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.
What’s the best DAW for making ambient music
And why?
Comments
Depends how you’re going about it. If you’re doing something free-form without standard structure, you can get by with AUM just fine.
If you want to start sequencing, I highly recommend Cubasis 3. It’s Universal. It has audio tracks, MIDI, AU automation, and plenty of IAPs to help mix and master. It also provides what I consider to be the best experience using AUv3s in an iOS DAW. AUs scale properly for the most part, something most others have an issue with more frequently in my experience. You can also use the on-screen keyboard and have the AU on the screen at the same time, which is missing from some others.
Humm ... I can't think of a single reason why it matters. Any DAW should be fine for ambient. The groove-box style apps such as Drambo and GR-16 are a little less of a direct fit, but can also be used. It seems to me it comes down to which features of the DAW itself or its user interface appeal to you the most.
If tempo changes and/or different time signatures within a piece are important to you then that narrows the field considerably, as are support for synchronizing any external gear. Also, are you interested more in jamming and experimenting, or in getting down compositions on a timeline? Will you be using lots of apps and plugins, or mostly audio? Those are just a few of the many questions that come to mind.
I think it would be easier to give good answers to your question if you provide some more specifics about what you're looking for. DAWs are rarely genre specific in their features.
I use Wotja Pro for making ambient music. It’s technically not a DAW, but it’s the best tool for making ambient tracks.
apeMatrix because it’s a host that allows you to connect apps in interesting ways and each control in apeMatrix has an LFO and accelerometer control! In other words, apeMatrix is a sound design tool itself.
Drambo because it's the closest thing to Elektron devices we have on iOS
AUM is the most convenient. It's a mixer app that can record whatever you jam on, quite easily. Then you can move your audio recordings to wherever for mixing/mastering/whatever.
@zeroG You want to use only internal IOS synths or also want to use external audio?
I abuse the term ambient - I plan to try different styles from unstructured (Eno esque) to sequenced structured stuff (Carbon Based Lifeforms esque). Just keen to hear everyone’s opinions based on what they’ve worked on themselves.
Internal audio - I will probably sample and mould sounds using FieldScaper but guessing that’s not what you mean by external audio
Yep this sounds logical
FWIW, whenever I start a track, I always start from a very formless and organic place. I use a combination of Drambo, Drambo+AUM, or AUM...depending on my mood. Having the flexibility of Drambo either being Stand Alone or being used as an auv3 in AUM to sequence everything gives me the flexibility to experiment and push things as far as I want to.
If you are familiar with the Elektron workflow and enjoy that workflow, then Drambo is a total no brainer to bring in to your music creation flow.
AUM is another essential piece of gear that I personally find invaluable for its routing capabilities.
I'm working on a piece now that is reliant on Drambo and heavy use of multiple instances of Gauss loops with the Monitor Audio ON, on all of them as I play additional sounds atop them all being controlled by Randomness, Chance and Humaness. With just 4 Tracks being used in Drambo, it feels like I have 8 or more tracks running simultaneously. A little discovery I stumbled upon while listening to the piece is to Modulate the Chance parameter via LFOs set to different Frequencies. This further randomizes the predictability of what is being played and heard.
For me ambient music is about allowing ones self, as the composer, to be teleported to another dimension of mind, spirit and emotion...and for me Drambo+AUM have provided me the quickest access to this state of mind I seek to instill in myself and my listeners.
I have a ton of examples on my YouTube page if you interested in what Drambo doing Ambient means from this particular fan of the app on the iPad.
Cheers!
Once Drambo has audio tracks it’s a wrap!
@zeroG Here's an example of the type of ambient work I do in stand alone Drambo FWIW:
Thanks fella, will check that out
Fantastic!
Nanostudio 2 - the best iOS DAW for almost everything. Because of the cleanliness of the interface it is possible to lay back bones of a track (drums, bass line, some synths) in only a few moments. And in another few, start to tweak everything by adding FX.
Would be perfect if there would be an option to create scenes, instead of a linear sequencer layout. This would make it a lot more quicker tool to work for live jamming/performances. But still it is the best interface between fingers and music generating software in iOS, IMHO. Also for creating ambient music. Just create a sequence, let it run and find a way for it to "become alive" with numerous available knobs and options. Did not find anything better, so far.
It's kind of limited if you want to work with audio clips, and if automating AUFx parameters is important to you. But if those two things aren't critical, then yes, it's just a very beautiful thing.
For me, It has to be Koala sampler. I make ambient music using it to set off unsynchronized loops. If I want to add synths or something I usually to it in AUM now. Aum is really good too! But if I could only have one app at all, I'd have Koala.
here's my album I made with just Koala, Alteza, k7d and Tap delay.
Good vibes. You just sold me koala sampler.
How do you generated your loops? (what software is involved). Sounds very organic. Thanks for the info.
Ambient is such a wide term. Easier to think about whether you'll be working more in patterns, long-form explorations, or a combination of both. For more pattern-based approach, I use apeMatrix. You could also add a piano-roll MIDI sequencer to that for longer parts. For long-form stuff, I find a "traditional" DAW like Cubasis, Logic, or GarageBand easier. I use an iPad primarily. Logic on a Mac when necessary.
Agreed ... the DAW is just the framework which binds the elements together, but it depends on what elements - synths\samples\effects\MIDI tools\workflow etc you choose.
As others have said if you prefer a more linear, sequenced environemnt, something like Cubasis will serve your purpose. But if you are after a more improvised, live mixed workflow, AUM is a great starting point. If you are after soemthing similar to an Ableton Live clip launching tool, LK Matrix seems to be the best for that.
If the original post was a client brief, I'd need a lot more conversation and detail before I could get to work
@israelite ,
@DukeWonder
I was always the impression that NS2 afforded the best auv3 hosting experience .. Maybe I need to look deeper into Cubasis 3, I dunno
Hmmm, this has more to do with my tastes in ambient music but for me whenever I get a hankering for it I use Cubasis3 and feed in Borderlands, Samplr, BM3, TC-11 etc. For me ambient is all about audio tracks and loooooong fades. Cubasis 3 is fine for me provided I do not want to do any fine arranging. Big blocks of sound, sure.
Focus on the sound itself ( attack and release parameters ) are your friends ( the whole envelope) basically.
At least one delay, reverb, echo over that sound and scaler.
Any sequencer would do the trick
As long as we assume ambient the same way. Ambient for me it’s very melodic. For drones not that much, there we talk about texture and eq’s
Probably Aum with Drambo, gauss and every app bought but then thats all Iv used. Just seems everything is there for live but more hassle to arrange. Plus hardware sync. Garunteed apps work. Might be same with other hosts including Dramo as a host but controllers will/have been setup over time. IOS was made for ambient anyway as ambient is easier but you just have to gain a style.
With NS2 for Au instruments you have to set up Macros for the AU parameters you want to control and as others mentioned you cannot automate AU fx.
Here is a simple setup:
Aum - Nave Waldorf - Autony
You can jam for hours with this setup.
Record several takes/ sessions and use it later on on a multi track platform
AUM - Bleass Alpha - Aparillo, controlled by Touchscaper.
CB3 is fantastic with AUs. Full automation capabilities, can use the AU and on-screen keyboard at the same time, and they scale correctly more consistently than any of the others I’ve tried.