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
This is a useful conversation, I hope some devs are listening. Of course it hurts a bit to get criticism, but it's very useful criticism.
With all of the apps that I have, and I do have alot, they clamor for attention. The ones that I enjoy ALL facets of get my attention. Sound first, ease-of-use second, looks third. I'd like to think I adhere to that anyhow, otherwise I'd feel very shallow.
Yes.
These.
I've seen it in your eyes
And I've read it in books
Who wants love
Without the looks?
-McCulloch/Cope
There's two Ievels to this topic for me.
First is how an app design effects it's UI controls. I'd prefer something more utilitarian than overtly artistic that makes simple control changes more difficult than it needs to be. Some of the Klevgrand apps come to mind in this regard; they're so interested in being unique and artistic sometimes basic controls & functionality are completely compromised.
The second variable is the overall aesthetics of the app. How does the designs appearance draw the user in. The elegance of the FabFilter apps is like the perfect mixture of the two. The new delay just released TTAP is just way too cluttered and esoteric for me. I love the sounds but there's a lot of extra time looking at the corner of the app to decipher what's what.
Sound, ease if use and appearance is the order of concern. If an app sounds amazing a lot of it's design flaws can be forgiven.
ZenBeats has the unique challenge of being cross-platform on iOS, Windows, MacOS, and Android. The iOS version came after the Windows and MacOS versions, so it's not surprising to me at all, and I don't mind it at all either. Not only would it be tremendous work (making it probably not worth the development cost) to make it "iOS like", but then going from one platform to the other would be confusing.
Apple is playing the long game with Logic and GarageBand, and even MacOS - gradually introducing iOS like design to the platform so that somewhere out in the future it starts to converge. They are doing a masterful job so far. Microsoft tried this and completely failed because they rushed it. (IMO)
Anyway, I get it that people want iOS apps to look like iOS apps, and why they recoil when they don't fully. But I can totally see why Zenbeats is the way it is, and I don't mind it a bit.
But then, I'm very much like @AudioGus. I notice and am aesthetically impacted by UI graphics somewhat at first, but after a short time, I barely even notice the looks as long as they function well. The only two exceptions: extremely bright colors, and extremely low contrast for important elements like piano roll gridlines. The latter drives me nuts.
I wasn't going to post anything in this thread, but felt like I wanted to put Zenbeat's cross-platform design constraint out there. I feel like they did a very good job of compromising. My only complaint is the tiny faders.
The iPad works insanely great as a remote for Logic Pro X...
And thru IDAM it's a quite nice sound-module too to sample stuff from...
I do wonder if GarageBand gets a bigger update when iPadOS14 drops?...
...it should considering the new improvements to audio thread handling.
But yes, I spend a lot of time in Logic Pro X nowadays, the QuickSampler is just so much fun to use!
And Valhalla DSP keeps on making free awesome plug-ins too which is always nice
Perhaps the good folks at "Ugly Meter" can update their app to also include algorithms for mobile app design!
I used to really like that one singer.
Until I saw how fugly they were.
Now I can’t stand to listen to them.
🤮
It’s precisely those constraints that make the app feel wrong to me. I think cross platform apps that start off in one platform tend to work best on that first platform.
I am not in any hurry to have a full DAW type app on iOS in any case. I’m more than happy with Logic and having iOS for simpler apps that help me kick start ideas and to have fun making music in completely different ways to Logic.
Zen beats seems pretty cool though. I can see why people do like it.
I think I’d be probably be more inclined to use it if I used iOS exclusively for music.
I have pretty much given up wanting a fully fledged DAW on iOS. Having said that It will be interesting to see what Apple have up their sleeve for GB though. I noticed a shiny new GB icon in the WWDC keynote. A new version has to be very likely now. But logic has been my primary sequence for nearly 30 years. I can’t see that changing anytime soon. But never say never. ;-)
To me, they look “cheap”. And I know it’s absurd, but that’s the thing with design and aesthetics, it’s not all rational. They might have the best algorithms but 4Pockets apps have that “wanna be analog” look that just doesn’t cut it. If you don’t have top resources for design, I’d stay away from 3D and realism, it’s just more work and more places to go wrong.
Agreed. I typically like cleaner/flatter interfaces and assume that they might be a tad easier to implement. Look at Mela, NFM and NPD - nothing terribly fancy, but pleasing enough for me to work with. It’s IOS - it doesn’t need to pretend to be something that it’s not (analog gear). The fact that all 4Pockets stuff looks almost identical, icon included, isn’t very welcoming. It’s perverse.
I agree with the “simpler apps” comment, but I see it in a different way. When you’re in Logic, you’re somehow bound to a workflow. With these smaller, more specific iOS apps you jump from mindset to mindset... Fuguee, SAMPLR, then Zenbeats, some Rozeta... and they all have their unique workflow, looks and vibe. It pushes you out of the comfort zone more than working in Logic, where most plugins are “just plugins”. That, and the touch interaction is what I believe makes design specially important in the current app ecosystem. More so than in desktop daws.
I don’t think I’d feel right with Zenbeats on my desktop. To me it looks reminiscing of an old drum machine that you touch, therefore it feels right on an iPad, It’s all personal with design, it’s what it makes you feel. The reason I like Zenbeats is the same reason why I would hate it, it looks unique, to me it’s got attitude with that 80s “Tron” vibe. I appreciate the risk. That being said, I might be wrong and they wanted to do a great modern design and failed miserably!!.
Of course design matters. Plenty of good science out there that says so.
It’s like they all came out of the same cookie cutter.
Maybe nurack is the light version of the cookie cutter.
I’m a > @ALB said
Someone mentioned Moog apps. Those have a great design, and being an emulation it makes sense they look like the hardware equivalent. Otherwise, don't.
Its not just that theyre all the same re: 4Pockets, it’s that they’re ugly and look about 25 years behind the times, and not in a charming way. They’re just plain ugly.
Well yeah, The Moog stuff is ok, maybe because (as I infer from your comments) they’re based on something physical and classy looking to begin with.They also have implemented the 3-D aspects with a fair amount of thought and distinction.. Zeeon is also good, though not based on anything - doesn’t go overboard. I’m less happy with the Kong stuff - not ugly, not beautiful. Of the newer things this year that use 3D, I like the looks of Chomplr - uncluttered, sort of tasteful.