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.
September Song / More From McD And LL
I really loved what @McD gave me to work with on this. Three string tracks and a muffled piano. The cello ostinato was very good, I thought. Now he tells me it was all a hoax. Maybe he will reveal his special simulacra sauce in this thread.
A shout out to @richardyot for another great LaGrange preset used towards the end. BeatHawk clarinet this time, as well as BH harpsichord. Both quite good. I think the harpsi is best on iOS.
Comments
Holy shit Batman... I really kicked you into high gear this time. You almost slipped into "Fur Elise" around
the --- mark. How many views do you want to keep this one around for. I think 666 is too high on that last joint. We're over using our privileges on the forum. Like a Carl Reiner joke about Mel Brooks as told to Jerry Seinfeld in the epic "Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee" on Netflix:
How can you tell a ----- from a Jewish comic?
The ----- leaves without saving "Goodbye".
The Jew says "goodbye" and never leaves.
I need to re-listen to remember who he used for the set up. Mel was in the driveway making Jerry laugh when his limo was waiting. Mel is now 94 and still has a vast catalog of stories, jokes and quick asides.
Carl died just a few weeks after the taping but was still very sharp. Mel and Carl spent the evenings together every night watching Jeopardy and other TV shows.
Who knew Carl, Mel and Jerry would use anti-Semitic humor... so effectively. Self-deprecation wasn't invented by the jewish comics... but it was perfected, IMHO. It's the best defense against true bigotry, IMHO.
Can I just leave the H out of IMHO and still makes sense? Probably not, IMO.
IMO = Intense Moment of Orgasm.
IMO = I Make Outhouse.
I should Google it.
You guys... don't know about 666, or most of the time what McD is rambling about, but wow... this push & pull between you two seems to be working great. Steady improvement on each new track... mixing, composition, play, feel... everything.
Congrats!
666 is just a number that's important for members of a secret society. I got a call from the "Big Guy"
telling me to "Ix-nay" on the "Umber-Nay". I forgot that secret means just between members and on this forum. It's some sort of Trade-Mark legal mumbo jumbo.
We're working on a Tribute Album... but I can't say too much but the "Big Day" is coming.
(STILL NO HUMOR FONT).
I can totally hear that as a nice sound track to a beautiful scene in a move. Great job!
ey, Scooby & Shaggy please name the AUs and presets used
Which one is Shaggy or can I just pick? With Covid on the loose I'm definitely Shaggy but only in the back.
I'm going for the Riff-raff look from Rocky Horror.
Scoob' are you cool with the nick name? It makes us look more street. If that's possible.
If you call me Shaggy I'll spill the beans on how the great @LinearLineman fell in love with a $3 Robot wearing a low-cut $90 prom dress. It's all true and he still made something truly transcendent from the whole tawdry set up I gave him as a trap leveraging his lust for beauty. Being destitute he wouldn't pay to silence me so I'm going public to humiliate him to the world. Pretty Shaggy collaborator, huh?
I did have to pay $34 for the Cubasis 3 shipping and handling and $8/month rent on the motel room called DropBox. But he fell for the AI beauty and even took pictures for his BandCamp album.
Yet another amazing sounding cinematic piece! That cello sound is just fantastic. I love it!
When I first logged in this morning, I thought you guys were discussing my similarly named piece (which neither of you have yet to comment on btw sniff sniff 😢)
I visited your link... had a listen and commented. Will you return the favor and call me Shaggy? (Shaggy is also the name of a Jamaican Reggae Musician while Scooby is a cartoon dog).
Sure thing Shaggalicious, I think the Scoobmiester is still asleep. One too many Scooby-snacks last night I presume.
Scooby will pop his head up and say "Wha?"
I, Shag-meister, have laid claim to the hipper nom de plume ("La plume de ma tante").
So, the naming rights being secure I will proceed to dish. Hang on I must take this call from my agent.
OK... looks like I'm going to need a new agent. Any-hoo.
I decided to send @LinearLineman a Cubasis Project to see what he might come up with.
I sent it over on 9/8. It had 6 tracks and frankly was a bit of a sonic mess. It sounded like this before
the @LinearLineman ("Scooby") tore it apart for spare parts.
Terrible mix, right. But I knew Scooby would clean it up. But he went dark on me for 48 hours... not a peep.
Then suddenly, he has a completed piece. I don't call that collaborating. That's "tag team" composing.
Go figure. He's an artist.
Here's how I labored over my contribution.
The $3 Robot
I used Piano Motifs to make the basic 80 bar arrangement I sent over in a Prom Dress.
The $90 Prom Dress
I imported the Piano Motifs ($3) MIDI file export into StaffPad ($90) and assigned:
THE DAW - Cubasis 3 ($34 today ONLY)
Then I exported the StaffPad rendering as audio stems and imported them into Cubasis
4. TIME EXPENDED - 20 minutes. Musical talent required - minimal. Technical Skills - moderate.
I'll let Mike pick up the story from here... how he fell in love with one of the tracks and crafted his whole world around her and never even realized she wasn't even a cello but a contra bass. Not surprising since Mike is well over 6 feet and a cello is well... height challenged. So they probably wouldn't hit it off.
