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
As @AndyPawlak says, the MicroFreak is a wonderful companion for an iPad setup. I’ve barely scratched the surface of its presets but I just LOVE it with iOS synths. Load up Mersenne and it’s just instant heaven. Highly recommend it - it’s my new fave piece of gear.
Have you got a Microfreak?
Not yet but the GAS is starting to grow...
The sequencer seems to be pretty well featured with per step-editing, rest/tie button for easy step-recording etc. etc.
But for now Spectrum will have to do, it's got more LFO shapes, more oscillator types and also implements the Main/Aux outputs from the Mutable modules which are missing on the MicroFreak...
I just hope all the 'bugs' in Spectrum get sorted out, especially the polyphony issues where it randomly drops notes...
The problem is that it will trigger additional GAS, what's next run the Microfreak thru an Eventide H9 Max?
The Polara works beautifully with the Microfreak... it’s lurrrrvly
it’s my favorite new toy.. Lexicon algorithms .🚀
So I fell for it, got one too...
I have just ordered mine today 😀
Shimmer setting? I love it.
😆
🤘🖖🏻🤠
Re: MF vs spectrum vs VCVrack. From the short hour I got to spend with a microfreak, what stood out to me was the hardware workflow and the constraint of having to work with the well chosen modulators built into it.
Do you folks find that it delivers as a cure for screen-itis and modulation option paralysis?
Hmm, maybe I should just dig out one (I've got two) of my old Zoom 1202...
...as the MicroFreak is pretty 'dry' without effects
Or just use the oodles of FX we have on iOS.
I'm using Dubstation and Adverb2 here on Spectrum:
@ohwell Modulating 4 parameters with 4 different Rozeta LFOs at different rates here.
Just sent my fist Support Request to Arturia regarding the MicroFreak.
Uni/Bi-Polar switch for the LFO under Utilities/Preset as well as control over the LFO's StartPhase when key-sync is enabled.
If the response is positive I'll ask for 'acceleration' and 'smart snap for the knobs as it for some parameters takes ages to dial thru using the rotary encoders... (by 'smart' I mean like 'one click per word for speech or 'wave' in a wavetable etc.).
Not knowing how fast the CPU in the Freak is but I guess they could bump up the LFO to >1Khz with optional keyboard tracking for some proper filter fm...
I have no real hopes in getting these features implemented in the official Firmware but considering some have already 'hacked' the firmware adding custom wave-tables (by replacing the factory wavetables) there might at least be some hope for 3rd party hacks since the firmwares installed by the MCC do not need to be signed
Love the freak so far, my 'motor memory' is almost trained by now, it does need some external effect processing to truly shine, FAC Chorus, AD Plugs, Eventide Black Hole and TB Reverb's shimmer are pretty...
Hopefully Arturia keeps the 'Freak' alive for a few years and do a 'Korg' and add support for an SDK that allow users to create custom oscillators/generators!
I Didn’t understand any of that, but I’m glad you like like it mate 🤠
I just turn the knobs till it sounds nice 👍
It’s a great synth.
🤘
😂
I'll try to explain the bi/uni-polar LFO
A Bi-Polar LFO outputs values from -1 to +1
A Uni-Polar LFO outputs values from 0 to 1
So if you use for example a 'Bi-Polar' square wave to modulate pitch the pitch will never play the pitch of the note but wobble around it while a 'Uni-Polar' square would play the note's pitch and the other value would be a set distance away from it.
(Think of for example creating a fast Note+5th or Note+Octave arpeggio drills).
The 'knobs' also scroll quite slow so it takes many turns of the knob to go from first to last value
As for the wave-tables, it's just user waveforms for the wave-table oscillator for creating even more awesome sounds.
It's a nice synth indeed that can be made even better
I have noticed people turning and turning some knobs in a lot of the demo’s - it must get annoying after a while not to mention an interruption to the workflow. Hopefully it will be fixed.
