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
@McD
You're right, EQ do most of the job.
I use RE-1 for pitch variation but you can achieve similar result with DAW cassette, though I prefer RE-1. This might also be achieved with a pitchshifter app modulated with Rosetta LFO.
RE-1 can also add some hiss which will sound a bit less artificial once passed through the second instance of Pro Q2. Here is a screenshot of my settings
*
I use DAW LP mainly for crackles but I also to add some hiss and saturation. If you don't own it, I guess Master Record from Igor Vasiliev can add crackles too. But a better option might be to use vinyl crackles samples. I am considering this option now. But I believe some EQ should be applied. Some free packs are available on internet. Check these:
https://bedroomproducersblog.com/2012/04/02/free-vinyl-noises-sample-pack-released-by-mad-ep/
http://99sounds.org/vinyl-noise-sfx/
Very interesting thread, JanKun. I have to laugh, though, at the ironic compilation... a Frenchman, living in Japan, emulating anachronistic recording techniques (which were the high tech of their time) of African American blues musicians of the 30s, communicating globally via mind boggling futuristic technology and asking how to make his recordings similar to those almost a hundred years ago. What an amazing world we live in!
I, too, am a big fan of John Hurt. His music was very influential for me in my twenties. Led me to Robert Johnson and others.
I thought a combo of your first two tracks would give the best result to fake an old 78. I thought about the idea of listening to something triggering memories of great historic musicians. I have to agree the nostalgia factor is worthwhile but it is not so much the cracking as the sound environment that triggers the enjoyment for me. And, if it is just that “vintage room” sound, then it is a legitimate emulation as much as a modern effect like Shimmer.
@LinearLineman
Thank you for your comment. It is also a good opportunity for me to apologize to the audiobus community for what may look like an OCD. I definitely can see how this anachronistic tone quest can appear laughable to most people. In this era of HiFi digital audio, who cares about LoFi? I have to admit that I also tend to prefer listening to clear pristine audio. However, on a very personal pov, there are few reasons why this anachronism makes perfect sense to me.
The first is pedagogical. I don't consider myself being at the bottom of the ladder in terms of musicianship (but clearly far from the top...). But when it comes to sound processing/engineering, the term noob suits me perfectly. Thanks to the plethora of resources available online, including the invaluable contributions from all the nice people on this forum, it is now possible to learn by oneself. So I see this as an "exercice de style" to poorly quote Raymond Queneau... Just like someone learning to play an instrument, patiently developing fingers/hand/members independence, I believe this is a good practice to train my ears for spectrum frequency recognization, tone matching, and learning to use the tools at my disposal to serve one specific purpose.
My second point is also pedagogical. As you already understood, I am a big fan of musicians from that era. As a fingerpicking lover, I believe there is so much to learn from them. I recently regain interest in developing my right hand technique after hearing Blind Blake (really underrated...) So I decided to learn his "West Coast Blues". Like many people do in this case, I first checked on YouTube several modern rendition of his track. In most cases, what sounded at first very convincing playing, appeared to be oversimplification after close listening to the original version. So I decided to humbly start my own transcription. Obviously, the first difficulty I am facing is the complexity of Blake's playing. Chord progression is really basic, and the complexity might not be obvious to a distacted ear, but there is so much going on! The second difficulty I am facing is the transcription itself due to the poor quality of the recording. Sometimes it is hard to tell if a note is played, if it is only sustained, or if what is heard is only some kind of sound artifact. So I thought that if I recorded something I know really well and apply destroying audio treatment, I might be able to recognize some of these artifacts and understand a bit more Blake's playing.
Then, I might want at some point to incorporate this kind of sound in some of my music.
I am not that much into nostalgia like I used to. But one thing I enjoy for sure is this kind of childish feeling when hearing some of my recording and telling to myself " holy s... ! It sounds like Bukka White !!!"
Sorry for the long reply! I realize after reading it that I am definitely an obsessive nerd! 😑
@JanKun, I hope you don't think I was criticizing you! I was just bemused by all the elements.
I don't think anyone here would find fault with any musical directions you might be interested in. The thread obviously interests many others and I was drawn in, too. Thanks for an interesting post!
No offense at all ! Always a pleasure to hear your opinion. Thanks to you I now understand better why I like the word anachronism since I was a kid 😊.
@JanKun you may be surprised (because I critized the 'destroying'), but I really DO care a lot about 'lofi'
But less about cloaking than about a specific sound character a software or device may bring.
