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.
TC-Helicon BLENDER - any good!?
anyone has/uses this ?!
https://mixdownmag.com.au/reviews/mixers/reviewed-tc-helicon-blender-portable-mixer/
seems like THE mixer/soundcard for small mobile iPad setup.
any experiences ?!
pros/cons !?!?
thanks.
Comments
I was lucky enough to grab one for £30 from eBay (brand new, the seller couldn’t assemble the PSU 😂).
At that price it was definitely a no brainier.
Pros:
-I didn’t notice any channel crosstalk, something I was worried about because of the small size
-my use case is mostly standalone, very convenient, easy to use (even without the app), 6 st in / 4 st out mixer
-surprisingly usable built in compressor
-battery powered
Cons:
-I’ve seen negative feedback from users for the lack of Bluetooth audio, which it never claimed. Not a con, just leaving it here for your notice. Bluetooth is for wireless mixer control only.
-it works as 12in/2out interface, all sub mixes are summed and they’re present at all 4 outputs. Again, more of a limitation rather than a con, but in my use case it’s inconvenient.
-feels like a missed opportunity: it can’t be USB powered
I like it, because it enables me to pull bits from my setup and quickly assemble little focused jam rigs, volcas, pos etc... battery powered fun
It feels sturdy enough for mobile use. Can’t comment on audio quality. Not that I noticed anything bad, but a built in compressor is usually a red flag for me and I haven’t done any testing regarding its transparency.
thanks for the feedback!:)
seems like a keeper.
0tolerance4silence:
hows the latency
when using it as multi-channel soundcard in iOS ?! let's say in AUM.
thanks
@0tolerance4silence
Are all twelve inputs recognised as individual usb inputs?
@waka_x
@ 512 buffer / 48k
Blender
vs. no interface / measurement mode on
@Gravitas
Yes, they are all available.
@0tolerance4silence
Thank you.
I can see from your screenshot that it says 48kHz.
What other sample rates are available?
44.1 / 48 / 88.2 / 96
Good to know.
Nice one.
With all this quiet hype around the TX-6 from Teenage Engineering, the Helcion Blender showed up on my radar. How does the interface hold up a year later @0tolerance4silence
Looks like it would be perfect for LoopyPro. Any thoughts after a year of usage?
Ive got one.
it is much better than it looks!
its my dream mixer for small live acts.
its really good and cheap
I love it!
Its a really good little mixer for mini hardware ie Volcas, PO,s, etc. solid enough built , happy with mine.
Cool. Have you tried to interface it with LoopyPro to capture external sounds yet?
For what it’s worth I like mine too.
No not yet all the inputs show up in AUM so I assume it would work fine in loopy Pro in the middle of moving at present so gone iPAD only for a week or 2 Everything been packed away !
Does it have a dedicated Return Track so I can also hear my iOS synths play along with the external instruments? I'm looking at the specs to see if it has loop back or something like that so I can hear internal and external instruments at the same time without echoing.
I assume it works with iOS like any other Audio Interface...so I can hear both at the same time.
@echoopera DJ Puzzle got me onto the mixer May want to give Jason a message.
I like it mostly for standalone use. Very convenient little mixer. Easy to grasp and quick to use even with the limited controls. In standalone mode it’s a 6 stereo in / 4 stereo out mixer... ability to create sub mixes is very handy... say monitoring all your inputs, but creating an alternative sub mix to send into OT for recording. As an audio interface it’s a 6 stereo in / 1 stereo out interface (sent to all 4 stereo outputs). It does it’s job fine, but I wouldn’t recommend it as main audio interface - maybe it’s just me or my setup, but the lack of mono inputs and at least another stereo output can limit some use cases. That said... if you’re planning to use it with stereo sources it should be fine.
@echoopera your use case is covered - monitoring external gear along with iOS noise makers, you don’t need ‘dedicated Return Track or loopback’ for that.
Sweet. Thanks for the insight @0tolerance4silence and @Jumpercollins It looks like a really sensible little mixer. I love that it does MultiTrack over USB at this price range.
Hard to believe that the BlueBox doesn't offer this same feature set over USB.
I may just order this one and see how it performs for my little desktop setups.
Thanks again everyone!
@echoopera all the best, the icing on the cake is you can control it via Bluetooth with the blender app.
