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 Store

Audiobus is the app that makes the rest of your setup better.

bip on Sale (75% off)

Comments

  • Nice! I can't think of a better way to spend 69p ... and less calorific than a Mars bar.

  • edited April 2014

    So it IS on the Bus, eh? That wasn't abundantly clear from their online description, but it's on the AB "Apps" page. (Also see it added in the January 2013 version history)

    Other export functions like IAA or especially Copy/Paste?

    200 samples on board, modest file size. I'll go look for a demo video...

  • Been wanting this - gotcha!

  • edited April 2014

    It exports to Dropbox but I can't remember if it has Copy/Paste out. I know it has Copy/Paste In, however the pasteboard is broken with this latest release but you can still "Open in" from AudioShare. The dev is aware of pasteboard not working and it will be fixed in the next release. It also supports 16 and 24 bit, 44.1kHz files and several audio formats which are new to the latest release.

    Very fun app, especially for a buck!!

  • edited April 2014

    Thanks @yowza . When I start asking questions like this, I'm usually 70% of the way towards buying it :) While there are basic features that all good music apps should have (and they should work properly, or be fixed within a reasonable time), it'd be tough to be too mad over it for 99 cents.

    There's also the issue of trying not to load samples into 15 different rhythm apps (memory, convenience, etc.).

    So long as it has AudioBus, it can work as a functional tool with a DAW. I tend to like Copy/Paste for rhythm because it makes a perfect sized loop free from audio glitches that you can paste and copy. But it's easy enough cut a proper loop in your DAW, also.

    Front page of their website has a much better video showing off some of the capabilities:
    http://soh.la/bip.html

  • I know the few loops I exported from Bip to Dropbox to AudioShare went right into Sector perfectly. They were the perfect size and didn't need to be trimmed, etc. The loops actually weren't that great to start with but when I put them into Sector, wow, magic occurred! I have not tried to paste into a DAW or anything like that.

  • edited April 2014

    Yeah, AudioBus into a DAW might have an issue. I copied it over to MT DAW and the beat I made sounded fine as I was monitoring it. But when playing it back in the DAW, it sounded distorted/clipped or something. It wasn't output b/c the meter in the DAW was barely touching the yellow. I may want to try the DropBox export instead.

    The mini controls for AudioBus are actually really well implemented - you can switch between your patterns from the mini controls, and it does it on the fly without losing tempo. But something wasn't right with the audio quality...

    @yowza - How do you record/export a perfect-sized loop? There's an export option for "recordings", but they weren't the exact right length when I put them in a DAW set to the same BPM.

  • Never heard of this but looks cool and worth a try at that price :-)

  • @StormJH1 said:

    @yowza - How do you record/export a perfect-sized loop? There's an export option for "recordings", but they weren't the exact right length when I put them in a DAW set to the same BPM.

    Maybe a little beginners luck on my part but as I recall I set up my tracks to record 4 bars then set the record mode to be in loop record mode on the Song page (look in the manual) where it records a loop of the 4 bars. Sometimes it's hard to know where the down beat of the loop is in bip so I always watch the loop circle around and record a temporary click track on one of the tracks so I know where I am relative to the downbeat which is the top of the circle (ala Loopy). I asked the dev about a metronome and he said it's very possible.

  • I already had this one installed lol. It's awesome, how could I forget about this one? Really cool groove box, and a no brainer at only a buck!

  • edited April 2014

    It may be a no-brainer money-wise, but you need at least a little if one is to figure out how to use it. A video review search gets me what I complained about earlier in another thread: videos of people playing with apps and no explanation of the workings... I don't know about the rest of you, but these videos do me no good. You'd think the top pick in a video search would be THE video to watch, but alas this is again not the case... (sigh)

  • There is a @thesoundtestroom video which Doug did at my request. Search his YT channel or the forum

  • @Brain said:

    It may be a no-brainer money-wise, but you need at least a little if one is to figure out how to use it. A video review search gets me what I complained about earlier in another thread: videos of people playing with apps and no explanation of the workings... I don't know about the rest of you, but these videos do me no good. You'd think the top pick in a video search would be THE video to watch, but alas this is again not the case... (sigh)

    Totally agree. There needs to be either subtitles or explanation of how to use the app. This one is different enough that it could use a 10 minute tutorial. The menus are like an IKEA instruction manual - no direction, just pictures.

  • Hiya, if you follow that thread through, @soh_la the dev comes in and talks about upcoming videos and new features. Steph the dev was very keen on feedback, so maybe chuck an email that way. It is an app that looks puzzling but def worth getting on sale and hanging onto imo.

  • Got it...bit buggy I say..
    It doesn't really sleep in the background and even it's stopped and you bring it back to the foreground it starts playing again on it's own!!!
    Otherwise it's great ...I wish it was in AB output slot too so you could just feed it samples instead of Dropbox/copy paste stuff.
    It has a good idea going...little subtitles or text and hints the workflow will be helpful

  • hi, steph here developer of bip.

    As @yowza has mentioned, bip is getting some detailed video tutorials on all the features of bip and how to use them. i realise that the app can be difficult to understand for some at first but once you become familiar with it, i guarantee you will enjoy its design and feature set. Till then, you can check out the manual which gives a short description of the features on each page of the app.

    For more on specific issues :

    @StormJH1 / @yowza : you can make sample accurate loops for exporting by selecting the loop recorder in the Songs menu. The recording will auto-stop at the end of one full loop. And yes, currently the copy/paste feature is not available. You can (and i prefer) using the "Open in..." mechanism for transferring audio files between apps.

