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.
Comments
Here’s how I would frame it: do the end of my fingers hurt a little after playing the Linnstrument? Yes. This is because you do have to apply pressure to achieve minimum velocity. (My fingers hurt a bit after playing stringed instruments too, by the way!)
My fingers hurt way more after playing the ROLI products, hence my “harder/softer” observations above.
The most touch sensitive device I’ve played so far is the sensel morph. The limitations there are the size and the layouts not quite working for me. Still, it’s cheap and the feel of it is really great with MPE expressiveness. If I had any time I’d make a custom layout for the morph. Alas, I do not.
@lukesleepwalker do you own a morph? I’ve never tried that one, but I keep hearing how the velocity is more sensitive than other devices. I’m a guitarist, so the idea of a custom layout in linnstrument or GeoShred fashion is intriguing to me. Someone else on the forum said they tried this, maybe @wim ?
Yeah, I'm definitely tempted by the morph too, you can draw/paint on them with pretty much anything and it picks up the shape and texture which really adds to the appeal for me...
Though I heard iOS integration isn’t has good as Roli, but I would imagine it will come around.
I keep jumping in but I own a sensel morph.
It’s more sensitive that roli stuff, which does need a slightly harder touch than I’d like ideally, but then te sensel is just a hard surface with no tactile feedback at all, bar the overlays, which is the payoff. I don’t find it anywhere near as musical in terms of feel but others feel differently. I think it comes down to which is more important and your preferred balance of those two things perhaps as the more give there is the less sensitive it seems to some degree.
I can’t be bothered with te morph at all though in reality as although it’s really capable and you can design your own interface layouts etc, and overlays, it needs a pc to set up properly and so doesn’t interest me. If they bring out an app to set it up I’d change my mind but it’s been a couple of years since they said they would and so as it is it’s in te sell pile for me.
Yes, I own the morph and use it all the time. I saw recently that Sensel just got $35m in new funding to perfect the technology, so that’s encouraging.
You definitely have to plug it into a laptop to tweak the settings, which is not a huge dealbreaker to me but it does mean that I don’t tweak as much as the LS settings. I am confounded as to why sensel hasn’t created a stringed instrument layout as you can see the pent up demand in their forums.
The other big limitation is the size. I do run out of note range quickly. Bluetooth connection is also prone to stuck notes, fwiw.
Btw, do the morphs ever have a sale? I know they're not massively expensive but the overlays seem relatively dear...
Yep, Black Friday.
Here's the deal from this past year:
$50 Off all Morph Bundles
We’re also taking $50 off the price of each of our Sensel Morph bundles, so the Morph + 1 Overlay starts at just $199*!
Cheers @lukesleepwalker good to know, though I am UK based and kinda thinking of getting before the end of tax year (April for me)
Thanks though, Chris
I saw someone asked about the same SAWM engine advanced options/settings from desktop all coming to iOS.
The answer was kind of "we do not know yet and have to decide".
Then kind of telling that the full version with all bells and whistles would be much appreciated on iOS the answer was "would you pay the same on iOS as for the desktop version". Uh, i guess that is not a good sign.
I maybe would pay the same or at least 50-75% on iOS. But i doubt many would do and so i´m not sure if iOS will be taken serious here finally. Yes, we are cheap app buyers but i think it does not help to bring really advanced tools to iOS.
We will see.
The reason - or at least, one of the main reasons - ios apps are cheap is simply that people can't easily download pirate software. A huge number of people using mac/windows aren't paying for their apps and this keeps the price high. It's simple supply and demand, surely?
The low price on ios also means that people are more willing to buy multiple reverbs, multiple synths etc. Maybe the price per app is low, but I'd guess that a lot of us are actually spending quite a lot of money per year on apps.
Add to that that the low entry price of app buying in ios gets more people into making music in the first place, who then may end up switching to desktop and spending the serious money on that platform. So... I don't think there is anything to apologise for that ios apps are cheaper than desktop equivalents. If there was no money to be made in this, fabfilter and eventide etc would either not be selling their plugins on this platform or would be selling them a lot higher. I'm sure they have people whose jobs are to figure these things out. If prices increase, people will buy fewer apps, that's not as fun but it's maybe no bad thing if it makes people learn to use a few apps very well rather than constantly tinkering with new toys (which latter category I unfortunately have to include myself in, lol). If the culture of ios app buying has to change so that indie devs can make a living from it, then so be it. Maybe there will be less variety but more quality, and the people who do it well will be able to make a good living from it. I certainly don't mind paying 20 dollars for a very good app, and I think app prices are perhaps in general a but lower than they should be. But let's get real, almost no one is going to spend 50 percent of desktop prices on an ios app at present, given the number of crashes etc we face on this platform, even using iPad Pros.
