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.
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I don't currently have the time for a video on this, but I can certainly spare a couple of thoughts...
I'm not an expert sound designer by any stretch, I just know the rudiments, so generally my process does involve a lot of noodling, tinkering, and trial and error. However I do find that a couple of basic guiding principles really help me to bring some focus to what I'm doing.
Firstly I think that when you're doing sound design it's really important to have an aesthetic in mind, for example to decide to create sounds that are melancholy, or aggressive, or edgy, or in this case ethereal and lo-fi. This means that the noodling and tinkering has a specific mood to aim for, there is a vibe in mind.
Secondly I think that the best presets should inspire you to write and compose new songs, so I don't stop the noodling until I get to the stage where just playing the preset seems to inspire me to write something with it. And if I feel that way when playing the sound, hopefully others will too.
With regards to Factory and this sound set specifically, I was aiming for something beautiful that still retained some kind of edge. In practice this meant that one oscillator would be given the task of making a pretty sound, and the other oscillator and the noise generator would be assigned the task of creating textural backgrounds. Then it's simply a case of playing with the modulation options to see where they would take me. The sub oscillator used as a ring mod was often useful, and obviously the envelopes and LFOs got a lot of action.
In Factory most of the sounds want to be buzzy and edgy, so actually the first task was to find a way to tame them. For most of the oscillators this meant bringing the filter down in order to tame the buzzing (and then sometimes using an envelope to gradually raise it back over time to create an evolving texture). However the Wavetable Guide oscillators (the last ones in the list) actually make smooth and pretty sounds by default, so they are quite useful as a starting point for nicer tones. The sample-based oscillator can also make smooth sounds (as long as there is no modulation along the length of the sample).
Also I created my own init patch because I didn't find the default one that useful. I'll post it in the thread later.
👍🏻 Very cool - thanks a lot for the beautiful presets. Very inspiring, it seems i should invest some time doing Factory presets.
I also enjoyed how you played them in your video.
Thanks 🙏
This is my init preset in case it's useful to anyone, it's a more musical one than the default Sugar Bytes init:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/hwby9k64yplbeqs/init RY.sbep?dl=0
Hi @richardyot I been inspired by your fantastic presets for Factory this morning so made a quick video of myself trying them in a quick composition out over breakfast this morning.
Hope you don’t mind, I put a link into the description for video plus a link to this thread to spread the word. Thanks again for sharing these great presets to the wider community.
That was gorgeous - thanks for showcasing them so beautifully!
@richardyot Thanks for sharing them, was a very quick take actually been tinkering with Aphelian along with a few apps last day or 2 and was after a lead sound to go along with what I already had and spotted these this morning so took me in a different direction!
I love how one and one makes so more than three in our musical worlds etc....
I'm thinking of doing a set of Lagrange presets with a similar vibe now, it's a different synth but it too bristles with possibilities.
I could call them "New Adventures In Lo-Fi" 😂
Love it. I sense an Itchy-IAP Series! Count me in....
Lagrange is fab hope you do.
hhmmmm, weirdly icloud sync is unswitchable for me (greyed out) - checked in settings and it is set to icloud for patch storage, yet in icloud drive there is no Factory folder.
Thank you both, very moving, wonderful sounds
This was awesome bud!
For @Halftone @RockBottom @Philandering_Bastard @hellquist @richardyot and anyone else who might be interested:
OK so here are a few patches of my own as promised. Mostly atmospheric and evolving pads, ideal for drone, ambient, soundtrack type projects. Feel free to remix them, use them etc. Usual thing - play nice, don't flog them, but apart from that do what you like. Here's an audio demo:
I've also created a Tips and Tricks guide with practical workflow ideas for anyone who wants to make useful patches out of some of the crazy factory sounds with a few other hot tips.
Download Patches
Download PDF Guide
For instructions about installation, please refer to the first part of @richardyot 's video above.
My own approach is that I don't usually start from scratch. If I do, I often end up with samey results, but remixing something inspirational is a more natural route for me.
PS. The "1" prefix on patch names is so my own patches all appear first and together in the Browser. It's no so necessary in Factory which can sort by User etc but its an old habit from creating patches in other synths which don't have more advanced patch browsers.
Some nice sounds in there, with a similar vibe to mine.
If I might make a suggestion, I think it would be better to prefix the patches with your initials rather than the number 1, to me that makes more organisational sense.
Some excellent stuff going on in this thread. Thanks! Ambient pads with some bite and grit are excellent starting points for further tweaking.
Thanks ... the "1" prefix puts them right at the top, which is where I want them, and others can rename them as needed.
Great patches, guys!
Thanks for the comments guys and thanks for more free patches @craftycurste my collection is growing.
You're welcome. Have fun!
So factory is free to download. What does it cost to unlock? I see I’ve already had it installed but removed it because of size (I think).
Thanks, @craftycurate. Enjoying your patches, too!
£17.99 or whatever that tier is in other currencies. If you have the space for it, these are great patches, and @craftycurate's tipsheet is very helpful.
Glad it's helpful ... I think I will add to it over time, as I've thought of some other things.
Quick note to say I've updated the download links, to separate the patches and PDF into two downloads, which means I can update them separately.
Patches: http://bit.ly/SBFactoryPatches01
PDF: http://bit.ly/SBFactoryGuide01
thanks so much for sharing - can't wait to try them out tonight!
(in other Factory preset related news - I just saw an instagram post from Sound of Izrael where he said he was working on a free preset pack too!)
These presets are showing up in my iCloud user folder, but they are not appearing in the app. Any idea?
Go back and watch the download part of the video and repeat step by step, it should work if you follow that exactly, i had to repeat the process as I’d skipped a detail
@johnfromberkeley I had to take them out of the folder they came in and copy over outside of their containing folder for them to show.