The Contrabass can sing quite high for a big girl so it's easy for him to make that rookie mistake given the romantic lighting. He also mistook a Flugelhorn for a Euphonium with false labeling. Mistaking the tiny Flugelhornhorn for the massive Euphonium. His vision is failing.
It's a sordid affair but one I hope he will learn from and not be fooled again by a Robot in a nice Prom Dress.
NOTE: All StaffPad instruments are the defaults except for the Ambient Piano from the Ambience One Sampleset ($20). In the mix the piano gets washed out almost completely.
Mike cleaned it up a bit and uses it here and there.
Well, @McD, I feel like a deceived girlfriend. However, it does make me feel better that your complaints about it not being a true collaboration are irrelevant, since in essence I was collaborating with a robot.
That “cello” (I’m sure the robot wrangler, McD, labeled it such to further his deception) line still is pretty great. If the robot had a pussy and a nice place with a view it could be a match made in heaven for me.
The veracity of virtual iOS acoustics are also irrelevant for me. Other than wanting a decent piano sound, all others are simply sonic ingredients. I mix and mash them without consideration for any kind of authenticity. EPs are also an exception, being an imitation of a kind of imitation.
Still, all artists use tools that are not of their own making and that enhance the finished work. Trace the evolution of applying color to a surface. For centuries it involved a real liquid and some kind of applicator. These elements developed into more sophisticated forms until, one sparkling day, they made the leap into the next dimension. Now neither liquid nor applicator is necessary. They remain, in a retro way, as a reminder of the good old messy days of painting. Now, no fuss, no muss and even a robot can do it. It only remains for a robotic replacement of McD to complete the transition.
Think of it, McD... McRbt could have a self censoring humor font programmed in to create freely sans that sneaky guilt you so enjoy. This will release you from any obligation you felt to be a creator and you can devote all your time to being a floating brain with occasional cravings for a cappuccino.
That’s what you get for deceiving me. Btw, send the next project, but use horns this time.
iknew it. StaffPad huh
I'm very predictable... but in phases since I have a short attention span. I could go all acoustic and stop using apps except for a DAW. But the requirement to create perfect "takes" might rule that path as an uphill climb or even a risky cliff face.
I just want to feed you a decent prompt to do your thing.
If I can get you that engaged with some Robot tunes I'm going to keep going. Horns it is then. I was thinking I'd send you something with pure percussion or something like a banjo orchestra. Let's see what sound intriguing to me and I'll pass you the ball.
I'll probably switch the Robot App over to Riffer as the pattern maker with @echoopera's Drambo generator for the long notes. Make the stems with AUM maybe.
@McD, robotic or not, it provides a different perspective and starting point. That’s of great value to me.
It stimulated some of your best work in recent times, IMHO. It seemed to inspire you to layer multiple instruments to build your structures. I dig it.
ComicSans doesn’t work?
Ask @michael for font support in the ABF editor.
@McD, I really like those string sounds. Amazing how this came from Piano Motif!
So, Staffpad is only being used for its sounds? I wonder where I could get some contrabass strings like that without spending ninety clams.
One more thing, these two posts here, ^^ read very well if you read them out loud while listening to either piece here. Sort of a spoken word poetry over the piece if you will.
Or maybe not.. guess I need to put this out and go inside and do the dishes.
.
There are good contrabass samples in:
Roli Noise (Hybrid Acoustic Packs "Legato Orchestra" down low I think)
iSymphonic probably covers it with one of the string presets down low
Thumbjam maybe
Pure Synth Platinum?
I could try running some MIDI through and fit good fit. StaffPad Renders as you finish each bar so there's
not really a realtime requirement and the audio quality seems excellent with a few lack luster duds.
The guitars are not great. Like the ol' SoundBlaster guitar tones almost.
Thanks, I know Thumbjam has some great cello samples.
I was going to ask “what about SampleTank?” but now that I’m looking at the “full” version, it’s just as much as Staffpad anyway.
@Intrepolicious, skip SampleTank, Ed. BeatHawk strings have very good double bass sustain.
Thanks. Oh, I totally forgot about Beathawk! That’s right, and I already bought the the String Ensemble IAP
But SampleTank is a typical MIDI sample payback realtime engine which most of us want.
StaffPad is a batch rendering solution that can import MIDI files at best and it's very buggy
in that process. Piano Motifs imports it's 2 channel exports well but almost everything else gives me fits. Then after assigning notes to specific instruments I can export an audio mix
or stems. So, it's all batch in batch out to get a great rendering of a string ensemble or an orchestra. So, the $90 brings a great capability for rendering with the "handwriting notation"
overhead and required understanding of musical notation and articulations.
So, there are massive tradeoffs in this comparison and the answer should be obvious depending on your goals. I wanted to make something akin to film music and StaffPad
is on a apr with the desktop tools that use the $500 orchestral libraries. For $90 it's "good enough" and the Apple Pen is actually pretty cool if you know how to write out notes.