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.
Gear You Never Regretted Buying...
So, some old time stuff here... I often bought things that were innovative but never really caught on!
Casio FZ-1 Sampler . 16 bit, 8 outputs, 30 sec sampling time, graphical wave editing plus additive synthesis, and a keyboard with after touch. 1.4 MB Floppy disks cost $10 each!!! Loved it.
Peavey (yup..) DPMV3 ROM based synth module. 16 part multitimbral with an internal mixer which included effect sends for each part. Big time... at the time.
Yamaha CBX-D5 4 channel audio recorder audio interface... SCSI based... 4 tracks plus effects. Well, I might have had a few second thoughts because SCSI... but I learned a lot!
Of course these are all long gone and you can produce more music than they could combined on any iPad, but they felt like warp speed at the time!
Oh yeah, my old beaten up late 60’s strat that I got for $350 in the early ‘80’s. It still sings like a bird. Wood vs Silicon? Not much of a contest over time.
Comments
My Tannoy PBM 6.5 monitors
My Swart Atomic Space Tone. I think it's the best thing I've ever owned.
Roland SH-101
Syntecno TeeBee mark III
Boss SE-70
Roland SH-09
Yamaha TQ-5
Mackie HR-824s
Sennheiser HD-600s
Roland VS-2480CD
Korg ER-1
Yamaha MD-BT01
Anything by Apple
Digitone. Period.
CZ101
Circuit
TX802
Matrix 6R
Maschine
iPads
0ctrl/0coast
Modular
My Gretsch Renown Kit w/a Ludwig Supraphonic snare. It cost a couple thousand bucks &, sure, I sometimes wish I'd gone for a 22" kick over a 20" - as it turns out, my "versatile" safety pick doesn't always allow for thunderous beats. But, after 20 years pounding on cheapo export kits, it made playing drums inspiring again.
Beyond that: Fender Jazzmaster, Fender Deluxe Reverb, iPad w/Neo Soul Keys, Apogee Ensemble, Beyerdynamic M201 & Electro Voice RE-20 mics
Ensoniq ESQ-1 and rack mount Ensoniq Mirage. The core of my first hardware system. 😎👍🏼
Happy with this rig. Need a new iPad...
beyerdynamic dt 990 pro
soundcraft compact 4
Adam A3X
EMU Xmidi 1x1 cheap usb midi interface that still rocks
Yamaha QY20
(unfortunately broken now, but it was possibly one of the most productive things I’d spent money on back in the 90s)
PO-33 and PO-32
Ha! I had A QY10 for ages that I used as a little drum machine for practicing. Great tool, that. I dropped $100 at a pawn shop for that - it was the most money I'd ever spent on a single item at that point by myself. I figured my parents would kill me if they found out (never did).
I never regretted purchasing my Lovetone Meatball. I came close to selling it a few years back but the sale fell through and I'm glad it did now.
I had a QY10 too, prior to the 20, I gave it to a friend (not a musician at all, but one day he woke up with a tune in his head so I thought this might help – he never ended up using it in the end). The QY20 was echelons above the 10 in terms of, well, everything. Unfortunately battery leakage killed it, then I finished the job by trying to clean the PCB with the power bus still connected (had an un-backed-up tune in it from 15 years before that I didn’t want to lose). Oh well.
I’ve had a QY700 since the late 90s which I really never got on with. Far too much menu adventuring to get anything done, way way way too complex, and impossible to remember how to do anything without the manual beside you (which itself is not pleasant to navigate). Funny how they’re all basically the same idea, but only the simpler implementation is usable.
My buddy at the time had a QY10 and used it to practice bass with. This must've been '97 or so - by that point Yamaha was already making better models and the 10 was discontinued. Based on my friend's recommendation, I walked into a random pawn shop and said "Do you guys have a Yamaha QY10?"
The guy shrugged, walked into the back and came out with one in hand. It was a completely random and extremely specific ask at a place I was driving by (had never been in there before and never went back) and they just happened to have exactly what I wanted. AT A PAWN SHOP no less....
I've never quite gotten over how incredible it was that the stars aligned perfectly for such a silly purchase.
Stuff you still got I take it?
Analog Keys
Digitakt
Digitone
I’ve scaled back on HW but those Elektron boxes I’ll keep until the day they die (or I die whichever comes first I guess?).
Fender American Pro Telecaster
OPZ. At first I was skeptical but it does so much and the sequencer is top notch.
Arturia Keystep and Beatstep Pro: they both make making music a joy on the iPad! They are both musical Swiss Army knives. I’m looking to add Midi Fighter Twister next!
My original KORG Wavedrum. A total fluke actually. I’d just come into some money and it just happened to be at the local music store. Twenty some years later it still is incredible and represents an important technology that is relevant to what I’m trying to accomplish today.
Epiphone Coronet
Fender Twin
Rat pedals
a tuner
a soldering iron
My Pocket Operators, Evo 4, Behringer Model D, and Sony MDRs. Pretty much all my other equipment were gifts but I love all of that stuff as well
Sequentix Cirklon. Had for years now (since 2013). Use it everyday. Can sequence a studio full of gear... MIDI, CV, USB (see: ipad). Rock solid. No regerts.
DSI OB-6 Module. I debated for a LONG time about spending the money on such a "limited" synth in terms of features, but it forced me to really dive in deep learning the ins and outs of it. Gave me a new appreciate of how you can do more with less, big time. And it sounds like nothing else to me.
Taylor 814ce acoustic guitar. I'm a perfectionist who babies his gear, and the 814 is just perfect. For a musical instrument made of wood, there are literally no flaws; every joint, line, fret, or inlay was done with perfection. Truly the best example of modern manufacturering combined with a human touch. And it sounds like nothing else to me.
Lynx Hilo. $2500 for D/A sounds crazy to many people, but I've never regretted it. Works every time perfectly and I literally never have to worry about "sound quality" when it comes to monitoring or recording things. And it sounds like nothing.
Ensoniq TS-12
Roland Fantom Xa
Yamaha QS300
Boss DR5