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.
Multi Channel Audio from iPad to Mac
I can connect my iPad with my Desktop DAW and use it as an external Instrument with MIDI and Audio.
Is it possible, to use more than one Stereo output? I have 16 different MIDI channels but only 1/2 Audio out. Would be great to have the iPad as a multitimbral Instrument with separate audio channels. I use mainly Obsidian, Nave and iM1
Comments
If you get along with mono signals and do the reverb/delay part in the desktop DAW, the iConnectaudio 4+ delivers 4 channels and can serve as a double host for both IOS and the desktop. Or 1 stereo, 2 mono, 2 stereo busses.
Mono out and reverb on desktop is usually the 'better' approach in mix context anyway and spares the heavy CPU load of reverb on the iPad.
If you want more stereo channels, an interface with Adat connector (8 channels on a single TOS-Link cable) is the most convenient, but requires 2 interfaces (1 IOS, 1 desktop).
Forgot the brand name, but there's a class-compliant Adat-only device that works in IOS.
On the desktop I'd choose RME for quality and driver stability.
just to add that with the ICA4+ you can have many stereo channels to and from the IPAD and Mac digitally in addition to the analogue channels. The list shows mono channel so half them to get the stereo.
How could I forget the iCA's virtual channels ???
(mine is connects the iPad to 2 incompatible systems via analog io most of the time)
hihi its great that it can be used in many different ways.
Not sure if @Pummelfee will want to buy hardware just to connect iPad and desktop DAW.
This thread has some useful information, including iDAM and Studiomux:
https://forum.audiob.us/discussion/33128/if-idams-so-easy-when-and-why-use-midimux-and-midimitr
Does the ica2+ not have also virtual 8 USB stereo channels?
Channel for ica2+
The difficulty in comparison between the 2+ and the 4+ is the 4's additional content of the package.
This may have changed over time, but originally the 4+ included a PSU and a special IOS cable with a charging electronic that otherwise sells for $40 as a spare part.
Iirc correctly the difference was about $50 (if you added those components to the 2+), which is cool for 2 additional analog channels.
The latter can be a convenient feature to integrate regular outboard gear.
Yes i would prefer to buy no additional gear ;-) - but if the ica is more convenient...
The iCA's unique feature is it's live double-host capability across 3 different OS platforms.
(any 2 of IOS, OSX or Win)
Not only does it route physical ports, but also those virtual channels from and to DAWs.
You can have an AUM channel in IOS appear as an input to Logic on Mac or Cubase on Windoze live (or in whatever DAW you prefer).
No other interface on the market supports this capablity and afaik it's more flexible than Apple's software approach via USB atm, probably more reliable, too.
This is an extremely demanding task, so it doesn't work 100% glitch free in all and every combination out of the box, but in general context it does.
(otherwise I would have sold my iCA4+ years ago... tbh I'm still surprised that it works at all)
I consider to buy one...
However, i do not see exactly the technical difference to iDAM; the physical connection seems to be the same (Lightning to USB...)
?!
Yes, the physical connection is identical, but protocol and data packet content do vary.
Afaik IDAM is between IOS and MacOSX only and restricted to certain versions and functions.
The iConnectivity protocol is platform independant (from IOS-9, Win7 and earlier OSX versions upward). I Didn't dig deep into details, though.
yep, i'm not a Mac wearer so IDAM not an option and studiomux sort of sucks IMO. ICA4+ allows PC to MAC to Ipad
Can someone tell me about latency with ICA? With IDAM or even recording through analog Input of my novation AudioHub (with very low buffer settings, too) i have some remarkable latency. Its not a problem with pads, but percussive tracks need to be shifted manually.
Have a look at the studioMux app. It is working well for me :-)
@Pummelfee the iCA's latency is configurable and just what to expect from an USB audio interface. No problem to play live through it.
But if you consider production mixdowns of internal and external channels, you have to manually adjust them anyway, if sources are layered. Example: a drum hit on iPad is sent to the desktop (or a hardware compressor) and then returned to the iPad for recording in IOS.
If you don't align them sample-accurate, the result may be way off from expectations.
A couple of days ago I had to do exactly that to align the DAW's aux send/return channels to the local DSP processing card. 132 samples was found by trial and error.
But it's a one time only affair (as long as the hardware setup doesn't change).
Latency is low on ICA4+ infact i was shocked on how low a buffer setting i could use before my pc cracked, i have a garbage spec laptop.
Its not a high end audio device so it will not complete with a RME, Apollo or higher I suspect.
Already tried it. I can play the iPad instrument but when i record something, i hear no playback. No MIDI out.
Maybe you have to set the record source right? There is midi too. It is all a bit hard to setup the first time. But it does work.
Doesn’t IDAM audio only go in one direction, from iOS device to Mac? For audio anyway?