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 Store

Audiobus is the app that makes the rest of your setup better.

New to ios music making - evaluating my options

Hi guys, I'm slowly discovering what I can do / cannot do on ipad and trying to figure out in which direction I should go.
I made few, not very good decisions when it comes to apps recently and really I would like to avoid more unnecessary spending.
While there are a lot of good, cheap apps, I can see how easy is to spend more money on them than on ipad...

So far, I tried few apps but nothing really 'clicked' yet.
I'm doing electronic music so naturally, my first choice was nano studio 2.

Unfortunately, I'm really disappointed with it - it feels clunky, I especially don't like piano-roll.

Beatmaker3 doesn't have a demo and I really don't want to spend £25 just to learn I don't like it (I was shocked for example that a tool of choice for hip-hop beats doesn't have real-time swing - correct me if I'm wrong, I could not find it in documentation - and same goes for NS2)

Other than these 2, I'm also looking at Gadget 2, but it has its own problems.
The sequencer is quite basic, I'm not a big fan of its automation but I think there is hope that Korg will develop it further considering what they just did with Electribe Wave.

And then, there are things like audiobus and aum but they are really intended for live / noodling - which is great, but not really mu cup of tea.

Basically, everything I tried so far feels half baked.

Also, I was super confused recently about a pool where people were voting for their favorite daw - and on the first place it was - AUM ??? a daw ?

I don't really know what to expect and how can you help me but maybe some of you were where I am now and can give me some advice ?

Thanks

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Comments

  • Can you be more specific about what you want? The people happily doing music on iOS are able to focus on getting things done and don’t mind working around the ways that the individual apps don’t meet conventional expectations. Some people have difficulty overcoming the limitations and are eternally unhappy.

    If you find Nanostudio 2’s piano roll clunky there might not be a piano roll on iOS that will make you happy. Who knows what direction Korg might take Gadget. Buy and invest time in apps for what they do today and not for what they might do in the future.

    If you haven’t explored GarageBand, it is a very deep and capable app and will cost you nothing no.

  • edited November 2019

    +1 GarageBand

    Don’t spend any more money If GB doesn’t do it for you.

    NS2 is probably as slick as a sequencer gets on iOS at the moment.

    As for AUM, the reason I think people like it so much is that it’s basically a blank canvas to build your own modular groovebox

    You get to choose different sequencers for each track and can route MIDI all over the place.

    So you can, say, set up an LFO via Rozeta LFO and send it to the filter cut off to a moog and the fine pitch tune of a different synth simultaneously.

    It is what you make it.

    It’s not a linear DAW and whilst i have grown to like it a lot, I can only really use it to make short loops.

    But coming from a desktop DAW it offers very different ways of working.

    It takes time to master. It Can even takesa lot of time to even get your head around.

    It’s not a replacement for NS2. Its a different beast altogether.

    It’s also fantastic as a digital mixer; probably it’s primary function.

    Its very versatile. But it’s not live, Logic or cubase. It’s an iOS thing. And it’s brilliant.

  • @Pavlova said:
    Hi guys, I'm slowly discovering what I can do / cannot do on ipad and trying to figure out in which direction I should go.
    I made few, not very good decisions when it comes to apps recently and really I would like to avoid more unnecessary spending.
    While there are a lot of good, cheap apps, I can see how easy is to spend more money on them than on ipad...

    So far, I tried few apps but nothing really 'clicked' yet.
    I'm doing electronic music so naturally, my first choice was nano studio 2.

    Unfortunately, I'm really disappointed with it - it feels clunky, I especially don't like piano-roll.

    Beatmaker3 doesn't have a demo and I really don't want to spend £25 just to learn I don't like it (I was shocked for example that a tool of choice for hip-hop beats doesn't have real-time swing - correct me if I'm wrong, I could not find it in documentation - and same goes for NS2)

    Other than these 2, I'm also looking at Gadget 2, but it has its own problems.
    The sequencer is quite basic, I'm not a big fan of its automation but I think there is hope that Korg will develop it further considering what they just did with Electribe Wave.

