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.
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$80 for the premier iOS guitar rig app with AUv3, midi functionality, and a bright update future. Less than $1 per component, stellar audio quality and fidelity. Overloud and Nembrini own this market.
It would be nice if they also gave a similar discount for the desktop cross grade...
They do if you're going from desktop to iOS, but probably due the the massive price differential it's not financially feasible for it to work the other way around...
I keep going back and forth on TH-U. Do I really need the full version. I suspect I won’t use a lot of the Amps/Cabinets but I am a preset person and know that the full versions comes with a lot of them. And then there’s the rigs. I only have 1 now (Tone Impera) and from all accounts, the rigs just sound better than the amp sims. Right now I’m leaning towards buying all effects & stompbox bundles at $22.99 each and then maybe getting a couple rigs. One question though. Are the FX & stompbox bundles on sale or is that the regular price? Same question for the rigs although I think I read somewhere in this or one of the other threads that the rigs are the regular price.
I’d wait through the weekend to see if any of the smaller bundles go on sale, but yes those are regular prices, the rigs are full price, and it’s only the TH-U full that’s on sale for $80.
I can only riff off of what you’re saying. The presets in TH-U are fantastic. It’s one of the great pleasures of this app. It really shows off the audio quality and fidelity of the components. I think we can all agree that as great as the Nembrini amps are, the presets are all over the place. I like to build those amp tones from scratch.
Do any of us really need any more guitar amps?? I have all the Nembrini, Ge Labs, all of TH-U with too many rigs, but none of the Bias or Amplitubes. I find myself cycling through a half dozen amps a day, and I have my favorites. So there are plenty of amps I haven’t even gotten to. However, I know that in the next few years I’ll be able to experience all of them and play with them. At the same time, once you get a few you love, why keep buying?
About TH-U full for $80. I think it’s a great deal. While many don’t think these amps sound much better than everything else on the market, to my ears they are a lot better. The new update with the remastered cabs has improved the cabinet sims as well. But even if people prefer to use IRs, the actual amps are better than the competition, except for Nembrini maybe. Just to have the licensed Brunetti amps, Randall amps, DVMark, is worth the full pack instead of just the pedal bundles. If I were to invest in the fx and distortions for $46, I’d get the full for $80. The “value” outweighs the “cost” for me, I know many will disagree. I keep saying that I never invested in guitar apps before, so Overloud is my guitar app without hesitation.
I love the Rigs too, I don’t think people need more than a few. Many of them can crossover and start sounding the same. While each rig has many many profiles, the preset banks can vary from 10 to 100. So the hundreds of rig profiles are good to build around with pedals.
The Fender rigs really shine in my opinion, especially the Tremolux and Bassman. I’m a big fan of the Fried Betty, MarkV, Serenity gain, Brit 1987. There are more that shine with single coils vs humbuckers, but since there’s no rig sale there’s no rush.
There is one Rig I’m totally obsessed with now, and it’s the BHS Soldano.
There is a certain preset, “#55 BHS SOLD88 Luke Seventh One”, it’s the most rich, full, complex, textured, articulate, satisfying “kind of clean” tone I’ve heard in a long time. It’s as if my guitar amp grew 70 speakers and surrounded me, but it’s not distorted nor crunchy. Overloud squeezed every last bit of tone and eq out of this tone, and it’s just proof to me of how capable this app is. Anyone else try this one?
Thanks (again) for all the great info. I’ll definitely check out the BHS Soldano. I’m also more of a clean tone kind of guy which was what brought me to the Tone Tempora. Just one more question though. Do some of the rigs and their presets have various FX pedals put into the chain (if you own the pedals)?
The preset banks for each rig use pedals from the sim collection, in many cases though it’s all the entry level pedals like “reverb” that are available in the TH-U free demo with login. But there are some rig presets in certain banks that use pedals from the the rest of the collection, and if you don’t own those pedals, they will be grayed out in the preset. But my point is that most of the rig preset banks are using “available” pedals. So if there’s a specific rig you want to buy, I would cross reference the preset bank with the a available free pedals.
The other thing is, the actual Rigs feature their own menu of hundreds of profiles, and some of those profiles have real pedals baked in to the tone. You can find the rig list and each component listed in a pdf of each rig. So for example you could have a rig profile where Rig #27 is the amps with a distortion pedal like grid slammer added. So that’s baked into the sound. It’s a separate thing from the presets that use pedal sims.
@Philh0954 yes you can have just one rig in theory, and all the pedals, and use them all together.
Thanks! I’ll definitely wait and see if the rigs or bundles go on sale Black Friday or Cyber Monday before I make a decision.
Just noticed I shouldn’t wait for Cyber Monday (at least if I decide on getting TH-U Full). The sale ends Nov.29th.
TH-U full is an investment no doubt. If you’re happy with what you have then why rush just because it’s on sale. I do think both the sims and rigs have a bright future, with IR loader coming and active development. If we are talking about the massive amount of presets you get, they are truly great. I’m always put off by presets, like the ones in bias or amplitube demos, but not thu.
How’s the Xtone treating you btw?
