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.
Song Of The Month Club - June 2021
What is the Song of the Month Club?
It's a place where musicians come to give and receive feedback on their work. Anyone is welcome, whatever their level of ability.
The spirit of the club is to contribute: if you submit a song for others to comment on, you should also have the courtesy to listen to everyone else's contributions and give as much feedback as possible. Posting a track and not listening and commenting on others is not cool.
The purpose of feedback is to be honest. Essentially you should give your truthful impressions of the song, whether good or bad. Negative feedback, if done in the right spirit and with courtesy, can be the most useful and can help the artist to grow and improve and correct their mistakes.
All submissions are welcome, don't hesitate if you want to contribute. We like all kinds of music and we are particularly fond of vocals (but of course we still love a great instrumental). If you are thinking of experimenting with vocals this is a good place to get started.
We ask that you only post one song per month in this thread - if you're lucky enough to be able to produce more, then please just submit your strongest material
And finally, iOS is not a requirement for posting here. If you've recorded your song using nothing but a ukulele and a Fostex 4 track, that's fine
Comments
My contribution - lyrics in the spoiler:
I see the fear
That’s in your eyes
As you say you’re scared to die
You hold my hand
I look at you
Because that’s what you need me to do
And while I’m not much help to you
It’s hard for me to face it too
I am completely lost for words
There’s nothing I can do
Let go of your fear
Just watch the darkness near
As you turn to the night
And fade out of the light
Let go of your fear
As you disappear
And you turn from the light
And fade into the night
The look you gave
So cold and grey
Will haunt me to my dying day
And more than fear
Was in your eyes
As I pretended otherwise
But I don’t know what else to do
So I'll just have to struggle through
There’s nothing I can do or say
That can make it all ok
Let go of your fear
Just watch the darkness near
As you turn to the night
And fade out of the light
Let go of your fear
As you disappear
And you turn from the light
And fade into the night
This is an older one from the late 1990s. I improvised the piece using a customized piano preset on a Yamaha EX5 synthesizer. The EX5 was connected to a Lexicon PCM 80 for the reverb effect.
My daughter Helen was quite young at the time, and the song was meant to reflect the hesitant quality of a young girl’s movements.
It’s titled Helen’s Dance.
@richardyot
“Let go of your fear” - I think so far this is the best one I have heard of all your great compositions. The arrangement is superb, and your harmonies very pleasing. I enjoyed the solo too. Is the guitar real? Really nicely recorded. ☺️
@DavidEnglish
“Helen’s Dance” - This is just gorgeous! The start reflects the unsure steps of the dance and as the piece progresses more confidence is gained. Without the context this feels bright, warm and joyful. A celebration. Wonderful! Thank you for sharing. Saved for further listening. ☺️
My contribution for the month. Made in Republic of Gadget in some its many cities.😁
I hope you like it.
@DavidEnglish, that is simply beautiful.
Dav
Beautiful piece, the way the arp and bass move together is very nicely done, and the chord progression works very well. The drop at the halfway mark gives the arrangement some structure before it builds up again for the finale.
The melody that comes in at the end and the piano outro top it all off very nicely. Good stuff.
Sorry we missed last month but we are back with a bang this month. Mostly done on the iPad in Cubasis then finished off in Logic.
Just started a song called The Woke Brigade ,kind of a look at the enlightenment and the accomplishments thereafter but got bogged down because of the lack of them,too bad!
Loved this, has great progression and structure. I like how the two elements (bass and arpeggio) dance around each other throughout with some nice layers for added interest. Reminded me of Anna Meredith, especially when the drop occurs around 2.25.
Quite touching. The melody and arrangement, for me, makes me feel like it’s a celebration of a life lived as much as the sadness of inevitability. Great work, great harmonies and that solo, the sound and delay, adds a lovely texture.
My contribution
https://soundcloud.com/kitusai/backmask
Was debating whether to add this because it is another remix of a Commodore 64 tune (this time by Johannes Bjerregaard). Your mileage might vary due to the prominent SID style lead, unusual portamento and chip tune arpeggios.