    And then, there are things like audiobus and aum but they are really intended for live / noodling - which is great, but not really mu cup of tea.

    Basically, everything I tried so far feels half baked.

    Also, I was super confused recently about a pool where people were voting for their favorite daw - and on the first place it was - AUM ??? a daw ?

    I don't really know what to expect and how can you help me but maybe some of you were where I am now and can give me some advice ?

    Thanks

    **Don't forget there are free lite versions of Gadget and Cubasis you can try out...

    I was in your position several years back when I got my first iPad. Unfortunately i found it does take a bit of trial & error using different apps to see what fits your workflow best. Many times a new app comes out and comments/reviews are positive - but then I get the app and I can't produce anything. And sometimes - it might take a while to click with certain apps. Gadget is probably my favourite app to make tracks with - but for the first 5-6 months I had it I couldn't get anything decent finished with it. Then it clicked finally and I use it all the time now.

    And AUM is really great - I use it to record perfectly synced loops - and usually take those and import into Cubasis, GarageBand , or Gadget to finish off. Ultimately it may come down to you finding a few apps you like and learning how to use them together.

  • Nanostudio is still missing alot in my opinion, it is also “klunky” to me as well. No audio tracks yet...but will be coming.

    As far as the beatmaker3 realtime quantize goes, you can select notes quantize and if you dont enjoy how it is, undo. I really don’t find that as offputting as you do i guess...i rarely use quantize anyway...but that is me. Everyone is different as is their workflows.

    Garageband does quite alot for free, and since it is free...who can b’tch about it right? I could literally create an entire album
    on Garageband with ease. The limits of GB are nowhere near as bad as recording in the early 90s on tape...laughing out loud.

    Have you tried GR16 it‘s hardware-like and sounds great? loads serum
    Wavetables, samples, etc! I think it is a great app! If it was hardware it would be 1000.00

    Coming from a hardware background, I will say that Beatmaker3 absolutely is MORE POWERFUL and rounded than the MPCX, Akai Force, MPCLive, & Maschine!

    Dollar for dollar gonna be hard to beat ipad in reality! it can be beat by programs like LPX, LIVE, And others...but i dont know for how long that will remain the case!

    Speaking of computer programs ...Cubasis may be what you need, maybe watch some
    Youtube of apps you have interest in and see what appeals and repulses you before you buy?!

    I wish you well, and good luck finding a solution!

  • And for sequencing, of course check out Xequence 2

  • It took me a while but I eventually stopped worrying about what iOS is missing and just realised that I don’t carry a Mac around in my pocket and don’t have access to Logic whenever I feel like making some music.

    Logic had features in the early 90s that are still missing in all the iOS sequencers.

    But iOS isn’t Mac OS. It does a lot of different things that I can’t do on my Mac.

    If I still had My ‘bedroom’ studio set up I doubt I’d be using iOS for making music In the way I do.

    But iOS has enabled me to make music again as it’s just so immediate and always available.

    Due to parenthood and married life I had gone the best part of a decade without making any music of note. iOS is instrumental (no pun intended) in getting me back into making music.

    It’s not the same as making music on a Mac. But it’s an incredible platform for making music. You just need to approach things in a different way than you would on a desktop system.

    And that’s not a bad thing.

    And the fact that the apps for making music on iOS are so incredibly cheap doesn’t hurt. :-)

  • Arranging complete songs isn’t where iOS shines.

    It’s suberb at everything else.

    Just my 2 cent ences.

  • edited November 2019

    As usual lots of benevolent advises. You guys on this forum rox :)

    That said:

    @klownshed said:
    Logic had features in the early 90s that are still missing in all the iOS sequencers.

    Is absolutely and sadly true...
    But with what you've said, as I supposed you know a bit about midi, I might recommend you Xequence 2 (X2) and AUM.
    X2 because of his midi editing (and import/export...) , AUM because of his audio handling and midi routing.
    There's nothing wrong having fun in Garage Band either !!!!!
    BM3 has the best (OMHO) sampler, and lots of good stuffs...Still pissed that I can't load it directly in my AUM preset (it needs to be launched first) but hey, that's how it is for now...
    AudioBus and APEMatrix are huge apps, but they ask more as "abstractions" (not sure of the term, french here...) and might be used in a well known music apps ecosystem.
    Then indeed some groovebox, then synths, drums, effects...
    Welcome on board ;)

    @BlueGreenSpiral said:
    Arranging complete songs isn’t where iOS shines.