Also down with THU. I complained about the terrible Octaver, even made 2 videos demonstrating, one comparing the legacy Octaver to the unusable current one, a second video comparing Tonestack’s Octaver (below) which is based on the same Boss pedal. Their answer was that there was nothing wrong , that the original is “vintage glitchy” and so on. I’ve owned and owned quite a few Octavers. This one is unusable.
It’s not about the money, it’s about their attitude. I also bought one of the fuzzes that I don’t like at all, but I can see that’s a matter of taste, whereas the Octaver is wrong and them they’re basically telling me I don’t have a clue. I asked for a trade for one of the other Octavers, no answer. Solicited a refund, rejected. So that’s the end of my relationship with THU.
The Xtone has been great, once I worked out a couple self-induced kinks. Yes, the lack of a input gain control has been a bit of an issue but I’ve been making due. I primarily play my acoustic guitars so it hasn’t been a problem for that, of course.
You’re right about not rushing into something just because it’s on sale. I’m leaning towards maybe picking up a couple more rigs, the OwnHammer rEvolution bundle & maybe the TH-U FX bundle. But even then, do I really need that? I have so many different au3 effects already. Will the TH-U effects really give me anything more than I already have? Maybe a bit of convenience if nothing else.
Fair and reasonable assessments to be sure.
@tahiche I agree they should have offered you a refund or a code for another pitch shifter, since you were unsatisfied with the product. I don’t think it’s a reason to boycott the app however, but I get it. I also emailed them about the Octaver and had a very reasonable back and forth with them. They were very curious about it and asked me for recordings of the dry signal, and their reply to me was satisfactory:
“The Octaver effect, as well as the original gear, is kind of a monophonic effect. The Octaver effect tracks the input note and reproduces it shifted by octaves. So you may prefer to play single notes instead of couples as you are playing in the recording.
More on that, also long decay notes can make the tracking have some troubles after some time.
We own the original effect and we could send you an A/B comparison with a melody played by us. But to let you listen to the original gear processing on a recording of your own, I’d ask you to send me another recording, with no notes coupled, and without that long decays. Just to have good starting materials to process with TH-U's and the real Octaver.
A suggestion: if you are seeking for a perfect tracking you might be try the pitch shifter.
Best Regards,”
They are sticking to their position because they have the original specimen that they based the design on, while also admitting it has some issues. I think from our point of view it just doesn’t reflect what a BOSS OC2/OC3 sounds like, but from their point of view their design is intentional and not a “mistake” because they can A/B with the specimen. I’ve actually found use for the warble effect now in some of my presets, and the Harmonizer set to octaves tracks beautifully anyway.
I have found all their interactions with me to be respectful, participatory, and seemingly honest, rather than dismissive. So I will continue to support them and their future. I understand where you’re coming from though.
Exactly, and they got this pedal wrong. It’s that simple, and it’s ok when you have a trizillion emulations going on. In my case it’s not about the quality of THU which undoubtedly is a beast, it was their attitude towards a costumer. Did you check the video?. Do you think that’s a good emulation?. That’s unusable.
For the past 2 years I’ve been playing my cgb guitar into both a guitar amp and bass amp with an Octaver. I can tell the difference between polyphonic (SubN’Up) and “vintage monophonic” (helix, voice live 3) , all of which I own. They hit my ego. I’m all Nembrini now. Simple and to the point. Still to find a good Octaver in iOS, the pitch shifter in NuRack is actually quite ok.
Edit: @JoyceRoadStudios hadn’t seen your post. This is just my personal experience, in no way am I making general assumptions or want to put down them as a company.
i haven’t tried the boss oc3, as i said I’ve tried and own a few others. I seriously doubt the boss behaves like that. Tonestacks emulation emulation doesn’t, and what’s even more revealing, THU’s own Legacy version doesn’t!. What’s the legacy version based on?.
A) But had they given me a 5€ alternative after buying a pack and some extra pedal, everything would have been great. The Octaver is important to me.
Anyway, its no big deal. Thanks for listening!.
Happy to hear about xtone, I did think the midi implementation was strong, and the audio quality of both inputs was good. My guitar being too hot at the signal, I couldn’t deal without a gain knob, so I got a 4/4 desktop interface instead (Motu M4). For midi I got a used FBV Shortboard mkii pedal board with built in exp. pedal and a Yamaha UD-BT01 dongle to make that board Bluetooth, and it works beautifully. So no hubs here, just one usbc cable bus powering the interface, and one AC outlet powering the Bluetooth dongle to which the midi board is connected. With the xtone though, even with exp. pedal added, it’s smaller and more portable.
Regarding TH-U you’re talking about $30 right now so I see no reason to jump if you’re not sure you need it. But at the same time I will also say, this is my main guitar app and I think it sounds amazing. The FX and pedals are one of the best parts to be sure. When I use a Nembrini amp in AUM or another DAW, I always put TH-U in front with a pedal line up, and Thafknar after with an IR. TH-U will have an IR loader in the future as well. As a guitar universe it’s unbeatable, but if you’re happy with one of the great Nembrini amps and adding your fx around it, why rush? My advice is, once you buy one bundle and you like it, you’ll buy all the goods and some rigs anyway. They are excellent. So play with what you have already! There’s no emergency. Again I say that at the same time as this app is amazing and everyone should make it their main guitar rig!
