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.
18 Apps
I’ve committed to only having 18 music-making apps on my phone. One folder, two pages. Anymore than that and I just get overwhelmed and feel like I can’t focus. I, like many of you, have bought too many apps and haven’t dived deep enough into most.
My current rundown:
1. Lagrange: Need to try it out. Bought it and forgot about it but it seems promising.
2. Mononoke: In love with it, refuse to delete it.
3. Shockwave: Must. Dive. Deeper. Love what I’ve seen so far.
4. Strng: Erik’s apps are the bomb and I need strings. Might replace with Tardigrain if Lagrange can do what I think it can.
5. Ruismaker Noir: Obviously.
6. EG Pulse: I’m working on some trap beats and the sampling + roll functionality is killer.
7. Djay Pro: I’m DJing a wedding later this year and it’s connectivity with Spotify is amazing.
8. AUM: Duh.
9. Cubasis 3: Update fixed what I needed it to and Steinberg Sequel was the first DAW I ever used.
10. Fugue Machine: Super cool idea and need to give it a try again.
11. Dubstation 2: Favorite delay so far.
12. Scatterbrain: Super neat idea and I Apparently have a music-crush on @brambos.
13. Blackhole: It was on sale. I caved. It’s wonderful.
14. RoughRider3: AUM multi-out = sidechain 4lyfe.
15. TB ReelBus: I’m a slut for lofi.
16. TB Enhancer: It seems cool and I want to dive deeper than the presets.
17. TB Equalizer: Living that AI life.
18. Audioshare: Necessity.
So there they are. Tell me what you think I should swap out with what? What am I missing? What don’t I need?
For perspective, I’m focused on beatmaking and house music at the moment.
Comments
It’s a decent setup, but I would be missing apeMatrix, Pure Acid, Barkfilter and Groovebox.
I did just get rid of Pure Acid and Barkfilter. Pure Acid doesn’t quite work in my current music and I was also just getting too used to relying on it for quick jams. Barkfilter, I need to take a deeper dive at some point. All I used it for was the Tripleband magic.
What am I missing without apeMatrix. I’ve heard of it but don’t quite know what it adds for me.
Koala has been pretty ultimate for me for beats. I could probably go really far with just that and AudioShare alone(with all my samples of course but I have quite the collection)
With apeMatrix installed you have smooth random LFOs and panning etc. to use on anything in AUM.
Tried something similar a while back - didn’t work for myself. I’ve come to terms with what I do with music. For too long I tried to reach what I perceived as the goal, which was to make so called ‘finished tracks’. I now know that where I actually get my most pleasure is just dabbling with new apps. It matters not if sticking with certain apps would make me more ‘productive’, as that is no longer the aim. I just experiment with no barriers except those of cost and iOS itself.
I wish you all the best in your adventure, but I will say that already you are talking of looking deeper into more apps, so in all honesty I doubt the 18 will hold firm for long. That is not to say that it matters if you wander off the plan, as life is too short to worry about such things.
At times, I believe we all try to be that which we are not. We try to fit in with that which we see as the norm. We learn by this act over and over again. Most of us eventually find our own ways, when able to be honest - this may be you finding yours for now, or just another leg on the journey. I’ve now found my musical home - a home of many many apps. A continual journey of quick pleasure of the new and fun, without guilt and without the need of denial any more. I am an app dabbler and proud. If I had my way (and the financial means), my home would have more iPads, lots of little musical boxes, keyboards, computers, fishing tackle, games consoles and more tech than the average average Tokyo Teen could handle
this isn’t going to help encourage you to downsize cuz i feel like just fruitbat. i am a shameless app dabbler! i love getting the new apps and playing around with em while still be excited for the next release 😎 i’ve been making music since 1996 and realize that most of it has been “practice” and “jamming” and since i’ve started just making music / beats on my own i’ve had an obsession with gear and different musical boxes and apps and i think that is my actual hobby, not really a song finisher, ill still do that sometimes but i feel it isn’t the goal most the time, it just to jam and try all the things! that is what currently makes ios so attractive, it’sfairly inexpensive to try a lot of stuff and ideas out. i think that’s my hobby and that it has been for a long time i just didn’t realize it until a couple years ago. any way, enough of the rant hahaa.
what im saying is don’t strip away the fun of all these awesome apps and set to many limits! i agree that too much can be over whelming and prevent completing albums but if you need to call upon the power of say zeeon or bleass delay and it isn’t in your 18 it maybe more work to try to recreate what they can do easily with another app!
i just don’t think i could personally make much with out at least 10 synths , 10 effects, and a much of midi stuff ! i need the aresenal to do the hard work so i can jam
Might be short a sampler - very handy on a phone. And BramBos has all sorts of goodies in the Rozeta package ... hard to live without. But all up an excellent list.
The only chance you have of making music with "only" 18 apps, is to leave this forum immediately.
But I'm afraid it's too late.
@YourJunk
Interesting concept. So you've chosen to stick with 18 apps without knowing them well?
I can imagine this to be a creativity booster, no kidding, because that will likely force you to leave your comfort zone.
Make sure you're gonna post your new music creations 😁
I would be missing:
And all the MIDI generators I can find: Aphelian, Autony, Poly2, Rozeta, etc
Wise words indeed...
