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
That was my question since I max'ed out on all the IAP"s and it can add up fast if I need to get all the features I currently have. Will it work inside AUM and other DAW's and fit in the pop-up window or still be an external stand-alone Sequencer that plumbs apps as MIDI targets? Never really got comfortable with that design and tend to avoid standalone apps as a rule now. The only exception is MIDI Guitar which can host AUv3 but that's a specific "controller" requirement using audio for MIDI control. If I didn't get hooked on using Xequence 1 will 2 seduce me more effectively? I hope so because the Piano Roll and attention to details is second to none for thinking in MIDI.
Can it record midi fx?
Good question. Even if not, though, it's possible to, say, record the midi to Atom and then from Atom it can be recorded into Xequence, if I'm recalling this correctly.
@nondes @audio_DT Xequence 2 has the same connectivity as Xequence 1 (Virtual MIDI, Audiobus MIDI lanes, hardware MIDI) plus Bluetooth MIDI right inside the app, so you should have no connectivity problems as long as you have Audiobus too.
(sorry for the more modern folks, but using an app as complex as Xequence as an Audio Unit is not practical in my opinion and would compromise on so many levels. The app really has many connectivity options and extremely good integration with Audiobus, so I hope you're OK with that. It would technically be no problem to make it an AU, but I think offering its individual modules as separate AUs, as I've started to do with Xequence AU | Keys and Pads, is a better route to go for now).
On another note, Xequence 2 has just been approved by Apple in record time (THANKS! 🍏) and I can pull the trigger anytime now, which should be soon!
Cheers! 🤛
Gotta buy me some itunes cards for this and Sugar Bytes Factory
Do it! Do it now! No pressure, but I’ll give you $10 if you do ;-)
And congrats on the approval/ release ! 👍🏼👍🏼
It is! I like small tools in AU form factor. Xequence is really a DAW but old school like CakeWalk (before
audio was a thing because chips didn't have the ump). Then Pro tools... here we are with DAW's on our phones.
DAW's cannot be housed in AUv3's. IAA's either for that matter. It's an entirely different approach to
resource management (RAM, CPU, threads, shared memory, etc). Too many layers of control and there's hell to play.
BUT Please make a lot of great Plug-In's too. (Along with that Audio-based DAW). And the super secret
don't tell anyone "SevenSister's 3D Video Broadcasting System for 4G Networks" for IOS 15. oops. Where's the DELETE KEY?
Gotta run and check for it.
It’s a shame that it can’t be more integrated with AUM, and that it’s not an auv3. I never open Audiobus these days, tbh. If it’s not a technical problem, I think it would be amazing to do it as auv. The swapping apps business is a bit of a vibe killer. Maybe add an iap (I know the dev is moving away from that model, though)? I know you’re moving away from that model and generally agree with it, but, damn, having this more integrated with other stuff would be sensational. On other things, you’ll still be getting my tenner, and I’ll be checking the store every half hour 👌😇
‘The app really has many connectivity options and extremely good integration with Audiobus, so I hope you're OK with that. It would technically be no problem to make it an AU, but I think offering its individual modules as separate AUs, as I've started to do with Xequence AU | Keys and Pads, is a better route to go for now).
But doesn’t this mean that it would be better to just buy all the separate modules instead, then use in your favourite DAW? Bit wary of paying twice for everything, though I’d probably end up doing that anyway, if push came to shove.
@audio_DT -- it is probably a philosophy question. I personally feel much more comfortable with one tightly integrated environment where every module and every workflow element has been developed in integration with all the others, so that there's a holistic concept for how the user can achieve the goal (i.e., composing and arranging music) in the best possible and most efficient manner. The only app switching that's really required is between the app you use to host the synths (Gadget, AUM, Audiobus) and Xequence. With the Audiobus sidebar, that's one single tap. If you can't / don't use Audiobus, it's one swipe from the bottom of the device and one tap. Yes, it could be better, but it's (in my opinion) much better than shoving around 20 or 30 separate AU pianoroll editor windows in AUM.
I'm not criticising other approaches -- but it's a conceptual thing. Xequence is not that geared towards "noodling" (what many like to do), but it's more like, errr, "the Microsoft Excel of music softwares". Getting work done in the most efficient way possible, even if it's not always fun! (does that sound funny
)
Yeah, I get you. But it would be good for productivity because it can quickly turn noodles into a proper meal, as it were. But I think my workflow will be to design everything in AUM and then arrange it all using xequence. I’ll use Atom for patterns, for example, then sling everything into xequence for final processing. No biggie, just slightly less convenient. Just get it on the store already! 😛😇
Btw, I meant to ask - does your keys au do chords? It says ‘chords’ in the xequence app but pressing them doesn’t result in a chord. Just wondering if I’m doing something wrong.
That's just a category in the scales menu -- you'll get different kinds of "chords" in the sense that the chosen scales only contains a sus4, a sus2, etc...
Ah, ok. Thanks for your speedy reply. Been thinking of getting it but I’m not a ‘real’ musician, and hence use chords apps. I acknowledge my rookie status 😇. I like your drums au - very handy.
Another elegant approach is to use Xequence 2 to sequence a desktop machine with a big sample library hosted in the DAW of your choice. No app switching, just a direct link, and editing is a lot more comfy than using a mouse.
When you're done, export MIDI, load in DAW, done. The sounds are already there.
Chord pads is something that is on the roadmap for both Xequence 2 and the AU though -- I'd like to have that very much as well, as I'm also the worst keyboard player in the world
@SevenSystems has put together a good website that has a really deep and thorough manual, as well as a page highlighting some of the differences between 1 and 2. When released, I suggest a stop there to help deciding.
I think at the intro price it’s a no-brainer. Think of it as future-proofing with the side benefit of better performance and some great new features. If you don’t have the IAPs, it’s even more attractive since the cost for the whole thing is on the order of the IAPs.
That said, if you’re a casual user of Xequence 1 and are happy with it, you may not need the changes.
Ha - I’m sure you’re being too modest, but thanks for the heads up. I really like that idea, the way you describe it, and will give it a go on xequence 2, the second it’s available (!). I could do it in xequence 1 but I’ll wait...
Is it just me or does xequence 1 render the midi in a way that sometimes it just disappears? I’m not talking about the actual notes, only the ability to see them when zooming. On my iPad Pro 2018, when I resize the midi notes they often disappear and then come back again after resizing aimlessly. I don’t know if it’s a bug or just that xequence 1 doesn’t handle the new screen size effectively. Great app, though.
Well, it’s not officially supported, but you can load it in AUM. It just doesn’t have the IAA app switcher that would let you pop back to AUM from Xequence without the home button or up-swipe thing. But you can pop into Xequence 2 from AUM, and the routing options for midi are all there.
I was thinking of Xeq2 not as AU, but as a midifx host. That it could host midi fx modules directly without Audiobus, and record the output of those.
Tick tock tick tock... [grin].... pleeeeeze!
Yes, definitely. I'm sure that once I'm used to doing it this way (using AUM and swiping the bar at the bottom to switch apps) it will become second nature. We're being spoiled with the AUV3s - makes us lazy, unforgiving mofos! But I am forgiving of it, in reality, because xequence does work very nicely with AUM, aside from the app-swapping stuff. Cheers.
Can everybody please take a look here:
https://forum.audiob.us/discussion/33649/xequence-2-midi-workstation-is-now-available