IOS audio in general is very pristine and fully qualifies for precise and hifi sound recording and reproduction. But this leaves out quite a range of 'audio' that just happens in front of my mental ears, driven by memories of formerly heard tracks or sound events.
What's clearly lofi in tech terms, may still be a pleasing experience for the listener.
Like @LinearLineman I appreciate your personal background details and surely didn't expect that motivation. Considering the approach kind of gimmicky at first, applying tools because they exist, not because they are needed.
Btw I have similiar experiences with the banjo (hated it's sound)... until I listened to old recordings by Dock Boggs, which opened my ears.
Stating the obvious: transcribing personal performances is a 2 sided sword, in particular if a musician has developed his/her own style.
A lot of this is based on muscle memory and intuition and not 'constructed'.
(you knew this anyway)
But it may inspire and resonate your own strings
@Telefunky
As much as I enjoy listening to HiFi recordings with pristine sounds in a sharp mix where each element sits precisely in it's own part of the spectrum, for whatever reason, my ears tend to be attracted by gritty, distorded, noisy sounds and "blurriness" that can be found in LoFi recordings. Could it be some kind of nostalgia of my first recordings ( how I loved my TASCAM portastudio...). Is it psychoacoustics? Or are we predisposed physiologically / genetically to like some types of sounds more than others? sorry for the digression.
Thank you for pointing Dock Boggs. I never heard about him before (shame on me!) It is amazing how his right hand thumb and voice are connected and even more amazing how both are directly connected to his soul! I am not a big fan of banjo sound but played like this, it is very inspiring. I'd like to work on Country Blues (the song is stuck in me head for 2 days!) but never played banjo. Is he using a special tuning?
I don't transcribe my own performance. But since I am using a lot of different open tunings, I need to keep records of my ideas and the open I am using so I usually quickly record on a Zoom H4n.
I never do that kind of mixes 'organized by spectral content' but leave it up to imagination and ear.
Basically knowing my 3 guitars and 4 mics and how sound will be transformed in the recording process, but this applies to sampled or synthetic sources and effects equally.
It's not an entirely fixed 'idea processing' and the layout may change on the fly, but most of it is driven by choosing the 'right' source ingredients.
Your Portastudio experience is not psychoacoustic. These technically humble devices have an amazing character, that's hard to describe - but they do their job.
Imho a real Portastudio complements the IOS sound in a nice way, but at the expense of a severe amount of extra time. So I stick with Multitrack DAW instead.
Whenever I switch to open tunings, I'm completely lost - the fretboard becomes a stranger.
But I really like that effect because it literally removes all chord patterns from memory and playing by ear only gets into focus. Often resulting in initial crap, but brings a sense of freedom, too...
I think you get it!
Nice job
That is exactly why I like so much playing in open tunings. Everytime the fretboard becomes a blank sheet. Some kind of trip off the beaten tracks. I really enjoy this state of disorientation, where all I have to do is concentrate on the sound and let my ears and imagination drive from one chord to the next, building progressions I couldn't create if I was only relying on those too well known (and sometimes boring) chord shapes from the standard tuning. Some open tunings don't have a clear tonality, which can sometimes lead to interesting tonality change. This is similar to what everyone is saying about mixing: trust your ears, not your eyes.
@RUST( i )K
Thank you. I just made a second edit of my very first post, including a revised AUM preset and new versions of the two short pieces using the preset. I think it sounds a bit closer now. If you have time let me know what you think.
@JanKun Love the sounds, the vibe + the playing! You’ve definitely put in MANY, many hours with your fingerpicking. Really well done! Look forward to even more of this.. + thank you for the AUM project.
@JanKun + @Telefunky
It’s great to run into a couple of open-tuned players.. 🎶 I’m sure there’s a few more in the woodwork 🙂
Open tunings are so... magical.. all previous fingerings + patterns go right out the window.. it’s like playing a new instrument with each different tuning. Absolutely ❤️ altered tunings!!
I like learning an altered tuned song and then keeping that tuning on that guitar for days.. or weeks.. or months.. you end up going on a journey every time you pick up that guitar. Your ears resonate with the tones of that tuning. You end up singing what you need to play and then finding that on the fretboard. “That” could be anywhere.. The chords that you discover are also other-worldly.. complex sounds from simple fingerings.. Joni Mitchell + Nick Drake were masters of that.
