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.
Comments
Can you elaborate what you mean by a drop-down menu arrangement? Maybe a screenshot of another app that does what you like?
Is there a problem with presets being organised in alphabetical order? In what order are you expecting them to be organised?
I'm planing to add some enhancements to the preset browser (in fact already working on some now), but I'm keen to hear any feedback you might have, so I can try to improve the user experience in the future updates.
Hmm... I imported Emanresu presets into Mela 2 multiple times didn't experience any issues. I haven't experience the issue (nor anyone has reported it), so I'm keen to figure out what was going wrong and why you had to restart it. Was Mela freezing?
Can you please elaborate in what ways it's problematic? Again, keen to get detailed feedback and figure out the solutions.
Also, I don't want to hijack Emanresu's preset thread. So, feel free to email me, DM or maybe use this other Mela thread instead to continue the discussion: https://forum.audiob.us/discussion/44240/mela-2-synth-fx-by-nikolozi-pty-ltd-released#latest
Hey! Thanks for the tip. I have only been importing single patches as I can't work out how to do multi patch transfers. I did find after transfering 10-15 patches I couldn't get the files app to open when loading a new patch. I had to quit the app, reload and then it worked again.
Apologies if I come across as ungrateful. 365 patches for free is awesome and I really wasn't expecting too much but after reading posts on this thread about how great they sound I though it was strange that the first 10-15 patches I loaded sound like SFX type patches. I will re download and start from the beginning.
Thanks for the patches must have taken ages to produce.
If anyone is experiencing any issues importing all at once, make sure they’re unzipped and then load into Mela 2 standalone as opposed to AUV3. When I tried it in AUM as he showed on the vid, my only option was to grab 1 at a time! Must be a difference in iOS versions or something. But once loaded standalone, the “select”/“select all” options appeared in file browser.
Man, these presets really showcase what this synth is capable of. Gorgeous stuff! Appreciate it brother!!
Everyone will have their own idea regarding patch organization, so I can only offer what I think are well thought out conventions. Example, the Sunrizer app has patches organized by creator:
@Nikolozi and here is another example, the TAL-U-NO-LX app (highlighted in yellow for clarity) has patches meticulously arranged by type:
1) During my patch import process, the app would accept the imported files but it was not triggering any new sounds. All patches sounded the same until the app was restarted. So it appeared to be unable to load the new sounds chosen until the app had a full restart. After restart there was no issue. As some others have suggested, including these patches in the app instead of downloading them (possibly make them free In-App Purchases so they can properly install?) might be a good solution, but only you can determine if that makes sense. Other apps (such as the GeoShred Pro app) have also had issues with patches properly loading, so this may be a more common problem for developers than most of us might think.
2) My comment about the app being priced “too high” compared to the competition is just my impression compared to many other synth apps I’ve recently purchased. My purchase was $14.99. For a roughly similar synth I’d expect to pay $7.99-$9.99. That’s completely subjective of course and something others are free to voice their own opinions about. Pricing can be a tricky matter, but for a customer it comes down to comparative value and functionality.
3) Personal preferences with regard to the final comment: I’d rather have a real keyboard layout to play in the app (or maybe offer a standard keyboard as an option in the settings). It’s too easy to miss hitting the keys due to their short button-like appearance. And to repeat my earlier suggestion, file organization and a drop down menu could greatly benefit users of the app.
Please don’t take these criticisms as a sign I dislike the app. To the contrary, I think it has tremendous potential and I’m looking forward to using it for many years to come.
I just experienced this myself when retesting in AUM. I dismissed the picker, and when I tried it again (still in AUM) it showed me "select"/"select all". I need to check if this bug is in Mela or in iOS. I already reported a bug related to the Files app picker to Apple. Could be another one
Yes, agreed... they sound amazing.
As soon you posted the screenshots I realised what you meant by drop-down menu. I had a similar request on Twitter (
Personally, I'm not a fan of the pop-up menu. The limitation is that it either obscures controls or is dismissed after each time a preset is selected. With horizontal scrolling the controls are still visible and accessible. Also, if a folder contains hundreds of preset, not sure having them vertically listed would require less effort to scroll. The vertical scrolling allows you to navigate to different modules of Mela. So, vertical scrolling of modules don't fight with horizontal scrolling of presets. With the next update, more rows will be visible and there will be an ability for user to create their own folders to manage presets. I'm still experimenting with the preset management features in the next update, let's see if it improves your experience.
Hmm interesting. I'll do some more stress testing to see if I can reproduce it. Which iPad do you use?
Regarding including third-party patches in Mela, please check my reply to Prog1967.
This is an interesting one and I agree it's a highly debated topic. Personally, I think Mela is well priced considering these things:
1. It offers Mela FX as an effect AUv3 in addition to the Mela synth
2. Optimised for iPhone screen and small AUv3 window. The UI doesn't just do a zoom scale, it re-layouts best it can given the window constraints to stay usable and touch friendly. This was a lot of work to achieve. I could have taken an easy path and scale the whole thing. But that's not my approach.
