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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.

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Different Drummer update

Another very nice update, adding progressions and measure inserts/deletes. There are other update too, but those were the two I've played around with. At $17.99, those who don't have this ought to take a look.

Comments

  • @junjunkie Can you explain briefly, the chord progression feature?

  • Sure Morris....it's not a chord progression though. It's a key/scale progression. You can specify the number of measures within this, so you can do something like 8 measures at E Mixolydian followed by 4 measures of C Maj.

  • edited February 2014

    I'm playing with ways to get chords out of this too. I think I can specify the same sound on three or more tracks, develop one track, copy that to the others, then modify the notes to form chords. Aside from that, it's monophonic on each track.

  • The Dev might want to change the discription if it's not chord progressions, unless description means broken chords.

  • Maybe so...or I might not have figured this part out fully.

  • If you get better clarity, please post here. Thanks.

  • Still don't see it, but I was able to creat chords as I had described.

    https://www.dropbox.com/s/ohsttrlr4qzkxth/DD Chordal.m4a

  • Note that that example was DD driving Cubasis via midi.

  • Ok cool. Many thanks. Hopefully the Dev will chime in on description.

  • E mixolydian is not a chord. It can contain different chords, as can the scale of C major, but it would suggest this is a scale/mode sequencer, not a chord sequencer.

  • That's what I was saying.

  • Well you were right then. You seemed uncertain. :)

  • I might not have worded it clearly. Getting DD to do chord progressions is tricky, but it can be done. It has to have multiple tracks, since each is monophonic, so it takes a good deal of time. At least the key/scale progression is in there now, which was a good add.

  • edited February 2014

    Technically I call it the Progression Composer and its unit is Beats, not measures. It's perhaps good to think of it as a sophisticated multi-track arpeggiator where each track can have it's own arpeggio on its own beat values and yes they can by synchronized (parallel) to produce chords or unsychronized to create counterpoint. So since DD has over 70 scales/modes/chords to chose from you can specify 5 beats of CM followed by 10 beats of Dm and then 3 beats of Em7 for example and all 8 tracks will follow that progression even though one might be playing 32nd notes and another Quarter notes. You could also switch into Chromatic or Lydian for some beats. You can also Lock tracks so they are not transposed or will not change scale from their default setting for example to keep a kick at one pitch. It's meant for exploration and experimentation but the results are quite interesting. You can also "choke" the output for any or all tracks to a narrow note range (by octaves) if you want or force a track to play only 1 assigned note out to MIDI for standard Drum kits.

    I'm planning on adding a "harmonizer" function for tracks that will make them polyphonic but you won't be able to control the exact harmony notes directly so it's more of a "thickening" effect based on the current scale/mode/chord. This is from my old application, HyperChord which was really cool and will live again some day hopefully...in the works.

    In my scale theory (http://www.holistictonality.org)...scales can be "hybrid" so I will add more "scales" that might be Octaves and 5ths on the bottom and chords in the middle and scales on top (or reverse) for some musically pleasing effects.

    Hope that clarifies it. Cheers!

  • Excellent upgrade and thanks for the info.

  • Thanks for the clarification @technemedia. Looking forward to the next upgrade, as always. I'm still a bit unclear on what note would get played when you've chosen a chord/scale/mode progression. Say in the case of CM for 5 beats, would the notes cycle through C, E, and G on each beat? From what I'm seeing, it seems like just the root plays.

  • edited February 2014

    @funjunkie...It's an XY grid where X is time and Y are the notes of the scale like the default midi notes are chromatic scale with middle C = 60, right? So when the Progression moves to GM the notes it can play on the y-axis are octaves of GBD but they may be distributed with repeats to keep approximate octave parity with other scales that may have more elements so perhaps your note or your wave are not triggering the next note. It's really no different than if you change the piano transposer and the scale selector at the same time—except in the case of progressions, it's automated for you so you don't have to do it manually. Some scales have more notes and the smallest "scale" is Octaves which has 1 note in different octaves....so on the y-axis it might be C1C1C1C1C1C1C1C1C2C2C2C2C2C2, etc. The scales are actually center-justified to Middle-C (C4) so it tends to be right on the mid-line of the wave space and they radiate out from there, lower and higher. This way when you switch scales it doesn't usually all the sudden sound too high or too low, though it's possible. Make sense? When in Grid Mode you should be able to hear the note when you drag it...in only one scale at a time though, so the progression will change your melody. If you want absolute control, then you need to compose in Chromatic Scale (1 note per slot) and not use progressions....otherwise let DD find some cool melodies/patterns for you by messing with waves! It's not really meant for traditional composing and drums generally are not tonal so it's more about the rhythms....the tones are a perk ;-)

  • That's given me a headache @technemedia

  • Sorry, Thinds…gave me a bit of one too…programming (and explaining) all this is a bigger headache but at least it's spaced out over a couple of years.

  • Thanks for the in-depth explanation @technemedia. I need to take it for a spin again to apply it and make sure I understood what you wrote. It's certainly hanging on the same note, and I think I need to look at the wave closer.

    I love the rhythm aspect of DD, but it's some of your recent updates that have given the melodic side a lot more appeal.

  • Yes, @Flo26...I was just saying the updates have improved on the melodic side.

    It was the wave shape that caused my problem. Thanks @technemedia for the advise on that.

    I created a short demo of using the progression function, as well as midi triggering Z3TA on Soundcloud. It's private, but I think anyone can access it with the URL. Let me know if you can't.

  • If that URL didn't work, this one should...

  • Nice little demo of the progression feature, Funjunkie. Sounds a little Brazilian. Thanks!

  • Thanks @Technemedia. Here's another one I did with DD midi triggering a phased electric piano in Cubasis....

    https://www.dropbox.com/s/zutlzkgv4iiznlr/DD Comp.wav

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