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.
suggestions for making music
with different syth apps that I have, drum machines, blocs wave, electribe wave , beatmaker,patterning, ect....how is the best way to get a song started. I have all this stuff but i just do not know how to get started, I have tried but everything sounds so blah so clearly what im doing is all wrong.....should i stick with electrive wave? bm3? could you guys just please give me some suggestions just to get me going? i'm just at a loss
Comments
There is no "best way", you can start with a chord progression, a rhythm, even a sound or a lyric.
When you say it sounds "blah" it may be just that you lack experience, if you watch for example Ian Kirkpatrick producing you will see that he makes 100 "blah" beats and one real banger.
Just keep trying!
For me, I love GR-16 because I have it all right there, and although you won't get a full professional mix on a groovebox, I would say that you can get 80% there with it.
Here is a video of how I usually do it:
Here’s a suggestion.
Go through the sounds that you have
that you like and favourite them.
Go through the sounds that you have
that you don’t like and delete them.
Whilst doing this if for instance you
have a drum sound that you like?
Create a loop.
It may not be a drum sound
it could be a chord.
Continue going through the sounds
and add something that fits the loop
that you’ve started.
Don’t stop.
Keep on going.
I define an instrumental as a track
A song has vocals and lyrics.
It could be a mixture of both but for the sake of simplicity choose one or the other for now.
Once you have a section that you like?
Extend it.
Keep on going.
Go through the sounds that
you like and see if they fit.
If they don’t?
Keep on going.
Aim to have about four minutes of sound.
Keep on going.
If it sounds like a brick wall?
Take something out.
Create space.
Keep on going.
If it sounds too sparse?
Add something.
Keep on going?
As you can tell.
Keep on going.
If you don’t like the piece?
Save it for future reference.
Start another piece.
Keep on going?
There are more ways of doing
this but the main point is...
Keep on going.
If it sounds blah?
Shape it until it doesn’t sound blah.
and...
Repeat until you’re happy with the results.
My number one suggestion always is to learn to play a physical instrument. Whether that’s piano, guitar, harmonica, recorder, trumpet - it doesn’t matter - being able to just play and improvise seems way more productive to me than working with apps.
It’s pretty easy to take ideas from your main instrument to the iPad once you have something.
Learn to play a keyboard. It is the easiest and most graphical.
As @Gravitas said... if it sounds blah... shape it until it doesn’t. I can’t count how many blah tracks I started out with that I made better. Accept that what you start out will be mediocre. Going at it will lead you to learn how to transform it,
This completely. It comes from the coordination between the hands (and/or mouth, whatever), the ears, and the creativity, strengthened all the time as you master the physical instrument more. Then the apps can help you produce the actual sound you hear in your mind. Too often we rely on the apps to 'compose' for us, although I'm probably one of the biggest proponents of randomization as a creative stimulation. 👍
My question is...what type of genre are you trying to produce? Or are you trying for something more experimental/outside of the box?
EDIT: What I mean is, if I'm writing in a melodic genre, I usually just use a piano track to figure out chords and melody before I create a full arrangement. If it's heavily beat-based, I usually create a loop, repeat it, and subtract here and there from that.
Can you explain to us what you're doing exactly?
For me 'blah' implies a lack of emotional connection. After noodling with music for about five years (using mainly trackers), one day I tried it after a few (too many) drinks and it took it to a whole new place for me. It didn't enhance my musical skill level at all but it did certainly show me a way of connecting emotionally with making music that I had not even considered before. From then on, even as a software guy (and without drinking
), it was all about self expression. So uhh... hmmm I hate to recommend drinking of course but maybe some sort of contemplation on the emotional side is worth considering.
A damn good argument for drinking here - drink for art's sake!
Heck yes to this, it’s the easiest way to get the idea in my head out into reality and jamming out helps me find something if my head is empty
Steal.
No, seriously. You don't need to start from scratch. The old masters used to liberate an entire tune off a colleague, called it cantus firmus and wrote a huge polyphonic mass around it. Today the preferred term is sampling. Or, in more severe cases, copyright violation.
Whatever you call it though, just take that vocal bit you couldn't help humming this morning, or that drum part you like so much, type it in your favourite synth, and see where you can take it from there. (That process is already described above.) Chances are you won't be publishing the result, so it's all fine anyway. Enjoy!
