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.
Best apps for around $5
With the ever increasing price of apps, was interested in users options of best apps for around 5.
The more rare the better. Maybe a short description of how you use it.
I'll start
Vulcan harp, recorded output to computer, reimported to ipad
Vosis, on bus through aufx effects
Samvada, as an effect
Oscillator, generate waves/wind sounds
What say you?
Comments
Do it twice and Sunrizer is your pal. 5 dollars once or twice makes for a lot of great ten dollar or so apps also.
Magellan
All the sessionBand apps are going for cheap (a dollar in most cases). They are each worth 10 times that and are my goto jam/practice apps.
Other great apps for under 5 bucks include: aufx:space, improvox, harmony voice, glitchbreaks, chordion, impactor, audioshare, drum beats +
..and of course that other app that people sometimes mention on this forum
Aufx
Session band for the drums only even at that low price is as good of a deal that I have seen listed here so far. I forgot about how cheap they had gotten. Some of the best drum loops on ios that I have heard so far.
I just got SeekBeats and I must say I like it a lot. Definitely recommended if you want to have some fun with electronic drum tweaking in 4/4.
You may want to check out the upcoming Kymatica app, SECTOR. Already submitted for review, out any day now for $6.99 (quite cheap for what it is). Incredibly cool, very fun to use, and already has a roadmap of great future update feature additions. It will cost more as those additions are made, so good to get on it at the into price.
Loop Twister is worth a look too
https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/loop-twister/id505408920?mt=8
Loopy, nanoloop, funkbox, and the aufx series spring to mind.
Impaktor ,S4 Rhythm Composer Pro and Nanologue (free).
Ok, I'm gonna have to add a few to this list that I have purchased.
Stereo designer, for its ability to give sounds movement and space. (Echo pad also)
Xynthsizer, for its life like algorithm and midi functionalities as well as responsive developer.
Beepboop, wild sounds, if you use it multi-fingered.
MidiSequencer, entirely useful and fun, expecting a big update.
Not necessarily an app but is under $5, Alba Ecstasy sound presets for animoog are very well done.
Credit where credit is due.
SunVox - you can do almost anything with it...
Sunvox may just be the most underrated synth.
Musyc, the create your own kit with 808 samples is fun.
Scape and Bloom are both one of a kind apps.
Around $5?
iPhone - I snapped up a bunch of the iPhone versions of synths to see if I would like them before considering some of the more expensive (and resource hungry) iPad vesrions. Sunrizer is $2.99 (absurdly good value), and I probably like Magellan Jr. ($4.99) even better.
iPad - MidiSequencer (discussed in other thread) is about $6 for now, but may go up. Flying Haggis is $6.99 (I think) and is just a killer amp for real guitar input, since some of the alternatives are $15 - $20.
Universal - AudioShare is a no-brainer at $5, very useful for storing, converting, trimming, and moving files and samples. Loving the the heck out of EasyBeats 3 right now ($5). Small file size and using AudioShare to paste wavs into it, you can create custom drum kits. It has my favorite MPC style touchpad, and a pretty decent grid interface too.
Shout out to sunvox and all apps Zolotov (with sunvox I think he has 9 under $5 all worth way more)
@popyourcorn & @Littlewoodg - I had SunVox on my wish list already, but it scares me. Can you roughly describe what types of sounds you get out of it?
Also, I assume I know nothing about modular synthesizers. Can I figure out SunVox or does it have a steep learning curve. Thanks!
Hi @StormJH1,
SunVox is a tracker with many modular synth engines (fm synth, analog generator, drum machine...), effects and more (there's even a sampler which is quit good BTW).
Somewhere in a previous thread someone pointed out that if you like the sound of Depeche Mode then you'll love SunVox, which is quite true IMO. Anyway, there are a lot of tutorials by Solar Lune on YouTube and I think that the Mac and Pc versions are free (but I could be wrong). The interface may scare but actually it's not difficult to learn (and, as I said, you can find many tutorials online).
The tracker may not be the preferred choice for many, but for 5 euro or so for me it's a no brainer...
Yep Windows and Mac versions are free available here. http://warmplace.ru/
The iOS version operates and sounds the same.
DrumStudio $4. Only app I know of besides possibly MultitrackStudio that let's you change time signatures within a song, and supports odd time sigs too.
This is kinda funny - I was browsing lists of AudioBus compatible apps and b/c I have clumsy fingers apparently and was half watching TV, I managed to accidentally double-click and buy a $5 app: S4 Rhythm Composer. (Apparently I had just put my password in recently, so it didn't ask for it). At first I was really pissed at myself, but I loaded it up and actually had quite a bit of fun with it!
There's a good amount of presets that range from Dance to Hip Hop to Rock, and I'm pretty sure you can load your own sounds into it with AudioPaste, similar to what I described with EasyBeats 3. Most of it is probably redundant with other apps, but what I did like about it was the interface and export options. AB compatible, but has a simple "bounce loop" option for 1 or 2 loops that is always at the top of screen. It also has a filter editor and glitch controls so you work it like a pretend DJ while the track plays through (and you record internally or with AB).
Now, I will say that the app is iPad only, and it's probably best run on a faster device than my iPad2. Some of the buttons and menus had noticeable lag, but it didn't impede me from setting up loops and exporting them without having to play it live and tax the CPU. Not sure I would have elected to buy it for $5, but it was certainly a pretty happy accident under the circumstances.
@popyourcorn - Thanks for the description of SunVox. Sounds interesting, but one where I should watch some of those tutorials to see if it's for me before taking the plunge.
I cut my teeth on trackers at the turn of the 90s and still haven't really grokked Sunvox. I haven't invested a good stretch of time to it either. From what I understand, one could use it purely as a modular effects unit in AB skipping the tracker bit entirely. If that's true, I need to set aside a couple of hours!
@syrupcore I use SunVox as an effect in AB without using the tracker. Works great, definitely worth the time to learn.
How are the effects in Sunvox?
I personally like the way the effects sound in SunVox. And it's easy to build your own effects pedals, say like the old DOD digital delay sampler. What's making this interesting as an effect is the meta modules. I think SolarLune has a tutorial up on YouTube about those.
Thanks @ArcaneScreams.
Sunvox actually does more than any daw on iOS
@StormJH1 I checked it out and found I actually had it in the past. I like that they managed to squeeze a lot of stuff on just 2 pages. Not sure if I'll end up deleting it again but I've enjoyed the initial tinkle. What I'm seeing is different from your screen shot though. Has it been updated recently?
Ha, actually, I messed up! That company actually has 4 different apps, all similarly and confusingly named:
S4 Rhythm Composer (Free)
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/s4-rhythm-composer/id490051750?mt=8
S4 Rhythm Composer PRO ($4.99; this is the one I bought) ***
https://itunes.apple.com/app/id693960820?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo=4
S4 Industrial Composer (Free)
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/s4-industrial-composer/id514507744?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo=4
S4-Pad ($1.99)
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/s4-pad/id605632114?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo=4
Those 4 are apparently all AudioBus compatible (according the AB website; but poorly advertised on S4's own description), and I believe they are all iPad exclusive. There is a 5th app for iPhone (S4-DRUM), which is universal and free but apparently abandoned (no update since 2012) and not on AudioBus.
Rhythm Composer PRO is the one that I bought by accident and really liked. The free version looks different in a few ways - the interface is stripped down; it may be missing some glitch/roll features; possibly additional kits, presets, and export options (but I'm guessing). Their description really doesn't explain well about the app, nor why you should buy the PRO version, but having done so, I can tell you there is certainly $5 of value here.