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.
Comments
Could someone please elaborate a little bit more on "It also seamlessly bridges between MIDI sync and Ableton Link"? Could this help in the following setup: Use AB to connect Xequence with Rozeta and AUv3 sound generators, Xequence being midi clock master. Can I get Rozeta automatically started when I press "Record" in Xequence?
looks cool. so the midi learn function. is this just for the faders and transport controls of audiobus. or can it work with the Au parameters such as filter cutoff, osc pitch, etc.?
If so how do you set that up?
@eross not trying to be snarky but the manual is excellent and describes all the cool things you can do with midi learn, including AU parameters. Very powerful!
https://audiob.us/help
These are some great improvements...
Hey, sorry, I only have a brief minute to post a short note. You don’t need the midi learn thing here. You can midi learn directly from the controller to whatever you want to control.
The midi learn receiver is only needed for apps within Audiobus to control other apps. This is because if when you’re in midi learn mode, AB thinks anything you touch is something you want to midi learn to, not from. So, if you were wanting to control an app from Rozeta LFO, you need to have LFO as the sender going to Midi Learn Receiver. But with an external controller you don’t have that issue.
I probably didn’t explain that well. But it’s the best I can do at the moment.
The vows of love has been renewed :lol
thanks for the link. > @lukesleepwalker said:
I use AB every day and pretty much in the same way I did when I first came across it (back in the mists of time etc etc). There have been so many things added (esp. Midi-wise) that I almost feel intimidated. I think I need my own Sir Doug Masterclass
I feel the same way. I'm not particularly a Midi idiot but the last few times I tried to use AB it almost seems too complicated now. I couldn't figure out how to do what I was trying to do at the time. I haven't given up but been too busy at work to find time to try again.
@Michael awesome update
@yowza and @JohnnyGoodyear, I think there are separate issues between learning how to use the new goodness (and there is a ton of amazing stuff here now) and being blocked by the increased power/complexity. To me, the core AudioBus experience is still pretty simple and the complexity around MIDI learn, for instance, doesn't have to get in the way of using it the way you did 2, 3, 5 years ago.
I was thinking this morning that, at its heart, this app still reflects a mental model that works for me. The simplicity of setting up a lane with a sender, a filter, and a receiver is wonderfully simple and easy for a relative midiot like myself to set up relatively complex MIDI setups without any muss/fuss of diving through MIDI settings. Even if I never used something like MIDI learn, it still works better than some of the other hosts that require me to remember which MIDI channel and which filter, etc.
That said, I find that most of the underlying complexity is true to the original simple mental model. That is, if I want to set up my external controller with AB3, I don't have to go into a settings menu somewhere to set it up through some interface that causes me extra cognitive load. Instead, I go to that sender/filter/receiver setup, turn on MIDI learn mode from the bottom bar, and tap on the app I want to control. It's that easy!
I will grant you that the MIDI receiver is another kettle of fish--and I have struggled with it. The reason is pretty simple--as @wim states, it breaks the AB mental model by allowing much more complex routing between apps. That's a good thing for the boffins, but you can just leave it alone and you'll never run into any conflicts because you don't use it. I'll be honest and say that I really haven't used it much even though I recognize that it has much power and flexibility.
My advice is to make use of the new features that will bring value to anyone--for instance, being able to merge presets makes it easy to combine two things you like. And if you get to a place where you want to start using an external controller in your musicking, try some simple things like assigning a button to the start/stop transport. Once you get started, you'll see how @Michael has thoughtfully made a lot of the complexity as simple as possible.
Oh that’s what’s it for a sort of vitural midi learn rather than physical I understand now cheers.
A very thoughtful and generous answer. And when I come out of my bunker I shall read it again and sally forth
This is really inspiring. The thing about AB has always been its solidity. I'm drawn to the shallow surface because I know the depth that lies beneath.
But I would love to have examples of HOW to make the most of it.
Take Preset Addition.
The manual (which is cleanly written, a rarity) is clear about how to take add presets. But it doesn't really go into WHY this is such a cool thing. I'm guessing that it would be useful if you set up, say, each of the 8 tracks of patterning with a ProQ2 in each lane. (It would be great to collapse those lanes into a single drum bus, but that's for another update.)
