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
It is certainly a challenge to make money in the apps business!
All we've ever done is keep plugging away, so I guess after 30 years of work Wotja is now getting pretty powerful, and of course the work to make it easy to use is a never-ending challenge
Best wishes,
Pete
Yes, the key is that they do their best to make each year's new version compelling enough to upgrade even though you don't have to. I can't think of another app (music or otherwise, mobile or desktop) that does that, or that adds major features at the rate that Wotja does. Maybe DEVONthink on desktop comes closest – another rabbit-hole app that delivers immediate wow out of the box but is bottomless once you start exploring. But Wotja is nimbler and moves faster still. That's why the documentation is permanently scrambling to keep up…
This is fascinating – I don't think I've ever seen this. How, indeed, does it work? Specifically, where is the sound coming from without any sounds or FX assigned to any of the voices?
(Incidentally, for anyone who's got that file playing, click on Mix FX => Presets => Big reverb haze pure (R2XL) for an indication of what the May update has brought to the party.)
of as the first piece we constructed way back in the days of Koan (which predates Wotja by many years!) - how does it work?
The synth units actually, by default, will configure to a MIDI Wavetable.
The Patch parameters in the Wotja system will tell them to use the appropriate patch!
We've worked hard over the years to keep our oldest content "working as expected" - the Mix file data above came directly from importing an old Noatikl file (i.e. IME Template) - which itself came from an old Koan file. And it still works as expected!
Pete
Woah. So if there's no sound-producing object in the synth network, it just addresses the General MIDI wavetable with the General MIDI patch number set for that generator?
I see if I set it in the Mix it defaults to the current name for that patch ("090-Pad 2 (warm)"), and I can also set it in the wavetable object that's created by default when you open the synth view. You don't half think of everything.
I've had a 30+ year run-up
Mythous. Bloody hell!
No good will come of it. The word is half Greek and half Latin.
So is television, and that’s done pretty well.
The piece is almost as old as both
And, actually, it was the first piece I created in Noatikl.
Still sounds great with some fx on it. You can do so much with just a single cell, and it's a really nice introduction to how Generators work with Rules.
OK folks, version 21.8.0 is arriving soon. New document screen layout and various improvements -> new release ... hopefully this is easier for new users to get started with!
I appreciate that. Thank you for being active and attentive here in the forums.
I've created a new micro-tutorial on the subject of Listener generators. I hope you might find it of use!
8a. Getting started
generator that can "listen" for incoming MIDI events. By default, this is attached to MIDI Channel 1
Note: Listener generators do not generate Notes directly - you need to Follow them, or use the Chording parameter.
8b. Using Chording
8c. Attach a Follower
now, when your Listener detects incoming MIDI note on/off events (on MIDI channel 1!),
the Follower generator will respond, by playing notes in direct response.
the notes selected for the Follower are chosen to harmonize with the Followed note
This is great, thank you. Unfortunately, it still doesn't work for me--I tried it twice and got nothing...
Almost certainly a MIDI routing issue!
Couple of questions:
1) what platform are you using (iOS, macOS, ...)
2) what version are you using (Standalone, AUv3)
What you answer next, will inform my next response
Best wishes, Pete
Thanks for all this! It's the note generation aspect of Wotja which has proved the hardest mountain to climb, and the most necessary, if I'm to ever to attan mastery!
I'm on iOS and I tried it both standalone and as AUv3. For the latter I couldn't figure out how to do the MIDI routing at all so I didn't spend much time on it. For the standalone, I selected Wotja Omni for MIDI input but I didn't see an option to select the MIDI sender so I had no idea if MIDI was arriving in Wotja.
OK, thanks for explaining. Sounds like you were setting-up Wotja with a MIDI Feedback loop.
Wotja Omni is the combined MIDI output from Wotja, for all MIDI channels.
So: assuming you'd got your Wotja Mix configured with (say) a Listener on MIDI channel 1, and a Follower (of that Listener) on MIDI channel 2 - you won't hear any output until the Listener can respond to MIDI Note On/Off events coming-in on MIDI channel 1. But that can't ever happen, as your input ... is the output from Wotja (i.e. Wotja Omni) ... and Wotja isn't generating any output until it gets a MIDI input!
Really, you want to use (say) a MIDI Keyboard app for iOS, and congfigure that to write to a port (and channel...) that Wotja listens to. It should all then "just work".
Hoping this helps, anyhow!
Best wishes,
Pete
Yeah, I hear you
I realised from our discussions here that we need some really simple, "just a few steps" written tutorials to complement the click-based tutorials that feature more graphics (which are much harder to create and maintain, but which have their own advantages).
If you were to follow the above "Listener" tutorial, for example, you'd learn about Chording - and that is something that many Wotja users might not have even realised existed.
So, the more micro-tutorials we can create, which take you through trying-out different features in just a few steps, I think might be really useful. And they're certainly quite easy to create.
Of course, it might be difficult to users to know exactly what to ask about - like, you couldn't ask for a tutorial showing how to use Chording, if you didn't even know it existed!
Which leads me to think, that it is the "experts" (like me, I guess!) to think "aha - that is really cool, and would be useful to explain, people might not know about that".
There are so many features in Wotja (after 30+ years of development!), I think I'm probably guilty of taking those features for granted.
So: if there are any Wotja experts out there
who can think of cool bits that are worth exploring in some simple tutorials, or even their favourite bits that they'd love others to know more about, then do please let me know, and I'll do my best to try to cover them.
Best wishes,
Pete
Happy to help, John! We're working hard to try to make it easier to "get to grips" with Wotja - and all feedback helps in that!
I certainly hope you find the tutorials are useful - if there are any areas you think you'd like more info on, do please let us know.
Best wishes, Pete
Ah, OK, thanks for the tip. So, I verified my controller is sending MIDI on Channel 1 by setting up a MIDI monitor. I then enabled Channel 1 in Wotja and set up the listener as described above. Nothing. I then set up the MIDI monitor to see the MIDI that Wotja is generating--I can see the transport messages, the CCs, etc but no notes.
Edit: I loaded a preset template and hit play and the notes are showing up in my MIDI monitor so it's all routed correctly. Just not getting the listener/follower to work at all.
I think I got the listener/follower working with a preset I pulled out of the template list. What is a good template to use that will make it obvious when the sequence is following the listener?
Thanks I'll take a look!
I tend to just stick to a simple Piano sound, as that is quite "clean".
Copy the following line of text to your clipboard:
Next, tap the Synth button to show "MIDI 1 Synth", and select the Action button (top right), select "Import from Clipboard".
That'll set your sound to a simple Piano!
Amongst other things, that shows how easy it is to share Synth (and FX...) network designs
Best wishes,
Pete
A couple of things I like about the Chording parameters
Pete
And in combination with a Follow generator you can make some very nice piano compositions, with the chorded generator taking the right hand part and the follower playing as the left hand.