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.
Beatmaker 3 — do I still need Ableton?
I’ve been really digging BM3 this last week, after never really using it (I bought it when it first launched).
I’ve also been planning on getting Ableton Live for a while, after trying out Live Lite. And Live is on sale this weekend, so it’s the time to buy.
But what do I get in Ableton that isn’t already in BM3? I’m not interested in Max for Live, or tons of samples. I mostly record my own loops and clips, and then arrange them.
So, what are the big pluses, minuses?
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MIDI controlled lego butlers, filter cutoff tracking the movement of your eyebrows, temperature on mars adjusting the decay time on your convolution reverb and quite a few other things are easily done with Suite.
There's a 30 day unrestricted demo available from Ableton website, this deal ends Monday or Tuesday and guessing the traditional the Xmas sale might not happen now. Summer 2020 could be the next sale. A used license is always an option and if you're a student it's 40% off after sending Ableton the details.
If triggering samples is all you need then there's plenty of great options on iOS.
Edit: Forgot about Ableton Project Export, so many ways to get a sketch ready for arrangement these days.
You can get Ableton Lite for free with apps like Gadget or even Patterning which gives you 8 tracks to work with on PC/Mac.
That said, I haven't developed a full workflow that integrates Ableton into it. Maybe @echoopera will be able to shed some light.
Edit: What I'm planning on doing is sending the stems to Blocs Wave, then using the "Ableton Export" feature to automatically create an Ableton project. I'm still exploring other apps like Gadget 2 to make a structured workflow.
My happiness increases the more central The Maker is to my existence. All praise The Maker.
This isn’t going the way I expected.
If you want to use a controller ,Ableton all the way , else BM3 is fine
Excellent. No controller needed.
Biggest thing for me was unlimited scenes. Even with my frugal approach to music making, 8 just wasn’t enough.
Check also for free ZenBeats if you don't need the BM3 sampler
@Korakios The sampler is my favorite part!> @MonzoPro said:
Is that BM3? I thought it could have 128 scenes now?
Ableton - you only get 8 scenes with the Lite version.
@MonzoPro Aha.
Bitwig has a sale going on too if you like sampling and MPE
@Korakios : BM3 doesn’t work well with say, a keyboard controller ?
I really wish I could ditch my desktop (and Ableton by extension), but unfortunately iOS isn’t up to that level quite yet. BM3 is super slick but it lacks a lot when directly compared to Ableton. The “timeline”, Scenes, audio warping, etc etc etc. This is not really a knock on BM3 per se because I don’t expect it to compete directly with a full fledged DAW. The gap is narrowing for sure, but awhile to go still. Depending on your needs it could work for you.
I used Ableton for about a year and it's great. Really fast, everything's within reach etc. I learned a lot there and I do miss Simpler, Drum Racks and the session view, but I was spread too thinly and Reason's a better fit on me, so I sold the license.
I can't speak for BM3 besides casual use, but in general, you only really need another thing if you've reached an impasse. If you're blocked and frustrated in BM3 then yes, it's a great option to get things moving along, but it's easy to find a cheap license for Ableton at any time so don't feel too pressured by the sale.
Yes , I meant no deep integration , scripts , feedback ,like bitwig,ableton,maschine,reason etc...but @mistercharlie doesn't need them so BM3 is fine
I think BM3 will be more than fine for what you're doing. The sampler inside is amazing as well as all the slicing functions. If you're really digging it ..keep exploring it , it has a lot to offer the more time you spend with it.
I like BM3 a lot ( though I REALLY wish it had a patch browser since Electribe Wave is an au now ) but I also really like Ableton at lot. My main Desktop Daws are MPC desktop and Logic Pro but Ableton always calls me back to it. I love the Ableton Racks, you can do things you just can’t do in Logic Pro or MPC Desktop, aside from working with launching clips, again...the racks that are in it or even more so the one you can create and save for reuse is crazy. And also the various apps that can save as Ableton projects on IOS, Gadget, Blocs Waves, or Koala, and apps like Touchable have made Ableton almost a must have for me personally. Oh, and recording clip performances to the timeline in real time.....that’s just bananas for me.
I was trying to find this on BM3. GarageBand for iOS does it though!
Yeah, I was hoping you could do it with BM3 in scenes mode, but yes, you can do it in GarageBand and also in Roland Zebeats
The audio to MIDI function in Live works quite well. Even for polyphonic material it's not too bad given that it's an included feature.
Another big plus for Ableton vs BM3 is the collection of factory instruments. A great analog and FM synth, a workhorse sampler, a whole collection of physical modelling instruments flexible enough to build your own new beast by combining a number of these, Remote Control Learn for both MIDI and keyboard keys on your laptop, support for relative encoders you find on many MIDI controllers, the ability to write or modify control scripts for them...
I bet I've forgot 100 more things that Live can do and BM3 cannot.
But in the end, who cares?
If you're fine with what BM3 does for you then by all means go with it!
For me Ableton it’s great:
Fast and intuitive.
I took bm3 when it was free but I almost never used it.
BM3 was free???????? You made out like a bandit, lol. I don’t regret paying the full price, but getting it for free is bananas 🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌
Yeah, once during NAMM show but from the comments it felt like the developer received more hate than love for what he did 🤷♂️
From what you're saying, I feel BM3 is perfectly adequate. Ableton Live a huge world onto itself, with its instruments etc. If you're making beats and stuff like that, Ableton is way too much. I've used both extensively and nowadays always recommend BM3 (and apps in general) over an expensive laptop and software combo. I use Ableton because I do sound design, record dialogue, and it's a matter of daily workflow issues, but for making loop-based music, BM3 is huge.
@hazardtears Intend to agree. Mostly I’m interested in ease of use. I’m finding the Beatmaker is pretty great in that regard, after you get used to it.
Instead of jumping on the Ableton sale, I think I might go for the one-month trial. Better to spend a little more on the right tool, than to waste less on the wrong one.
Duplicate post
I applaud your senses here. good call!
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