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
This looks great!
Thanks for sharing.
Wow, lots of info here over the night...thanks guys!
Bram Bos’ Scatterbrain might also yield interesting results. 👍
What have you been happy with that you haven't had to put time, effort and patience into learning? I feel like I could say that I suck at making music, every aspect of it but I fully expect that to change based on the amount of time and practice I put in.
I use various apps, as well as hardware, but one I haven’t seen mentioned so far is Octachron.
It’s quite straightforward to add variable aspects such as velocity and has probability as well. Just a midi sequencer, you pair it with your samples, but it helps get away from rigid sounding beats.
LayR also has an interesting sequencer that can be used for drums - that might work quite well for more ambient work.
Octachron is one that's forever on my wishlist and I never buy. Having so many sequencers and drum machines, I always end up not buying. But maybe the best motive is exactly to try and use a common interface for all these drum machines
Anybody know how Ochtacron compares to Art Kerns midiDRUMs?
Interested in this too. Like @senhorlampada I’ve been “about to get” Octachron forever.
Euclidean drums via midi. Almost all parameters of each euclidean. A knob spare for each bus. Might see what turnado can produce so then Id have a turnado loaded for each multi out and a selection of effects for the sounds ( but to an ec4 ) Then I will buy a launchpad mini ( likely over x ) for transposing. In most cases its like loading a new sample. If I begin to make tracks. Id save drums in drambo, then maybe launch saves via midi. Sometimes whilst the drums are under a master effects chain of drambo rescan, delay, filters etc. Iv also realised I can use Drambo instead of loopbud. You have to have a controller just only for the drambo sequencer of a bass synth. You can then keep the edit green bar always there on sequencer. You can then clear sequence via midi. This way you can use a bass synth anywhere in a drum pattern, where as loopbud would record by bars. Ideal if you manipulate drums. Sometimes with euclidean though. The sounds always clash and dosent sound good. Maybe it could add a choke system. For scratch practice ( should I bother ) my volca drum is near my headache sound omni. Maybe the volca does have a scratch track kind of sound ( maybe not ) Will see what the bram and fac apps offer. Brams maybe different to sb drum. Fac might have a good quality to sample. Really need to see what a volca modular is like sequenced, when most is euclidean ( volca modular euclidean via ipad headphone out would be cool but dont think it can ) Buying an ipad mini mainly for shockwave and ripplemaker but thought why not just use volca modular ( even with shockwave and ripplemaker ) Without the extras. Samples, mic, radiounit. Its generally euclidean drums and a few euclidean synths like semi modulars. A bass synth free of euclidean and a pad or other synth free of euclidean ( both with own keyboards ) but with mononoke on its own screen. Seems like then the screens are just instruments. Quick music but you still would practice but it has the abilty to generally just make tracks as you go. Just need euclidean drums to not clash as much. Sometimes its worse. Sometimes tweaking dosent produce a clash.
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Kick one snare two kick three snare four, turn on quantize, finger drum the shit out of some hats, quantize will make it usually sound fine, go nuts on some percussion, copy and paste to a few patterns and take stuff out in each pattern for some variations
Id buy the x instead of mini. Without knowing best apps for finger drums. Maybe fac drums will be good. Just cant set up an x for religeous finger drumming without twisting my back. So I guess launchapad mini or nanokeystudio will have to be ok. What do you reck? Buy an x in case I sell other controllers or just buy a mini and sell that if I need better pads? Tbh I think I will just buy the mini. The x will be too big, even as a controller.
This is setup by the way. Only yeterday did i move the faderfox but even other way. A launchpad is next to faderfox pc12. No way an x is gonna be ideal. If only I decided to sell other controllers. Which I dont think I will. Think these controllers but with a mini have more range.
@sigma79 I use the X myself and like it a lot, if you don’t need velocity sensitivity then the mini would probably be fine. I almost got it but saw the x right next to it and couldn’t resist the size upgrade. I’ve actually been tempted to sell my other controllers myself not going to lie haha, the launchpad just covers so much ground with the custom layouts. If I had two of them, I really wouldn’t actually need my keystep or nanokontrol any more but I can’t quite decide yet cos the keystep is really handy still
I’m a big fan of octachron, don’t have midi dreams yet, but midi dreams is 2 separate AU’s 1 for drums, and one for notes. You can auto populate scales in octachron though. I think there are a lot more similarities then differences between the two.
