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
Yep, amusement parks, arcades etc...
Oh woe, didn’t know the new rules extended to there... I’m in the centre of it all but in the middle of nowhere at the same time so all odd really, though the tourists round here could probably do with some sense knocking into them tbh...
-del
Well, it took a while but we did it:
@LinearLineman asked me to add this:
This was the first time I've battled through Cubasis to publish a competed mix. I always do
Live work in AUM so this got me to focus on details. Editing MIDI notes, automating volumes,
trying different AUv3 presets and trusting Cubasis to work correctly.
Nicely done guys. @McD you might want to lend your mastering plug in to @LinearLineman though.🙂
I follow AudioBus Forum standards for the master bus:
MagicDeathEyeStereo
BarkFilter with "secret settings"
FAC Alteza
It's a lot "hotter" than I wanted and I realize I forgot to put TB Barricade on the output. My bad.
@hypnopad, what specific suggestions would you make?
I’m definitely no expert on mastering. I usually use FAC Maximizer on my main bus.
I think @McD would have better advice than myself. It sounds like @McD may have cranked his a little too much. I was just joking about how much of a difference in loudness between the two tracks. I realize it’s a difficult thing to match up levels on songs from the same studio much less from two far flung ones. What were you using?
@McD @LinearLineman awesome, its like 2 different reels , "insert any movie"
(altho not a fan of barky filteroo it works annoyingly well here)
U2 should make more stuff
EDIT; had another listen in my big floor speakers , @LinearLineman s mix was more playable, thebarkfilter killed some of the drama
Try any of these (or better all of them) on the Master Bus before mix down:
MagicDeathEyeStereo
BarkFilter with "secret settings" (can be found on the Secrets thread)
Reverb (that suits the material)
Barricade Limiter
Other great mastering FX tools:
FabFilter's Pro-Q3 (BarkFilter automates what you can do by hand)
FabFilter Saturn (can add the tube goodness of MagicDeath Eye's Compressors and so much more)
@hypnopad, after trying stuff like Grand Finale I find I don’t use much for mastering. I apply WavesUltramaximizer to many individual tracks for compression (Always the “ Mastering” preset) and Some simple EQing to help define the instruments into discrete ranges. I usually apply a send of reverb to most tracks. I realize my sound is not as souped up as is generally expected, but I am more comfortable with a less processed sound. My stuff sounds home-madey, which it is. I look for clarity amongst the tracks, so that there is as little mush as possible, but that’s about it. Even reverb is something I started using more recently.
Thanks @noob. I listened thru Sony 7605s, Apple earbuds and JBL 305 monitors. It was a bit trebly on the earbuds, but good on the monitors. McD and I have done other stuff together. We will do more, I am sure. We’ll have an album one day, even tho he’s publishing averse. 😉
@McD @LinearLineman A while back I put out a CD and spent a crazy amount of time on the laptop in Live (using the multiband compressor) to get things to a good loudness. A DJ played one of my songs on the radio on his show and I was very disappointed by how mine sounded by comparison. Thinking about hiring a professional to do it next time.
What's different about this thread is the "two versions" idea of collaboration. When we started I thought
we'd create a final product but @LinearLineman reminded me that 2 versions would be expected so I
started looking for something to change so there would be something to talk about beyond mixing levels.
I turned the "horns" into yet another track of violins so it created more of a piano/cello concerto result
with Mike contributing the piano performance and me contributing the cello solos.
The main benefit of this as a creative excise is learning new tools. I have never finished anything with Cubasis... I always quit in frustration. I have the same experience with every DAW except AUM. If
I was do commit to DAW-based collaborations I wouldn't be allowed to quit. Especially with someone
that uses that DAW for all their work.
To keep things simple I asked Mike to email me "MIDI only Cubasis projects I could click to open and
I replied with MIDI only. I could see collaborations with others based on BM3, Auria Pro, GarageBand,
ApeMatrix, AUM, Cubasis 3 (which can read Cubasis 2 but not return them in that form) or AEMS.
@hypnopad , are you saying my track was not loud enough?
