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.
Why So Many?
This is far from a complaint. I wish I had the skills to utilize the many variants of EQ, reverb, compressors, etc. available. With 4pockets releasing a new visual plate reverb it just seems more and more complex to find the right tools. Why would I choose 4pkts over Kleverb, for ex? tho I do love the retro vu meters. So...
- A list of simple effects for the beginner as compared to pro? Any such list would be great in the wiki.
- Is there any end in sight? Will devs eventually turn their imaginations to other goals?
- How does one go about choosing the best effects for their purposes?
- It does seem that with FabFilter, etc. that this is an amazing time for iOS. Is this a harbinger of things to come?
Comments
@LinearLineman
I've been making a mental list of my journey in iOS.
As soon as I have the chance I'll do a write up for beginners and intermediates
The Professionals? well, we'll have chuckle
I used to teach music production and composition in trouble spots here in London.
There is a lot to choose from so in the end it's all about using the ears and choosing what 'sounds good' and feels 'usable'.
I'm in a process of deleting apps from my iPad and keeping those that sound good to my ears and a joy to use.
As with anything, this is a highly subjective topic, what's good for one is crap for another...
I'm not good with compression
I'm not good with understanding what the actual frequency is I need to cut or boost on an eQ.
Delays I feel are my best in terms of understating what everything is doing.
I side with @EyeOhEss on #3 , ears.
I can listen to my instrument and hear what needs cut and what needs added, and often that changes throughout the mix as more things come into play.
I know guys that can hear a melody and name the frequency range that needs cut lol... I'm not there...i just dig around in the sound until I feel I found it..
I think with eq it's most important to be able to shape the band, surgical cuts, bell cuts, longer curves all have their place, and while I can't always call which one I need I tend to figure it out...
I think these things should be able to go deep but not be over complicated, however there's deff a place for complicated with those who are pros .
The best eq I've found that gives me control and isn't hard to use is pro-q 2
My fav non shimmer reverbs are kleverb and bleass
My fav delas are bleass and kosmonaunt
However I do find myself going to others such as audioreverb , modley, adverb...
They have different ways of getting there and are all fun to use but I don't always understand why I like one more than the other, other than it sounds good quick and fun to use
@Linearlineman, what's the best keyboard for a beginner? (I know you like to post these writing prompts).
Developers always try to find a need and fill it. 4pockets is covering every typical studio FX product and many of the other serious iPad Dev's tend to provide a similar range of FX.
I personally think Klevgrand designs for beginners with some innovative User Interfaces and would
start with their options.
4Pockets like to emulate the knobs of studio hardware and is the budget leader for reasonable quality.
DDMF literally emulates hardware and creates a user interface that photographic in detail including the
1/4" volume knob (gain setting) that is intend to be set once and forgotten on the Magic Death Eye. IOS simulations of Pro hardware.
Blue Mangoo has created some FX'es that rival the quality of the best desktop apps on IOS.
Then there are the "FabFilter 7" which ups the IOS game and demands we pay for the development quality that makes them the "must have" EQ on desktops. If enough buy their 7 FX'es we might get
Saturn and the other FX'es available in Auria Pro.
So, if you want simple to understand go KlevGrand. If you want studio quality go DDMF and if you want
the best IOS quality learn FabFilter. I think Fab Filter can be used by just using your ears and not really have a clue about the technical details. Move those dots until it sounds great. This is true of all 7 apps because they all present a spectrum "control field" with moveable dots to increase of diminish gain in sections of the spectrum.
There are some great FX vendors that should be scooped up when they offer sales: Audio Damage, Amazing Noises, Sugar Bytes and more.
There are also many amazing hybrid FX'es we should all consider using for inspiration: Kosmonaut (MultiTap Delay) , ApeFilter (LFO based Filter), FilterStation, DubStation, GasStation (auto-twiddled knobs)...
What is GasStation?
I don't like to label my jokes. It was intended to make someone chuckle. About 20% of my writings
are poorly considered jokes.
Thank you for playing our game. My wife generally doesn't know when I'm kidding. Amazing we've lasted this long. "Take my wife, please." A Henny Youngman reference, no joke. "I don't get no respect." Google it.
GasStation should be an app that makes you want to run out and buy real hardware out of frustration with really tiny knobs. It would generate "Gear Acquisition Syndrome" (GAS). I have a few apps that could be called GasStation. Especially the IOS Loopers. I'm drooling on a (Roland) Boss LoopStation "buy button" for example and just need a little push. I know IOS can compete but do I want to leave my iPad on the keyboard and go to the bathroom in a coffeeshop? "Hey, where's my LoopStation?"
All my response to 3, let me note, I largely use iPad as an instrument and sound design tool. I mix on desktop.
For EQs I use two types. Ones that are transparent, usually just the stock DAW ones unless they don't have the roll off I want. And ones that mimic analog hardware. These are very subtle by themselves, but when you have a chain with a console emulating eq, compressor, tape sim, they add up to a still subtle, but importantly pleasing saturation and frequency attenuation.
