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
What feature does not work? State saving?
Appearently, if you do things a certain way. It has worked for all beta testers including myself 100% reliably since the latest Audiobus update, but it seems like you can still somehow break it.
It's really best to save important projects from time to time to a regular file, just like on the Commodore 64 in 1983 ;-)
So I must be an idiot..... I got it to work. Nothing to see here. These are not the droids you are lookin for. Move along.
@SevenSystems
Transferring old AB3 xeq1 project
I happen to have AB3 preset and a separate save of xeq project
I find the xeq1 project file in Files app. Share. Open in xequence2
Open Audiobus and load preset
Swap out xeq1 app to Xeq2 app in Midi section of Audiobus channels
Play project every plays correctly
Save preset in AB3 or create new preset. It initially state saves Xequence and shows prompt
But after that I go make any changes in Xequence then go back to Audiobus and hit Save on the preset and it doesn’t state save no prompt
Maybe I should try everything new and not transfer any projects
There is a significant difference:
Changing the tempo in a classic DAW will leave all MIDI clips fixed in their beat grid. The timeline will change but the beat position won't.
"Stretching" in Xequence 2 means that now you are free to not only move clips (like in all DAWs) but to also fine-adjust a clip's length to match a totally different beat grid.
This can be extremely useful if you have recorded MIDI data played at, say, 80 bpm but in Xequence you had 97 bpm set while recording.
It can also be very useful when you have to transfer songs from a hardware MIDI sequencer that has no synchronization and will slightly drift away over time.
In Xequence 2, you would simply disable the grid, select all recorded tracks and move their ends to match the exact bpm again.
You could certainly use it creatively too, by forcing an existing clip into being played back like the notes were actually triplets etc etc.
For me it is all about doubling and halving clips.
Another frequent situation where I find time stretching really handy is when fine-tuning the timing of recorded or drawn controller ramps. Note also that when moving anything horizontally in the editors, movement doesn't stop anymore at the clip boundaries so you can now freely play around with the data.
@AudioGus yeah, for notes, that and probably 2/3rding (triplets) makes the most sense musically. But I haven't experimented a lot and am curious what people come up with.
Excellent explanation - many thanks.
@SevenSystems - copying files from version 1 to 2 is made difficult due to the fact that both apps have the same name in files. What’s the easy way to transfer projects and other data from 1 to 2?
The best way is to just copy your entire "Projects" folder all at once. When you're done and have verified that all projects (and other stuff you might have had in Xequence 1) is transferred correctly, you can just uninstall Xequence 1 really -- there's nothing left there to hold on to! 🙂
The way I did it was copying the whole Xequence (1) folder to Readdle Documents using files, deleted V1 and installed Xequence 2, then copied the files back.
I think I need to see this one in action. It looks like a slick update but my fully loaded Xequence 1 still feels new to me. Also, I’m going to be the one who says it... if this was AU I would not hesitate. What with statesaving stuff and IAA being deprecated, etc.
I’m sure I’ll see it in action and be wowed but fence sitting right now.
@rs2000 wait I am baffled. In what DAW does the midi not adjust to the grid when you change the tempo? Maybe I’m reading that completely wrong.
Congrats @SevenSystems !
I'm away from home right now guys, please post some AUM screen recordings
One thing to note is that if you have Audiobus Presets that contain Xequence 1, and you have never saved the corresponding Xequence project normally as a file, then you should hold out and NOT uninstall Xequence 1 just yet because it will then be impossible to retrieve the projects from the Presets.
I'll add a proper way to migrate Audiobus Presets that contain Xequence 1 to Xequence 2 to the migration guide tomorrow!
Load your preset containing the Xequence 1 project
Go to Xequence and save the project as a regular file
Go to the iOS Files app, navigate to the Xequence 1 folder and copy the project to the Xequence 2 folder (yes, I know it's unfortunate that both apps appear exactly the same in the Files app)
Back in Audiobus, eject each Xequence 1 source and replace it with Xequence 2 (the icons are slightly different)
Go to Xequence 2 and load the project you copied
Save the Audiobus Preset under a new name.
That should do it!
Ya I’m a bit lost on this as well. Would love to see a video of it in action.
Also, if you have an idea for a fast part in a song, and you are not good at playing fast, you can play the part at a much slower tempo, and then MIDI stretch it to play at a faster tempo in the song track .
The beauty of this method, is that a hand played part sped up, will retain all the "hand played" nuisance and character. Unlike entering notes in a step sequencer, that can tend to sound mechanical. Sometimes you may want a mechanical sounding part, but other times you might not.
Now this can be done quickly and easily in a dedicated iOS MIDI composing/editing App, and I think that's really cool...
I'm still too new to learning all of what the iSO DAWS can do. I prefer simplistic solutions, to searching around on a much more complex DAW App looking for a way to accomplish something.
For me the philosophy of a dedicated purpose (MIDI) app like Xequence 2, is way less overwhelming than a full DAW, because it only puts the tools in front of me that I need for working with MIDI tracks.
Bought! Congrats on the release!
Yeah I uninstalled after transferring the projects into new folder
Guess that’s maybe my problem cuz all my projects are AB3 xeq1
You can reinstall Xequence 1 without paying again. I've posted a little guide above, hope it works!
@Eye0sStudios Your new profile pic looks more like Psyquence 😂
Wait huh? How do you record at a slower tempo without slowing the tempo? All the parts are going at normal speed and you’re playing along a half time or something? I have never felt more dumb than trying to figure out what everyone is talking about.
I want to be on the inside!
Ok let’s see if this one works:
http://preset.audiob.us/jbtoPh8i9sxPyoo
@SevenSystems @EyeOhEss
Calling it a day now, have fun everybody
I'd love to see someone launching clips to arrange a sequence of tracks, based on what I read on the website this is possible per track
.. So you should be able to launch clips of each track at different parts of your linear sequence?
I suck at making music in a linear time line to create loops and part changes, hoping that this is the answer, right now I'm using stagelight to do this but I prefer to host in AUM, so if x2.50000 can do this while hosting things in AUM / ab3 that would be rad
Could this serve as a brain to do all my composing with and then just export the midi to my daw for final touches. I know it seems like a backwards way to work but my desire to use the iPad in conjunction with my desktop overrides my feeling of working in my daw only. Thanks in advanced.
Yes it works. Coolio.
Haha I need to know as well, I feel like I'm outta the loop here literally
Works like a charm now.. Will abuse it later.. Thanks..
BTW, it’s begging for that ‘Return Button’ in AUM..
Did you mention earlier, are you running iOS 12.3.1?