But.. I felt my production skills are getting better, I can’t believe this is all real-time, no freezing in cubasis and the last 2 1/2 minutes is me going off script doing my own thing, trying to go as big as possible, definitely JMJ inspired.
I’m constantly surprised how my iPad (air 4) is able to run all this stuff, 3 Sunrizers, lots of Zeeon, some gadget synths, DigiStix, Streetlytron, module pro, monologue and some others.
It's a very lyrical piece and a good performance. The motif that is interwoven into the improvisation helps to anchor the piece and gives it coherence, it's a nice blend between improvisation and composition, and it flows really beautifully.
The combination of synths and guitar gives this an epic space-opera feel. The synth arp is very catchy and provides a nice hook.
The hi-hats are mixed a bit too loud for my taste, if I was sitting in the producer's chair I would definitely turn them down a notch. Also there is a bit of a frequency clash between the hi-hats, the synths, and the guitar in parts - they mush together a bit and lose some clarity and separation.
Otherwise production and performances are very tight, and the arrangement is very well executed as usual.
The arp and pulsing bassline give this a really good groove and really help to propel the track forward, it's got a good energy and the simple but pleasing progression works really well.
I like the breakdown at the end as well, but I do think the track could be a bit shorter, maybe get to that point a bit sooner. The lead parts in that section are really good though, and I love the guitar-like phrasing of the synth leads.
The production overall is great, although maybe a fraction shy in the bottom-end, but that might simply be down to the chiptune sounds.
Very avant-guarde, I like the contrast of the melancholy trumpet with the desolate bleeps of the lost robot and the jazz drummer who is warming up and waiting for the session to start.
My contribution. I have hired a singer on Fiverr for this. Nice experience, at least for me
Nice! The vocals are lovely and the melody is good. Love the guitar breaks, and the overall vibe works really well.
@Kitusai
“Backmask” - Experimental! Or is it? I wouldn’t know. This was really fun to listen. I like the hard panned, spaced noises and the drummer doing his own thing.
@timforsyth
And thank you for listening to my submission and your comments. I appreciate it much.
“MACH Extended” - I throughly enjoyed the whole 7 minutes of this extended piece. The choice of instruments/voices are great for me as well and the structure and variation was keeping me very engaged. I liked your previous submission so much it inspired me - something came out of it as well!
Solid stuff!
Wow. This is impressive. Such a good sense of flow, when to change and when to stall. The “drop” at 1:45 is perfect. There’s a lot going on, interwoven stuff, different melodies and accents, but they all fit nicely without collision.
Makes me want to shoot a movie to go with it.
So are the arps from Gadget?. I’ve never used Gadget.
Seriously pro. Sometimes stuff that flows seems simple, quite the opposite. Congrats.
Shiiiiit this has some feel!.
There’s loads of people doing “atmospheric” music. I don’t know if you’d call this atmospheric, but in a way it’s what atmospheric should be…
This is not “being lazy” and just droning along, there’s a lot of though put into this. It takes you somewhere and that place is what you defined with the instrumentation and odd but pleasing scales. @richardyot ’s description, with the jazz drummer warming up, is spot on. It’s fresh and casual, like a snapshot of a moment. And the production only emphasizes it, very good sense of space.
@richardyot
Thank you for your comment and I’m very glad you enjoyed the piece.
@tahiche
Thank you for your kind words. The arps are not from gadget. I laid them out on the piano-roll after playing on the midi keyboard to find a sequence that I liked. I have used velocity levels to accentuate where needed to give it rhythm etc.
Here’s my contribution to this great thread, loving what I hear.
Nice vocalist. Care to credit the singer? Also, what kind of direction did you provide?
Great song with some nice production touches. I loved the intro, the panned acoustic guitars and the synth breaks after each chorus. My only criticism is maybe it’s a little one paced. You maybe need to drop the drums or pair back some of the instrumentation in parts to break it up a bit.
Beautiful piece with some excellent playing.
Pretty piece nicely produced. I loved the packed synth at the start and the piano at the end.
A challenging listen with some interesting sounds and rhythms.
This was interesting one for me because I nearly turned it off after 30 seconds. I’m not a fan of chip tune. However when the analog lead synth came in I kept listening. I loved the part from the drop on with the combination of the pads and lead.