One of the latest tunings that I’m exploring on the acoustic is - EEEEBE - from Stephen Stills (which he learned from Buffalo Springfield bassist Bruce Palmer) - (some songs using that tuning are 4+20, Carry On/Questions and Suite: Judy Blue Eyes). That’s 5 E strings.. talk about drones.. it’s fantastic!
-Curious.. do you prefer to play these tunings on acoustic or electric? I think the acoustic is great for the chime-y open string chords (the way they ring for days..) + the intricate fingerpicking. BUT the electric has it’s own character when the tuning is tweaked. Drop ‘em down low and get some crazy dirt happening. Add some slide and look out.. Too much fun!
Advice for anyone that doesn’t play guitar - beg, borrow etc... and learn a few of these altered tunings. Everyone is a beginner on the instrument when you put it in a new tuning. Turn the tuning pegs until you “hear” something you like (or break a string.. ha! 😂) and then plunk away in a childlike manner. Magical sounds await..
this example may (slightly) fit the context... it's an italian EKO P2 (parlor size) guitar from the 60s that I scored for a few bucks.
open E tuning with no idea what I'm playing, takes some time to find a riff, played with a slide on.
The boxy sound of the guitar is even emphasized by the Sennheiser MD214 Lavallier from the same period (usually worn on a band and dangling in front of the performer's chest). In that position it delivers a linear frequency response of vocals, but of course not with a guitar... but who cares ?
Worth noting: the strings are flatwound d'Addario ECG 24
ps: the guitar doesn't exist anymore. One day (standing in it's corner) it had it's final big bang (in the true sense of the word) and fell into pieces. I miss her...
Mayday v2 is indeed very convincing now, hard to tell from an old record
Thank you! I hope you will find some use for the preset though it is a really specific sound!
Nice to hear that you like Nick Drake! He is one of my favorite singer songwriter and an endless source of inspiration. I became interested in open tunings after discovering his music more than 20 years ago. Joni Mitchell is also an amazing artist (i adopted her system of notation for open tunings...)
Both electric and acoustic are good for open tunings. There is really a huge range of possibilities on electric guitar. dark metal bands tuning all the way down to B using heavy gauge strings. I was a teenager during the 90s and a lot of bands were using open tunings. One of my favorite song is this Soundgarden song called Head Down. Really love the open on that one. Sonic Youth are maybe the most emblematic band in terms of open tunings. I saw them live many times, and they had so many guitars on stage each in different tuning. In one of the bands I was playing we we're using this tuning on electric guitars EGDGGE. You can listen here (a bit weird, far far from Delta blues 😉)
https://myspace.com/bandit112legroupe/music/songs
Wow, really love the boxy sound. It reminds me a bit of the sound of the Gipsy jazz guitars but softer mellower. Really sad to hear the guitar is gone for ever. EKO guitars both acoustic and electric seem really nice, never had the chance to play one. Was it comfortable to play? The sound capture is really good! I would love to use this kind of sound. By curiosity, did you try to pass this through my fx chain. I know it is a waste but Really curious to know how this would sound ...
I have been playing for 30 years now but never played flatwound strings, would you recommend ? I heard the sound is mellow but does it change something in terms of playing, comfort? Are the strings friction sounds reduced? Do you prefer these to standard roundwound?
These d'Addario strings are commonly known as 'Chromes', smallest gauge for guitar is 10 (iirc ECG-23) which I use on my Telecaster. They are fairly stiff regarding bends and have a strange mixture of 'mellow with brilliant' sound.
Imho on acoustic guitars they work best with mahogani and/or plywood tops and are great with soundhole magnetic pickups.
My first use of these strings (12 gauge) was on a Walden D351, their cheapest model, but this particular one had a stunning 'jazz-like' and really balanced performance over the whole fretboard - very unusual for an entry instrument. So I immediately put on a set of Chromes and it worked marvellous.
This was 7 years ago, and those same strings are still on that guitar.
Needless to say the Telecaster strings haven't been changed in 4 years either.
(except for the high e-string, which I broke once on each guitar)
The EKO P2 was nice to play, neck almost like an electric guitar - I didn't mind the relatively high setup as it was supposed to be played with a slide anyway. And the sound of the beaten up thing really surprised me. I'll get another one, if an affordable shows up - but take more care looking to sign of water damage (which the former one probably had)