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.
Tape music
For some reason I’m attracted to tapemusic. The sounds, the atmosphere....Think along the lines of the Philips Natlab period/Radiophonic Workshop. Timeless music and sounds created by tape, oscillator banks and acoustic sounds. Boy, it would be nice if we had an app that could behave like a “tape” studio.
Every sound that goes in gets a decent tape simulation and the quality gradually degrades when it’s transferred from reel to reel or when it’s treated by other machines that could be found in that time. The limitations would need to be simulated too to stimulate creativity and because it adds to the specific sound.
Oscillator banks to create chords/sounds, ability to change the tape speed real-time and re-record it, duplicate it etc. etc. At the end being able to put all the loops on several tape decks and start them all together. Preferably some kind of algorithm that enables us to slow down and speed up tape without digital artefacts (not knowing if that’s even possible).
Comments
There is a lot software which can emulate working with tapes.
Check two loopers -- Enso and Gauss. Both of them very cool. I use them always.
Of course there is a bunch of tape FX simulation, tape delays etc.
There is, of course, some weird synths\oscillators -- check Fundamental or Apesoft Apps. There was strict oscillator type soft -- auGEN X.
But i want to say as someone who works with tape looping and similar practices that main advantage of them is interface and specific sound. It its quite hard (and, to be honest, quite useless ) to replicate it in digital world. Usually i use ipad as a weird sound source then i record it on tape loop than process it via pedals or again ipad. )
If you are interested i made this ambient album mostly by ipad using enso loopers and different sources. Then i recorded it on tape and processed with various fx and field recordings.
https://healingsoundpropagandist.bandcamp.com/album/wherever-it-was-possible
Are there any good books or documentations about the NatLab? I’ve always been very interested but there seem to be slim pickings.
If you want to go old school, you could use tone generators like Fundamental and auGEN X. Couple that with Gauss or Enso and Bob’s your uncle.
Very nice indeed... inspiring.
chowtape is an incredible and free tape AU, lots of ways to emulate loss and noise etc.
Fundamental and iVSC3 into Gauss or Koala sampler into chowtapemodel and Bam!
Thanks guys, need to get Fundamental, the rest I already got. Was hoping there would be one total package to capture the sound limitations. There is a big difference in limiting yourself or having forced limitations. I also got Chow tape but does Caelum’s tape app adds possibilities?
@Philandering_Bastard
Check the links below, Basta Music sells a lot of the old tape music produced (and other rare synth/tape music) I myself got several cd’s and the re-released vinyl as mentioned on the site. There is also a documentary called “Kamer 306” where Dick Raaijmakers and others tell about the history, what they did and why. You could also search for Dick Raaijmakers his alter ego’s: Dick Baltan or Kid Natlab. He was the engineer but also worked on directions from composer Tom Dissevelt. There is also Henk Badings that made some music. Some of the works can even be found on iTunes. The below links is just a selection (there is more) but not in most of the video’s they speak Dutch.
In another thread I mentioned the existence of the Dutch Natlab since it’s not really well known but even seem to pre-date the Radiophonic Workshop.
@ik2000 thank you a lot!
@Bietfriek well, to get this limitations you need to go hardware to working with tapes and other things. check hainbach for inspiration.
but i think you can freely limit yourself in ios sound design too. for example right now i'm using only idensity as main sound device (and couple of pedals). it's up to you.
to work with such sounds as Dick Raaijmakers or BBC Radiophonic Workshop you just need strange synth or oscillator + loopers, that's all
@Bietfriek Caelum's app is great too! different than Chow tape. i use both quite frequently.
Also, i highly recommend just grabbing an old tape machine! The tascam one's with pitch/speed knob are my favorite. They can be somewhat pricy, but if you keep an eye out you can get them cheap. I waited for months, and then snagged a mint condition Tascam Portastudio 414 for 120$.
Korg also has a funky one with built in Digital FX called CR-4. No speed control, but still a lot of fun.
If you own a soldering iron ,its worth going to your local swap meet and grabbing a handful of old walkmen etc, and modifying them to have overdrive, tape / pitch control etc... I find them for a couple of bucks usually. Half of them i end up blowing up or are not able to be modded, but they are cheap so it doesnt really matter.
also, should be noted, making your own tape loops is very simple, just take a little patience. No need to buy them online for 10$ each. i make them with shitty old tapes i find on the street corner or from estate sales etc.
This little gem of a tutorial got put on my YouTube homepage last night, worth a watch if you’re into tape stuff, nicely put together in a fun way too...
👍
I like this idea. Tape music groovebox. Unlimited overdubs.
Reminds me of Auxy, where there’s a whole bunch of fancy multi band compression going on under the hood that the user has no access to but it makes everything come out sounding mastered. Be nice to have a deal with all sorts of tape saturation and warmth under the hood going on, so everything comes out nice and warm and I don’t have to worry, just plug the music in.
@Bietfriek thanks for the interesting videos. Didn’t know that Kid Baltan was Dik NatLab in reverse 🤣
You have to be careful with tape. It can have a mind of it’s own.
Lol
Thanks for this!. Amazing stuff. Funny as hell too.