Or maybe you have your go-to bass treatment?
Surely there are interesting use-cases that the clever among us have. Would love to hear them.
There are several but here are my top 2:
I often use the same setup to sketch out an idea. Cells into a grand piano for chords. Rozeta bassline into Bassalicious2 for bass, etc. Instead of a single template, I have these broken out into components that I can use when I need that "next thing" for a composition. I have a growing library now that I've gotten into the habit. Eases that little bit of friction in workflow.
Many AU apps don't have the ability to save a preset within the app--relying on the host to save the state in the host preset. This is an issue when you want to get a MIDI loop or other preset from one preset to another. Happily, with the AB preset converge thing, you can bring the preset over via the host preset. I had a perfect take of a MIDI riff in Atom and I wanted to move it to another preset? No prob!
Both very good use cases.
I am getting crashes trying to use the Midi input with regular apps (non AU).
I tried Xequence and Fugue Machine in the input slot, but then when I tap the output slot nothing happens, and then AB crashes after a couple of seconds.
Update:
If I load the Midi Out slot first, it doesn’t crash when I load a regular app in the Midi In.
https://audiob.us/help/#crashes ?
I'd like to see this midi learn in action, as described in the manual, to create a side chain like effect... I want this lol but don't know how to achieve...
" For instance, one can use an LFO generator Audio Unit to drive the parameter of an effect Audio Unit to create a sweep effect, or use an audio-envelope-to-MIDI Audio Unit to control the gain of an audio source, for a ducker/sidechain compression effect. "
This is done with FAC Envolver:
Basic midi routing with midi learn output
Audio page, same Envolver instance A as midi lane feeded by Noir:
Mixer page, tap midi learn icon and tap for example bass fader:
Set manually if needed midi source and CC number (often needed with Envolver, depending on modulation amplitude):
And Noir now will modulate bass level via Envolver. LOTS of other applications for Audiobus MIDI learn with or without Envolver!!
Here is a preset to start with, if that can helps:
Audiobus preset 'Envolver Side Chain': http://preset.audiob.us/dBadgXPCq4hSZwp
Edit : @Michael preset sharing don’t include Envolver midi learn, perhaps a bug or something which needs to be implemented?
I appreciate this @Janosax ! Ima grab this and dig in today! 😃 grab envolver too ! Looks rad
I have to say that after a long hiatus from Audiobus I have had a lot of fun coming back....
It really is a great app
Damn. Knew I'd forgotten something. Okay! On my todo list for 3.4.1
Thank you!
To my surprise, I’ve actually come to prefer the “one app onscreen at a time” ethos of Audiobus. I was adamantly for the multi-window approach when AU apps started appearing. I just couldn’t understand why anyone would be against it, having come from the PC/VST way of doing things.
But after spending many intense hours in beta testing the latest Audiobus, I’ve completely changed camps. I just get frustrated trying to adjust app sizing to get any more than one app onscreen at a reasonable size, then to find the window I need under a stack of them, and to have to tap the top bar of a window to get it to the foreground (rather than touching anywhere on the window), having important UI elements of the host covered up by my window placing, etc.. I’m just loving the Audiobus experience much, much more. I’ll use other hosts when I need to, but Audiobus is where I go to have fun.
That's great! I have been considering adding a simple split screen mode for AUs, which I'll get to eventually; resizable and movable windows will never be a thing in AB though, for that reason
You must have read my mind (again). After I posted that, I was thinking, “Yes, but there are a few exceptions when it would be super nice to be able to see two things at once ... but without all the floaty windows.” 😂
Glad you posted your observations, @wim. I have found exactly the same since "coming back" to AB3--I find myself focused and productive just about every time I open the app. I've even found myself using it as my first stop for composition, which I did not expect at all as I tended to prefer all-in-one tools like BM3 for composing previously. But AB3 is so fast for me now that I've reached a sweet spot where day to day composition and configuring my live setup are blurring into one continuous thing. And that is a beautiful thing!
Damn, that's so great to hear. Yay!
Totally @lukesleepwalker!
Like with most things speed and immediacy make AB3 a winner. With three button presses I have a session up and running.
But I do sometimes press the ab session load associated button even before starting audiobus so there is room for improvement @Michael