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.
Roland Zenbeats by Roland Corporation (Auv3)
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Pattern are played without any problem, but no CC for me .
It used to work using BeatHawk as a midi plugin but doesn't work anymore since the two last versions. Hope they allow cc recording and playback soon.
I’m getting horrible crackels and pops, the timeline staggers. Very frustrating.
Tried freezing tracks to no avail, even when soloing tracks, the timeline staggers, cracks, pops, out of sync... Im using Roxsyn guitar synth, NuRack, Nembrini amp, Ting and ZB drums. 5 audio tracks and 2 midi drums. It’s unusable. It just started at some point and won’t go away. Tried restarting, changing buffer to longer values, rescanning plugins, as I said I froze everything... nothing.
I would expect freezing tracks to be very light on cpu load, but it’s like something is “stuck” somewhere in the background (not very technical, I know).
¿Has this happened to anyone?. ¿How do you go about debugging this kind of glitchy behavior?.
Hi all, seems that Zenbeats only imports 0 type Midi Files, however a great little app I have called Piano Motifs only exports type 1 Midi Files, making it impossible to load them into Zenbeats, my question is: does anyone know of an iOS midi file type “converter” or does Roland plan to expand the midi file import possibilities?
How are you importing? You have to be in Track mode. Got to hamburger menu upper left then Song > Import > Import MIDI File. You can then copy the tracks over to Clip mode.
They also plan to upgrade MIDI file functions. I expect a major update during Q4.
I have loaded many piano motifs into Zenbeats and it works fine. You will get 2 tracks one as left hand and one has right. Nick is correct. Good luck. It’s great to load them up in Zenbeats.
Yeah, got that pack but it's a 'slap in the face' one kit, a few sample-verse presets.
I hate audio-loops, give me one-shots and optional midi-patterns instead!!
I mean it's not even possible to delete the audio-loops I don't want nor need once the pack is installed.
The provided Drumkit is OK the rest I would delete if I could...
I find the loops pretty useful especially if I retune them, change the length and/or add fx . As good “sample fodder” as anything else.
Yeah, but then why can't they be loaded straight into SampleVerse or the DrumPads?
I mean they are just regular audio files right?
There's a lot of potential 'sampler-fodder' in the audio-loops category but when they can not directly be used as 'samples' it really irks me big time.
(Been using MPC Beats on the desktop for a while and every single audio-file in a 'project' can be used anywhere, audio-tracks, drum-pads or key-groups just as it should be).
And why can't the VIP content be deleted just like the other regular packs can?
AUv3 unlock is enough for me as I have no interest in wasting storage for content I will never use...
But I get it, it's a somewhat easier way to sustain the product if people buy the packs which the 'Mix Tapes' are demos of.
Cheers!
I would say “traditional” sampling in ZB is not a strong point. Probably best to use an AU. I know they are working on SampleVerse. I wonder if they’ll improve it to the point that it will be a useful sampler to use alongside Zenology. We’ll see!
In the meantime I’m happy with the drum machine, audio tracks and AU’s. I can get pretty much anything done with those.
It's somewhat odd to consider a free sound pack a "slap in the face" IMO. It can always be deleted.
I do wish the unwanted stuff could be deleted without removing the whole sound pack, but jeez, it be free and optional, and only 35mb.
I’ve been now testing out the Zenbeats, and really starting to like it.
I was first really positively surprised that there is a grid controller for intrument tracks, as I usually like to use my Launchpad to play melodies. It was bit disappointing to notice that it was not possible to configure the layout to work in 4ths tuning between the rows. The only workaround in chromatic mode is now to use the grid with just 5 pads.
Highly recommended using Velocity Keyboard as a Midi Effect for that. It's superb
Thanks Anickt, yes I managed to import a midi file in Track mode which works great, how do I then copy the tracks into Clips? I tried copying the Track content, but then going back into Clip mode I couldn’t “paste” the data into the Clip. Any ideas? Thanks for your help 😃
Thanks Oneres, yes that worked fine, thanks for your help! 😃
I've never had any problems pasting to a clip. I just long press on the cell and the paste menu comes up. Are you maybe trying to paste to a drum sequencer track? You can't do that iirc.
If you want to get a midi file to play in a drum sequencer track you have to import it to another track, then route the midi to the drum sequencer track.
noobquestions: is every soundfile used in the drummachine an .ogg file? what are the .sad and .drumkitzip files doing?
which other file formats can be used as a sound in the drummachine?
