maintaining amazing workflow to lay down parts and bring in effects... And, here's a big one that ns2 lacks for some strange reason... You can access the on screen keyboard from every screen!!!! Even the effects and mixing pages..... Deff need that
I hope they bring in iaa , midi au and link... Can't wait to see it's future!!
Also that's a great pick up!!! Hardware is always fun.... Especially plugged into iOS.... Aum, ab3 and stagelight will accept it as a new friend
I need midi clip control (input) to start taking it seriously as main replacement for all...
If you mean midi CC for launching/stopping/recording clips it’s already implemented.
But currently, SL only listens to a CC value of 127 .
It would be cool to control the clips with a launchpad or similar
The problem I have with Stagelight is that I find it to be generalist. The impression I'm left with that they're more interested in the number of platforms where they're available than they are in creating applications that can take advantage of all that a particular platform can provide. Android, Chromebook, Windows App Store, Mac App Store and iOS feels a stretch too far without compromising what's available to the strongest of those platforms. The business model appears to be driven by selling IAPs to as wide an audience as possible.
There's no doubt the iOS is leap years ahead of Chromebook and Android as a music platforms, and in turn that means that cross platform compatibility only means that iOS ends up as a compromised version of what Stagelight could be.
I agree that making it cross-platform ,may slow the development ,but if you take a look at the AppStore you can see it’s frequently updated on monthly basis
It may take a while, but I honestly think that when SL gets full midi support and a dedicated sampler ,it would be best DAW ever ! Even now it has the fastest workflow
Does it have tempo changes yet?
Yes they are
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Of course, you can’t load a VST in iOS or AU on Windows , but internal instruments/fx are cross platform. In case of incompatible external plugin you can always bounce the audio of the plugin as wav file ....
Haven’t tried it, but check
About the freeze function , yes , SL has freeze track option, works , but don’t know what happens when transferring on different platform. Ideally SL should lock & auto freeze tracks that have different platform plugins on transfer. Something like auto bounce
It’s not without its warts but still very new. I agree the overall project is extremely ambitious but I think they’re doing a good job so far. The fun factor is already extremely high. Doesn’t have the rabid fanboyism enjoyed by NS2 but offers significantly more imo and is exponentially better supported than NS2 and BM3 combined so I’m excited to see where it goes.
It’s new to iOS but not really new overall.
I really like the cross platform aspect.
My wishlist is all connected to the excellent drum sequencer. 1) allow variable number of steps per row. 2) open up the parameters of the drum sampler inside the sequencer. They’re there @MatthewAtStagelight just expose them please
Oh, Ableton Link would be very much welcomed too.
Like others, Stagelight has the workflow I get on best with in iOS.
I just jammed out in sl for about two hours haha didn't even feel like I was inside a daw... It was like being in an open landscape of sound... Made some long attack / release pads with a bit on noise on one of the voices... Then pulled up the Tele caster guitar synth and put on a long decay kleverb reverb... Got a high end pluck from electro pulse... And Made a soundscape that was super airy and chill... Almost feels like winter on Mars haha..
Then put a Fab filter on each channel and sculpted a nice balance of hi n low...
The fun factor is there and the workflow is easy!!
I just discovered key lock so everything is in key!!!
It's miles a ahead of ns2 imo in terms of workflow and structure... Just an over all good time and you don't feel any constraints...
Au midi will be a great feature someday but for now AUM does more than fulfill that area!
Currently running all these effects.. And instruments, with Hulu and YouTube open in the background.. And there are zero cracks n pops or issues... This thing is stable and smooth!!!!
If it is ahead of even NS2 in terms of workflow, it has the best workflow of all Apps, right?
Did still not dive into it, but that makes me curious.
You can bounce back n forth from the instrument page, effects page, mixer page, sequencer page from any screen..
Also you can have your on screen keyboard up and useable on every screen! Ns2 not showing that from the mixing page and effects page makes no sense to me and makes it impossible to have fun while designing sound.. Also flipping pages in ns2 is confusing for me..
I give stagelight 5 stars for workflow...
Same. Most of the good stuff I like from GarageBand without all the GarageBand stuff that turns me off.
I’m not a fan of the internal instruments, but with AU support and track freeze it’s fine.
I
@Korakios :So far as I know you CAN any VST’s into the PC version a
D AU’s into the Mac .
Deff! Garage band is cluttrry I like a lot of things about it but find it hard to really use..
Man you should give those sl instruments another chance, they can really be made into great sounds with tweaking and effects
Believe me, I have. Sampleverse looks great on paper, so I have spent hours and hours exploring it. I just can’t get anything I like out of it. Ever. I’m sure it’s just something about it that doesn’t click with me personally. That doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with it - it’s just not for me. Similar with the other instruments. Again - just me.
@reasOne let us hear some, bro!