Reverb
I use reverb in two ways. One for special effects and second for 'virtual placement.'
For special effects, I probably have 10 things I regularly use. I have an analog spring unit i.e. a hardware unit. I use plugins for plate sim, vintage digital (to mess stuff up), an array of ones with interesting modulation, a pile of high quality room impulse responses, weird impulse responses, like tunnels, tubes.
For virtual spaces, I use a super small (like mere ms) room reverb with predelay and eq on buses to set up a virtual near left, near right, and far, occasionally a middle left and right spot.
Compressors
Similar to both EQs and reverbs, I use transparent compressors, usually ToneBoosters, and a variety of analog modeled compressors that are dirtier. I probably have 10 plugins and 4 hardware comps. They just all have different types of saturation. Some work better on different sound sources. I have some I usually use on a drum bus, some on synths, on guitars, vocals.
How did I choose them? Reading manuals and then testing. I also tend to keep 90% of the time to those that are free and cross platform (MacOS/PC). Less due to my finances but because I collaborate with some guys remotely.
I started recording with reel to reel tape, first studio I recorded in had a real analog reverb plate. I still use real spring reverbs and optical compressors. And I was an early adopter of digital recording. And when it first started with the effects...oh boy...they did not sound good. Sometimes interesting, but not good. Entering the iOSphere last year, the array of effects available was already good, nothing like the early days of digital, but a few years behind lap/desktop in quality on average. Your fabfilters, are more an exception. And many others with the highest quality, they eat a significant percentage of CPU. On laptop, I have top of the line plugins that use under .1% per instance.
But some of this computing power doesn't really effect the end product. There isn't any ultimate benefit to me having a 100 plugins running on my desktop. I can so I do. I would get the same end result, with proper skill and discipline, if I bounced tracks as I got them to a good place. In laptop/desktop land, what happened was people just started adding more and more, not being efficient with buses, bouncing.
So when iPads get enough power to run a full compliment of high quality plugins up to that point, (and they already are there for sure depending on the song/genre needs) I think you'll see more top quality plugins.
I don't think there is any sort of clean beginner/pro distinction.
Are you genuinely curious as to why there are so many of these things or is this a rhetorical question to start a discussion?
Very good post @Multicellular. Thank you. @espiegel123, kind of both. I am curious why devs are putting so much effort into something that is out there in quantity, and will FabFilter and 4pockets cover the spectrum from high to low price. @McD seems to nail it. Every dev wants their own suite of effects. But once that is done? I struggle with using effects other than straight presets. I am also curious as to what’s to come. Everything MPE, I guess.
I would (if you haven't already) familiarize with the different types of effects, what they do and HOW THEY SOUND. Once you understand the difference between a compressor, a gate and a limiter and the difference between a flanger, phaser and chorus, you'll be able to more effectively use them, and also will have more of a sense of which types of tones you prefer and what you're looking to get out of each effect.
Not likely, since effects are really about PERSONALITY and each one has it's own and appeals differently to different folks. Different tools resonate with different people, so there will always be a variety of effects and each company will most likely continue to release their own flavor of a chosen effect.
Most importantly you need to know why you're using the effect - is it to accomplish something specific? Are you trying to "fix" a problem? Do you need to make the track more sonically interesting? Does it need to sit in the mix better? Once you know what you WANT to try and do, it helps narrow the field a bit. After that it comes down to taste.
I feel like it is. The more time goes by, the more iOS is seen as a viable music making platform by those not already using it. Big releases by well known devs for me is the first step.
I hope this helps. You can always message me directly if you have specific questions.
I would also add that a lot of these apps can be combined and used to modify your sound in ways that have more to do with shaping timbre and rhythm rather than the more traditional usages as well. You can essentially use apps like AUM, Audiobus, or apeMatrix as mega synths where you use effect apps and automate their controls to shape the sounds similar to how you would in a stand-alone synth app or how musicians will chain together guitar pedals.
Clickbait without a more concrete subject.
@Tja +1
@tja
Not answering your points, just few points from me
These days when any misused tool will find followers and if confident enough will create trend, I guess the best advice is to be creative
With all that said, you still have to learn what each does and train your ears to hear when it's working. Imo hardware or high quality software is the fastest way to get there, because while on most software you have to work hard to make it sound good, on hardware you have to work hard to make it sound bad. And once your ears are trained it's much easier to use software or even decide which software for what.
Don't overthink it, learn and use the tools you own to find out what else you need...
@recccp
Exactly, use your ears.
No rules with any of this stuff... especially compression - spooky unpredictable stuff in practice. That subjectivity is one of the reasons compression is so significant in shaping and personalising a sound.
Not only are there few if any rules - wicked young folks turn what were once capital crimes for a producer into design features ... especially vocally. EDM is little else than a catalog of crimes against music production "rules" of 20 years ago .
All about the ears and how they change over time... how noise is colonised by melody and rhythm.
@Soundscaper
I totally agree.