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.
Worth it? (Digitakt)
Here I am, a feew weeks later, owning a Digitakt. Excellent sound quality, creative, well-built. Shiny. However ... I can’t help but feeling I made the wrong choice here. I think I need to get rid of it - for a MPC One instead.
SO many more uses, sequences everything I got, hw synths, ipad synths, finger-drumming, easy chopping, built-in synths, loads of fx, connecting usb midi synths, etc etc.
Those of you who use to work with any of these two fine machines: any advice/pro tips to give here?
How do/did you use them - any nice workflow ideas to get the creative juices flowing?
Thanks a lot!
Simon
Comments
I’ve got an MPC One but also had a look at the Digitakt before purchasing. I chose the MPC One because I already had experiences with MPC’s about 20 years ago (had an MPC2000XL, MPC1000 and finally worked with an MPC60). The MPC One has much more to offer but also has a steeper learning curve. Personally I don’t mind, music is just a hobby and I enjoy delving into a machine to learn more about it. If you give it the time, the MPC One is a beast. Really like the fact it has CV options for modular gear but off course also the fully fledged sampler with effects etc. Also like the auto sampling feature that enables me to create multi’s from my iOS Synths but als from my hardware.
I am devoting this very night to fully embracing, learning, wrestling and understanding the ins and outs of the Digitakt. Tomorrow I have one tough desicion to make. I will perhaps miss her for the rest of my life if out ways part ... :-/ But maybe it is worth it for all I am getting with the MPC. I have no earlier experience of either.
Btw, MPC One is $699 at B&H. $100 cheaper than others.
Someone is getting into internet music hardware shopping!
Do you find the lowest price and then get your trusted supplier to match it?
Yeah, Digitakt is cool but the spec is way too limited for me. Elektron boxes are meant to be used with other Elektron boxes to compensate for the other boxes short comings (polyphony, RAM, track count, etc etc etc).
I am in Sweden, I think I’d better go for the more local alternatives. Thanks anyway!
@SimRed, ah, too bad... but you get to live in Sweden!
@McD, exactly. My guy at SweetWater will always match a legit price. And he provides free return labels.
There's no bond like the one between a GAS addict and his supplier:
There's nothing you could say
To tear me away from my guy
There's nothing you could do
'Cause I'm stuck like glue to my guy
I'm stickin' to my guy like a stamp to a letter
Like the birds of a feather
We stick together
I'm telling you from the start
I can't be torn apart from my guy
There's nothing you can do
Could make me untrue to my guy (my guy)
There's nothing you could buy
Could make me tell a lie to my guy (my guy)
I gave my guy my word of honor
To be faithful and I'm gonna
You best be believing
I won't be deceiving my guy
As a matter of opinion I think he's tops
My opinion is he's the cream of the crop
As a matter of taste to be exact
He's my ideal as a matter of fact
And his name is Nate Hutson @McD. Highly recommended and always gives up a little more on the price if you ask.
I bought something from Sweetwater and have a sales rep in the system but I haven't helped him pay any bills... I think I bought "Band in a Box" digital download from them but nothing since and I have a stack of catalogs. I have since let Band in a Box slowly die on my MacBook
to make room for more stuff. My iPad, MacBook and most of my older iPhones all have storage issues. I never buy enough...
Yeah, I've heard about those Sweetwater guys 😂😂😂. Fine line between the best customer service ever and being stalked, I guess
I use the digitakt as an instrument. Not as a limitless factory of possibilities. If you need a machine that does it all, digitakt is not for you. That said, if you have an ipad, you can do a hell of a lot mixing those two ...
One big advantage of the Digitakt vs MPC One, when using them with an iPad, is that the Digitakt can serve as an audio interface, so you just need to connect it to your iPad by USB. With the MPC, you'll need an audio interface in between, which also means multiple extra cables...
I have the MPC and like it, but I'm super jealous of the audio interface capability of the Digitakt.
BUT you can’t access the Digitakt physical inputs. So if you want to record a guitar or anything external you still need an interface, plus you need to re-route everything. I can’t understand that omission, I don’t use the Digitakt much because if that.
I’ve been thinking about getting a Maschine+. I’d sell the Digitakt to finance it. But even though I don’t use it much it’s such a beautiful machine. If I think of selling it I feel like I should be using it more. I guess my biggest problem with it is that I haven’t nailed down a fast workflow. I get lost in going through little folders and trying to find samples. I wish there was a “drum kit” preset thing like in old drum machines where you could decouple the sequence data from the sounds. Actually I have the same problem with Drambo.
Ah, I didn't know about that limitation. That's too bad... (although it does decrease my GAS!)
😆
It’s funny cause it’s true! I just bought a $5 MIDI dongle and the Sweetwater dude is calling and emailing nonstop for a week. Customer service so good, it borders on creepy.
Does the MPC have a preamp? Can you plug directly into the unit from a guitar? I didn't think so, but I don't have one. You don't need an interface to record into the Digitakt. You do need a preamp to record into it, but you can just run the line out from a guitar amp.
Agreed. That’s why I didn’t hold on to the MPC Live for more than a week or so. I realized it wasn’t really adding anything that I wasn’t already doing (better) on my iPad w/ interface & controller.
I do love HW if it enables you to approach music in new and creative ways and has the feel of a well designed instrument. I’ve tried to recreate the experience of Machinedrum in software (Drambo/DrumComputer/etc) but nothing comes close to having that hands on immediacy of the real deal. It’s a whole other ballgame.
@ExAsperis99 mpc.. Line and instrument level input
Actually, I'm wrong. You can just plug your guitar cable straight in to the DT. Why you would want to do that is unclear, but you could.
It's only line-level on the MPC One. All the bigger Akai products (MPC Live, MPC X, Force) have preamps, but not the MPC One.
If you see the Digitakt as a high-end drum machine with the ability to drop in a few samples here and there, it really shines.
The MIDI sequence tracks that you might use to sequence your iOS synths are fun too.
If you want to compose full songs, I find iOS apps like Nanostudio 2, Gadget, Groove Rider or Drambo the better choice.
Take this as personal experience only:
Been a long time user of mps (2k,2’xl,1k, 2500k) and the mcl one is a far cry from that Mpcs were. You’ll sped 95% of your time on that touchscreen than anything else.
Also also owned pretty much every electron device (got rid of them all except the MD), and the one I was most disappointed in the the OT followed by the DT.
I didn’t see the point of keeping an MPCone when I already have an iPad with a touchscreen (and I’m not talking about using iMPC)
I lol’ed and my kids are like WHAT WHAT?! Of course it won’t make sense to them.
But oh my god, yes, there’s never been a more accurate pic lol...
Ah, right. I've a Mpc Live.
Hilarious! I got a call from my Sweetwater buddy a few hours ago. He doesn't seem to get the hint that I never pick up the phone.
I'm finally coming to terms with the Digitakt: it's a drum machine and a one-shot sampler that requires babysitting during performance. The step sequencer's p-locks, conditionals, and LFOs are fantastic for making a loop that isn't boring. You can also create simple repeating melodies in chromatic sequencing mode.
But....
Longer samples? no
MIDI sequencing? not so great
Polyphonic MIDI sequencing? shoot me now
song mode? sucka!
I've had this box for 2 years, and just as I'm thinking I'll sell it, I create something cool on it...
don't forget chopping
Do you mean the cumbersome hacks or has this feature been added recently?