    It’s suberb at everything else.

    Just my 2 cent ences.

    Very true ! Personally I'm a bit stubborn, but that's why it's also fun ;)

  • BM3 has realtime swing.

    NS2 does not.

  • I still think X2 and Gadget are the best one-two punch on iOS.
    It's fast and fun. B)

    I can get 90-95% of my work done with these two.
    Bounce to AUM for the final mixdown.

  • bm3 has super groovy badass swing. i prefer it to ableton swing even.

  • I have just surrendered to BM3 and do whatever it wants me to do now. It knows best really.

  • edited November 2019

    @tja said:
    And for sequencing, of course check out Xequence 2

    Xequence 2 has non-destructive variable swing that can be set for individual tracks. You can hear the swing change as you use the slider.

  • edited November 2019

    I’m a recent Beatmaker 3 convert .. had it for a couple years, though it was a bit too complicated for me when I was just starting out, and also a bit unstable at first.

    I’ve spent a lot of time in Maschine since then, so I felt right at home with BM3 by the time I revisited it a few weeks ago. It actually seems more powerful than Maschine in some ways and seems a lot more stable now than its early days.

    I’m certainly a lot less tempted by standalone boxes like MPC Live and Force now. With iPad Pro and a portable interface, I don’t feel like there’s really anything holding me back from accomplishing anything I could do in any other standalone platform.

    It is easy to buy too many apps/effects on iOS — but its a great time to get started, since there are so many big name devs on the platform now. If I could have had the fabfilter bundle, Eventide & Toneboosters plugs when I started, I could have saved a lot of money avoiding some or the lesser quality plugins & all the redundancy.

    Gadget is not everyones cup of tea, but I find being limited to a sandboxed environment like that quite inspirational and an efficient way to get ideas rolling. It can be addictive though, easy to spend $200+ buying all the IAP + extras — so you might get more bang for the buck elsewhere.

  • edited November 2019

    For electronic music -

    GarageBand - geared towards EDM, Dance, Hiphop, techno with thousands of royalty-free loops, Live Loops, Beat Sequencer, Smart Instruments, Sound Library, Alchemy Synth, Sampler, Audio tracks, the best Drums on iOS, the incredible Drummer, AU, IAA, FX, basic Automation, Sections, Key Signature, Jam Session, Multi Track Recording... There is a TON of fun in GB and the price (FREE) is great!

    Here is an exhaustive course on GB by Paul for $10 now on sale (regular price $30) -
    https://www.udemy.com/course/introducing-garageband-for-ipad
    (He is currently producing an advanced course)

    FL Studio Mobile - no AU but the built-in instruments and IAPs are good enough and it is geared towards electronic music

  • @espiegel123 said:
    Can you be more specific about what you want? The people happily doing music on iOS are able to focus on getting things done and don’t mind working around the ways that the individual apps don’t meet conventional expectations. Some people have difficulty overcoming the limitations and are eternally unhappy.

    +1

    If you find Nanostudio 2’s piano roll clunky there might not be a piano roll on iOS that will make you happy. Who knows what direction Korg might take Gadget. Buy and invest time in apps for what they do today and not for what they might do in the future.

    +1

  • @AudioGus said:
    I have just surrendered to BM3 and do whatever it wants me to do now. It knows best really.

    +1

  • @Pavlova , what music-making environment are you coming from? Hardware, software, Mac, PC? Tell us what you like and maybe we can recommend the closest iOS equivalent.

  • See https://forum.audiob.us/discussion/31160/frank-prinzels-daw-characterizations-from-the-facebook-ios-musicians-group

    I recommend checking out apeMatrix, AUM, Auria, Zenbeats, the Igor Vasiliev apps FieldScaper and SoundScaper, and Xequence and Gadget.

