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.

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Visual synth app to show kids basic sound manipulation?

steve99steve99
in General App Discussion

Hello

I’ve been wanting to take iOS music making in to my 8 year old daughter’s school for a while now... i’ve not quite managed it yet, but her class has just started a science project on sound - they had a picture of a sine wave on the wall and now I’ve found myself volunteered for a half hour slot demonstrating ‘sonic waveform manipulation’ next week.

I’d be lying if I said I had a comprehensive understanding of synthesis, but I do know the joy of knob twiddling and it’s this I want to share with the kids, sonically and visually.

I’ve got a whole pile of synth apps already, but I’m struggling to think of the ideal candidate. What I want to use is something that gives a visual display of a waveform on an iPad (starting with a sine wave), that I can tweak with external midi knobs and present the results (played with an external keyboard or a simple midi sequence).

Any suggestions for a suitable App gratefully received.

Comments

  • cuscolimacuscolima
    edited September 2019

    Audiokit Synth one. Plus it’s free so everyone can have their own synth (well, I assume they will have a iphone/ipad one day )

  • iamspooniamspoon
    edited September 2019

    That is a good suggestion I think.

    A single oscillator ‘init’ patch produces nice and clear waveforms on the scope as you might expect. MIDI learn the waveform selection to an external knob and possibly it’s job done.

    Maybe worth noting that the oscillators on Synth One are variable shape rather than fixed waveforms (which may or may not be what you want) and that there isn’t actually a sine waveform but rather the shape begins as a triangle wave as shown in the screenshot.

    If using an external controller exclusively then perhaps you could use screen-zoom to enlarge the size of the waveform scope on the display? (Not sure how possible/usable this is in practice though)

    Sounds like a cool endeavour, good luck with it!

  • rs2000rs2000
    edited September 2019

    @steve99 said:
    Hello

    I’ve been wanting to take iOS music making in to my 8 year old daughter’s school for a while now... i’ve not quite managed it yet, but her class has just started a science project on sound - they had a picture of a sine wave on the wall and now I’ve found myself volunteered for a half hour slot demonstrating ‘sonic waveform manipulation’ next week.

    I’d be lying if I said I had a comprehensive understanding of synthesis, but I do know the joy of knob twiddling and it’s this I want to share with the kids, sonically and visually.

    I’ve got a whole pile of synth apps already, but I’m struggling to think of the ideal candidate. What I want to use is something that gives a visual display of a waveform on an iPad (starting with a sine wave), that I can tweak with external midi knobs and present the results (played with an external keyboard or a simple midi sequence).

    Any suggestions for a suitable App gratefully received.

    Guess I'd either choose Primer Synth (Syntorial) or Analog Synth X because all controls are on one page.

  • bleepbleep

    Also this: https://learningsynths.ableton.com

  • BiancaNeveBiancaNeve

    The synth in ids10 is pretty simple

  • BlueGreenSpiralBlueGreenSpiral

    @bleep said:
    Also this: https://learningsynths.ableton.com

    I was going to post this, it's very easy to follow and the synth sounds quite nice.
    Works perfect on a phone

  • animalelderanimalelder

    https://apps.apple.com/us/app/syntorial/id956861240

    Syntorial is pretty much made for teaching synthesis. Kinda boring, though.

  • steve99steve99

    Thank you everybody, really useful suggestions. I’m slowly working my way through Syntorial for my own education, but i’m not sure it’ll be visual enough for the kids.

    I’ve seen and forgotten the ableton tutorial - I think that might be ideal for starting with, then i’ll hit them with Synth One and a full on techno jam as a finale.

    Sometimes I worry that the pleasure of turning a cut-off filter knob just reflects my musical heritage, but so far I have yet to find anyone who doesn’t enjoy it.

    Thanks again, the school has plenty of iPads, but no iPad music, will get them up and rocking before the year is done.

  • MeatWalrusMeatWalrus


    https://dato.mu/

    This is cool if you have some extra money laying around 😁

  • vovvov

    miRack modular and Anymoog have got oscilloscopes. Visualization helps, but they’re not the simplest.

  • audiblevideoaudiblevideo

    Also ApeMatrix has a standalone (well AU3) oscilloscope. Use any synth and put it in the same channel.

  • eyesundergroundeyesunderground

    Not exactly what you’re after, but Chrome Music Lab from google is a great resource for teaching kids about music.
    https://musiclab.chromeexperiments.com/Experiments

  • steve99steve99

    @audiblevideo said:
    Also ApeMatrix has a standalone (well AU3) oscilloscope. Use any synth and put it in the same channel.

    Top tip with the ApeMatrix oscilloscope, already on my iPad and just what I was after, thank you. I realise now I’ve got some learning to do in order to meaningfully talk about what it shows, but that’s no bad thing. Looks fancy and that’s the crucial kick off point :smile:

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