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.

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Random MacOS questions from a Windows user

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Comments

  • heshes

    @tja said:
    . . . .And this can only be fixed by Apple, who have no interest and understanding for this.

    And in general, it would be the best to offer a way to handle each and any window separate for itself.

    Granted, yes, window management on MacOS is not good. But I'm not sure Apple is the only one that can fix it. For example, Yabai (mentioned earlier in this thread, I think) implements decent window management on MacOS. Not as good as something like i3wm on Linux, but much better than what MacOS ships with.

  • LiquidmantisLiquidmantis

    @Samu said:

    Personally I seldom bump into annoyances

    100% this. Well, 99% anyway. I do wish Finder could do dual-panes without any 3rd party solutions.

  • tjatja

    @hes said:

    @tja said:
    . . . .And this can only be fixed by Apple, who have no interest and understanding for this.

    And in general, it would be the best to offer a way to handle each and any window separate for itself.

    Granted, yes, window management on MacOS is not good. But I'm not sure Apple is the only one that can fix it. For example, Yabai (mentioned earlier in this thread, I think) implements decent window management on MacOS. Not as good as something like i3wm on Linux, but much better than what MacOS ships with.

    I will try this out!

  • tjatja

    @Liquidmantis said:
    Using the minimize button only minimizes that window, unless you are Option-Clicking on the minimized button. If you want to restore a window to a different space than the one it was minimized on, Cmd-Click on the window's icon in the Dock. Note that the "restore to this space" feature only works if you don't have the Minimize Windows to App Icon option enabled in System Preferences.

    I still think you're fighting Magnet or something because running multiple instances each of multiple apps is not painful, and it's easy to combine them in whatever layout you want.

    I fight nothing, but Apple.

    Clicking on an App in the Dock puts all "enabled" windows of an App to the foreground - replacing anything that was visible before.

    How would YOU get one window of Safari and one window of an Terminal App (or any other combination of App windows) on one monitor, side by side?

    As I wrote, I only see @wim solution using full-screen split-view, or putting one of the window from each App to background (minimizing it).

    Wrong?
    Other ways?

  • LiquidmantisLiquidmantis

    @tja said:

    How would YOU get one window of Safari and one window of an Terminal App (or any other combination of App windows) on one monitor, side by side?

    I still don't at all see why this is difficult for you. This is something I must do literally hundreds of times a day in order to run things in different pairings to meet the task at hand. The simplest way is to use Mission Control to drag the window you want to the space you want it on.

    To show the stock behavior, I stopped Yabai, and in this screenshot I have my terminal interleaved between two instances of Edge.

    Of course I'm normally running Yabai so I have BSP tiling which lets me stack windows or zoom a specific window to the parent partition or to the full screen, but even the out-of-the-box MacOS window management is fine for running side by side windows of different apps, just with more manual fidgeting to set sizing.

  • SamuSamu

    @Liquidmantis said:

    @Samu said:

    Personally I seldom bump into annoyances

    100% this. Well, 99% anyway. I do wish Finder could do dual-panes without any 3rd party solutions.

    In the super early days of MacOS X when it shipped with X11 I compiled Worker for it :sunglasses:
    http://www.boomerangsworld.de/cms/worker/index.html (I think it still compiles ok if all dependencies are met).

    Midnight Command was also something that was fun.

    Nowadays I'm just lazy and use Smart Folders in Finder to keep track of all the files and file-types no matter where they are...

  • tjatja
    edited December 2021

    @Liquidmantis said:
    Of course I'm normally running Yabai so I have BSP tiling which lets me stack windows or zoom a specific window to the parent partition or to the full screen, but even the out-of-the-box MacOS window management is fine for running side by side windows of different apps, just with more manual fidgeting to set sizing.

    I did not try this, but it seems horrible complicated.
    Having two Safari windows on the monitor, side by side, I just want to replace one of them with a window of another App.
    Then all windows from all Apps would be separate, you could simply click on the window you want to see and be finished.

    Opening Mission Control and then search and find the right window to then push it to the right desktop / space, is so much more overhead that I would never consider this.

