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
Yessssssshhhhhhhh please!!!!
That would be fantastic, for each and any app and type of usage.
It's a rumor. No valid facts to back this up and not even a source. Very unlikely this will happen. Just a heads up.
Agree that it is a rumor. Not certain if it will already happen this year. But sooner or later this will happen. Apple is going to merge MacOS and iOS (see project Marzipan) as switch to their own ARM processors in a few years. Would be great to see it already this year.
And yes a cursor will be great and not only for musicans.
It would change my life. The pencil has it's strengths but is no substitute for the mouse.
Back when I first got into iOS for music I felt so liberated to not use a mouse & keyboard. It did not take long for me to realise just how valuable they really are.
It would be horrible if that caught on. Turning iPads into laptops would kill the platform for me. And it would invite lazy, shoddy app design, basically ruining everything that makes mobile special.
Ugh. I miss the days of Steve.
Why would a cursor/mouse do that?
Exactly why I'm not excited about it as well. I think there were rumors of it being a accessibility feature and not something that takes over the entire iOS platform
Because a touch interface paradigm is very different from a mouse/cursor based paradigm - and it goes beyond just mouse behavior. Since most developers are far more familiar with using PCs/laptops it takes a lot less mental gymnastics for them to design a desktop application than something that is designed with big-fat-fingers in mind. We'll see an influx of desktop applications recompiled for iOS, with no thought put into the touch UI "because they can use a mouse anyway".
Only bad things can come from this.
For me the main difference between desktop and mobile is that you use desktop to "sit down and micromanage lots of fiddly little details" and you use mobile as a "broad-strokes-high-impact" instrument. I fear this will bring lots of fiddly micro-management applications to iOS.
Understood but I feel like a lot of popular apps already have that issue "no thought put into the touch UI"
I go cross eyed trying to move loop markers or trim audio clips in a lot of music apps as it is. A mouse would really make life easier in this department. While I do agree that mobile is best as a "broad-strokes-high-impact" instrument... Too many apps already went the way of fine tuning fiddly little details.
I completely see where you're coming from. But my (more philosophical than practical) question here is: if something on iOS demands a mouse, should we really be doing it on iOS? Or can that part of the workflow or UI be rethought to be more appropriate for an on-the-go scenario?
It goes both ways, by the way: it asks of developers that they actively rethink desktop-conventions, but it also asks of users that they accept letting go of desktop-conventions and being open to new ways of doing things.
Lots of frustrations (of newcomers to iOS) stem from trying to force-fit a desktop workflow 1:1 into an iOS workflow. But that's almost like an MPC-user getting a real drumkit to make beats on, and getting frustrated because it doesn't work like his MPC. You'll have to rethink your strategy first
You can have my Bluetooth keyboard when you pry it from my cold dead fingers though.
But that's a different scenario, because the iPad already has a keyboard (albeit onscreen) which uses the exact same conventions as the physical keyboard. I.e. you're not mixing up different paradigms there.
Yeh, I know. And I agree it would be bad for the platform. But I freely admit wishing I could reach for a mouse many, many times because of insufficiently designed interfaces.
Not to worry though. Apple will require a $150 Apple mouse that only works with the 2021 Ultra-Pro iPads and I’ll be too pissed off to buy it.
tbh the iPad's touch sensitive screen keyboard is my favourite keyboard of all - as a humble 2-finger typer.
I agree with @brambos. That's not a good thing for iOS. I like the ipad and the music apps for their touch control and ease of use. A mouse Will introduce tiny controls in my opinion and we have some we can barely use or fingers for. Mouse should stay desktop.
I also wish constantly - but never for the pointing device feature
It's all about the wheel and a couple of function buttons right at your fingertip.
Both features could be emulated on screen - but have been generally ignored, as Apple ignored the mouse wheel for decades (until those gesture sensitve mice appeared).
I'm convinced we'll see some Bluetooth device sooner or later... and it will be much appreciated
Why would it introduce tiny controls?
We already have tiny controls lol. Surely a mouse can be added without developers losing the plot and making things smaller than they are already?
I'd love to do things easily rather than rely on the current gesture system that is hardly intuitive.
I think if Apple intends for the iPad to be a truly pro device it’ll need mouse support at some point. I know what you mean about it being bad for the platform...but I think most apps released don’t take much advantage of touch anyway, only a handful seem to take it into consideration.
But on the plus side it might mean more conversions and entice more pro developers and not just audio.
I wouldn’t use it all the time but I would like to use a mouse for certain things sometimes.
Touch alone for productivity only takes you so far unfortunately, and it would make more “work” things possible on the device.
Given that there's quite a number of apps that would deserve significant enhancements from a touch-friendly perspective, this might help using those apps (from somewhat inactive developers) that are awkward to use today because of their fiddly controls.
Sugar Bytes Thesys or PPG Wavegenerator anyone?
I’d agree with this if the mouse itself could be picked up and meaningfully used in a 3D space, not just limited to a plane, like we’re living in the stone ages or something.
Must admit I got a Surface Pro 3 with quite a few DAWS on Bitwig/ Ableton/ Reason/ Studio One 4 and the amount of times I sat with just the surface pen in my hand and realised after 5 minutes I need my mouse and BT keyboard ! As soon as you bring the desktop mentality into a Tablet it loses it portability on your lap and you are back sat at a desk!
Yep and...
I feel like we're already too far gone with interfaces, controllers and dongles to worry about what negative effects a mouse could have on app development.
I’m with Bambros on this... desktop needs mouse, tablet shouldn’t.
Said that I can imagine a Nintendo switch paradigm where you plug the iDevice into a hub and paradigm shifts. Maybe it’s that what Marzipan wants? The opposite to Microsoft but the same in the end...
It could make sense in futurible ARM transition and keep innovation still alive more than back to past like it seems sometimes...
Yeah but nothing wrong with being at a desk if you need to be, it's where you can get most stuff done.
It could also mean bigger ipad studio formats might be planned in the distant future.
It's also good for remote use, when you physically can't touch the screen also.
Trackball mouse would be pretty sweet on ipad
I agree with @brambos . An example of the kind of apps you’ll get is Thesys.