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.
Desktop vs ios
Hello everyone. I wanted to know what you thought about the differences between ios and laptop. I think that the sound you can get in desktop plugins hardly compares with ios offers, that no matter how better it sounds, it will always be more synthetic. there is nothing like ableton on ios, nothing like neural dsp for guitar, nothing like arturia pigments or analog lab on synths, nothing like nectar 3 as a voice effects suite. I love ios, but I distrust anyone who does not recognize the superiority of desktop applications over the former.
- Deskop or ios83 votes
- Desktop31.33%
- Ios68.67%
Comments
Considering that Eventide, Fabfilter, Toneboosters have ported their desktop plugins to iOS. Audio Damage and Imaginado have synths on both platforms. There is no difference. While some products may not have direct equivalents, there are alternatives. Ultimately, it's subjective.
It's the same debate as hardware vs software, it's all you experience the result. Listen on crappy speakers and it'll sound bad regardless. And the average listener is not able to tell the difference anyhow.
Desktop for sure. Hardware is my favorite then desktop and then iOS. iOS is stupidly convenient though so I use that most often
desktop is my default for recording songs or scoring to picture. but for sound design it’s hard to beat IOS, some of the sounds you can come up with, especially with touch interfaces, just couldn’t be done on desktop. I love em both.
iOS is what you make it.
I tend to do better things faster with Ableton but I am also utilizing iOS for instruments, sequencers and high quality fx. Best of both worlds...
+1 Sound design on iOS is a great experience.
Sound quality, desktop
Inspiring, iOS
Yes, iOS is missing a lot. But because of the form factor and interface I’ll grab an ipad first for production duties. An ipad actually feels like a self-contained instrument.
Hardware is my first true love, but iOS is a good compromise.
If we’re going to go the “superior” route, than hardware synths, effects, and outboard every time.
Odd question.
This is like asking if a 4 wheel drive vehicle is better than a dirt bike for off-road use. It depends on what you're trying to do to do and what you like to do best.
Also: "Better sound quality and inspiring" those are two very different things. I'm sure on the whole more desktop apps have better sound quality than similar apps on iOS but desktop is the opposite of inspiring for me. No way for someone like me to answer that question. It's ambiguous.
Never connected with desktop. Went from all hardware to iOS. I don’t care if it sounds worse or is hobbled in any way compared to desktop. Making music on an iPad is as fun as anything.
There is no question that there is nothing like a polished complete DAW on iOS. But as far as the sound quality of the best synths and effects on both platforms, there are (in my opinion) quite a few fx and synths on iOS that are of the same caliber as the best desktop synths.
Trust is a nebulous commodity. I use what I like.
P.S. If you really want to know what people honestly think about something, stating your opinion about the answer and also the character of the people who disagree with you up front, isn't the way to do it.
Definitely.
I have that new OB 8 voice plugin from G-Force and it sounds great but I can think of a few iOS synths which are easily in the same league.
I have recently come to embrace the eccentricities of iOS as part of mu creative experience. It’s like the challenges of early inventors compared to today’s corporate research. The “mad scientist “ feeling as opposed to the corporate cog. It stretches my imagination to find alternate realities whereas on desktop it is always smooth sailing on placid seas. I also need the directness of touch screen. Desktop to unwieldy for me.
I just heard some tracks from @kuhl. I was sure it couldn’t have been made with iOS, but I was wrong. The immediacy was there, the precision. Of course, Kuhl knows what he’s doing. My stuff will always sound “homemade”, I realize. Fortunately, there is an intimacy that is often created in that basement laboratory that is lost with the pro polishing. I heard someone playing a saw last night. It was magical.
V Tines was just released by Audiosampling. A combination of physical modeling and samples. A very small footprint. SWAM is here. Devs are directing their energies to the refinement and capability of the iOS platform. And 8gb RAM is sure to come on some 2k iPad of the future. I think it only requires a full service DAW for pro users to really get over the bar. It seems reasonable to expect that in a few years.
All of the above.
Nothing compares to iOS for ease of setting up when you need portability... for my purposes that is. There isn't a desktop equivalent of AUM which comes close when it comes to efficiently laying out signal processing routing, especially arranging more complicated signal flows. It's not a daw it's an incredibly flexible AU plugin host and audio mixer... Cantabile is similar in some ways but... There isn't a desktop granular synth quite as expressive, touch wise as Tardigrain... for my purposes at least. I could go on... but clearly your preferences ain't my preferences. I guess that makes me untrustworthy...