    The method from wim is already not ideal, but MUCH better than this idea.

    Also, your method does simply not work, when you have the window management configured to be on different desktops / spaces and some Apps configured to be on all desktops / spaces!
    In this case, you simply cannot move such a window to any desktop / space.

    You may not even notice the problem with Yabai, which could explain our misunderstanding.

    Anyways, I tried again:

    (base) tja@mini:~$ sudo port install yabai
Password:
--->  Fetching archive for yabai
--->  Attempting to fetch yabai-3.3.10_0.darwin_21.arm64.tbz2 from https://packages.macports.org/yabai
--->  Attempting to fetch yabai-3.3.10_0.darwin_21.arm64.tbz2 from https://fra.de.packages.macports.org/yabai
--->  Attempting to fetch yabai-3.3.10_0.darwin_21.arm64.tbz2 from https://nue.de.packages.macports.org/yabai
--->  Fetching distfiles for yabai
--->  Attempting to fetch yabai-3.3.10.tar.gz from https://distfiles.macports.org/yabai
--->  Verifying checksums for yabai
--->  Extracting yabai
--->  Applying patches to yabai
--->  Configuring yabai
--->  Building yabai
Error: Failed to build yabai: command execution failed
Error: See /opt/local/var/macports/logs/_opt_local_var_macports_sources_rsync.macports.org_macports_release_tarballs_ports_sysutils_yabai/yabai/main.log for details.
Error: Follow https://guide.macports.org/#project.tickets if you believe there is a bug.
Error: Processing of port yabai failed

    Does not work, sadly.

  • heshes
    edited December 2021

    @Liquidmantis said:

    @tja said:

    How would YOU get one window of Safari and one window of an Terminal App (or any other combination of App windows) on one monitor, side by side?

    . . . The simplest way is to use Mission Control to drag the window you want to the space you want it on.

    In other words: Use multiple "desktops" (on Mac sometimes called "Spaces"). You may have terminal open with six terminal windows and Safari open with three Safari windows on your main Desktop. But you can drag one terminal window to a Desktop 2 and one Safari window to Desktop 2 and then position them side by side on Desktop 2. Use Mission Control (which you can access by pressing F3) to do this:
    https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204100

  • LiquidmantisLiquidmantis

    @tja said:

    Also, your method does simply not work, when you have the window management configured to be on different desktops / spaces and some Apps configured to be on all desktops / spaces!

    This is what I'm talking about. Having a window on all spaces isn't default behavior so this is a problem of your own creation. Using Mission Control to move Windows as desired takes fractions of a second, there's nothing complicated or tedious about it. You do you, though. :smile:

  • tjatja
    edited December 2021

    @hes said:

    @Liquidmantis said:

    @tja said:

    How would YOU get one window of Safari and one window of an Terminal App (or any other combination of App windows) on one monitor, side by side?

    . . . The simplest way is to use Mission Control to drag the window you want to the space you want it on.

    In other words: Use multiple "desktops" (on Mac sometimes called "Spaces"). You may have terminal open with six terminal windows and Safari open with three Safari windows on your main Desktop. But you can drag one terminal window to a Desktop 2 and one Safari window to Desktop 2 and then position them side by side on Desktop 2. Use Mission Control (which you can access by pressing F3) to do this:
    https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204100

    So, the consent is, that dragging windows is the way to go?

    I hate that.
    That's so much unneeded overhead and loss of time.

    Still, I will try and report back.

    So far, the method from wim seems to be better suited.

    This method could at least help with other variants of mounting.

  • Aud_iOSAud_iOS

    @tja said:
    True, @SevenSystems

    Some more feedback:

    The most annoying thing for me is the fact that i cannot click on an App in the Dock to open it, have a look at it, and then click the same Icon again to send it to background again.

    That's hindering me all of the day, thousands of times.

    Just check the Mail App and return to the former App? Nope!
    Just check the terminal session for the log that is running and return to the former App? Nope!
    Just check the Website with the live ticker and then return to the former App? Nope!
    And so on ...

