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.
The Noodlers Club. Unproductive Audiobus musicians unite!
I don't know about you, but my initial laser focus at actually recording tunes in Audiobus when the number of apps available at launch was limited, quickly became an inability to actually get anything done when the options before me started swelling to gargantuan proportions. Now I spend hour upon hour simply hitting "random" on PPG Wavemapper or pissing around with Samplr, to say nothing of trying to find the perfect virtual MIDI sound for iFretless or simply listening to Nodebeat HD do its ambient thing.
I've realised with horror that I haven't actually made a proper, finished tune using Audiobus since December! I'm having too much fun simply noodling around with the combination of apps available!
So, is anyone else in the same boat as me? Do you listen to Soundcloud updates from others on this forum with a solitary tear of regret at not having achieved the same, and then go back to wrecking an Animoog preset, reverse looping your own voice in Samplr and praying that StepPolyArp will get on the bus?
Discuss.
Comments
Yeah man,I feel your pain! I find myself endlessly hitting spawn in Magellan and running DM1 through it or trying countless progressions from StepPolyArp into Thumbjam's electric guitar through Jam up into Beatmaker,all due to the magic of Audiobus! You're right....too many choices:) Oh and speaking of StepPolyArp I emailed them explaining how it would be awesome to be able to control the recording daw from the SPA screen through Audiobus and they replied that when they got the SDK they would look into implementing AB! Great news.
I don't really get how SPA will integrate with AB. What slot do you think it would live in? It doesn't really generate any sound, right? Not being discouraging, just genuinely curious how you see it working.
It'll live in input. Just way more convenient to have the Audiobus connection panel when using it so that you can start recordings to Auria/Cubasis etc on time.
Lol im in the same boat (Bus) but its all good. I think it will settle..but for now I'm enjoying the ride as a tourist.
Right,you'll be able to start recording from tha SPA screen instead of jumping between apps.
You mean its about creating music? I thought it was all about collecting apps...
Indeed. Many of us are on that "bus"....but I can say regardless of productivity, its a heck of a fun bus to be on...the possibilities are literally endless and further as each new app jumps on. Its amazing to see what can be done when apps (and people for that matter) work together!
Just look at it as research for future projects.... you'll be working on something down the road and think "remember that time I used Gestrument to control Thumbjam and dirtied it up in JamUp and finished in Auria/Cubasis/BM2....
Continue The Procrastina.... I mean research....Yes. Research!
Moments of inspiration come in a flash.we now have a tool to quickly captures that.but I agree,since December I haven't been in that empty state,where a melody ect would just bubble up.it has been a time of great excitement/tension/anticipation.most of what we need is in place now and I've even mellowed and accepted copy/paste ain't that bad after all.i look forward to spring and being outside around town/up the park with my ipad and headphones and a big smile on my face.
I'll do some procrastinating a bit later...
This is exactly why I started making Audiobus videos, I was spending so much time just having fun with the apps and not finishing any work I thought I might as well do something productive with all the half finshed loops and stuff..I had over time purchased and deleted many of the apps that are now getting on the bus so I stared reinstalling them and suddenly realised why I had deledted them in the first place,they just were not condusive to my particular workflow. So at the moment i'm trying to bring together a number of apps that work for me and them delete the rest for now and try and do some logical work...but then something else comes along and you just gotta give it a go, it is amazing to think a a few months ago none of this was possible and now its just great..
I have no problem with that. Actually it's the same with my DAW. I learn new ways of creating and mixing sounds, and am happy with that. I think it's worth the effort to learn about the new tools we get and already have. However, hitting the randomise button won't bring you further - you need to really learn how a sound is created.
Then, with all the knowledge you've gathered, you'll be able to create a song during a train or airplane voyage, or you can quickly add your voice to a spontaneous jam among real musicians.
Same here! The amount of apps coming on board creates a new learning curve for each one. I feel the same about Daws and Vst's! Years ago my sampler had only 12 sec. record time so I had to be creative. Now with something like Komplete 6 I am totally overwhelmed with the possibilities! Forget Komplete 8. Lol
no, never. I only work on songs I complete. Also, I spend a lot of time lying about shit on the internet.
Lol.
Here's one I use. Just waiting for that next app to get on the Bus, then I'll get down to business. Now its Alchemy. Glad i dont depend on this to eat.
The Strange Agency have an app called Donut...
Well, back in the day we used to call it "woodsheding"... If we view iOS as an instrument, then there is no shame in spending hours and hours "practicing" with it.
Now there may be some users who simply have fun with it, and probably have the same reaction in their brains as they would playing a video game, and that's ok too
I'm happy with a lot of experimenting and unfinished work, it's going towards learning and means when you do have a moment of inspiration wherever you are, you can get it recorded. I've had a few moments like that when I've thought I'd try a new app out to put my idea down and I've taken so long getting used to the app I had lost the inspiration.
Remember that anything good we finish is the result of working through a lot of crap and failed experiments. We can improve the ratio as we learn our craft, but it'll never be 100% success. In a sense, all the unproductive stuff IS productive. It's getting the crap out of the way so the good stuff can emerge.
Do I need to post pictures of coffee machines again? Chop, chop, make some music you guys...
Sluurp!
I own a window cleaning business and partnered up with a tool supply house to do Youtube video reviews on tools they sell. (I've done over 80 videos to date) as a result I have a messy truck full of supplies enough to support a staff of 8-10 window cleaners. um....I work by myself. ;-0
Sometimes I see the same thing with all my iOS music apps. Time to weed out the good from the bad and stop hanging around forums where other musicians (this means you Morris) tell me about the latest app on the Bus! ;-/
The 'Paradox of choice' and 'Opportunity cost' may help to explain the Audiobus phenomenon you are experiencing!
@AkaMarko Here we go with finger pointing. Remember it was you that started my app addiction with that YRG Sampletank video. You created this monster. Ha ha.
This happens to me too, i find myself checking the appstore every morning excited for new updates & compatible apps,instead of exausting the possibilites with the ones i already have. ive been waiting for beatmaker2 update but now that its here & working perfect, im stuck! lol. but i have been very productive by recording into loopy! after the first loop never stopping the PLAY until ive filled all 12 loops, i have been very very succesful with this workflow!
@mgmg4871
LOL, I keep forgetting.
This evening I spent half an hour rerecording drum loops from Loopy through Live FX back into Loopy with various effects and each time merging the new loop into the "original". Made a glorious mess.
Also, am kinda addicted to making an initial loop in Impaktor. Such a shame that the ultra low latency on that app means it'll take a lot of work to get it on the Bus. Just one other music app open on the iPad 3 makes it give the latency warning.
@coolwatercorey I have to agree, Loopy HD is really effective for building layers with audiobus apps. ...problem is, how do you finish your Loopy projects and turn them into songs?
My question too. Loopy has to be on the output socket to make loops, but the thing about Loopy is that one wants to record it being used - the final state of the loops is just that, the final state. Where the magic is the incremental journey that got there. Gotta bounce it to the desktop DAW I guess. That chews into the improv juices.