  • Thanks guys for all the comments so far.
    Garage Band is out of equation as it doesn't have any form of automation - a must have for electronic music.
    I'm considering xequence 2 but I would need to understand the workflow.

    What would I need to replicate a more or less complete DAW with it ? Is it audiobus + xequence 2?
    I mean, I can sequence various synths with it, right ? Like Thor and ‎AudioKit Synth One, but what about auv3 stuff ? can it host it ?
    And then audiobus would be my mixer ? Can it do things like sends, sidechain ?
    And with that config, how would I get audio tracks ?

    Using the above, can I then save it all as one project somehow ?

    Also, I'm slightly confused about AUM and AUDIOBUS. I still don't get why I would need AUM if I had audiobus...

    In my opinion, FL Studio 3 Mobile has the best piano roll where you can do everything directly on the note without having to switch any modes. That's why I don't like nanostudio 2 piano roll. I Read that xequence 2 is also very good but I would have to try it, and again, I'm slightly worried as there is no way to try it.

    BTW, FL Studio 3 Mobile is alright but too limited at the moment. It's synths are a mixed bag, the sampler is too basic.

  • Complete DAW and automation aren't the best things from iOS music production (as some others stated before). Logic DESKTOP (there isn't a iOS version yet) or Ableton Live are the best options (maybe FLstudio too) if you are combining with iOS workflows.

    Another point suggested is to forget usual workflow from desktop when you approach iOS tools. These are complementary in the best situation proposed but hardly a substitute (sadly).

    ITOH you have very nice tools in iOS to spark creativity and get some nice bones to lately finish these at desktop which makes a winning horse approach if you catch the wave correctly.
    Few examples of that could be BlocsWave, Garageband, all the AUv3 madness (Rosseta, AUM/AB3, ...), BM3 sampler, NS2 Sample synth, Stageligth/Zenbeats and amazing synths like Gospel Musicians, Lumbeats apps etc etc etc (just read the forum daily for a week to see how many options you have).

    I have a mac mini just for Garageband/Logic/Mainstage and Ableton Live (aside Keynote, Pages and some google sheets) after years trying to be computer free and time to time I look for old digital multitrackers but then I remember how nice is Garageband Drummer and Ableton export from BlocsWave and forget about it. It's a late 2012 with SSD and full 16 gb of ram working smooth with High Sierra. It cost me 400€ around 2 years ago. Prices are similar nowadays but even you can find better proposals if you have patience and money to spend.

    Maybe someday we will have a proper DAW at iOS (no, Auria isn't the best example to that) which proper pencil support and so but ATM these duties are best carried by desktops IMO.

    My last advice will be: Study a bit more deeply the platform (iOS) and rethink your workflow and needs. If these aren't compatible maybe you will be more happy with an old MV8800 or just a laptop and FLstudio or Live.

    Disclaimer Bias: I'm more into dedicated hardware as time goes so maybe I can be totally wrong but that's my opinion after more than 10 years doing music with iPads at studio and stage.

    Good luck in your quest!

  • If you find NS2 clunky my guess is that iOS is not for you. Some people simply can't adapt to the limitations of the platform and just end up frustrated, and my hunch (based on that comment) is that you might fall in that camp. Save yourself the money and frustration and bail out now.

  • iOS isn’t ready for production ‘in the box’. It’s more for sketching and discovering some new stuff.

  • @TheDubbyLabby said:
    … which makes a winning horse approach if you catch the wave correctly.

    What if the horse, which is winning (probably by just going faster in the correct direction without stopping for hay), drowns once it has approached?

  • @u0421793 said:

    @TheDubbyLabby said:
    … which makes a winning horse approach if you catch the wave correctly.

    What if the horse, which is winning (probably by just going faster in the correct direction without stopping for hay), drowns once it has approached?

    Common issue for Auria users. :trollface:

  • @TheDubbyLabby said:

    @u0421793 said:

    @TheDubbyLabby said:
    … which makes a winning horse approach if you catch the wave correctly.

    What if the horse, which is winning (probably by just going faster in the correct direction without stopping for hay), drowns once it has approached?

