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
In terms of panning I'd suggest maybe Wov as a nice experimental one. For gating there's a pretty nice free app called Gatelab by Audiomodern. With gates for drones it's nice to use them subtly on maybe just one or two layers, and perhaps change the number of steps to something like 15 instead of 16, for example. For distortion and saturation you could maybe try Soundsaw by Igor Vasiliev. Also get an lfo app and learn to use it to modulate other apps. Slow lfos are nice - midiLFOs, mlfo, lfoh! are some good choices. It's a fun and never ending journey, enjoy!
Here's my walkthrough on Fundamental btw. This is version 1, version 2 is similar but better
Then magma, just released by k devices might be another nice one to add to the collection, especially using in combo with some lfos
Ah sweet!
Love the sounds that come out of the Fundamental! Such a helpful walkthrough 🙏
Really appreciate the pointers on all the other apps too. I’m totally mind-blown by all the possibilities!
My app collection is about to double!
Yes - watch YouTube vids before you start buying apps.
You might like to start here:
https://www.youtube.com/@TheSoundTestRoom/search?query=drone
Thanks for steering me toward this channel too! Looks like between Gavinski and Sound Test Room there’s hours of deep dives into these apps.
Seems like these channels will help me save some money, and eventually I’ll have a clue what I’m doing! Though I’m going to lose hours of sleep watching these videos, I can tell it’s gonna be worth it.
Also the free fundamental if it’s still there. It’s a great beginner one
I also recommend the apps Autopad and Droneo. Run one of those through a reverb with some saturation and you’re golden. Also the Chow apps and Neon Silicon apps are all free and all excellent for weird effects.
Not there any more unfortunately / fortunately - guess that was a time-limited bit of trolling.
Having all those free options makes for an easier entry into all of this. I’m pleasantly surprised by the variety of drone makers out there, can’t wait to try out Autopad and Droneo!
I'm liking pulling drones into Koala, and working with them there.
This is one of my favourite threads on the forum right now. So much goodness, and drone-love here!
Mononoke can also do great ambient drones if you activate the hold function under the keys.
If you own AUM and Mozaic, you should definitely download this patch randomizer:
https://patchstorage.com/mononoke-random-patch-creator/
I love Mononoke. This looks like a great patch, thank you!
Another great Mononoke Mozaic script to go with the patch randomizer..
https://patchstorage.com/mononoke-smart-tunings/
Well now that I know that Mozaic exists, i’m very excited to try these patches on Mononoke. Thanks guys!
Patchstorage really shows how great and generous this community is!
For sure! Also try searching for free AUV3 or free music apps. There are LOTS of them out there. Not all of them have connectivity to aum/Audiobus but they’re still great for screen recording and using the samples.
Agreed! I mostly make experimental stuff so I love when discussions like this pop up. iOS is actually really really great for experimental music in general.
Samvada is another great and absolutely free drone app.
Is it ever! I’m already transfixed after the first few minutes!
@HotStrange thanks for the the pointer on screen recording and sampling some of these apps without connectivity.
No problem! Koala makes it really easy as you can literally upload the video itself and it’ll do the work for you.
Wow I have this one and completely forgot about it. Good suggestion.
@blinkingnintendo : if you haven’t already got it, the basic init patch on FAC Alteza is a pretty darn epic reverb for drones:
https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/fac-alteza/id1489369665.
Also: Velvet Machine, Eventide Blackhole, Springs, Toneboosters Reverb, Eos…
But for me, Alteza is the one ring to rule them all… I don’t think there’s a track of mine that hasn’t got Alteza in the mix somewhere.
The. There’s the weirdness that is SpaceFields, a very drone friendly, er, thing…
Meanwhile, PaulXStretch can take any little snippet of audio and turn it into literally hours of ambient drone goodness:
https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/paulxstretch/id1619014008
Best of all - it’s free!
@Svetlovska Thank you for the very helpful recommendations!
That’s high praise for Alteza, I’ll definitely make it the next reverb that I buy!
The only app you mentioned that I already own is Springs. I definitely enjoy the weirdness and unpredictability of it. Or maybe I’m just bad at using it so far, either way it’s fun! Alteza looks like quite a different kind of reverb, it’ll be nice to have both.
I just downloaded PaulXStretch, excited to see what it’s all about! And SpaceFields looks like a fun toy, I’m eager to get to these weirder apps too!
I'll 2nd Alteza as the reverb I reach for most when wanting to do ambient stuff
https://www.youtube.com/@TheGaragebandGuide/search?query=free
Thanks for what looks like another great resource! Hopefully channels like this help me get a handle on the basics, and get beyond that eventually too
Nice review of all drone apps ITT.
Drone Lab itself was new to me until two days ago. It is an excellent app. It seems like a work of art, with a beautiful oscilloscope at the top, three sound modules at the bottom, and a well-curated set of sounds.
I’d kind of like to be able to load my own samples into the sfx slots, but that almost seems like painting on another man’s canvas.
I’m very happy to have it.
It’s been dead for years. There is another resonator drone app called something like cusp, or cnsp, but I can’t find it right now.
https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/cusnp/id1418236738 @Wrlds2ndBstGeoshredr
Bingo. Samvada was a lot easier to dial in. I really miss it.