Thanks. Will probably just buy the mini and forsake velocity drums. Do need the custom layouts but this system will pretty much have a controller per synth. Plus the x will be harder to stabalize even as a controller ( near the wall ) Will be a while before completing setup. Should just practice scratching and mononoke, until then really.
My advice, take a short but complex drum break, such as the amen break, and try to rebuild it in a step sequencer or piano roll.
Take your time, just try to replicate it and make it sound as close as humanly possible. Keep moving steps around till it lines up. Quantized to start.
Once it sounds the same save it, copy it and divide it into 4 or 8 segments, and rearrange those segments randomly, however you want, until you find something that sounds cool. Keep the same quantization, keep the same general beat and tempo, just rearrange and shuffle the 1/4 or 1/8 chunks.
This is easiest to do in a piano roll by drag selecting on the grid.
Then boom you have several drum loops. Keep doing this till you find something that you like.
One you run out of variety, change the drum sounds. Then the time signature. Then the tempo. But use the original loop or break as your foundation and mutate it until it's unrecognizable. Remove a note here and there. Add a new note in an unusual spot, and explore from that foundation.
Doesn't have to be an amen break, but when I tried to rebuild that specific drum loop, I learned soooooo much about sequencing, because it's a tricky loop to recreate with a drum machine, but a staple loop of many genres that translates incredibly well when chopped and sliced.
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I learned a really nice trick recently which is to drop a reverb on your hihats and then adjust the predelay until it suddenly sounds much more complex than it actually is. I find having just a 4/4 kick going along with it so you can hear when you’ve got the timing right is really helpful, and having the timing just milliseconds off adds a human element to them.
Change a few notes on the sequencer, and a couple different sounds, and who would ever contest it?
FWIW, one might want to change the sounds anyway. Personally, out of the million and one presets that come with Drum Computer, I've still YET to find any usable sounds (you know, sounds that actually sound like drums lol!) Unless you want a kick drum that sounds like a cat coughing up a fur ball, an elephant fart for a snare, you get the idea.
This!
Surprised that DrumPerfect Pro has not been mentioned so far.
If you really intend to learn drum track programming ( basically composing for drums/percussions ) DPP offers a flexibility that you won't find anywhere else on iOS.
For ambient music you may need to use some original samples, make your own kits: DPP support user's samples. Also you will appreciate the fact that it sounds so realistic ( unlike repetitives drum machines )
If you wish to use it as Auv3, no problem. Just do you editing in the IAA app first.
If you want to explore a huge library of patterns, fills, songs, you'll find tons of it in any styles, genres, instrumentation, etc..
If you wish to venture out of the ubiquitus 4/4 time signature, you are covered, with everything from 1 beat to 32 beats, with any changes inside the song.
And finally if you wish to import/export any midi file DPP will extract drums parts and convert them to song and patterns.
As an illustration, a short demo merging ambient feel with energetic drumming, all iPad produced featuring DPP on drums/percussions.
Good luck
Just checked out this sequencer in Drambo for the first time (I have never quite clicked with Drambo so I held at first) but man I’m glad decided to check it out. Haven’t had that much fun with several drum apps going at once in a long time. Very well done, appreciate it!
Thanks, yes, Electribe Wave is a superb drum machine, even ignoring the synth side of it.
Similarly and I forgot to mention it, Pure Acid is also a superb drum machine, even ignoring the synth side of it.
This is my fav drambo thing ^^
You’re right the drum machine for pure acid is legit too. Funny, because they also have synths, I’ve never really considered using them just for drums but works great!
Get some free YouTube basic drum tutorials, or for super cheap there’s Udemy for basic courses. You don’t need drums, just tap with your fingers, figuring out what the hi hat does, what the snare and bass drums do. It’s 2021 , you can find out how to tar a roof on YouTube .. You can learn beats , too.
Another handy tip, keep your kicks on their own track if you can. As you build up your song you can often end up with your kicks getting lost in the noise, keep them on their own track and it’s easier to see what frequencies you might want to filter out elsewhere, sidechain to the bassline etc. Plus you want your kicks as mono as possible.
thanks for mentioning this one. i didn’t even think of using this as just a drum machine. very cool
It’s really a shame that humans ever put the words “drum “ and “programming” together. And yes, i do it so guilty as charged. But i like it less and less over time. We were made to bang on things.
Woe, to the fat uncoordinated engineer who [aints the most aggressive drums in less time it takes to perform.