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
Having a lot of fun with this now I’ve got the hang of the UI. Absolute bargain considering what it does.
If I understood what you said correctly, then the latest update addresses this. Disengage Hoste Sync, engage Remote, and set the project tempo to match the host. Loop points work, app starts and stops with the host.
There are a couple of things I’d still like to see. Right now you can’t arm recording from within the app in this configuration. Relying on the host record button is problematic in AUM and impossible in AB. Also, I would like to see the option to synchronize the tempo automatically to the host as well in this configuration.
Big +1
@wim Yes all of this should be added, remote mode is nice but without recording capabilities it’s not usable.
Next update in just gets better.
So cool! Picked up this in a bundle this weekend. 👍
I’m curious why this can’t show up in the host/output mode of AUM/Audiobus? Is it impossible to have a DAW written in AU?
If so, we might be in trouble when IAA finally goes away
I’m still curious why this is important? It can be the last FX in a chain, which is effectively the same thing. I’m not saying you don’t have a reason, I’m probably not seeing it.
I’ve been using the free Mixer Send Receive plugin from ApeMatrix to work more effectively with MultiTrack in AB. Rather than load MultiTrack on each channel, I start by adding a MSR instance in the input with MT in the FX slot. Then I add other MSR instances on the channels I want to record. When I’m ready to record, I just set the channels to the same “bus” in MSR. Works great.
Putting it in a mix bus is the equivalent of putting it at the end of a chain anyway.
Except there are no mix busses in Audiobus. Yet.
Mixer Send Receive is handy for creating them though.
I don't know if this is new info or not, but......
In AUM, I am able to record in MultiTrack Recorder (MTR) with host sync enabled.
I don't know if the latest update added this today, as this is the first time I ever tried to do this.
Description of what I did....
*I loaded EG Pulse (EGP) in the top slot in AUM, created a drum rhythm, then set EGP to Host Sync.
*I opened MTR in the effects slot under EGP, and set MTR to Host Sync.
*I then drew in a 4 bar selection in the MTR timeline, and turned on both "punch in" and "punch out".
*With "track 1" armed in MTR, I then tapped record in the MTR transport, and it began flashing red.
*I then tapped "play" in the AUM transport, and MTR recorded a 4 bar loop from EGP.
Note that in MTR. I was also able to turn on recording with Host Sync on, by simply making any kind of selection at the beginning of the MTR timeline. Then only engaging "Punch In".
With Punch In engaged this way, tapping "Play" in AUM will turn on MTR, and it will record whatever in bused into it, until stopped using the AUM transport control.
Is that the latest update?
My only gripe with MTR, is when using Host Sync it starts recording at the beginning of the song, rather than where I’ve placed the cursor. I tried punching in/out earlier today but it didn’t work for me. If the update fixes this I’ll be a happy donkey.
Update: answered my own question, no it doesn’t, Host Sync still pushes the cursor to the start of the song. Bummer.
I think you want Host Sync off, Remote on, and set the tempo of the project to match the host tempo to do what you want.
That is pretty much what I have been doing the whole time.
Host sync behavior always worked well for me.
The Remote behavior was a little weird when it was first introduced. The update addressed some of these things. @wim has made a lot of good suggestions for Remote behavior, but I think not all of them have made it into the app (yet).
You have to cue up the cursor in the Host with Host Sync enabled.
In AUM you can swipe/drag the time display to cue the AUM timeline and then MTR will follow that cue spot.
When using punch in/out with Host Sync on, select the region to record in MTR, and arm the main Record button in MTR. Hit play in the host, and recording only happens in the selected region. You have to arm the Record button manually first before punch in/out will work. I overlooked that a few times, confusing myself in the process.
The latest update didn’t include the ability to arm recording in the app with Remote on and Host Sync Off. If it would just do this then it would be possible to record where you want and when you want more easily. As it is now, you have to press the AUM record button to arm recording. But you can’t do that unless one of AUM’s tracks is set to record ... an unneeded recording cluttering up the file system and taking space. In Audiobus you can’t record at all in this manner.
But ... @4pockets is being super great about responding to feature requests. One nice one in the latest update is with Remote enabled, if you have a loop defined and hit Stop in the host, it returns to the beginning of the loop rather than to the beginning of the song.
@4Pockets For now I see three modes to use in various situations with dawless hosts:
What I do is using all of those modes depending on the situation.
Of course, best mode seems to be remote mode, but recording ability is definitely needed to improve workflow.
Also, it could be cool to being able to disable remote mode pop-up, which is annoying after a while.
We can label recordings now, this really needs to be added to export files names too. Renaming everything in AudioShare is time consuming.
Also, batch export is a very desired feature, just like Blocswave and GroupTheLoop (which also has easier to read naming convention)
On a very positive side, I find this AU very light on ressources, seems better than BW and GTL when making stems with AUM or AB.
And even if it’s tiny on iPhone 7 Plus, it’s in landscape mode and I prefer that than alternate portrait and landscape all the time between AB and BW/GTL.
It would also be great to get the Record and Start/Stop buttons exposed as AU parameters. I wonder why developers so often neglect or decline to do this?
Also, I’m a bit finicky about timing.
Noir recorded in MTR shows some little drifting (it’s slightly variable offset!!):
Same Noir track recorded in GB via Audiobus on track 1, and MTR Noir export seen above on track 2:
+1 on all of that
+1 for the batch export. I'd also like to be able to batch delete sometimes, rather than delete several unwanted files from the pool one file at a time.
My primary use for MTR is using it as a "capture tool" in AUM.
It serves that purpose well as it is now, but I have to re-edit some what I capture in other Apps to perfect it.
I'd like to have an in-App ability to Preserve any crops and fades I make within MTR to a new file. So I can time stretch it, and then export it.
When I use MixDown as a work around. I end up with a Stereo file twice the file size as the Mono file I started with. But that is the best work around I have for using Time Stretching and preserving in-App edits.
I think just adding the ability to MixDown in mono would be enough.
Edit: Also. Make it so the MixDown file does not include the metronome clicks as part of the audio file.
Ah, that’s the bit I missed - I didn’t realise I could drag the AUM timeline! Cheers.
Yeah bit silly that, Remote doesn’t really help what I’m trying to do. However moving the AUM timeline helps me to cue up the start of the recording. Problem with that though, is it doesn’t start at the beginning of the AUM sequence, since the two timelines won’t always line up.
What I’m trying to do is basic DAW stuff:
I place the curser in the position on the MTR timeline, from where I want it to start to record.
I hit play in AUM, which triggers the start of the MIDI sequence I want to record from.
Really basic stuff, but none of the combinations of Remote, Host Sync, punch in/out are doing the job, unless I’m doing it wrong!
Tempo does not show correct
I’m pretty sure that with the exception of having to uselessly arm something for recording in AUM, Remote alone would do what you’ve said. We’re close!
Tempo does not show correct. And would be nice to see if the stereo button is enabled.
What do you mean about Tempo?
You have to match it to the host tempo manually.
Is there a timing issue or something else, maybe?
If I tab 95 it shows 94.9
And there are some buttons like the stereo button , where I can t see if they are enabled or not.
When on, the type turns light blue/ cyan. It can be hard to see.
Huh?
Do you mean tap?
You can double tap the tempo knob and set an exact BPM.
Does that help you?