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
I like the adjustments made to the sound in the 1.2 version. It seems to handle very soft notes better.
I tweaked the sound to my tastes:
AUM Dynamics/Gain increase
ToneBoosters Reverb "Hall - lush reverb"
Morphit to change the EQ curve of my headphones
FYI... Table the developer is on forum as @zzsound is is definitely listening and reacting to feedback and looking to improve his product.
@Charlesalbert yeah, lowering the channel volume down a bit will do the trick. Aiming for your loudest playing to peak around -5db should be good.
Thanks.
For me it does distortion only using as auv3.
No distortion as standalone.
Just wrote an email to the dev.
I think, per the first section, it needs some release tails. I got clipping even in his demo at the end. This is a nice guy with some stuff to learn. Is it better? I do think the sound is improved... maybe.
Yeah I can confirm clipping. Initial play after update was without headphones in stand alone, but just threw headphones on and am getting clipping in AU and stand alone.
Pablo wrote me that he is working for fix for the high volume on Auv3.
Great and very responsive dev.
Version 1.3 is out:
Rewritten samples to avoid distortion when playing forte with an external keyboard.
App size reduced.
Omg thanks so much now it is perfect piano.
Omg app size is waaaaaayyyyyy down! Bravo!
In my experience Pablo was a really nice and responsive dev. Great work. Really.
I thought, for only 2.99 and almost a gig of sample, it might be pretty good. Actually it's not good- from a serious piano player.
Far from a serious keys player here. But my ears like what’s coming through in this latest update. Clean tones, and very playable. Not nearly as much customization as RC275 but I mean it’s $3. Out of the box, without any tweaking I think it sounds better than RC275 but once you increase the timbre on RC275, RC275 definitely sounds better. RC275 also has better note velocity, I’m guessing because of more samples, but again, its not really a fair comparison. $3 vs $36. If anyone needs or wants a good piano, but doesn’t want to shell out major cash, this is a no brainer.
Also, it doesn't look like standalone supports midi input in case you wanted to use this solo to practice scales, chords or to just jam out. But AUM and AB3 are fairly standard so not sure if it really matters.
Coming from Ravecroft, the Ivory American D or the Grand on Moduleon IOS is obviously less quality or the Garritan, Synthogy and Spectrasonic on pc, but here we are talking about a 3 euros app from an indie dev.
For me it is a good start and a decent sound.
Let’s see if Pablo can continue to improve it.
The worst input to any support process is negative input without specific details or clues.
Anyone in support (like someone that helps family members with computer issues) has gotten input like:
User: It's not working.
Support: In what way.
User: It's broken...
So, if you don't like this product help identify the issue needing to be addressed.
It doesn't handle releases well.
Fixed iin 1.1
It's distorted on high velocities of input.
Fixed.
It's too large for me.
File size reduced.
So, help Pablo, @zzsound, out and focus on anything you'd like to see improved.
We seem to have the developers attention and it's wise to use that communication
line to improve the product for the benefit of someone needing a piano sound but not
capable of funding the great ones. Choice and competition are good for the platform
and the community.
So far I have seen competent keyboardists just write this one off... which makes sense just
as a Moog Model D user would poop on a new developers synth creation. I get that someone with years of playing would find a better piano sound in a low end Casio but
even a low end Casio will cost a few hundred. This is available for $3 and is getting into the
quality level of a low end digital keyboard and it runs on an iPhone.
Adding MIDI input to the standalone version would also be nice since adding an AUv3 host
is an additional expense for a kid with a hand me down iPhone and a $10 iTunes gift card and a digital keyboard. That $40 CCK adapter might be a bridge too far but every penny counts.
This!
I'd say improved note velocity, eg more velocity points, and midi input and after that not really sure what more one can expect for $3. That's just me though. Not an expert at these things, just like to fiddle. 😁
MIDI keyboards usually offer 2 approaches to velocity:
Most users hear wouldn't take a product to this level of evaluation and hear the small changes in tone related to layering or the response sensitivity related to touch curves.
But I suspect adding touch curves might be a reasonable request. Asking for more samples might be a bridge too far but still good to ask for.
I haven't tested the product to see how many simultaneous notes can be played but that's
often a product specification that gets documented and is important in some cases. I have thrown massive amounts of MIDI at the app and it keeps up so all the samples are probably memory-based but I haven't made it crash with too many notes. That's a good thing.
Midi input for standalone would be nice.
This is an introductory price and prices can always be changed. Add more features and you might expect price increases but existing users can get the new features in updates or the developer can make them IAP add-ons.
Anything you notice can be called out when the developer is listening.
Anyone having trouble with this app, I’m still on iOS 13.7, but it’s not loading and behaves oddly in AUM. I have gotten it to work, but only after a few reloads. One time it told me GP Auv3 wasn’t download on my device and it most certainly is.... anyone else having issues?
That looks like a CoreAudio too many files open error to me.
Thanks @moodscaper just to clarify do You mean an issue on my end, running to much, too little space, or something with the app?
I also had one instance where it looked similar but there was a grey X in the red AUM circle, and it said app not available on iPad. But it was. Unfortunately I didn’t get a snapshot of that
TLDR; Well, something that the dev needs to look at I'd say.
Could be that it's not closing files properly, or, less likely, it's trying to open more files than it's allowed to. There's a hard limit, but you can override it if need be. The error code (-42) is suggesting that's the problem. Be interested to know if you closed SoundFonts, whether that allowed you to open the app? My guess / hope is that the limit applies to app extensions, not the host itself. That would be nuts, but, y'know... Apple...
I hit reload like 3 times and it worked. But it’s happened a few times, and I had the “not on iPad” thing as well. I’m not sure how to reach out to Pablo Lopez, I don’t believe he is on this forum I’ll check for a website, etc.
Thanks so much for your help @moodscaper when I find a way to message him I’ll let him know what you said. Hopefully that will help direct him toward the issue that needs to be fixed. Cheers.
Try contacting the dev as @zzsound , referenced previously in the thread.
Do you have these problems if it's the only (or first) AUv3 you load? Because the problem might be caused by a different AUv3, like SoundFonts.
Thanks @moodscaper
I didn’t see that handle.
Hey @zzsound ive had an issue with Grand Piano AU but only for the last 5-7 days and not every time. I wanted to give you a heads up. Please see the previous posts between me and @moodscaper Thank you.
A few times it happened from a saved file in AUM. I thought 1 time was on initial load but I just tested it and it loaded right away. I should also mention that it hasn’t been every time I’ve used GP Auv3. It’s maybe been 3 times out of 6 I’ve used the app recently. 1 time was definitely from a saved file in AUM.