It doesn’t make sense to me to get the smaller bundles at full price if the full thing is $80. Many of those amps sound really good and even better with IRs, and the new remastered cabs even as cab emulations sound better than the competition. And the presets...
I have the original Boss OC2 pedal made in Japan and it is very similar to what you show in the video, you have to play note by note, without chords or notes very close together, it is a pedal highly valued by bassists, second hand can cost almost the triple than the current model (OC3, OC5) because lowering the dry signal to zero achieves a Synth-like sound.
“ TH-U Octaver replicates the Boss OC-3 pedal, which is a monophonic pedal...”. My SubN’Up has a monophonic mode, VoiceLive is monophonic, a had a Vox Trifuzz also monophonic, Helix was monophonic. You do get glitches when playing more than note, but it’s different, not nearly as garbly. I insist, what is the Legacy Octaver based on?. I’d say it’s looks like the same Boss pedal. The legacy is not polyphonic either, here’s a comparison.
@gabal @tahiche I certainly think there’s some justified confusion. The Boss OC3 not only has polyphonic but features a separate guitar and bass input. So I’d expect those inputs to be calibrated accordingly. Nothing about the Overloud Octaver screams OC3, it is clearly a Boss OC2. I don’t get how it’s an OC3 emulation at all. Even in their email to me they said it is “monophonic”. Maybe even they are confused.
This would certainly make sense to me, as their description says it’s based on a famous Japanese model. I respect that it’s an intentional design choice. But “OC3” shouldn’t be part of the conversation, as it has polyphonic.
OC3 is polyphonic, but it has a monophonic mode that simulates the OC2, the main difference between both pedals is that OC2 is analogic and OC3 is digital
When I quoted about it being OC-3 it came from Overloud’s support email, I neglected to mention so it wasn’t clear... this is the excerpt from their email.
“ the TH-U Octaver replicates the Boss OC-3 pedal, which is a monophonic pedal. As opposite to the pitch shifters, which can process a polyphonic track, the analog octavers cannot track the pitch if there are more than one notes played simultaneously. You should only play monophonic lines, as with all the Octaver pedals.”
I know you have to “play monophonic lines”, but you don’t, cos any decent pedal has an interesting warble and glitch when it’s confused by the tracking, it’s actually quite interesting and I dig it. Also it’s not like I’m strumming a major chord in the video, maybe they haven’t seen it, or can’t explain the difference.
I insist. I have polyphonic and monophonic Octavers. Also Tonestack’s recreation, also and even more intriguing THUs own Legacy Octaver. None of them have such a terrible tracking. Yes, monophonic Octavers warble and glitch with simultaneous notes, but not like this.
I mean they’re saying it’s an OC-3 and that Oc-3 is monophonic, when it’s not. Not a very good starting argument.
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Do you really think they’re replicating the monophonic mode of a polyphonic pedal?. That’s complicated... 😶 If that’s the case, which I find hard to grasp, the Oc3 pedal is just horrible. Why replicate it?. It doesn’t make sense to replicate a polyphonic pedal in monophonic mode, it’s just silly.
So is the Legacy version an OC-2?. Seems like it. That’s monophonic right?. Well it does a 1000 times better job than the polyphonic, as you can clearly see in the video.
Come on, it’s wrong. No big deal, but it’s just wrong. The email is wrong, the model is wrong, the pedal is wrong.
Cheers!.
Overloud sale in a nutshell... maybe cyber Monday will bring more sales to iOS but I don’t know. They would certainly reel more in by discounting a la carte components and smaller bundles, as well as discounting the rigs. Right now the rigs on desktop are cheaper than on iOS. But to be fair, in order to use rigs on desktop you actually have to purchase one of the initial bundles which are pricey, or the full, in order to get the software to load rigs. On iOS you can get a rig and load it into the free TH-U app, so there’s that.
Has anyone been able to properly use the Cabinet IR? I can put it in my chain, but there is no section anywhere that i can find that lets you load your IRs. The cabinet IR doesn’t do anything at the monent without a way to load IRs in it. I tried all settings of it and nothing has any effect on the sound. In the TH-U manual it shows how to load your IRs in the desktop version, but the iOS version seems to be non functional and missing this fucntion. Or am i overlooking something here?
There is no IR loading available in the iOS version, it is coming in a future update. The cabinet IR that comes in the full pack is just a place holder, and should be active once they update this feature. The devs have mentioned a few times that IR loader is definitely coming to iOS.
@Dutchee, I believe there may be support insofar as if you have saved a patch on the desktop with the IR you can then use that on iOS. But there is no support directly on iOS. (Not having the desktop version, I had came across patches on the internet that did include IRs.)
@JoyceRoadStudios , @Tim6502 okay thanks for that info! Hoping the devs will allow the IR loader to work on iOS soon 😎
Anyone know how long it takes for releases like the new Marshall to filter down to iOS and what sort of price the iPad versions are?
How often IAPs in this app are on sale?