Either yours wasn’t loud enough or mcd’s was too loud. Maybe both. I would have to have a third reference point to know which. Maybe split the difference (in a perfect world). All I know, using my phone through my speakers I was having a hard time hearing the quieter parts in your piece. I’m all for dynamics but I definitely felt yours could be louder over all.
Mike begged me more than once to try and match the levels between the 2 versions and I tried to
drop the master level but clearly NOT enough. I also thought the difference in volumes would stimulate
feedback since one is too loud and the other could be louder. My AUM projects almost always clip since
I forget the damn limiter every time. It still isn't a habit for me.
It's interesting that no one comments on what I did to 5 minutes of audio. Mike told me that bass line
was a bit tedious so I considered solutions for his advice and took the easiest route: just pull out the interesting parts and fade out. Like the infamous "Reader's Digest" approach to dealing with short attention spans or the 3 minute single.
I hope to see more collabs on this thread. It pushes you out of your comfort zone, ruin casual
friendships and serve up a clash of ego's to amuse the masses.
Too loud or not, its two versions, its fine heh, just rolll
What is interesting to me is that I always keep my levels about the same, and in posting 250 tracks here not once has it been suggested the track was too low. Very amusing and harkens back to a posting about audio illusions I remember.
and its subjective ofc, dont get derailed
@noob, no worries. But, coincidentally, I have been thinking about volume lately. It came up cause my exwife-gf always asks me to turn down the volume on my stuff due to sensitivities not worth going into here. I feel a certain level of acoustic energy is necessary to satisfy my ears. Below that, too much detail is lost, but, more importantly, the actual stimulating sonic energy is part of the enjoyment and appreciation. Something metal listeners know only too well.
Ok, so about the actual music....
@LinearLineman After more listens I can definitely appreciate your use of dynamics - normally not found in most modern music. It puts me in a very nice mood.
@McD Excellent job on post editing using the daw. It’s definitely a different workflow. I used to do a lot of work in one and I realized I didn’t enjoy it and felt like others were doing a much better job of it. Real time is where it’s at for me.
One last comment on levels and I’ll shut up. Unfortunately I have some hearing loss and tinnitus (being a life long drummer) as well as having the AC running nearby. So I’m not one to take advice from. Didnt mean to stir up any controversy. So in short- great pieces of music from you two. Hope there’s more coming.
Me too. I recently plugged headphones into a digital piano and thought "I've been slowly going deaf!"
My wife is habitually asking me to turn down the TV so I could see why in a flash.At full volume it wasn't loud enough for me and it always was before.
Then I realized I had a knob mapped to the upper layer's volume and it was dialed way down.
@hypnopad, all good. Thanks for listening. Yes, it’s all in the dynamics. I think film music expresses that more, and, of course, classical music. Making iOS horns come alive is difficult!
ah yes good point @McD , its a AB vs thread so 2 versions needed, will remove my noodle above
No need to remove anything. Keeping the thread alive encourages potential collaborations. You might
offer a track to be collaborated on for example
"Who wants to re-work this one? It's in [DAW or stems] format."
We could even see 4-5 versions of an interesting base piece.
Yeah, I don’t think there is any need to be too strict about things. Any kind of collaboration is fair game, surely, that was the initial point, no?
This thread gives the forum a little life during some rather isolating times. Does anyone want to share
a DAW "starter" project so I can learn a new app? Zenbeats, BM3, Auria Pro, NS2, etc. Ideally in MIDI format so it can be mailed and NOT use the dreaded dropbox. Cubasis 2 or 3 are OK too.
good idea i will take a Drambo challenge, need to dig in to that app more. but first im gonna mangle mcd and linemans tune, i start with the vanilla one
Yes. Collaborating on a Drambo project would be very helpful to learn it's mysteries.
Which apps are easy to email? Cubasis allows any project to be "shared" via email. Then you need
to stay below the email attachment file size limits. Cubasis MIDI only is great.
What DAW's have small "project" files that can be shared easily via email?
Cubasis 2 - Yes
Cubasis 3 - Yes
AUM - Yes (if you use select apps that both own... sometime IAP's are involved)
BM3?
Drambo?
MiRack?
Auria Pro?
Definitely no rules in this thread // just some form of collaboration