@echoopera Have you considered the K-Mix? It works perfectly with the iPad, is bus-powered, has on-board FX, and enough routing options to get you into trouble.
I, too, think it’s sad that Bluebox doesn’t offer a multi-channel interface. Since it’s targeting dawless setups, I can see why. But the beauty of having a more direct bunch of music UIs (compared to a desktop DAW) available in the iPad is something a lot of dawless fetishists are missing out on. Meanwhile, there really isn’t a small setup that I’m aware of (except something much bigger like a Zoom L12) that would allow me to have a super-agnostic, single recording workflow. Right now I’m recording everything with AUM or Loopy Pro when the iPad is involved, and with the Bluebox when I’m using external gear exclusively.
@echoopera, I use Blender with Loopy Pro. It’s fine. iPad’s USB audio shows up without any finagling, and it just plays at the volume of the master output, without a dedicated USB audio channel. Everything is summed.
This is a total non-issue if you’re using Blender for its intended purpose: as a mixer for a bunch of musicians playing live in a room, and to also do a multitrack recording of that by using it as an interface. TC Helicon recommend turning off any iPad monitoring, and to monitor purely with the Blender’s four headphone mixes.
But very few people on this forum would use it the way TC Helicon envisage. I want at the very least to play a bunch of stuff on sequenced and unsequenced instruments into the iPad, alongside stuff that’s happening in the box on the iPad.
So to avoid the noticeable chorusing or slapback echoing that happens when you monitor the iPad to the Blender (which, to be fair, isn’t horrible, just noticeable), I reverse what TC Helicon recommmend, and turn down every channel to zero on the Blender in in favour of the iPad’s USB audio out. (There’s sadly no single button mute function for individual tracks, and the mute button turns off ALL monitoring, including USB audio.) Essentially, when an iPad is involved, I use it as an interface and not a mixer. (When my daughter uses my iPad, the Blender is sudeently a mixer again, and I’m fashionably “dawless”.)
One caveat/exception: I do notice the round trip latency when live looping manually played instruments, but only with the guitar, where the link between my ears and fingers is most sensitive, and I’m essentially DIing the guitar so can’t monitor with an amp. I can’t even detect the latency with keyboards, especially if I’m playing pads
. I get around latency by reversing my muting regime on just the guitar, and listening to the Blender’s local guitar channel alongside the the iPad’s output. The only downside is that I obviously can’t monitor with any AUv3 effects when playing the parts live. Maybe this will make me buy more pedals, ahahahah.
I should note that I’m probably exaggerating the Blender’s latency (which again, isn’t particularly bad) because I’m also using a modelling practice amp that doesn’t have dedicated audio outs (just USB audio — untenable because the iPad only accepts one interface, blah blah) so I’m using the headphone out to get it into the Blender. I’ll try without it and report back my experience.
Yer heard the K Mix is pretty sweet.
I should also note that I could very easily record separate external gear tracks with the Bluebox and then import them into a DAW with the separate tracks I record on the iPad, but it is an extra step, not a single workflow, prevents me from being having live AUv3 effects on external gear, etc. but it’s something I’ll probably do as well.
I love mine. Such a flexible tool.
@jebni @Jumpercollins @0tolerance4silence ok i just picked up a unit. I like the concept of it but I’m having an issue i hope you all can help me resolve.
In AUM i have channel 5+6 running my Play and when i select Headphone out to hear it i am getting a doubling up of sound. When i remove the headphone out in AUM the doubling up of sound stops but AUM is no longer registering the audio signal.
The documentation is super sparse so i am not sure what i am missing to prevent this doubling up of sound.
Have any of you encountered this issue and if so could you let me know what I’m doing incorrectly.
Thanks.
.
Oooh just saw this. Let me try that. Thanks.
Working like a champ. Thanks again👊🏼™️
@echoopera As been said turn all volumes down on channels and use just as a audio interface rather than a mixer. You may have to put a limiter on tracks to boost the volume.
I know this is not exactly the intended use for the unit, but anyone try using it as a straight up multi-headphone mixer for a recording studio? Sending from aux busses on a console to the live room (with adapters). Would it be loud enough to compete with live drums?
I have my 4 headphones out set to different outs.
1 - Mix
2 - SP 404
3 - Deluge
4 - OP-1f