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.
Turn iPad into a hardware device. Elektron ipad?
I was reading about the new standalone Maschine+. Some users were complaining the processor wasn’t too powerful... they were saying they should have used an Arm processor, and it made me wonder... iPads have arm processors...
What people love about Elektron products, the Mpcs or Maschine is the integration between hardware and software. They’re basically enclosed processors with an integrated screen and audio interface that are specifically made to interact with a software.
An MpcLive is a processor + operating system + touch display + audio interface + hardware controls + software.
The iPad can provide all but the last 3. We have audio interfaces, se have controllers, we have software.., but what these products have is complete and absolute integration. Software and controllers are one.
Why not do this with an iPad????
Audio interface
- controller
- controller
- iPad with specific app made specifically for the above
Equals =
this
or this (with a bigger screen)
They are even making mock-ups of what a possible Elektron octatrak would be like if it was an iOS app!!
What people love about Maschine, Elektron Octatrakt and what I truly love about my Digitakt is the hardware control and how it stablishes a workflow. And things just work because they’re made to work in tandem. The software knows exactly how many audio channels there are, what’s possible and what isn’t with the inputs and the processing power...
What I mean is... Why iPad app vs hardware?. Why not turn the iPad into a Maschine or a Digitakt by changing the hardware enclosure?.
There are some good efforts in this direction...
A guitar pedalboard!!.
Come on now, that’s ridiculous!. I’m not saying it’s bad, it’s actually a great idea, but a) it’s not the right audience, b) you can kick the iPad, c) you can do a lot more!.
An iPad based Mpc live, Digitakt, octatrakt, op-1... it’d be cheaper, it’d be easily upgradable. It’d be fun!.
A DAW with a hardware mixer where you don’t have to be worrying about mapping a controller that never works, that knows exactly how many inputs you got, with dedicated aux knobs...
There’s an app called Octachron that mimics Elektron’s sequencer. And they can, because elektrons sequencer is digital. We’re only missing the dedicated controller, and that’s a lot... it’s everything. From those old pro-tools systems, to the popular Maschine, there’s been really good products that integrated hardware controllers with a computer. The iPad is better!. It’s got a really good touch screen!. Yet there’s hardly been any advance in that direction.
Wow, that was long!.
I’d love for Elektron to hire me as product leader and do this shift. I’d also much love to hear your opinions if you got this far. Thanks for listening 👂
Comments
I‘d be totally for an Elektron app! it would even surpass the functionality of an Octatrack me thinks.
A dedicated controller would be cool but isn‘t the strength of the iPad that it is already its own controller?
I sifted through old iPad apps that work like instruments and they are awesome! I wonder why there are not recent apps like this.
ps. that behringer audio interface looks intriguing...
pps: on second thought a custom midi firmware for the Novation Circuit would rock! it‘s got everything one could want from a controller
Hi @osKar good to hear your opinion!
The behringer is a mixer that you control via an iPad app. Good example of an app specifically made for a piece of hardware.
I don’t think so. There’s loads of great apps, yet people love and buy Octatrakt, Maschine, Mpc... hardware, knobs AND perfect integration. Why?. Workflow and a closed ecosystem.
You avoid all those “doesn’t work with my interface”, “how do I map my controller to this and that”... and no, touchscreen is not the same as knobs. You could also add, say, an analog filter to the hardware part, or offload some processing to a very specific dsp. All that has be done with the desktop... take Maschine. Before the new standalone you hooked it up to a computer just for the processing power. With an iPad you get the processing power And a touch screen.
Maybe Elektron uses a specific chip or audio dac to do a specific kind of conversion... well, they’d put that in their hardware. And maybe add an analog filter. But it’d use the iPad for processor and display. It’d be a lot more affordable.
i'm using iOS only for music making since 2010... made LOT of tracks on this platform... but recently i purchased Digitone and Digitakt - and since then i didn't used my iPad at all :-)) For me it's the magic of hadrware knobs and buttns packed into one compact package, you don't need to configure anything (like mapping of external controler) - everything just works, all features right under my hands. Good thing on HW box is you can train you muscle memory - i'm starting to get familiar with some actioms so much that i can do them quickly, literally without thinking almost with closed eyes...