    And you cannot do this at all - only by clicking all relevant other Apps to the foreground again - because using the "minimize" button on a window does not just send it to background, it kind of "disables" this window of an App, so that is does NOT came back next time. Soooooo strange!!!
    EDIT: Yes I know that there is the "Hide" button in the right-click menu ... but why not simply do this with the second click on the Icon?!?

    Also, that always ALL windows pop to the front is horrific - but I understand that this is not possible as long as not every window get's it's own icon to be clicked.

    Just some rambling ... :-D

    Not sure here but... If you want to return a minimized/hidden app to the foreground (like after CMD+OPT+H+M) you can CMD+Tab...keep holding CMD...Tab over to the app you want to restore...Then hit the OPT key...finally release CMD.

  • tjatja
    edited December 2021

    @Aud_iOS said:

    @tja said:
    True, @SevenSystems

    Some more feedback:

    The most annoying thing for me is the fact that i cannot click on an App in the Dock to open it, have a look at it, and then click the same Icon again to send it to background again.

    That's hindering me all of the day, thousands of times.

    Just check the Mail App and return to the former App? Nope!
    Just check the terminal session for the log that is running and return to the former App? Nope!
    Just check the Website with the live ticker and then return to the former App? Nope!
    And so on ...

    And you cannot do this at all - only by clicking all relevant other Apps to the foreground again - because using the "minimize" button on a window does not just send it to background, it kind of "disables" this window of an App, so that is does NOT came back next time. Soooooo strange!!!
    EDIT: Yes I know that there is the "Hide" button in the right-click menu ... but why not simply do this with the second click on the Icon?!?

    Also, that always ALL windows pop to the front is horrific - but I understand that this is not possible as long as not every window get's it's own icon to be clicked.

    Just some rambling ... :-D

    Not sure here but... If you want to return a minimized/hidden app to the foreground (like after CMD+OPT+H+M) you can CMD+Tab...keep holding CMD...Tab over to the app you want to restore...Then hit the OPT key...finally release CMD.

    macOS seems to have many many hidden magics, meaning things and options that are not shown as options in the GUI and which you would need to remember.
    That's horrible.

    I would die for macOS having an option to show and handle all windows of an App separetely, and offer a way to have some settings active for all desktops / spaces and some only for a selection of desktops / spaces.

  • LiquidmantisLiquidmantis

    @tja said:

    I would die for macOS having an option to show and handle all windows of an App separetely, and offer a way to have some settings active for all desktops / spaces and some only for a selection of desktops / spaces.

    You'd die for it, but figuring out how to build Yabai from source is too far? :smiley:

  • tjatja

    @Liquidmantis said:

    @tja said:

    I would die for macOS having an option to show and handle all windows of an App separetely, and offer a way to have some settings active for all desktops / spaces and some only for a selection of desktops / spaces.

    You'd die for it, but figuring out how to build Yabai from source is too far? :smiley:

    I assumed that my try of installing the Mac Port failed, because this software is not yet compatible to M1 Monterey.
    I don't normally have problem with installing any MacPort.

    And no, I did not try to compile myself ... I have endless other things to do.

  • wimwim

    Hi @tja - you have me confused with Samu in several recent posts here.
    I have nothing to contribute here, though I do enjoy the soap opera. ;)

  • tjatja
    edited December 2021

    @wim said:
    Hi @tja - you have me confused with Samu in several recent posts here.
    I have nothing to contribute here, though I do enjoy the soap opera. ;)

    Uhhh.
    I am sorry.
    That somehow happened already some time ago.

    EDIT: Both of you often post very valueable content and somehow I fail :D

  • wimwim

    @tja said:

    @wim said:
    Hi @tja - you have me confused with Samu in several recent posts here.
    I have nothing to contribute here, though I do enjoy the soap opera. ;)

    Uhhh.
    I am sorry.
    That somehow happened already some time ago.

    No problemo. I can think of worse people to be confused with. B)

  • LiquidmantisLiquidmantis

    @tja said:

    I assumed that my try of installing the Mac Port failed, because this software is not yet compatible to M1 Monterey.
    I don't normally have problem with installing any MacPort.