I typically use wav for my samples. aiff will work. You don’t need to go into .sad or .drumkitzip. Those are system files. You can load samples from anywhere into ZB but it doesn’t update the folder right away. I’ve asked them to fix that. I just create a folder in ZB User Audio Samples folder first, move my samples into it and work from that.
There is a User folder inside the Zenbeats User folder. Best to stay out of that.
Is it possible to play the “session” view and record the results in “arrangement” view ala Ableton?
@MatthewAtZenbeats Random sample rate question here. So, I'm in the 'settings' section with the 'audio' tab selected. I have my RME UCX interface set to 48kHz. Yet Zenbeats keeps defaulting to a 44.1kHz sample rate in the display area. I'd really like to operate at 48kHz sample rates if I can. Weirdly, my interface sample rate lights are steady, suggesting that the interface is still locked to 48kHz, while Zenbeats is telling me I'm in 44.1kHz with no way to change it.
The obvious clue is, under the 'Audio Device' drop down, I only have the option to select 'iOS Audio', but shouldn't my UCX be listed here? It shows up in the other input and output windows on the same 'Audio' tab.
To anticipate a couple of questions, "Force 44.1" is unchecked. This happens on a blank, new song with nothing knowingly loaded. And the only apps I have running are Zenbeats and RME's TotalMix.
Any ideas? Cheers all.
I have an issue with drum tracks in Zenbeats...
I’ve been complaining all day, why stop now?. Bear with me.
It’s all good when you use Zenbeats drum machine, but it only makes sense to be able to have a drum step sequencer for any drum plugin you wanna use. In my case an instance of Ting. Why restrict the step sequencer to the native drum module?. It should be available for any track. In essence, decouple the drum sampler from the drum editor.
As a workaround I’m using midi tools to send a copy of the midi to a track with Ting. That track in turn has a Midi Tools “receiver” plus a mapper to convert the Drum notes to the right CCs (again, something that would be useful on the step sequencer itself).
Here’s screenshots:
Ok, so that’s a decent yet cumbersome workaround... BUT. You can’t freeze the track. I’m guessing track freeze is only considering notes directly on its lane, not the ones being routed to it, so freezing is just blank.
So I said, ok I’ll copy the midi drum file now that I ole the loop onto the Ting track... nope, can’t copy midi drums to instruments. Stuck.
I much, much prefer to do drums in a drum step sequencer, I feel super awkward doing drums on a piano roll.
Anyone has any thoughts on this?. Does anyone share my overwhelming and crippling step sequencer frustration?.
Tomorrow will be another day 🙌
Yes. Long-press the record button, then select "Record to Timeline".
Send Drum Machine MIDI to Instrument track and mute the Drum track?
@tahiche - there's a somewhat easier workaround to use the drum sequencer with other apps:
It doesn't address track freeze though.
I see, so midi output. It’s indeed easier. My approach was inherited from a time I was trying to make a midi track play 2 synths at the same time. So I just replicated it... But I did have to mute all the drum samples, that was pretty dumb. As always, very helpful 🙌
Can you think of a good reason why there’s no step sequencer for third party plugins?.
A good reason? No.
A likely reason ... Stagelight, which became Zenbeats, wasn't originally designed to use third party plugins at all. It was designed as a self-contained groove box.
See my previous post. You only had to mute the drum track and use its sequencer for the instrument track. It’s essentially what you’re looking for.
You don't have to mute the track if you set the output to another track. Midi note conversion using something like mfxConvert is necessary for some apps unless you want to have a zillion drum lanes spread around to get the right notes output.
You’re right. I’m recovering from minor surgery right now. 🤪
I think we can agree that this really could and should be accomplished much more simply. Like in the old hardware days when I’d get a new synth and simply run a cable from my thru box to MIDI in and assign the synth its own MIDI channel. Done!
@MatthewAtZenbeats It appears I’m a non-starter for Zenbeats. It just won’t recognise my UCX interface properly. Won’t show in the “audio device” tab, and can’t work at 48kHz, however the UCX inputs and outputs all shows up in the “Audio Low Input” (and similar fields on the same page). Does the same thing on two different 2018 iPad Pros 11" & 12.9". I think I need to just bite the bullet and go back to Cubasis. If I ever find some kind of user error, or find the cause of the problem, I’ll report back in case its useful for anyone else. But currently, for me, Zenbeats with UCX is a non-starter. Is there anyone else using UCX or RME with Zenbeats successfully? Cheers all.