I never got a long good with desktop synths/instruments even tho I’ve always loved Ableton as a daw. I have had a lot of hardware and used Ableton to record that. I tried to use desktop synths and programs for years but never liked the workflow.
iOS is missing stuff but it is growing in its complexity. The daws/ hosts , MIDI and audio effects and synths continue to get more fun, creative and inspiring to create with and that to me is the priority to making music. Do i enjoy it and can i do the things i want, are the questions i ask and it checks all the boxes for me
Voted iOS to put myself on your distrusted list.
Making music on a pc is no fun for me. It’s almost painful. iPad is fun.
Why must it be a competition; they're just tools, more choice for everyone. Just because you make music on the desktop, it doesn't automatically make it better music than the stuff made by the guy who produces on his/her iPad. I've heard folks who can make £10,000 worth of eurorack sound like a cheap drum machine from the 80's, and folks who can make a Volca modular sound like heaven, a subjective observation of course
SWAM is just as good on iOS as it is on desktop; it is in no way crippled just because a few advanced parameters are not readily accessible. Those 'locked' parameters are addressable and work as expected if you open a desktop made preset in the iOS versions... and more importantly, they actually do sound just as good as their desktop equivalents. I had SAM Horns and Gigapiano running on a Pentium III 800 with 4GB of ram many years ago; I'd much, much rather have my iPad now; I'm having a lot more fun.
I love love the fact that iOS environment is easy to follow and execute fw.updates... on the desktop you kinda have to chase/check those fw.updates...actually only yesterday I found out that myKVR is letting you receive notifications on new versions for your desktop plugins, which is cool. I receive a weekly email if any of my vst’s have a new update version...and not only... they let you know about new preset banks and so on
Indeed. I think "post apocalyptic comedy radio show..." describes this forum perfectly at times.
This just might be one of those times.
lol... iOS sound quality is just as good, and iOS is more inspiring and fun. It is also a touchscreen instrument. Also, apps are much cheaper, and some of the best are ported over. Someone who actually knows what they’re doing can make an album with iOS only tools that will sound just as good as desktop made. This was not the case a few years ago. iOS could still benefit from a major full featured and stable DAW, but to claim that sound quality isn’t as good because of Neural dsp or some other cork sniffing suite is ludicrous. Interfaces, preamps, mics, the kinds most of us get for our home studios, they work just the same on either platform. There are more obstacles with iOS, but the question asked was about sound quality and inspiration.
Mobile iOS studio for me.
Oh look. Another thread debating whether computers or iOS is better. Good to see the internet is still working.
You also remind me of an excellent point @JoyceRoadStudios. Recording on an iOS device is a dream as far as eliminating noise. Not only are there no fans to worry about, but you can go anywhere that is free from outside noise if you're using a mic. But the biggest kicker for me is being able to power the iPad from a battery bank practically forever, eliminating all sources of AC electrical noise.
I'll never forget the first time I plugged my guitar into my iPad and heard ... nothing when I wasn't playing. My God the hours I strived to accomplish that on PCs.
I can say for sure that iOS devices kick desktop's ass for recording.
Truth
Can your desktop touchscreen patch and wire modulars a la Drambo or MiRack? Can it be a touchscreen Rhodes or an 808? Can it be a “tactile” mixer with sliders? Can your desktop do literally anything without a mouse and keyboard, and supplementary hardware? Are you gonna travel with all of that?
Good one!
🤣
Not only that, the locked parameters of the Swam apps are ALL exposed to their hosts, so you can in fact change them and then you can save those changes as presets 😎😁. Just don't say it too loud in case this gets changed.
"These horses aren't doing my laundry!"
I’m currently enjoying using iOS apps full screen piped into my laptop, feels like the best of both worlds 😁
You are focusing on the wrong things here. "Highest possible sound quality" isn't the deciding factor, it's efficency when working.
Let's take another example. LumaFusion is a very good video editor. For the price it offers insane value and you can create professional videos with it. There is one catch though, no matter how proficient you are in LumaFusion, a good editor in Premiere or FinalCut will do the work in way less time.
As for now, the desktop world is just way more efficient. I used to cut videos for work in Premiere, for my little YouTube Channel I do it now in LumaFusion. At least 50% of the stuff I need to do manually in Luma Fusion I would automate in Premiere.
That's not relevant for me though, since I'm making short fun video for a channel with 30 subscribers. No way I would use this in a professional environment though. And this is just the same in the audio world. On a professional level you need to work fast and efficient. As of now, desktop computers are still better when it comes to that.
Also apart from that, things aren't mutually exclusive. You can create something on iOS having all the benefits and then bring it into a desktop DAW for mastering. Who is telling you to do only one or the other?