Will ios be taken seriously? Not unless Apple step up and make it a more stable platform for music making. That it isn't seems to be more their fault than developers, at least from what I have gathered from several threads on this forum.
Market: Will ios music be taken seriously?
Apple: lol let's get rid of the audio Jack
Yes and no. The price you pay today is more due to proper research. Actually you get tons of 10 dollar plug-ins with free packs on top which costs over 200-300 some time ago. Even lots of high quality free stuff you cannot even buy for iOS.
The same tools are indeed often more cheap on iOS and yes, the market is different. Once you bought into a company you get often very great upgrade, crossgrade and whatever loyalty deals you cannot get in the app store. Then you still cannot demo full apps and also do not able to resell licenses. Also often iOS apps are not that integrated into DAWs but that might be the iOS DAWs fault, i don´t know. Some things even add up with IAP so that you almost pay more or quite the same (hello Korg).
Then it already started with things like StaffPad, IK-Multimedia and maybe now AudioModeling where prices not that far away anymore from their desktop counterparts. Also half of the iOS counterparts still have some hidden limitations (like less voices, missing advanced options).
But i still would prefer full version instead of stripped down versions and some tools are even not exist in iOS because the market is not ready (or the hardware needs still 1-2 generations). IOS has more the fremium plus IAP instead of pay full and get the full experience often. Both is O.K. and when you research what you really want you can find awesome cheap tools everywhere.
Anyway i think in some years we might just pay for one software which shares across devices, at least mac/iOS related.
Means plug-in might get cheaper in general (which already happens) and apps get more expensive (which also seems to happen).
I must say i felt of course also in this trap, bought many apps for 5-10 dollar but actually use just 5% of them maybe.
I also have too much plug-ins collecting dust, but here i also learned (hopefully). I could even imagine to ditch my mac and PC and go full iPad but i want the full experience and not another stripped down version. Pro iPad, pro apps, maybe they could do a pro store for people who are willing to pay? I also would not pay the full price yet but maybe up to 2/3 for the exact same tool with same stability, support and upgrade path.
And 3D touch, next get rid of any cable connection and hardware button, next get rid of your creative customers
Most use Bluetooth for audio out. There's a $9 adapter to use wired audio cheaply. For pro's the USB port allows for a Hub with a lot more in/out's and a shared path for MIDI.
The greatest benefit for me is a device that now can work under water and sustain an unplanned plunges into liquids... been there done that. Now I just eat the rice (I know that's a myth).
@McD lol. And yes, you can use a hub, and indeed I do have a hub, but after I bought it I realised it didn't allow recording through a mic headphone, for example. Yeah, apple taking away the headphone jack was one of the worst things ever. But at least the switch to USB C is a good one.
@Clueless yes, also lots of good points here. I forgot the no resale thing, it's a hugely important point, also lack of easy refunds, no free demos etc. These are also very important points. Also the pure speed of updates of ios means that a fair few apps don't get updated and become useless after a few years. I hope you are right that the problems can be sorted in a few generations. Making music on the iPad is really fun, but dealing with crashes is very frustrating.
That said, Logic does crash a lot more and get me stuck midi notes, sluggish GUI response sometimes than NanoStudio 2 (actually never happened).
But i could not live yet with only iOS tools. Its a bit flatland still.
But iOS gets Drambo and i doubt there will be a mac port anytime soon. It might totally replace Reaktor for me
If Drambo ever comes out, lol
Wow. I've been taking medication to manage my "Dr@mb* Anxiety Maniacal Neurosis" (DAMN) and I thought this thread was
safe to read... lol indeed. I must lay down and visualize a life without e-devices by the sea.
I'm currently by the sea, with all my devices. Best combo there is 😉
The comments they make about their reasoning for the design of the iOS products are pathetic. They’re openly saying that whether or not the os products have features has nothing to do with te ability to do this on the platform, or even development time really and that they will effectively cripple the iOS apps solely because they don’t like the idea of people purchasing their range for a reasonable price. I’ve not seen any other developer do this - I’ve seen scaled down conversions for memory reasons etc and it makes me appreciate our developer community a great deal more. In fact I think I’d rather make music using products, from those developers.