    @StormJH1 : getting distortion after recording into a DAW. i would love to know more details on this issue as i have not had this before. if you could email me info and i can try and see what the issue is.

    @thepinkelefant : i'm not aware of any background bugs. there is a setting in the app to turn off background audio which is what your description sounds like : if the app is playing and you exist, it stops and when you re-open it plays again (Apple required behaviour) Again, if this is an issue please email me with the details and i will try and solve any issues.

    Thanks everyone who bought the app and kind words. Don't forget if you haven't already done so, review review review. Oh and any feedback, good, bad and in between is always welcome.
    cheers
    steph

  • @soh_la said:

    @thepinkelefant : i'm not aware of any background bugs. there is a setting in the app to turn off background audio which is what your description sounds like : if the app is playing and you exist, it stops and when you re-open it plays again (Apple required behaviour) Again, if this is an issue please email me with the details and i will try and solve any issues.

    I have noticed that if I leave bip open and don't kill it when I'm finished my battery will drain like it's staying active in the background, unlike say Thumbjam which goes dormant after being in the background for a while and if I leave it open the battery doesn't go down but I have to wake TJ up again if I want to use it.

  • @soh_la - Thanks for the helpful responses. You have a neat app with some interesting potential.

    I will try the "Open In" feature with AudioShare. It sounds like you have a loop exporting feature, whereas I may have been arbitrarily stopping recordings near the end of a loop.

    I would have to try to recreate the AudioBus thing to make sure it wasn't something else I was doing that created the problem. It was a simple chain from Bip -> AUFX: Space (the reverb) app -> MultiTrack DAW. When I heard the distorted effect, I bypassed the reverb effect, but it still came out notably different. But again, it could have been an anomaly.

  • @yowza if bip is in background audio mode then yes the app will use up battery power. the status bar should also be tinted red to indicate the app is still active and can record via mic input. you can turn off background audio in settings.

  • edited April 2014

    I have seen few other apps that even though you have them in background mode , and they are not processing midi or audio after some time they really go to "sleep" ...thus saving battery life. ...otherwise you will have to remember to always uncheck the background mode before shutting if tr device which is almost never going to happen ;-)

    Is there a way to get samples in via AudioBus ?

  • edited April 2014

    @thepinkelefant said:

    Is there a way to get samples in via AudioBus ?

    I'm not sure what you mean by AB, do you mean by recording via AB? Not sure why you'd want to record into bip because it only uses one shot sounds not loops so I don't see the point to record into AB. As mentioned above pasteboard is currently broken but you can "open in" from other apps, I use AudioShare and it works great.

    Maybe I misunderstood what you asked.

  • @yowza - Okay, the "Open In" tip is definitely a good one. Really easy to send loops into AudioShare, and once they're in that (outstanding) app, you can pretty much do whatever you want with them (store in a folder, convert to m4a, ACP, send to DropBox, etc.) The loops were perfectly sized for dropping into my DAW.

    I figured out that the "broken circle" picture means it is a loop recorder, but it seems to be glitchy. Unless I am doing something wrong. I recorded two loops at 130bpm (which show as 7 seconds long). Then I switch to a new pattern, I can play the pattern, but the loop recorder cuts off right away and results in 0:00 recording.

    Any idea why that is, or what I'm doing wrong?

  • @StormJH1 said:

    I figured out that the "broken circle" picture means it is a loop recorder, but it seems to be glitchy. Unless I am doing something wrong. I recorded two loops at 130bpm (which show as 7 seconds long). Then I switch to a new pattern, I can play the pattern, but the loop recorder cuts off right away and results in 0:00 recording.

    Any idea why that is, or what I'm doing wrong?

    You may have to select the loop record mode each time when you switch patterns, I'm not sure it remembers that setting. I'm at work at the moment and not able to check it.
    I'll try to look at it later.

  • @soh-la: The first video I viewed for bip sold me on it.

    I know that anyone can post pretty much whatever garbage they want on YouTube or what-have-you, but it would perhaps be a good idea for all dev teams for all apps - old and new - to open an official channel to post tutorial videos and the like so that users can easily be directed to valuable info on apps they have paid for and wish to use and integrate into their musical pursuits.

  • I will test out the workaround for the loop recording. I thought I had switched patterns and reselected loop record mode, but I think there's been a few times I ended up with the 0:00 recording issue.

    Agree on the tutorial video comment - apps like Caustic really benefit from detailed tutorials. They're great marketing points too - sometimes it's having a single cool feature of an app demonstrated for you that gets you over the hump of spending money on it.

  • I bought it last week and I like it for the most part, but just not digging the way you have to hold a circle a while to get the sample to trigger if you have the beats/base set low. wish it was more immediate triggering like figure(where it triggers the pattern from the starting beat).

  • @dubwavedub said:

    I bought it last week and I like it for the most part, but just not digging the way you have to hold a circle a while to get the sample to trigger if you have the beats/base set low. wish it was more immediate triggering like figure(where it triggers the pattern from the starting beat).

    I hear you, but I think that is designed that way on purpose to be in rhythm. But you are right that it would be nice to turn that off and have pads that respond instantly.

    I guess that doesn't bother me because there's tons of apps that work like drum pads and bip is something different. Pretty sure playing one pad cancels out all the others, too, so that's another way it's different.

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