Like really, super addictive and super intuitive, for me even after 10+ years with iOS as super-experienced user, HW experience with DT/DN is totally unique and totally superrior to iPad (even with Focusrite IO dock which i have and hw controller)
Exactly, I feel the same way with the Digitakt. That’s my point, it’s a “closed” workflow. But why not use the iPad to achieve that adding the hardware part?. I haven’t used Maschine but it’s the same idea, except it uses an attached computer for processing power.
@tahiche Don't forget that writing software is the most expensive part. By purchasing hardware products, you pay a considerable amount of cash for the software inside the box and its future maintenance.
Sure it wouldn't be a problem to port the Octatrack, Digitakt or Digitone to iOS, if that would pay for elektron is another question.
By the way, the idea is not new at all:
I get what you‘re saying. I got a Digitakt-Radias combo on my desk and it‘s quite addictive!
Though the iPad has its own strengths elsewhere: with instrument apps I meant apps like Bebot, Borderlands, Thumbjam and Samplr. I know they can be just a part of a workflow and not a closed environment in which you can build a track from start to finish. I only meant the way they use the touch screen is quite unique and creative, which makes it fun to use them and which most apps nowadays lack...
I‘m all for a custom midi firmware for the Novation Circuit that could work with GR-16 or some similar app ;-)
You’re right, it’s not new. I put up a few examples, the Spark one fits this a lot better. Then again, it looks like it’s just mimicking the app.
I understand that software is the hardest part. I’m not talking about hardware controllers that are optional, I mean something like a Maschine. But I see your point, if the new standalone Maschine used an iPad it wouldn’t be 1200€, it’d be cheaper (and better) and they’d “share” the market with Apple (yet again) by boosting ipad sales.
If the Elektron Octatrakt hardware/app combo was, say, 400€ I’d buy it. And more if it had an analog filter or something like that. I don’t own an Octatrakt cos over 1000€ is an investment you have to be pretty sure about. So on the other side of the balance, they’d probably sell a lot more.
Neat ideas. Drambo is essentially the OctaTrack...and can be configured to work pretty well with the new gen of LaunchPads. I recently put this setup together and posted it to the tubes:
And this workflow really came from how I approach Drambo as a software version of the OT.
Looks like Drambo is just the right app to make a custom controller for. I haven't bought it yet, though.
Impressive!. That’s some serious thinking.
How close is Drambo to the Octatrakt?. I’ve been keeping myself from getting Drambo as it’s huge and I am in a “gas & complain” moment. I need to get back to doing some music!. Too many options. But hey, if I should, I should... I love my Digitakt. Will that help?
But by just plain porting to iPad you loose that magic atmosphere when you are sitting in dark room with just shining lights on those magic boxes :-)
Me, right now:
yeah I'd love a dark moody tracker-style groovebox app that's totally unreadable and headscratching for outsiders! lol
edit: nice tune btw!
I find Drambo and the Elektron workflow very compatible. It feels very familiar coming from the OT. I have a Playlist of Drambo tracks on my YouTube channel if you want to check them out.
Honestly Drambo has allowed me to think even deeper about what i want to do on the OT and i find this to be a very good thing.
Also, check out PatchStorage. There are a few DigiTakt style presets on there for Drambo.
Hi @dendy
2 DTs!. 8 tracks are not enough, hey? 😜
I’m under the impression that I’m not making myself clear. You’re right!. That’s the magic, the flashing buttons and encoders. That’s why it wouldn’t be an app that mimics the Digitakt. The iPad would be the Digitakt screen and the processor. It wouldn’t work without the hardware. I don’t want a Digitakt app, It wouldn’t make sense. I want a cheaper Octatrakt and save the world from silicon shortage.