3. I deliver regular updates. Mela 1 received 9 significant updates 1.0 to 1.9 during last year. I plan to do the same with Mela 2. A lot of apps are just released v1 and abandoned. I don't want to do that. That's why I'm focusing on one app.
But just because I find these things valuable doesn't mean others do to. Like you said it is subjective. And those who find the price too expensive or can't afford it, I offer them a free code no questions asked. All they have to do is email me. I mentioned this on my blog post and Mela FAQ:
Blog: https://nikolozi.com/blog/2021/03/22/mela-2-update
FAQ: https://nikolozi.com/mela/faq
I know a lot of people have supported my work by leaving tips. Which I'm grateful for. And I'm also very happy to support other artists. I hope this is win/win.
Regarding the keyboard, this is an interesting one. I chose this style because I think directly copying the piano look to a touch screen is not ideal. Like, why should black keys be smaller size on the screen compared to the white keys? On the actual hardware, of course, it makes sense, because it's all tactile. The black keys stick out and make it easier for fingers to navigate and play. If you take AUM's black keys for example it's narrower than Mela's. So, it should be easier to hit them with on the Mela UI. The spaces between the buttons (keys) also respond to touch. In other words, the touch target is bigger on the buttons than how they visually appear. Now, I understand these keys still may not be wide enough for some users or they prefer the piano look. For those, they can use host's or a third-party AUv3 keyboard. Also, once I add support for MPE, I'll probably end up redesigning some bits. So, this may not be the final look
Thanks you. I'm happy to receive all kinds of feedback. It's in my best interest to keep users happy by improving their experience when using Mela. So, keep them coming
I forgot to mention one more thing regarding scrolling. On iOS, you can do fast scrolling by grabbing the scroll bar. So, if your User folder contains a lot of presets, you can long press the scroll bar for a second (it becomes thicker) and then drag it to scroll quickly to the desired location.
Is there an easy way to delete presets in bulk as well?
I’m currently working on that too
In the meantime, as a workaround, you can do this
1. Export your entire user preset folder. Don’t forget to export Mela FX presets too.
2. Delete both Mela 2 (and Mela 1 if you have that installed too).
3. Install Mela. At this point user folders should be empty.
4. Then in Files app remove presets you want to get rid off. You can easily to multi-select to delete in the Files app.
5. Import the remaining presets in Mela
Thanks so much
Hey all... thought I'd let you know that with the Mela 2.1 update I tried to address most of preset management user requests.
Check out the video for a quick demo:
The full release notes can be found here: https://nikolozi.com/blog/2021/06/05/mela-21-update
Let me know if you have any feedback
This is a great update!!!! I’m going to re import all the user presets I’ve gathered into organized folders right now! Good work man
Massive update out
It’s improving, but it’s just not going to be a recommended app from me due to this style of patch organization. It needs a complete overhaul to improve ease of use. I love being able to support small developers, but I generally avoid using this synth now due to UI difficulties.
No worries. I guess we all have a bit different views of what makes a great UI in music apps.
Having said that, I'm always happy to receive feedback on specific issues / annoyances users find. If you tell me it needs a complete overhaul, obviously I'll disagree, otherwise I wouldn't have released it with that UI
Sorry, Nikolozi. No disrespect intended. The system of organization just isn’t my cup of tea.
To each his own I suppose
Nice presets. Thanks! 😎👍🏼
The window is showing recent files. Tap on the arrow upper right and you will see more. I don’t bother with this menu. It seems kind of pointless because the files shown may or may not apply to the particular app.
Thanks anickt
Very nice. Thanks @Emanresu!
very cool update thanks randomise presets in group nice idea!
Latest Mela 3 update appears to have deleted the hundreds of imported patches I had, plus it appears one cannot import patches now… help, @Nikolozi !
The macOS version of Mela 3 was not affected, ONLY the iOS version of Mela 3.
UPDATE: Although all imported presets disappeared from the iOS app, I fortunately had backups of everything (including my own presets). So I reinstalled following the instructions in the video (above) and they are all restored now. But I wonder why they disappeared in the first place.
Noooo, I just updated but hadn’t opened the app yet. It sounded like some cool new features in the update, new presets, midi monitor module, other stuff.
@Nikolozi any info on this would be much appreciated. Thanks.
Ah, that’s not good. Haven’t changed anything in how presets works in last few versions, wonder what happened. I did a quick test going from 3.2 and 3.3 to 3.4 but I didn’t lose anything.
Before I dig deeper, wanted to confirm a few things:
Let me check mine. I was afraid to open it after that comment. I’ll take a look and get back to you right here soon.