Have seen this attitude a fair bit from audio modelling I think they stink in all honesty. They belittled the swam packs on noise and the impression they give is of a very cold marketing money driven set up, of course all businesses need to make money but I think the reality is that many many developers have brought apps with enormous functionality to iOS, equal to very expensive desktop counterparts for a fraction of the price, I believe because the iOS market doesn’t threaten the desktop market so it’s just more profit (happy to be corrected if wrong). In audio modelling case every time they speak on the subject they have a strange bitchy attitude and insult their own products when those products are not the full laughably expensive desktop products. And I mean laughably. The swam noise packs may be limited compared to desktop but the desktop products are not 100 times better and In my opinion audio modelling are just tetchy aboit the fact that the value in iOS apps exposes how overpriced the desktop market is. Their petty quarreling with sample modelling and how they speak aboit that really doesn’t reflect well on them. Just unnecessarily aggressive and telling people products they don’t want to threaten their most expensive range are not worth buying except as a demo leading to buying a product that costs 100 times more.
Ios is not a gateway to desktop, if you don’t want to bring out a fully featured app and charge a significantly lower price for it, then gtfo of the iOS market as you’re not able to compete imo. The market dictates the company’s moves, the rules of te game how the pieces move, not vice versa.
I say all this as someone who loves their products, just dislike their attitude and think their pricing is a joke.
I think it’s possible they’ll bring it out with an enormous price tag, and have a throughly and deservedly chastening experience as almost no one buys.
The talk about the value of te iOS market etc has a Flipside imo which is that the desktop market is massively overpriced due to its monopoly. The desktop products I hear often have very little correlation to their price in terms of their quality when compared to ios equivalents. I think this pisses off And scares companies that rely on no one rattling the cage. ios has its problems but the bigger picture is it has shown up te desktop market and its pricing. Te value on iOS has been incredible because the desktop market’s inflated prices are incredible. There is literally no difference between a great many synth apps and desktop versions except a massive price hike. I don’t mind this because I think it means that te two markets may bear a real distinction in some technical aspects, but are largely divided by a marketing distinction. “Desktop is for professionals so justifies pricing and iOS for home users”. This is of course nonsense in almost any real sense and it’s a nonsense I think s ok, as industry’s exist and shape themselves this way, and musicians and songwriters on ios benefit by beung able to use stuff that is just as good they wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford. The system just relies on the unchanging patterns of the majority of people going with the status quo, so it all works out.
Yes and no again. Some tools feels overpriced on desktop but there are many unique tools which i even find cheap and you get so much more for your dollar. There are overpriced and cheap tools on all platforms, depending also on what tools you might already have or what you expect from a music creation tool. That iOS is always cheap and all desktop tools are overpriced is just an illusion. It is again just proper research. You get what you pay for (mostly). If Genesis Pro costs a dollar means that all iOS synths are overpriced, no. But some feels overpriced even for 10 compared to a 15 dollar plug-in with 10 times more content and upgrade path to other product on top. Add again no demo, no resell, mostly still missing advanced options and often no proper integration in all DAWs. Its all relative after some time if you go along in all platforms since years.
Also tools like SWAM do not exist on iOS and i would love that this change but i really also find them a bit over the top with the price. Maybe because they deliver a market where they are nearly the only ones yet. I guess as with other developers there is a danger that loyal customers on desktop platforms would be not happy if they sell it for 1/10 elsewhere. I don´t know.
So i think while some already shows interest in the iOS platform because they ask about it in different surveys they might cripple tools not only because of hardware and software limitations but just because of the different market. But we do not know of course.
I still prefer sample libraries for strings, brass and woodwinds (since i already have enough here) but there is just nothing on iOS beside iSymphonic and this is more overpriced than some desktop sample libraries if you look at the content and editing options (they even talked about a pro desktop version long time ago but not sure if that ever comes) and your iDevice will cry for more RAM and multi-core processing which seems still not possible with iOS devices when it comes to real time audio.
And then again there are expensive tools like StaffPad which seems to get a lot love in forums like V.I.Control where composers are the main cliente. We should not forget that members in forums make maybe the smallest part of the customers anyway. But i see a lot misinformation in all forums because people do not make their own research often. I still wonder what will happen if Catalyst will take more off and some iOS apps coming to the mac store but so far there is nothing to see. Lets also not forget that there are also a lot independent developers in the desktop world which decided to make a living from it. Do any iOS developer creating music apps make a living from it?
