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.
No Simple AU Automation Recording App for AUM? (Soon to be Solved)
I would love to have an Au app with midi learn, that lets you record Your own custom automation, and then loop it or have a 1 shot. I usually work in AUM, and I know there are apps that can do this to some extent but I feel like there should be a lightweight app that lets you record CC changes exactly how you want them, and then loop them over a set amount of bars. I know you can somewhat set this up with LFOs but it’s not quite what I want. For example I might want to have it off for awhile then open a filter at the chorus, wiggle/move it to the beat for say 8 bars, then have the recorded automation loop back around again. Was this one of the new additions in the recent Atom 2 update? @tk32
There’s Ribn & CC Pal but both are IAA. Does anyone know of an app where It’s main or only function is to let you record your own unique automation and then loop it, like Ribn or cc pal, but with AUv3. Hopefully very lightweight. Preferably with midi learn so I can do it with a knob on my controller. I’ve been looking and thinking about this for awhile, finally decided to throw it out there. Hopefully something comes back.
@wim Can Mozaic be used to record automation, maybe with the x/y pad?
Thanks.
Comments
Atom2 will capture all CC automation into a loopable pattern, exactly as you describe.
The only downside is that the automation is not visible or manually editable, and can only be changed by clearing the automation from the pattern and re-recording it.
However, it is possible to overdub different CC automations to the same pattern in successive takes.
@Poppadocrock Atom can record and playback but not edit cc’s. I’m pretty sure Helium can do this but I don’t have that one. The key with any of these is that you’ll need to use an external (physical or app) controller to generate the cc’s because most apps don’t emit midi cc when you giggle their on-screen controls.
The Matrix Mode of Imaginando LK can do this. It’s a full-blown MIDI clip launcher, but can be loaded into AUM, and will allow you to record, edit, and playback any CC very easily. You may have to have at least one MIDI note in a clip, but I’m not sure as I haven’t tested that.
Thanks I thought so, but wasn’t sure how it worked. I have to dig deeper into atom 2, has the updated manual been released yet?
Yes indeed. Bang up to date.
Thanks @xor great to know about that last part. I just got helium for $3 since it was recently included in a new bundle. So I’ll probably try both and see, I’m been an atom fan since the very beginning, but also interested in a slightly different approach for $3. Thanks.
Cheers @soundshaper thats great to know, LK is a beast, I haven’t unlocked matrix but I’ve been Interested since the Au update.
Sweet. Thanks. I was waiting for that but didn’t want to bug them about it. Cheers!
Technically yes, but it's really, really not a good fit for that kind of work. Atom 2 or LK, and probably Helium are way better options.
You can record synced automation reasonably well in Drambo too. One method is to route something like an XY pad, knob, fader, etc, to a transport synced Flexi sampler, record the CV data, and convert it to midi CC.
Here's a little demo of recording pattern synced XY Pad automation, and outputting it as CC to DRC.
Editing CC in Helium is doable BUT very fiddly as the bars are so tiny. I asked if they could be made bigger but it doesn’t seem so :-(.
I think there is a gap in the market for an app that can record them and EASILY be able to edit them but not found it yet
There’s nothing I know of that fits the bill.
I use stepbud for parameter lock style modulation but it’s not good for smooth ramps. As the name says it’s about steps. But it’s good for sending Cc steps and for looping them. I use it exclusively for this kind of thing; I never use it for actually sequencing notes.
There is the the 4pockets midimixer app which is specifically designed to record CC in AUM.
https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/midimixer-for-aum-auv3-plugin/id1542209150
I don’t use it myself so can’t vouch for its suitability for the required task. But from what I’ve seen it looks like an attempt to add desktop DAW style automation to AUM.
It didn’t appeal to me as it seems a bit of a faff to set up and basically I think you need to open a template AUM setup before you start the rest of your project. But it could plug a gap. My guess is that it’s not quite what you need but it’s the closest thing I know about that adds CC automation editing to AUM.
I’d buy a less ambitious cut down version that just let me draw/record automation curves in a single simple instance (the way atom v1 works for notes) and didn’t try and automate the entire mix. I haven’t investigated whether it would let you do that though to be honest.
Might be worth asking the dev? Seems like he’d be up for making a new app. He seems to be super human in his ability to churn out iOS apps! :-) cutting out the lane editing from midi mixer
Although I think I’ll personally just wait for Atom 2 to add cc editing.
A new app that did this one thing very well would sell bundles IMHO.
If you max zoom and also drag the top of the automation window upwards then it helps with the accuracy.
Across all the DAWs and apps I own, I can’t think of one that provided a satisfying way of creating and editing individual control values, i.e. “I want to quickly add a CC at this (optionally snapped to grid) location with this value”. I wonder why this is considering the great effort it must be to create a control editor in the first place. Could it be that traditionally you were not expected to care about editing individual control points? Is sending specific control values as a trigger a modern thing?
Lk from Imaginando can record and edit CC. And it has midi clip launching too.
Even with Helium max zoomed trying to set a cc to value 1 or 2 etc is still very difficult as the SLIGHTEST movement of the finger as you lift it off moves the slider. It’s doable BUT very tricky
The other thing is being able to see what values control points are set to without having to select them, which is especially important if they are being used to control things. This clearly does not scale when you are using automation curves with hundreds of points but maybe after a certain zoom level the values of the data points should become apparent.
With max zoom, ruler turned on and then the ruler dragged upwards (undocumented feature), the accuracy is a lot better for me. Still not perfect and I still do get those situations where the value changes at the last millisecond but nowhere near as much.
The problem, as mentioned above, is then not being able to see what the value is set to. This is important if you are using the value to pattern switch as there is no way of discerning 1 from 2 just by looking at the length of the bar. If you touch the data point to preview the value then often it will change accidentally.
Unfortunately the iOS music market is no so predictable. I expect it would sell reasonably well in this ABF community, but that’s not nearly enough to make it worth the effort
As I see it AUv3 automation should be done at the 'host level' as no AUv3 plug-in can have direct access to another AUv3 plug-in and it would become a total mess having to midi-map everything prior to recording...
A XY-Pad instance of brambos rozeta suite into atom2 Korg KaossPad style (and in atom2 just a tap of Undo) for an easy start.
+1. Problem solved.
Which IAP is the CC one?
LK is certainly one of the better ones. Easy to accurately add data points which snap to grid. Is there a way of non-destructively selecting nodes without accidentally changing the value or adding extra nodes? Up until today I would have said that no automation undo option was the other main downside but (coincidentally!) today’s LK update fixes that.
I reckon LK and Atom2 are the horses to back
The Matrix
I’ve had more luck getting what I want with Helium by setting the range in AUM after drawing something in Helium. StepPolyArp has a pretty good one as well with drawing the automation. Custom Drambo layout is what I usually end up doing though
Thanks buddy.
Agreed. That what I was really hoping to uncover. But some others will do the trick in the meantime.
Good point. I know very little about the coding side of things, I just feel like there should be something super minimal, like CC pal or Ribn, just AUv3, out there to use.