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.
Tired of waiting For Cubasis and NanoStudio!
I was trying to make the move to an IOS setup for recording and live performance but that just is not working out.
I bought Cubasis 1.5 years ago only to find it cannot do tempo or time signature changes. This has been a requested feature that has been brushed off and I have since found that is nothing new for Cubasis. External midi control for transport and faders was requested 6 years ago and many times since with the same reply! "This feature is on our list it will take some time etc. etc." IT HAS BEEN 6 YEARS! who, what, are you serious? I got a very similar reply about my request for tempo/time signature change and at the time was like "oh, how nice they are listening and actually working on it" then They mess up Cubasis 2 and release Cubasis 3 which is a clusterF$&@ guess what no midi control or tempo/time signature change. I finally realized I was just getting the old hot air blowoff to shut me up.
I bought NanoStudio 2 right when it was released, loving it and buying the promise of audio tracks coming soon! BWHAHHAHAHAHAH! I'm such a sucker!
It has midi control "sort of" for faders and knobs but I do not need an external controller with mixing or adjusting sound parameters. I can sit and use the touch screen. I need external midi control when I want to record and have a guitar in my hands and want to use a foot control to trigger record or when am performing and want to start a sequence. Midi control of transport functions are needed.
Because I was working on a project that had tempo changes Cubasis was OUT.
So, I start working on it in NS2 figuring hey those audio tracks with be out any day now ....... yeah any day now..................
and what ever you do don't ask when it's coming!
I had to export the tracks bring them into ProTools on my desk top so I could record the audio and do the mix.
iOS did not improve my workflow, it made it worse and I have spent a quite a bit on apps only to not be able to use them!
Is there a DAW for iOS that records audio, records midi, has tempo and time/signature changes, external midi control for transport and hey faders would be nice and finally I could mix and master in?
I am done with these two
Comments
Don't have Auria Pro but to some it's supposed to be the best there is on iOS, at least it ticks in all the boxes...
Hey those are all the boxes I need. I don't need time stretching, looping, sampling, or anything fancy just the basics.
I can emphasise with your desire for tempo and time changes. I too find it a strange feature to be left from the basic feature set of any DAW.
I have pretty much all the iOS DAWs, but they all exhibit either feature set compromises or poor stability imo.
iOS music making, while so fantastic in many ways (not least the prices), I do find that in some ways it leads me to choosing certain ways of music making, rather than letting me roam completely free to create. I am not saying PC / Mac doesn’t have their downsides (they do) - the most crippling to myself is the large cost outlays (I have managed to split the cost of iOS music making into small manageable chunks). So, for all it’s issues, iOS music making is the choice I have and it’s still way more convenient in all manners than my first home studio from many moons ago
I wouldn't invest much time/money in Auria either. It has its strengths and weaknesses just like every other.
Your frustration is completely valid, this is why I keep saying iOS atm is not up for 'professional' use... it's still a playground. The tools are coming along nicely but it will take time to have a 'one stop shop' with good interface and workflow. iOS is really great for quick fun, touch interaction and imo that's the reason why its pricing is justified.
But if you're coming from desktop with set of expectations you will be disappointed.
There surely will be many claiming it can be done but what works for one not necessarily works for others.
I like iOS because it's cheap, mobile and immediate, for me it was always about the joy of playing any type of instrument rather than the end result.
But when I rarely do that kind of thing I don't even consider iOS as a platform.
For the near future to come, I doubt that I'll be able to stick with one DAW only, and I also highly doubt that I'll be able to work completely without a desktop DAW. I don't need it often because a lot can be done on iOS but sometimes there's no alternative.
My current DAWs in use are Gadget 2 (still my #1 for composing and getting ideas down), Nanostudio 2 when I need natural instruments and compose and edit long linear MIDI tracks or handle multitrack MIDI files, and Beatmaker 3 if I need audio tracks or loops.
For reliably recording and editing up to 8-channel audio takes, I'm still using Audio Evolution Mobile and finally Groove Rider to compose tracks when I have my EDM cycle.
When I started recording music in the early 80s, if you were lucky you could have a four track recorder, if you were very lucky it could have been a Tascam or a Fostex.
If you were a millionaire you could afford a 16 track recorder. Then you had to add the rack effects, the mixer, real instruments...
Now in your phone you can have an almost infinite number of tracks, with incredible audio quality, with an arsenal of effects unprecedented in history, and above all at a ridiculous cost.
Therefore, I really can't understand what the reasons are to complain about. Maybe it's because I'm starting to be an old grumbler, to remember the good old days gone by, where what you were doing was directly proportional to ingenuity and ability, but we really don't realize how lucky we are today to be able to use this technology. Let's have fun.
Now I can go back to the hospice.
I’ve come to the conclusion that iOS is great to be incorporated into a music setup but just isn’t mature or robust enough to be the all-in-one solution. I’ve griped about the lack of time signature and tempo changes in iOS since joining this forum in 2012. iOS devices make great sound modules and midi controllers and for a live DAW less jamming environment (with AB or AUM) but I wouldn’t trust it much past that for live playing. YMMV
I basically gave up using 100% IOS and moved back to Ableton. iOS works very well in tandem with it using my Ica4+ but in terms of standalone I only use it as a sketchpad at best.
I’d settle for Pro24’s Midi synchronisation any day.
If you ask ten iOS musicians what they're missing, you'll get maybe eight different answers and two saying that they don't miss anything.
Like in desktop OS DAWs, there is no such thing as a one-stop solution for everybody because every DAW is designed based on a certain choice of workflow decisions that support some folks as much as they might distract others.
I'll continue to use the different applications for what they're best at, no matter if on iOS or on desktop.
