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.
Old apps you still use and why?
Mine are the aforementioned Looptical I wrote about earlier. Stryke by Retronyms. Cool sounds that are quite unique. Music Studio by Alexander Gross. What FL Mobile Studio should have been. great sampling and orchestral sounds. Rock solid midi recording with stellar FX. Lofionic Duplicat, best tape delay sound IMHO. Sequence Mediawork LLC sBASSdrum and Groove Machine, routinely rip samples from it. I have more, but would love to hear some of you guys picks. I know must of the community is all about the AUv3, including myself, but I wonder if we have abandoned some great app gear Audiobus IAA compatibily. Dying to hear from the rest of you, and thanks in advance
Comments
Oh, I wish. Bought it but can't download it anymore
Wish I had purchased all the IAPs. 🙁
Changeling ... odd little chording/voicing gadget with a built-in looper, sequencer and arp. Very flexible, eccentric and useful... a real one-off. No longer on the App Store and untouched since 2013, but amazingly works perfectly on an M1 Mac. Does some pretty things. Can even sound like I know what I'm doing.
Bit of a scrub-up on the UI and this is a really handy improv tool for another decade.
Changeling Midi Sequencer For iPad
Meet Changeling; the super easy, flexible, diatonic chord sequencer from the future.
This sequencer has its foundation in musical improvisation theory; All recorded musical notes remain relative, and can be changed in various ways during playback.
It’s a simple tool for people that like to create music, but don’t have the discipline or time for studying music theory, or years of piano improvisation practice. Changeling does not generate compositions, you remain in full creative control over the music that you come up with.
iPad Changeling Sequencer Screenshot
Instructions:
Just start by recording a simple melody-line with one finger.
Change the scale and root by sliding the ribbons.
Transform the melody to a chord progression by turning the chord knob. Play around with the available voicings and transition modes that affect chord inversions.
Finally spread out the chord notes over time using the arpeggiator.
Use Changeling’s MIDI output to record patterns to your DAW or other MIDI capable IOS apps.
Changeling Sequencer is available for $4.99
This one?
Yep that's the fella ... there's even a manual on Wordpress(!) somewhere ... here: https://changelingapp.wordpress.com/manual/
but I've had a look again and Changeling doesn't appear in my local app store any more ... is it still around somewhere? If so grab it - Ive found it unique way of stretching my ears - bit like yoga.
iElectribe
Sector
Both because they're completely unique and totally immersive. They make me happy every time I use them.
Xenon. Sounds really good and has a lovely gui.
Music Studio for me too.
Rebirth. Still a contender for those who have it.
Caustic
My first iOS music app, ThumbJam, because it’s awesome.
+1 ThumbJam. I’ve just gone back to it for doing some vocal sampling with live pitch detection (and correction) for export to other newer apps.. then I started doing some loops and before you know it I’ve had a complete TJ rebirth
The instruments still sound great.
Alchemy isn’t always as dead as you think - sometimes it is indeed impossible to download, but I managed to put it on a new device (new to me, old with iOS 9) just a couple of months ago, all the IAPs too (which I already owned). Very surprised and very happy. Edit: not exactly true, see below.
Sometimes it seems to have a zombie resurrection, so still worth trying. Great to use as a remote over wi-fi if you have the desktop plug-in.
EDIT: I might have misremembered that... I had a device (old 5s) with Alchemy on that I’d never been able to log in for the ‘pro’ upgrade (for the remote) and additional sounds. In January I tried again and it all miraculously worked.
Samplr, Animoog. I don’t actually use the latter but I wish I was.
iDensity, iPulsaret and SunVox are the oldest apps on my iPad now. Almost everything else got removed in my new year’s purge. Not even Samplr or Audioshare made it.
Why? I realize that even as cool and' irreplaceable' as a lot of the old classics are, I don't find myself missing out on any fun by not using them. In other words, deleting literally every single IAA app on my iPad didn't leave a void that needed filling.
Also, I’m finding that minimalism actually suits me.
You know on these older apps that we’ve had for years... I’ve gotten so familiar with them and my ear grew so accustomed to their sounds, that my whole music mojo changed so that I prefer their sounds and looks to all these fantastic newer apps we’ve got available nowadays. For me a comfort zone is important to my creativity.
Does that make me an old fuddy-duddy??
Have an old iPad2 with Alchemy & all the IAP’s on it. It’s my Alchemy iPad & keep it just for that.
One I deleted & wished I had’nt as I can’t get it now was SynthX.
Loopy
Patterning 1 and 2
Animoog
Samplr
Borderlands
Odyssei
Thumbjam
DrumJam
SoftDrummer
MultiTrack DAW
Sector
Audulus
Why?
Because they do something for which I haven't found a more modern replacement I like as well.
If we're going waaay back - that is, pre-2015 - I still use Funkbox, Impaktor, iElectribe, SunVox, Animoog, Samplr, iPolysix (my first love!), and Nanoloop with some frequency.
SynthX!
I still have the first iPad (iPad 1?)
Full of ancient goodness:
Curtis
Space
Extra Slice
Alchemy (not able to restore purchases)
MiniSynth Pro
Vox 3000
Electrify
MiniDrum Pro
DopplerPad
iSequence (which on earlier iOS versions exports properly. My iPad 1 is iOS 5.1.1)
iSynPoly (which also on earlier iOS exports properly)
Nanostudio (the first)
iYM2151
Songineer
FL Studio (the Music Studio clone one which is fun but doesn’t hold a candle to the modern version...)
Thor, but I don’t use it. Not AUv3.
Tabletop.
Seriously?
Definitely
Tabletop 4ever
Genome MIDI
StepPolyArp
Nanostudio 1
All PPG synths
Odyssei
Cassini
Electrify NXT
Electrify NXT...my greatest iOS regret is updating iOS versions and losing Electrify NXT
Thor cos it’s fucking rad
Loopy HD...because Loopy Pro isn’t out yet.
NS2 because it’s cross platform (iPad/iPhone) and I can write a song start to finish on it without using anything else. I’ve stopped using AU’s all together right now and gone NS2 native!
Sector, Borderlands. The latter I’m struggling to find any real musical use for but it’s so fun.
Quite honestly I’m thinking of moving away from older apps and focusing on those that are AUv3 or have some chance to become AUv3 in the future. It would be good to completely cut with IAA sooner rather than later.
Bent fm lite
Noisy fun
Chaos texture generation!