    Common issue for Auria users. :trollface:

    The album I released on Halloween (Art & Crime & Magic) was finished end of September & made just totally on iPhone + iPad Pro using Gadget & Auria Pro. If Auria didn’t crash over & over & over about 50+ times each session I’d have probably finished it two months earlier.

  • I'm surprised that you struggle with the NS2 piano roll and Gadget's automation (tip: turn off the grid). They're worth a revisit before you buy anything more.

    If you're trying to set up the same as you have on a desktop system but cheaper and more portable, you can expect to spend a lot of time being frustrated and/or trying to fix problems, and/or waiting for a saviour app to come along and save you. Don't do this.

    Keep moving, I say. See how far you can get with Patterning 2.

  • Interesting, I didn't know gadget's grid can be switched off. I only played with LE and didn't spend much time. I really wish they could implement some preset shapes for automation, that would be really powerful.
    As for NS2, like I mentioned earlier, there is just too much faffing about when moving, resizing, creating and deleting notes, I guess I've been spoiled by better options (which unfortunately fail in other areas).
    Right now I'm slowly gravitating towards Gadget + Xequence 2 + AB3.
    (I wish the last 2 could get on sale too :)
    Can IFX in Gadget 2 be automated ?

  • @u0421793 said:

    @TheDubbyLabby said:

    @u0421793 said:

    @TheDubbyLabby said:
    … which makes a winning horse approach if you catch the wave correctly.

    What if the horse, which is winning (probably by just going faster in the correct direction without stopping for hay), drowns once it has approached?

    Common issue for Auria users. :trollface:

    The album I released on Halloween (Art & Crime & Magic) was finished end of September & made just totally on iPhone + iPad Pro using Gadget & Auria Pro. If Auria didn’t crash over & over & over about 50+ times each session I’d have probably finished it two months earlier.

  • @Pavlova said:
    Right now I'm slowly gravitating towards Gadget + Xequence 2 + AB3.

    Just to do some expectation management here: the main source of sounds will be Gadget. Unless you have a bunch of other external apps, AB3 isn't needed in that equation. If you do have other external apps and wish to record the audio of those, the only current option mentioned would be in Gadget, and that would only be possible if you have an external audio interface where you can route the audio out from AB3 -> interface -> return the audio to iPad -> Gadget (Zurich or Rosario).

    This might be known already, if so I apologise, but as it isn't how audio recording usually happens in iOS, this is an extra-special snag that Korg has "gifted" us with: we can't route audio in to it from other apps (it can't load AU/IAA, nor is it a sound receiver in AB/AUM), only via audio inputs (from your lightning cable connected audio interface for example), and I haven't seen it mentioned in here previously, so as I say: just some expectation management.

    You also asked previously about the merits of AUM, and comparison to AB3. Most of us in here have both. AB3 can do "state saving" of IAA apps, and AB3 also provides us with AB Remote, on top of a sidebar that makes it easy to control your running apps routed via AB3. AUM on the other hand provides audio recording and you can bus channels to...umm...buses, which you can apply other effects etc to, or send them where you like. They both complement each other quite well. Both have midi tools that enable you to map sound apps to controller apps. Neither is a DAW though.

    Due to the state saving in AB3 it therefore is quite common to load various apps, route them to AUM where you quite likely also save a session of your setup, you save the state of it all in AB3, and it becomes quite easy to load all the relevant apps in one go by recalling the AB3 preset you previously saved.

    Personal comment otherwise is that I love the limitations of iOS music making. That is what keeps me on the platform, despite having a fully loaded iMac with "everything". As "everything" also is possible when I'm by my Mac I get paralyzed in where to start, and with what. On iOS the limitations keep me on my toes, and whilst there I find myself creating tunes at the same time, at times almost by accident.

    Given your comments above though I would say move slowly and consider why you wish to be making music on iOS. Just because you can doesn't mean you should, especially if you have a clear view on what you would like. Most people in here are happy to explore and adapt to whatever was released last week, or that stopped working due to an update yesterday. If that is not your thing I would recommend not to invest too much money in it, it'll only make you bitter. :)

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