As for Tempo changes and changing time signatures, in a DAW that can handle both Audio and Midi, Auria Pro is the one I'm using the most. Multitrack Studio can also do those things though. To be honest I haven't actually tried controlling transport in either via midi, that is more of a thing I do when I'm sketching in AB/AUM, but when I reach the "commit in a DAW" state I haven't even thought about the feature as missing, or if it indeed already is there.
I also use Auria (over MTS) for a couple of other reasons: I have all the FabFilters as IAP's (and quite a few more of the IAP's), but also because I really like Lyra these days (basically after I worked out SynthJacker-to-Lyra workflow), apart from that I quite like Twin2 synth which is built in. There are things in Auria that could be more straight-forward, but when you get your head around its little roadbumps you can avoid most of them easily.
Having said that, I do look forward to NS2 audio, and I haven't gotten Cubasis 3 (my only "missing" DAW of the quality ones) yet, so I can't really compare in a fair way.
Yeah, exactly my case.
I love Ableton - iPad workflow.
Heh! What an embarrassment of riches we have really!
I’m just running Cubase SX3 (licensed version I bought years ago) as a midi sequencer on an old WinXP PC into my iPad which I’m using for sounds and recording!
PC is rock solid, midi works and the iPad is a great sound module and audio recorder.
Only limitations are in the creative brain of the user!
Exactly. There are simply too many people distracting the devs from implementing the features I want.
Auria pro will just add to your frustrations. At least it did for me.
I didn’t get productive on iOS until I stopped trying to use it the way I use logic on the a Mac.
There are loads of apps on iOS that make creating music fun and inspirational so I use those loads; I save things as audio loops as soon as I have something interesting and commit and move on. It’s fun for me like that. I dislike using iOS as my DAW. I love iOS for creating song ideas.
One thing to bear in mind with iOS versus desktop and the obvious RAM issues. This is not because Apple, samsung etc are cheating us. It’s because RAM eats batteries. iOS is a mobile platform and there are fairly significant compromises made to ensure decent battery life.
Desktop can consume as many Watts per hour as it likes (until your MacBook melts anyway). iOS doesn’t have the luxury of unlimited watts.
It’s frankly mind-boggling that iOS is as powerful as it is. But when it comes to needing a powerful DAW I much, much prefer logic on a Mac to anything on iOS.
I like using logic. I hate using Auria Pro. It’s made for people whose brains are wired differently to mine; it does literally everything wrong! People whose brains are wired the right way for AP will rightly disagree vehemently. :-)
But iOS daws are a very different beast to desktop. That might suit you just fine. For me getting over the fact that I don’t need iOS to replicate what desktop is good at was the key.
Fortunately, some developers are able to read my mind in the future and create apps with features I didn’t even know I wanted before the app was released. We need more of these types of developers. Those musicians who are happy with what they already have are ruining it for the rest of us and should just go away lest developers get the impression that our music app appetites are satiated.
I agree 100% on Auria. I supported the Pro version, buying also some IAPs. On the audio side, Auria is very good, but the midi implementation is really buggy and unusable.
Actually the best midi and audio sequencer imho is Cubasis 2 (I will buy v3 on the first 50% deal), but sadly no midi-controls and no-tempo track. The time I lost to fight the giant midi bugs on Auria can be spent to use touchscreen instead of hardware controls, and for tempo track I can export the final piece on Auria to use this feature. I also miss a staff editing track (only MTS features it, I own it but I think it has a bad UI). Actually on my iPad Pro 2018 I can use many different synths, drum kits, effect, prices are good. We only miss a good DAW. I think some old Atari falcon sequencers 25 years ago were much better.
IMO, the state of DAWs in iOS is not great. They’re all compromised in one way or another. They’re either missing basic features or unstable. I’d pay ‘desktop’ prices for a legit iOS DAW. They are getting closer, but still not there.
So far with this last Cubasis 3 update, it seems pretty usable. Still definitely not Logic or Cubase quality but gets the job done.
I would strongly disagree with the statement that AP's MIDI is unusable. Its AU MIDI handling improved dramatically now the last big update. There are some edge cases that most people won't encounter. And like all the iOS Daws, it is imperfect. I find it preferable to Cubasis.
It doesn't have a MIDI learnable transport, but it does support MMC. It exposes its play button in Audiobus. I am not sure if there is a way to press that remotely. I recall that @Michael helped someone figure out how to start AP remotely somehow but am not sure of the details.
I wish people that don't gel with an app would refrain from calling apps unusable when they mean "it didn't work out for me" --which is perfectly reasonable to say and also a far cry from unusable. One person's unusable app is often some others' preferred app.
“One person's unusable app is often some others' preferred app” - I agree. I used to love Auria until I started to run out of storage on my iPad. It’s then I noticed that I can’t save to Dropshot reliably. I know many don’t have this issue, but I do and that’s made my use of Auria to be come just for occasional uses and not for large projects.
You can easily move projects to Dropbox using Files app or Auria Pro's "Save Project to Other App". When you use that option with Dropbox as your destination, the save happens much much faster than the "Save to Dropbox" option which uses Dropbox's syncing protocol which is super slow for this. It made sense when it was first implemented-- before Files and AirDrop existed. The other options are faster and more reliable and allow direct saving to Dropbox (an added plus is that the project gets zipped, too).
You will find that copying your projects to Dropbox via Files app or Save Project To Other (with Dropbox as your destination) is much faster than using the Dropbox protocol.
But I'm an asshole!
I will try that, because the original option would crash the app before it managed to save anything. My bad I didn’t even think to try the files app
That came out before the Berlin Wall fell. Jikes.
I think Save to Dropbox in most apps is legacy code from the dark days when there was no other way than iTunes File Sharing to get docs off your iOS device.