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
Waitaminute I thought Cubasis had a cupholder..
coming in 2.9
No, dummy. That’s a CD player.
Shouldn’t be.
Even though the economics are the reality, it’s still good to get the feedback out there. I’m sure a lot of developers aren’t active musicians, or at least don’t spend as much time trying to do as many different things as non-programmers musicians do. So, it’s natural that they might not have ever thought things that we think are glaring omissions were important.
You never know when one might be reading and going “Well hell, that wouldn’t be so hard to do. Why didn’t I think of that?”.
Of course I kid. I have never been one to stifle a healthy dialogue.
Sunvox.
I'm all for pushing stuff forward. To be clear, my reply was meant to inspire the OP, not troll.
I thought it was a plant pot stand.
FYI in stagelight, if you’re having this problem, switch off ‘force 44.1k’ in the settings and freeze the track, then switch force 44.1k back on. It’s not a great workaround by any means, but it works for now.
I had a real shit time with iOS and trying to do DAW things.
I think that will improve with the new OS but it's been something to avoid for me. I look at iOS like a do everything fx/sequencer/looper/synth thing that can also do basic multitrack recording. A one stop production shop like a laptop running Ableton it is not.
BM3 is built on top of an app burial ground. There are too many ghosts in that app, it's like the Overlook Hotel of iOS.
It took me over 5 years and 13.5k visits to this site to build my dream set up.
Just saying.
I feel like I'm dreaming... does that count?
IOS devices never work for me in dreams. In fact, nothing electronic does. I managed to turn on a light switch once, but that’s about it.
I think making music on tablet-computers seems like a matter of an ergonomic inevitability.
I can't imagine the capability for making music on iOS doing anything but progressing as the capabilities of tablet computers approach parity with desktops.
The portable tablet concept will always be a different ergonomic experience than the desktop. But what "can" happen, is the tablet "can" feasibly replace the physical desktop hardware, and operate in a duel role capacity.
And given the nature of the changes that Apple is currently introducing in iPadOS, it might seem that Apple is headed in that direction.
I think the driving force behind this change is about enabling people with the potential to be creative while being on the move. The tablet becomes the mobile means of interfacing with "computer tools". The cloud becomes the electronic "safe place" for all that is created. When the user once again has access to the large monitor and peripherals at a "desktop" location. The tablet takes the place of the desktop hardware through connectivity, and enables the use a broader variety of interface peripherals.
The current state of iOS music creation tools, is simply a reflection of the intended use and interface capacity of iOS devices. Developers don't build in the full gamut of desktop capabilities, because iOS has only been a mobile platform.
It looks like that might change in the foreseeable future.
In the interim, "it is what it is". But I'd rather have "any" ability to make music using a variety of affordable and good sounding instruments literally within an arms reach when creativity strikes, than be reliant on mustering up creativity in some predetermined location where all the stationary tools are kept.
The only thing iPad and Desktop applications have in common are "plug-ins".
A good Desktop DAW has so much more capability than anything on IOS.
But for creative "concept" apps at a really great price you can't beat the iPad.
If you're empowered and happy with desktop tools then IOS can be a real disappointment
unless you are seeking battery-powered mobility... then you might get it.
Chris Randall of Audio Damage explained the economics and history of making money from plug-ins
on a podcast:
He and started in 2002 and it took 4 years to have a business that paid for itself.
Chris and Adam Schabtach can sell plug-ins on Desktops for ~$50+.
They sell IOS apps for $5-6 and sells 8 times as many.
They code in Juce and C++ for about 10 plaltforms with the same DSP code and similar Juce-based GUI's.
Why not sell the IOS Apps for more? They learned that lower prices dramatically improve total sales.
Finding the sweet spot in the demand curves to pull the most profit from the market. With 2 similar apps the lower cost app outsells the other.
If we're lucky FabFilter will figure this out and drop their price and get more yield from their efforts.
One can only wait and hope. I know there are maybe 30 here that will buy everything they ship at $30
while the other 100-300 will wait for a big sale to indulge.
@McD : the sweet spot on the pricing curve is not going to be the same for all apps even in what might seem to be similar niches. So, what is right for the AudioDamage plugins might not be right for FabFilter plug-ins.
The FabFilter folks may in fact have figured some things out.
I'll bet the curves are a lot closer than not. They probably got a huge burst of sales with their recent 50% off sale on Pro Q2. I'm sure most have purchased their Auria Pro plug-ins when they go on sale.
Well, I hope they ship more AUv3's soon and I'll wait for a sale and load up.
+1
Kudos that this thread is so fairminded. Feels like the audiob.us Bar Mitzvah party. Maybe I can change that!
Are they listenable and enjoyable to those who like such stuff? For the most part, yes, I think.
a coaster for your fav beverage. Or maybe to put a vase on. You can change the wallpaper to match the flowers. 😘
I’d also like to be positive and point out that, not too many years ago, we had some limited options on iOS as to how to create music until someone thought, “Hey, wouldn’t it be great if you could take the sound from one app, send it through another app to add effects, then record that sound in another app?” And a solution was made, to the point that Apple took notice, as did other app developers, to acknowledge the need of music-makers on this platform.
I see developers now looking at user feedback and forums like this one and saying, “Oh, is that a feature you want? What is my app missing? What do users want in a workflow? What sort of plugins are missing in iOS that could be filled by new apps?” And now we see a plethora of options and more innovations coming every day! Maybe at the moment we don’t have full-blown Logic or Ableton or Protools on iOS, but we’ve already come a long way and seen some amazing apps come out of the woodwork.
Not necessarily iOS-related, but remember when Line 6 came out with the Pod?
Well, that business model worked extremely well for iPhone apps in general.
We need more iPad musicians
Indeed there's a lot of quality apps to choose from today.
If that means adding the functionality but keeping the accessible UI then yes please!
The biggest problem with iOS and also the Apple ecosystem in general is stability, Apple, consistently over the years, has cared little about this, creating ‘the future’ then unceremoniously dumping it, in the pursuit of ‘the future’.
I have thirty odd years of experience of using sequencers/DAWs on the Mac. That’s an awful lot of baggage to bring to iOS DAWs.
So it’s unsurprising that for me iPad DAWs are frustrating and limiting to use.
But the apps that use iOS to its strengths are the opposite. They are liberating and fun to use.
I buy lots of apps for iOS. On the Mac I only have Logic now. I haven’t bought any plugins for many years.
My most used computer for making music is my iPhone and is almost always with me. The apps that I use with it are unique to mobile and are powerful and very creative
After a long break (children!) I am making music again due to iOS. Most of the time I spend making music is with my iPhone or iPad.
There is no direct comparison with the way I use my iPhone for music to the way I use my Mac. And when I’m ready to start actually building a ‘proper’ track then all the audio goes over to Logic.
But when the time comes to teach my daughter music production if she’s interested, i will use the iPad not the Mac. iOS is far less intimidating.
But these technologies are increasingly ‘in sync’ with their desktop technologies. IAA didn’t exist on MacOS, but AUv3 does. In fact iOS is ahead of desktop when it comes to AUv3 maturity.
True, but as you state Apple will drop IAA, in effect they don’t build upon ‘the wheel’, they recreate it afresh, with all the pros and cons that creates.