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.
Waves Tunes offers nothing new for iOS production. Please, bring at least the LT version to iOS!
Disclaimer: I use my iPad as a DAW, to produce my music from start to finish. If you use it mainly as a live instrument or FX suite for live performances, perhaps you might want to find another review for your specific scenario.
Just reporting that the Waves Tune plugin recently made available in the Cubasis store is in my opinion a disappointing release unless you badly need near-zero latency for live performances because it’s basically no different than the other options already on iOS (more on this later) for music production: no graphic correction, not even a rudimentary piano roll, no individual note tweaking, no gain control, etc. In short, none of the things even “jurassic” pre-Melodyne plug-ins such as Antares AT3 could already do in my Athlon 1900+ Windows PC with 128 MB of RAM could do back in 2002. In short, they released the performance-focused Waves Tune Real-Time.
A bit of a disappointing choice from Waves, even more considering its inexpensive Waves Tunes Lite offers about all those missing features on the PC for a few more dollars. Luckily I found out in time it was available for download on Cubasis 2 so I avoided spending too much money: I was about to upgrade to Cubasis 3 after I found out the latest update would bring Waves Tune to iOS because I wrongly understood that it would be available for the latest C3 only and I wasn’t aware it was just the real-time version of the plug-in - if it was at least the “Lite” version, it would still worth the investment even if I had to upgrade to C3, but Waves chose again not to offer us this much-needed tool. Honestly, I feel that these companies are still not taking iOS seriously (even though it’s the only platform with 100% of legit buyers and safe of piracy).
Tl, dr: I cannot recommend this plugin at all, at least for music production (again, I cannot review it as a live performance tool). Because it’s no better than what we already have on iOS. Let’s see how it compares to the others I have:
Vs. Mu-Retune: Waves’ is definitely cleaner (far less artifacts), but Retune is more powerful, does microtuning, does “dumb” (fixed interval) harmonizing, does gender formant shift and has a wet/dry control;
Vs. AutoTune: AutoTune is cleaner, has a more straightforward interface, is an AU plug-in and sounds better to my ears. Has the classic autotune effect that we all know. In fact, AutoTune is the clear winner here, and the fact it’s a very barebones option with literally none of the features available for the PC back in the 20th century tells a lot about how the plugin devs see the iPad;
Vs. Garageband’s: Waves’ is more fully featured, while Garageband’s is essentially a knob you crank, but the latter is free if you have Garageband, is a bit cleaner and has the smaller computing footprint of all these.
I didn’t use it live so I cannot compare real-time latency. They promise near-zero latency so perhaps people that use the iPad as a performance tool might find it useful after all.
Funny thing is, some iPads are as powerful as some Macs from a couple years ago. Power is definitely not the issue here. Don’t even get me started about throttling or RAM limitations, because I’m comparing to my 2002 Athlon PC with 128MB of RAM. On the positive side, hats off and a heartfelt thank you to those companies who definitely take us iOS producers seriously (FabFilter, ToneBoosters, WavemachineLabs and a few others).
Sorry for the rant. If you are satisfied with the plugin for whatever you use it for, by all means enjoy. But it’s more of the same, not the best in its category (IMO, at least for music production rather than live performances) and, all in all, a missed opportunity. Again.
Cheers!
Comments
Hopefully this will become a real thing in the next couple of years.
Yeah, Daniel said he wasn’t gonna do it though
there was a gigantic thread about it awhile back. It’s definitely something missing on iOS. When I work through the workflow in my head though, I dunno. I dunno how well it would work as much as I’d love to see it. You’d either be bouncing a vocal stem to and from a standalone app, or it’d run as an AUv3 which is ok, but it’s not really like... a “live” effect per se.
My only real experience with working this kind of vocal magic is in Reason, and it’s SO tightly integrated with the sequencer that it’s a great compliment to the workflow. I’ve never used Melodyne as a plug-in (is that a thing?) - and I know for example FL Studio’s New Tone works as a channel plugin (I think), but in my use it was a little wonky.
ANYWAY, thanks for taking the time to investigate it and write it up. It’s a shame it’s basically twice crippled (wtf?) - bizarre.
It’s because it is the real time version of the plugin, focused on live performances as about every other pitch correction tool on iOS. Perhaps some people who perform live will find it useful because it promises minimal latency AFAIK. But I’m frustrated and disappointed because it’s about the only studio trick that is yet to be feasible on iOS.
I kinda feel like the thread title is a bit over-the-top...while I can understand why you are disappointed..it seems inflammatory to say it isn’t worth anyone’s while. Some people have already said that it suits a need they have.
I already rephrased it in a way that clarifies it’s a) my personal opinion and b) related to DAW usage as opposed as live performances. If you have a suggestion of how it could be made even less inflammatory without becoming insincere, I’ll gladly consider it. Cheers.
EDIT: done. I think it’s honest but not inflammatory now.
The inflammatory part is “doesn’t worth your while”. It seems like “I’m disappointed at lack of non-real-time features” is what you are saying.
The thread title kind of screams out in an over-the-top negative way.
Fair.
I edited this out. But for music production (as opposed to live performance) it brings nothing new to the table and this has to be said (so I’m satisfied with the current title after editing out the inflammatory part). Thanks for your feedback.
This is really bad news.
While in the PC side, at least four developers have released a graphic pitch correction tool: Celemony, Waves, Antares and Zplane.
it really is a shame there is still no usable autotune on ios.
I really like audiotune, but it is only good for trap style vocals because there really is no subtle setting.
AutoTune would be perfect if it wasnt so damn unstable. I only use it to immediately render the result, but even then i often have to try a couple of times to get it to work right. Mu-Retune is the worst sounding plugin ever. How anyone can use it for anything i can not understand. The one Knob Garageband one just has to little parameters. 4pockets Soloist has all the features but also produces a lot of wierd artifacts, even in hq mode, that sound like bassy transients that basically makes this one unusable for anything but backround vocals (even then it sounds messy). Also i never got the midifeatures to work. And sometimes i had instability issues with this one...
wave tunes would be nice with either custom scales or target pitch. the way it is now its really nothing new to ios. there are some apps that can do autotune that i didnt mention because they have no custom scales... i dont find those to be usable at all
Unfortunately, AutoTune and Garageband are still the most useful options for this on iOS. I’d pay Waves Tune LT full Desktop price if they released it as AUv3 or in Cubasis. I’m stuck with using Logic just for vocals until something really changes. I feel like I am using a nuclear warhead against an anthill, lol. Because I can and prefer just doing anything else on iOS. Logic only for vocal treatment.
would also love one day to see more creative approaches to autotune... like vibrato onset or even a modmatrix or triggered arps, this kind of stuff. Theres is so much popmusic with autotune out there right now, making use of many different styles and tones, i really cant believe how basic ios autotune apps still are.
Are we talking about Auto Tune Mobile by Antares?
And is that auv3?
Can only see it as inter app audio.
Thanks.
Yes!
Yes...meaning AUV3 as well?!
Thanks...