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.
Beatmaker 3 vs koala sampler. The ios sampler on 2021
Hello how are you. I want to know what you think about which is the current header sampler. I usually use two, koala and beatmaker 3. koala has the dream workflow for anyone, and the samurai mode is good. However, I find beatmaker 3 more reliable when it comes to production, precisely manipulating the sounds per specific pad, the mixing capabilities, the performance view, even its time stretch still seems to me of better quality than the koala stretching quality. koala allows you to capture quick ideas, yes, but if you want to record an album or have well modeled pads for live performance, beatmaker seems superior to me. I wanted to know what you thought about this and if I am missing any more options.
Comments
For me they are two entirely different apps with different purposes.
Been using Koala for 3 days now and BeatMaker3 for a few years -- to me they're totally different animals and I can't really compare them. Both are awesome.
Yup, I agree with @AudioGus and @OscarSouth, they’re different. It’s like comparing a grand piano with an electric piano. They both make music, but with their own character.
Two different types of apps. Can't really compare the two. Apples vs Bananas
Well that settles that!
Welcome to the forum @Minimal 😁
Zing!
I don’t enjoy using BM3, personally. Koala is quicker and more fun to create with. Same reason I prefer Kong Gadget as my main DAW; fast workflow.
Choice is easy. Used to really like BM3, but recently within minutes of using it, I get some monstrous bug where it looks like BM3 is morphing into a notepad or procreate or something. Crickets from Vincent or whoever is doing support these days.
@Model10000 yes that’s a doozy and an old bug. Will try to dig out the info.
As others have said, they are different apps with different emphasis and a different notion of sampler. I use Koala more frequently, but as a raw sampler engine, Beatmaker’s is far deeper and pretty much unrivaled on iOS which is not a knock on Koala which I use far more often.
I don’t think we should hamper Koala’s trajectory by pitting it against BM3. It is a comet app. Like Samplr, like SpaceCraft, like Drambo, and yes, to some of us, like BM3...
Let it’s star burn bright and enjoy the ride! 💫
Koala can be loaded in BM3 😂
One is a host, the other is a sound source.
Just different, but the comparison is understandable as samplers with pads. I love Koala’s workflow better, but I love BM3’s workflow as well!
it is true that they are different. but I did not compare a sampler with a sequencer, or with a synthe, or bananas with tomatoes. It is about two samplers, and I wanted to know if you used them together (and in that case, what is your workflow), or if you decided to stay with koala for its practicality (and in that case, how you make a deep production with koala and aum or other applications). It is true that beatmaker is deeper, but in koala you can do things in a minute that in beatmaker take more time, at least in terms of cutting samples, and this is something that ends up favoring creativity. Anyway, I just wanted to know, if you had to choose one that combines live performance and production well, which one will you choose? They are both incredible, I know, I just wondered which one they would stay with if you have to choose one, out of curiosity.
For me the decision would come down to whether I needed to use the KB/vel mapping, modulation pages, mixer and AUv3 hosting of BM3 for the instruments I was building. My current setup (based on quickly resampling excerpts from running tempo synched sequencers on semi modular equipment) is better suited to Koala, and I've performed a whoooolllee lot of concerts with BeatMaker3 as a host.
BM3 couldn't do the Job Koala is doing and Koala couldn't have done the job BM3 has been doing. Can't really see much similarity apart from the visual presentation of a 16 pad grid, and I can certainly imagine using both together with BM3 as a host.
The decision wouldn't be between BM3 or Koala. Assuming I needed Koala, then it'd be between BM3 or AB3 as a host for that (I usually use AB3 until I need a BM3 specific feature, then move my session to BM3).
A recent survey of 100 koalas that were registered to vote in their district found that 95% preferred BM3 as their go to sampler. Conversely, a survey of beat making 3 year olds overwhelmingly showed they favored koalas, even over their binky. Go figure.
IMO, sampler is a meaninglessly vague term. Just because they are called samplers doesn’t mean that it is meaningful to compare them. Their use cases are so different, I wouldn’t even think of them as competing for the same use space.
@gusgranite Thanks. Was on the beta team for a while. If you or @tk32 are part of the beta still and there’s a bug tracker, it’d be cool if you could add that this is ongoing. Back on topic, both these apps are essential for audio mangling IMO. Koala is just so damn quick, but BM3’s sampler might be better than any on any platform.
@elf_audio Saw some were asking for a back button in Koala to AUM, this would be very welcome. Using four-finger swipes to get back and forth, but keep changing settings etc.