The commodification of all human experiences may be undermining the fundamental pure and simple expression of making something vibrate (albeit synthesized virtually) to create dynamic physical movement (and hopefully spiritual/emotional)
IMO
All sonic experimentations & explorations have some ‘purpose’, and may be a catalyst for another creation that you consider ‘finished’
Sometimes an ethereal synth sweep evokes existential ponderings of the infinite universe...
but there is still time for rumbling sub bass that vibrates your soul and gets your brain stem twitching!
You know you can half that list 😉🌸
Continua but probably needs a full screen to have space for mpe plus space for continua controls.
You could sequence it though. Then use controls. Then do a less expressive MPE overlay or map a controller.
Or just make it one app.
Caustic
if i was going to do a limited app # i’d do something like AUM , groovebox, gadget, digikeys, SPA, reverb and delay effects , then roland zenbeats to arrange all the audio stems into clips from GB and gadget and use it’s editing tools to add automation and finishing touches
Thanks for this. I know your words (and reasonOne’s) weren’t aimed specifically at me, but they hit me just right. Really inspiring. It’s okay to be an “audio dabbler”.
Here is my limited app fun for the day:
AUM
Monono
Blackhole
Rozeta LFO
Scatterbrain
WOW
Maxima
Monono playing into three channels of Blackhole with the volumes of each controlled by LFO. These three channels then each go into their own two channel Scatterbrain. One channel is clean. One channel has a WOW Fx on it. These are all then brought under some control in a master bus with maxima and one final Blackhole!
@Fruitbat1919 my approach is similar to yours. I enjoy playing and exploring most of the time. Occasionally I’ll finish a track if I create something that I find sufficiently engaging. I just don’t see myself being motivated to create a lot of songs that other people would be clamoring to hear. Having all of these affordable tools on iOS allows me to do this.
Nevertheless I can certainly say that I didn’t need to buy every app I’ve purchased but I don’t regret purchases either as it’s allowed me to learn and try a lot of things along the way. Given what I already have, I’m more specific about what I purchase. Having more insight into what appeals to me further narrows my focus too. Being able to distinguish between what seems appealing versus what I have and will likely use provides clarity.
That it is
I have few buying regrets. Most of the stuff I never use are mostly redundant due to the poor performance and reliability of IAA. I always have times when I will download an old app and give it a thrash for old times sake. Mostly though the old IAA only apps often just feel old and better times have been acquired with the AU route.
Since my little break and coming back to see what’s new, I’m super happy at the state of the iOS AUneverse. iOS is really coming of age in its own way. Yep, DAWs are still a tad backwards looking and kind of just shades of their Mac / PC counterparts. The future for iOS is something much different imo - we just are not there yet.
So far I haven’t done much with sampling. Most of what I would do can be done with Pulse or audio tracks in CB3. I got Koala but it seems more like a sketchpad rather than a tool to build and finish a track.
Interesting. Can I map the LFOs to various controls within other apps, like a cutoff or mix?
Lies.
Doesn’t look like it’s available for iPhone and it sounds pretty unstable.
curious what this sounds like.
I love the “audio dabbler” concept and all the power to you. I definitely do have fun just trying stuff, but I have more specific goals when it comes to creating music and being bogged down with a ton of apps just kills my creative process.
Yeah, learning them is a big part of this. If I have too many apps, I lose the depth. I end up getting lost in the fun of just playing around with different apps and their presets. This method forces me to really dig into the apps and see what they’re capable of. If I find redundancies or that something isn’t meeting my needs, I can switch it up.
The goal is definitely to create songs and beats that I am happy uploading to various streaming sites/apps.
>
Finding your own way is the only way. Mine was a sorta friendly warning comment though for all that any approach can be problematic or at least just the start of a long journey that may take changes to approach to find ones own way. Take for example the title - 18 apps - while a fun concept, I personally found the cutting process and recutting and recutting, to be more time consuming and more of a pain than it was worth. Now this is a journey that we all take (finding our own way), so my findings (while personal to myself), may be of no relevance to yourself. However, as in all of these conversations where we share our opinions, some may find it strikes a chord with them.
I hope you do find your set of apps that work for you. Hope also that me wondering off with my own ponderings was not too much of a distraction to your thread
Have fun on your journey 
Hope that didn’t come across wrong. I’m tired and my words are all mush lol
I have two kinds of ‘finished tracks’. One is where I am simply done working on it and will listen to it warts and all every now and then while drawing or whatever. The other is where I feel good enough about it that I want to share it with the world, still warts and all. As time marches on l make fewer and fewer of these on any platform. With all the polished awesome in the world people don’t want to hear hobby sketches.
We should probably make a new thread to discuss the subject. I’m afraid I might have inadvertently derailed the original subject a bit.
Hehe, whoops, guilty. But yah, I get off on just exploring new apps and processes so sticking to few for the sake of being ‘productive’ runs counter to my current kink of ‘I wonder what else is possible that I could pursue when retired (or not)’.
👍🏼
Enjoy the journey!
If i were to minimize(but im not..laughing out loud) here’s the twenty-ome
Id Minimize to....
If they was AU- Animoog, Thor, Thumbjam & Samplr...but they aren’t
I did make an update here to focus more on Cubasis 3’s capabilities. I removed Strng since Lagrange gives me strings and more. Added Pure Acid back for the sound, fun, and midi control. Swapped Bit Maestro and Pumphouse instead of Scatterbrain and RoughRider3.