Mr.Digitakt on left, Mr.Digitone on right ;-)
This looked like it would have been great, sadly it wasn't
This debate happens all the time, but honestly, I think if we had just a killer MIDI controller with Bluetooth LE connectivity and battery power, doesn't that just create the best of both worlds? We're pretty much almost there. The new Arturia Keylab is close, but to get it in the size of something portable, it seems like you have to compromise with pads, encoders, layout, key size, etc.
I bought the Elektron Model:Samples this summer. It's $300, has 6 pads, 1GB of sample storage pretty close to 1:1 control knob/encoder assignment for key features. You can do quite a lot with it.
But it occurs to me as I use it (and particularly as I try to navigate some of troublesome GUI issues on a small LED screen selecting samples), that I already have an iPad with a gazillion apps (including samplers, DAW's, and grooveboxes), and that if I just set up my $80 Arturia BeatStep with this thing the way I wanted it, wouldn't that end up being superior to the capabilities of the Model:Samples?
And yet, hardware is hardware, and there is something critical about turning the thing on and knowing that it is just going to WORK. That when I hit a pad, I will hear a drum sound because that is the pad that triggers samples...and it doesn't depend on a MIDI connection being properly assigned to the right note number, CC assignment, and so on.
By the way, the funny thing about the Arturia iSpark is that TONS of those end up on the used market at Guitar Center, or whatever, and I'm sure people buy them without a cable even included, not realizing that the thing is worthless unless paired to an iDevice running the app that contains, you know, the actual drum machine!
And I agree with you. That's why a dedicated hardware wouldn't depend on an incompatible midi connection or the unsupported sample rate. When Elektron develops a product it does so with a specific processor, number of inputs... Etc. I'm not talking controller, I'm talking about the whole thing... A box with audio inputs, midi, encoders... I say ipad and not android because in android you'd still be subject to incompatibilities, different devices, processors... With the iPad you work with a processor in mind, just like Elektron does with their specific one.
Like the Behringer or Mackie mixers that use the iPad for control. There's no incompatibility there.
@dendy You can control iSpark with that SPARK LE controller, that was my point! 😉
That controller can also be integrated with Drambo. There's still a few niggles to fix and little features to add in Drambo but I guess that will happen soon.
ah, didn't know that..
The Spark LE also controls Spark 2 on a pc don’t forget.
The mpc fly works with later versions of impc too.
With a hardware device the manufacter controls all aspects of the device, with an iPad, manufacturers are at the mercy of Apple and when Apple will decide to change the specs, dimensions, OS, connectors, remove headphone jacks, etc.
Apple is known for not taking into consideration third-party manufacturers / designers needs.
@zvon there are compromises which are pretty safe in terms of apple changing devices... Focusrite iTrack Dock solution is basically compatible with all possible iPads (and iPhones) with lightning connector...
With Drambo, we now have a rather unique app that not only allows you to build your own take on a groovebox but also to control it using almost any combination of MIDI controllers. I have insisted to @giku_beepstreet on implementing a wide range of MIDI control messages to allow exactly that and now you just have to actually use it.
Mine's still doing great things - part of my 'Koalatron", using an old iPhone 4s to transmit bluetooth from the MPC Fly to the iPad. Also a CME bluetooth dongle to connect the Evolution X-session. A fine bundle of obsolescence. Using one of those modern laptop things as a stand in this pic, but that's optional
Me likes Koalatron! 🐨
@tahiche - it’s the first thing I’ve cobbled together that I’ve spent more time playing on than imagining, constructing and then reconstructing endlessly.
I think in reference to the OP, it’s working well for me because it’s doing one thing with complete external control of one app, minimal setup and no continual configuring... though what if I modify it into ‘Drambotron’??? Oh no, here we go again....
psst Nanoloop psst
awesome minimalist app with parameter locks!
Can testify I bought the hardware because of this app..
Wish Arturia would update these beautiful instruments..
Definitely one of the best ‘design’ on iOS..