    MacPorts is an external package repository. I have no idea who maintains that. The Yabai dev maintains the Homebrew package, which works, or compiling from source is trivial. The main/master branch works fine on 12.1

    And no, I did not try to compile myself ... I have endless other things to do.

    I understand, getting frustrated and ranting on ABF takes time. :tongue:

  • tjatja

    @Liquidmantis said:

    @tja said:

    I assumed that my try of installing the Mac Port failed, because this software is not yet compatible to M1 Monterey.
    I don't normally have problem with installing any MacPort.

    MacPorts is an external package repository. I have no idea who maintains that. The Yabai dev maintains the Homebrew package, which works, or compiling from source is trivial. The main/master branch works fine on 12.1

    I don't use Homebrew because of their security problems.

    And no, I did not try to compile myself ... I have endless other things to do.

    I understand, getting frustrated and ranting on ABF takes time. :tongue:

    That was both unfriendly and unnesserary.
    You are free to ignore this topic, if you prefer.

  • SevenSystemsSevenSystems

    @wim said:
    Hi @tja - you have me confused with Samu in several recent posts here.
    I have nothing to contribute here, though I do enjoy the soap opera. ;)

    Same here! Sitting here with my popcorn and watching it all enjoying my newly discovered Pop_Shell bliss! (anyone who uses i3 should check Pop Shell out, it's a tiling window manager extension for GNOME and to me combines the best of keyboard and mouse worlds). Also @tja would love it 😁

  • LiquidmantisLiquidmantis

    @tja said:

    That was both unfriendly and unnesserary.
    You are free to ignore this topic, if you prefer.

    Fair enough, you're right. I was trying to poke fun but that hardly ever conveys well on the Internet.

    What I was trying to imply is that this thread has a recurring pattern of you getting frustrated with some MacOS behavior and expressing incredulity about how stupid it is and how Apple should fix it. Frequently, it's solved by just learning the MacOS way of things, and when it's not as simple you find ways to complain about the solutions offered. So maybe try to relax and not focus on the negative so much? Anyway, I hope you're well otherwise and that this isn't displacement from larger issues.

  • tjatja
    edited December 2021

    @Liquidmantis said:

    @tja said:

    That was both unfriendly and unnesserary.
    You are free to ignore this topic, if you prefer.

    Fair enough, you're right. I was trying to poke fun but that hardly ever conveys well on the Internet.

    What I was trying to imply is that this thread has a recurring pattern of you getting frustrated with some MacOS behavior and expressing incredulity about how stupid it is and how Apple should fix it. Frequently, it's solved by just learning the MacOS way of things, and when it's not as simple you find ways to complain about the solutions offered. So maybe try to relax and not focus on the negative so much? Anyway, I hope you're well otherwise and that this isn't displacement from larger issues.

    OK, let's stay friendly together :)

    I only post here, if I get repeatedly frustrated about something Apple / macOS did.
    And most of the time, there is no easy solution - just some workaround that macOS offers. Not a really easy solution.

    I mostly post to do exactly this: Inform anybody who has interest in such topics about what I found and am frustrated about, and of course to hear any recommendation.

    For the current problem, I got 3 possible workarounds:

    1) Use full-screen split-screen for the 2 Apps required. This adds more work when leaving this mode as it has side effects.
    2) Minimize one of the windows from each App. This adds more work later too, as it also adds side effects.
    3) Drag the required Apps around within Mission Control. This is not as easy and quite time consuming, from my perspective. Still, I will try this for some time!

    If macOS had a concept for handling each windows from Apps separetely, none of those work-arounds would be needed and things could be easy and fast!
    That's just a fact.

    Sadly, a fact that is not possible in macOS and most probably never will be available ;-)

    Nontheless, i still hope that I can post such things in the forum :)

    Peace :)

  • tjatja
    edited December 2021

    @SevenSystems said:

    @wim said:
    Hi @tja - you have me confused with Samu in several recent posts here.
    I have nothing to contribute here, though I do enjoy the soap opera. ;)

    Same here! Sitting here with my popcorn and watching it all enjoying my newly discovered Pop_Shell bliss! (anyone who uses i3 should check Pop Shell out, it's a tiling window manager extension for GNOME and to me combines the best of keyboard and mouse worlds). Also @tja would love it 😁

    :D :D :D

    The name "Pop_Shell" for GNOME is saved, when I finally get my NUC for use with KVM!