But we are way to off topic anyway, sorry.
Back to topic i still hope that SWAM will be a success and if it even just to show others developers that the market is there. I do not care on which device or OS i create music and just care about the tools/software i would like to use.
Didn’t someone mention that ios swam will be almost as good as desktop versions? Maybe it will be more or less the same. Particularly if using an mpe controller, maybe having all the bells and whistles will not be that important, the mpe factor will give a lot of control anyway. I don’t think it will be too expensive because the ios market will not bear it. But I think the people that are actually buying swam on desktop are serious pros with a lot of money to spend, and they would never switch to iOS production, at least not for a few more years, so selling this at a reasonable price on ios, but just very slightly less full-featured, will not impact that market. I’m making a blind guess of course, but I expect the ios version will be good enough, and will come in at a reasonable price. Let’s see though
Of course that could makes sense as well
I just want to say that even if i´m a cheap buy guy (as maybe all customers which are not rich are) there are certain tools i would happily pay the same (and SWAM is not in this included) if they come the same way to iOS. Of course that would also bring in the bitching "why do we have to pay again if i have it already on desktop".
Ah, i don´t know. Things will change anyway in the coming years. Good or bad? No clue
That’s a fair comment, i generalised somewhat although I think what I was sketching is the general picture of things. I don’t think upsetting an existing user base features highly in the decision making for pricing on ios - especially when you see te dismissive tone of audio modelling comments. This is as you say proper research, which I have done due to my interest in their products, as well as synful, pianoteq etc, and others haven’t regarding this particular matter, as there is quite a long history there.
However, I disagree that you get what you pay for; you get what the market allows to be charged so the quality for a product is only a single factor in the array of factors that dictate price and so the fairness or openness of the market and the amount of challengers to it dictates this. It’s the difference between a healthy market where products have to sell themselves through quality because they will otherwise lose out to competitors, or a market where without this openness product quality is quite low on the weighting of factors compared to branding, and everything in between. It’s rather like the opacity of Hollywood or the music industry - the creation of the idea of professionalism or this mythical standard as something that is out of the reach of the masses is an illusion once technology progresses that keeps unhealthy markets afloat. I love indie scenes, whatever their shortcomings for blowing this open. I’m not saying that’s the case with this, but it’s a reality to some degree in all industries. Ios was a newcomer barging the door open. Of course, I don’t mean all examples, or this is the case all of the time, to an absolute degree but it’s real world economics. Value has so many meanings beyond relative quality or use because money has no real value as an invented bartering system and relies on relativity. Then there are the boring realities like profit margins and pricing vs audience interaction.. yawn. I probably phrased things a bit too emphatically as the behaviour of this company has been pretty poor in my opinion, over a long time and in numerous examples I’ve come across. I dunno, maybe I’m overstating it, the tone of their comments and attitude has been poor in my opinion, and pissed me off as a consumer.
I also agree that iSymphonic is overpriced. I’ve never really liked their products as they sound metallic to me - although strangely enough I was playing around with it te other day and started to like it a bit more. Everything is so subjective anyway - I dislike most score apps for creating orchestration and can almost always hear it immediately as unnatural whereas others don’t notice. I also prefer modelling to strictly sample libraries as I think. a good player makes them sound significantly better and more expressive... although the same product will sound lik the absolute worst in the hands of a bad player (see swam brass official demos compared to namm demos - the Star Wars theme is one of the worst sounding orchestral products I’ve heard in 20 years... all of a sudden at namm it sounds great with a guy who can play with touch and feel).
It’s my fault we strayed off topic, sorry.
And I do, despite all this, Hope swam is a success, with a reasonable price on ios.
I’m personally waiting for the day they put out a SWAM iap for real electric guitar. I’m so waiting for the day when i can truly simulate the sound of real strat on my iPad.
@McD bluetooth audio is for literal retards and people who never gig at venues
@sclurbs : Maybe you could refrain from using derogatory language for the learning disabled as an insult. Thank you.
The developmentally/learning disabled would never go for removing the audio jack. You'd have to be a retard to support that decision. How dare you equate the two.
@sclurbs: using insults and demeaning language doesn't help you make your point. Using derogatory terms like that is simply unkind and encourages bigotry.