Your right , I was turning my knobs ( oooooh madam! ) this morning and there is a lot of movement before any changes are made.. good point I would have never even noticed.
It would be better if there was less turning needed!
@Samu or anyone if you find any other tips or tricks or even patches! maybe post them here
I'm still getting familiar with the unit, trying to tweak the keyboard sensitivity & velocity/aftertouch to suit my playing style.
As it doesn't have any motion sensor I need to learn to play with a flat-finger to cover certain amount of area for different velocity/aftertouch values.
There's no way to set the default velocity when using it to control external instruments so that will likely be another request later on...
Also in the sequencer there's no easy way to adjust the gate-time of already entered notes so it's quite tedious to create note-to-note glides when step-recording. (I would have thought that 'Shift+Rate' when in step-edit would adjust the gate-time of a note, this will be yet another request later on once I get some feedback from Arturia).
Other 'features' for creative sound-editing would be to have a 'stepped mode' for Ramp and Triangle waves (Ie. split the ramp or triangle LFO wave to a set number of steps). This is something I just love in the Spectrum AUv3! (Which in same cases sounds pretty darn identical to the MicroFreak since they both use the Mutable Instrument engines).
Also Arturia should really add a dedicated Noise Oscillator (with different noise-generation styles) and why not port the Drum engines from Mutable Instrument as well and add the Main/Aux options too..
I'll do my best to answer questions regarding the Freak once I'm 'comfortable enough' with it which should be in a week or two
I have one of these in the attic, too.
😀 I have one in the attic as well- only it’s the 1204- those were the days. They just take up so much room now compared to an app.......mmm... I wonder how much I could sell it for.... and would the time I spend looking for the adaptor make it worth my while🤔
There are a few reviews which stated the filter cannot self resonate, infact it can and also it can key track accurately. Only one filter so its monophonic.
Yeah, even though there are plenty of effects apps out there there's still none with the extreme simplicity the Zoom 1202 has...
...but still I resort to using the plethora of apps I have on the iPad for effects
Need to see if I have enough cables to do some serial routing between units and cross-feed them as they can also work as mono-effects so creative routing is just a few cables away. (I should have gotten a few of those 3" stomp-box cables at the store to make the routing easier, maybe next time haha).
If I remember correctly from the manual (which was a single sheet) the eq is at the analogue input stage, not digital (because in those days filtering in the digital domain produced less desirable results). People praised the analogue stages of these.
On the Zoom 1202 the EQ comes after all effects. It's mostly meant to be used when the mix-knob is at the wet setting to cut down or boost Lo & High the effected signal. So if 'Pre FX EQ' is needed that has to be done before the signal is fed to the unit.
And well, the Zoom 1202 sounds a LOT cleaner than the old Alesis MidiVerb as an example
(But it's still far from 'clean' when compared to a lot of apps I have on my iPad).
Ah, after – I hadn’t realized that (the knob placement suggests pre-). Thanks
Found another 'bug' in the MicroFreak firmware
When using the keyboard to trigger the sequencer or the arpeggiator it doesn't transmit 'pressure' so patches that use pressure do not respond as expected. Oh well, depending on how lucky I am with the feedback I'll see if I'll spend more energy on bug reports to Arturia...
Do you mean aftertouch?
Yepp, it's called pressure when used as a modulation source.
I created a patch that uses pressure to increase vibrato, works fine when playing the sound but when enabling the arpeggiator or sequencer the pressure is no longer recognised...
The pressure to add vibrato would be a nice performance parameter to a pre-recorded pattern as it's easy to use the keyboard to transpose the pattern. Since there's no 'mod/vibrato depth' button it can't be automated.
The support request I created has a somewhat generic topic so it's possible to add more stuff to it, if or when I get a reply
Ok cool, yeah the sequencer doesn't record the pressure so that would be an awesome feature.
The pressure does work on the arp when i assign to cut-off, i haven't tried to many other matrix options on that yet though.
FYI on DAW ‘s Ableton doesn’t record or play back aftertouch, bitwig does however.