Thanks for the feedback. I am a guitarist and in quarantine I found myself alone, unable to play with others, so I started building bases with applications on my ipad (I came from Ableton). but it all ended up sounding a bit artificial for the music I make (blues, lo fi, trip-hop and modern soul style, like fkj sound). Two months ago I met the world of sampling, and I saw in audio sampling (using tube au) a way out of that artificiality. It's hard for me to finish taking koala seriously when it comes to exploiting the quality of the samples, editing specific pads separately, and mixing in order to record an album or make quality scenes. use it for the essentials of trimming samples and setting up scenes, then exporting to bm3 and giving everything the final touch of more professional production I think is the best option.
I will be getting Samplr for sure...I’m not sure I’ll ‘bear’ Koala......excuse pun....but it’s certainly quick to use!
BeatMaker 3 is King.
BM3 crashed too much for me to even keep it on my iPad whereas I have half a dozen devices that can (and do) run Koala thanks to it being universal.
Factor in piano roll and the insane timestretch options& Koala does everything I need it to. I don't need to sequence external devices - it was never something I cared to do with MPCs either - so I don't really need anything more. If I want to use a sound in Koala I'll sample it (and resample it... and resample that...).
For me the choice is simple: Koala for fun or performance, BM3 for producing songs.
I would need a lot more time with BM3 for it to become fluid enough for me to really have fun and be as creative with it as I can with Koala. And I've spent a significant time with BM3.
No way I'd go on stage with BM3. I just don't trust it enough. I know @OscarSouth has had great success with it live, but even the thought of doing that myself makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up. I guess if you practice, practice, practice with it so that you know what makes it crash and build that confidence that you won't accidentally do those things it could work. But still ...
I would go on stage with Koala. My phone would be standing by as a backup even still. I have fun with Koala on the couch and while waiting forever for my wife to finish shopping. I'm much more fond of Koala than BM3.
But I doubt I'd build up any keeper songs with Koala. If you're into a sampling workflow for producing songs then it sure seems like BM3 is the king to me. I dabble in samples only, so other DAWs draw my attention more. I should go back to BM3 for a few projects and see if I feel different now.
If I was stranded forever on a desert island that miraculously had electricity, I'd keep BM3. Here, and if I could keep my other DAWs, it'd be Koala all the way.
@wim : fwiw, using BM3 as a sampler, I've found it to be a reliable realtime instrument. I don't think
I've ever had a crash with it using that way. My only crashes have been using it as a DAW and even then only when using certain AUv3.
My mind totally agrees with you. My scrotum does not. It contracts every time I picture myself on stage with BM3. 😂
I only use the pads and mixer (any sampler work is done in advance and timeline isn’t used). I also control the app entirely from external MIDI sources and that device is basically just eye candy on stage (the pads flashing looks good).
Limited interaction and avoidance of the timeline and detailed tweaking is probably advantageous for stability. I can’t remember any particular crashes working with the sampler though I had a few on the timeline in the past.
in a nutshell
I’ve always used the Roland SP samplers and never really was an mpc guy.
The resample pad to pad method, building up the layers along the way is my fav way to make music especially enjoy doing that to a finished song and adding some effects, extra kicks or random sounds to it to to keep it moving is super easy on koala.
Because of that i pick koala as it is my kinda workflow.
Bm3 is a great app and def goes deep on editing. Auv3 instrument and effects support is really nice to fast sampling.
If koala hosted auv3 it would be pretty much all i ever needed for a hosting and song creating
Koala is the SP404's spiritual successor in app form. BM3 is the avatar: the being promised to bring balance to a world of MPC's and Maschine. But just when the Lives and Pluses started to take over and we needed it most, BM3 vanished.
When did BM3 vanished??? Last update was October/November last year.
Now that Koala has time stretch, auto chop and piano roll it's on another level. The UI design fits an impressive number of functions into a small workspace, not to mention it's practical, functional and incredibly easy to work in, with quick results.
And it's also exactly why i've never bought the app.
It's almost too fun. It does everything it needs to and some things not at all. I've watched a million videos and come to the conclusion that it would only be a waste of time in the end. I can do all the same things in Beatmaker 3 and also bring everything to a stage of completion ..with the added advantage of a timeline, a mixer with Aux sends, endless audio and midi tracks, more in-app fx (like a 6-band EQ) plus AUv3 support, automation, 128 pads with tons of control (ADSR on every pad), the ability to make your own instruments with LFOs, velocity layers etc, plus a File Browser w/ZIP and unZIP, stem export, macros, and arguable the best wave editor on iOS.
But it's really hard to resist apps like Koala, or something like Flux, because the results are so immediate ..but they are too limited to produce finished tracks. That said, I'm extremely glad they exist cuz it's apps like this that bring new people into the iOS environment. Plus, Koala offers something somewhat novel with it's visual waveforms on every pad and window, which could potentially help someone unfamiliar with it -- learn how time signatures and beats per measure work along with the correlating audio.