  • heshes

    @tja said:

    @Liquidmantis said:

    @tja said:

    If macOS had a concept for handling each windows from Apps separetely, none of those work-arounds would be needed and things could be easy and fast!
    That's just a fact.

    Sadly, a fact that is not possible in macOS and most probably never will be available ;-)

    Except, as I and others have said, it is already possible in MacOS using utilities like Yabai. If you don't like the idea of Yabai, Amethyst might be an option for you. I think Yabai is more full featured, but Amethyst probably provides what you want and is easier to install:

    https://ianyh.com/amethyst/

  • tjatja
    edited December 2021

    @hes said:

    @tja said:

    @Liquidmantis said:

    @tja said:

    If macOS had a concept for handling each windows from Apps separetely, none of those work-arounds would be needed and things could be easy and fast!
    That's just a fact.

    Sadly, a fact that is not possible in macOS and most probably never will be available ;-)

    Except, as I and others have said, it is already possible in MacOS using utilities like Yabai. If you don't like the idea of Yabai, Amethyst might be an option for you. I think Yabai is more full featured, but Amethyst probably provides what you want and is easier to install:

    https://ianyh.com/amethyst/

    I already tried Amethyst and did not like it, it solves problems which I don't have and is quite complex in setup.
    If Yabai is similar, I don't need it too.

    For basic window arrangements, I use Rectangle.
    But that does not solve the displayed underlying macOS problem.
    I would not like to have some complex way to do such things.

    As I wrote, I will try out the Mission Control method and otherwise use the full-screen split-view method as workaround.

    Still, thanks for the recommendation and movie!

  • TarekithTarekith

    @NeonSilicon said:
    Trackpad, Spaces, fullscreen apps, Three finger swipe gestures ... very fast, very easy. Also allows for keeping the the doc hidden and out of the way without having any impact on the workflow. Spaces also lets me keep multiple machines organized easily.

    This, I use three finger swiping constantly and find it incredibly fluid.

  • tjatja

    @Tarekith said:

    @NeonSilicon said:
    Trackpad, Spaces, fullscreen apps, Three finger swipe gestures ... very fast, very easy. Also allows for keeping the the doc hidden and out of the way without having any impact on the workflow. Spaces also lets me keep multiple machines organized easily.

    This, I use three finger swiping constantly and find it incredibly fluid.

    Sadly, I am a mouse and keyboard user ;-)
    No additional inputs planned.

    But great to hear that this is a good Thing, thanks!

  • SamuSamu

    @tja said:

    >

    Sadly, I am a mouse and keyboard user ;-)
    No additional inputs planned.

    Control + Left/Right arrow switch between spaces/desktops same as the three finger swipe on a trackpad.
    (Check the Mission Control shortcuts under Keyboard -> Shortcuts).

  • NeonSiliconNeonSilicon

    @Samu said:

    @tja said:

    >

    Sadly, I am a mouse and keyboard user ;-)
    No additional inputs planned.

    Control + Left/Right arrow switch between spaces/desktops same as the three finger swipe on a trackpad.
    (Check the Mission Control shortcuts under Keyboard -> Shortcuts).

    Yes this works too. I have my iMac setup to use the trackpad and then my Mini is setup to use the keyboard so I can do that with screen sharing on my iMac. It works well either way.

  • tjatja

    @Samu said:

    @tja said:

    >

    Sadly, I am a mouse and keyboard user ;-)
    No additional inputs planned.

    Control + Left/Right arrow switch between spaces/desktops same as the three finger swipe on a trackpad.
    (Check the Mission Control shortcuts under Keyboard -> Shortcuts).

    Yes, that's what I use to switch between desktops / spaces - or control- or control-arrow-up for an overview.
    Thanks for mentioning!

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