Different for everyone but
Practice
Practice
Practice
And then you'll begin to find your feet and a way that works and clicks
At first I used to listen to loads of music and think I want to make something like that and then try and recreate parts. Now it's the opposite, I go in with zero plan and play around until I have something I like then try and take it in Different directions. This could be a sound, riff or drum pattern I've made
Please upload a sample on SoundCloud or something.
I’d say that it depends on what you’re trying to do. I spent literally 35 years trying, and failing a) to learn to play an instrument, any instrument, and b) to make a well formed choon - verse, chorus, all that. All of it, everything I made, with an ever changing rosta of gear, was crap.
It was only when, in Dirty Harry’s immortal words, I recognised that “…a (person)’s got to know their limitations”, and I gave up on all that, and started just experimenting with noise, field recordings, soundscapes, all in the medium of Dark Ambient, where there is no need for verse and chorus, augmented by a steady diet of the sainted Hainbach, for the vision of the possibilities he offered, that I started making noises that were pleasing, at least to me.
Two years on, I have over 30 pieces, none of which are conventional music at all. They will never trouble any chart - not even the Dark Ambient ones - but I like them.
Now, honestly I’m beginning to butt up against my lack of musical knowledge, I’m feeling I want to take the noise to the next level of organisation, but I don’t currently have the skill to do so. So I’m trying (again) to learn an instrument, (currently money is on my 3 string Cigar Box guitar) and to learn some theory to plug into my keyboards and apps. A work in progress, always…
So: maybe try some soundscaping/ambient/random/generative to break free of the ‘classic singer songwriter’ thing. A whole different set of skills…
Just be careful stealing from Paul Weller.
https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/the-jam-paul-weller-fight-sex-pistols-sid-vicious/
Seriously though, I agree. One way to get started is to just try to replicate something you already know.
I think emotional connection with the sounds/music is spot on @AudioGus. For me if it’s not there I leave it and go for a bike ride. If it’s there it’s a feedback loop that generates a lot of ideas and a positive flow. I think it is important to like the sounds you’re using as @Gravitas has suggested, which again is a part of the emotional connection with the sound/music.
I’d also add: narrow down to apps you find the most important and learn them well. If not find one comprehensive/do it all app and learn it well, something like Gadget or Drambo. There’s nothing worse than jumping between several apps especially if part of the game is getting them work/sync well together.
Also: I don’t know what kind of music you’re trying to make but in almost all cases I feel the less is more. It’s easy to saturate when dealing with full frequency spectrum coming at your for extended amounts of time. Very good results can be had just by using 3-4 parts/elements and modulating/blending them dynamically.
Rather than getting hampered by learning lots of different apps, it might be useful keeping it a bit simpler to start with and use Garageband to just create something/anything.
Dan Baker has lots of good stuff on YouTube, here's one example:
More to the point don’t go head butt him.
Wow. I feel almost useless now
Most of the tips are covered already
The main one is to remove the excess of options from the table. Stick to one app to be your main workflow. Try to make a track every day. Even if you end up deleting it. Just for practice.
Maybe do some 10 minute challenge.
The problem with iOS is we are always jumping around different apps, because you wanna play with them all. So get natural with one of them and treat the others as the toppings you can use in the main one.
My recommendation would be Garageband. It has its limitations and is a pain in the ass sometimes but...
1) The sounds are good
2) You can stick to a scale
3) You can play the instruments inside it
4) It's easy to structure the sections as a song
Have a lengthy session just jamming with various apps that you can record automation easily and quickly with along with some effects as you record each individual instrument as you play into AudioShare via AUM. Then have a listen through for the good bits and edit them all together repeating where necessary in a DAW like Audio Evolution Mobile.
That’s exactly it. Make music (or audio explorations) you want to hear.
Honestly, I'd take my chances with Paul Weller if the result is "Holidays in the Sun."
Oh, that reminds me, even just putting up imagery in the background (pics, animation, film etc) while making music can be super sweet. I also find olde vintage stuff takes the pressure off of having to be too slick and modern.
In all seriousness, I'd echo @senhorlampada and weed out the distractions. Focus on one inspiring app.
When I first came to iOS, I was a professional musician who had made records and toured for years, then put down my bass to have kids. Something like 15 years later — basically not feeling inspired to play music at all — I picked up Figure. It was not the kind of music I'd really want to listen to, but I was totally inspired. It was easy, and it made sense, and most of all it was fun. I knocked out one piece after another. Then I got Gadget, which was Figure x 1,000. Crazily inspiring, and every track I made taught me something else. (Then I got Modstep and the addiction began, and that's another cautionary tale.)
And just remember, most of your songs will totally suck in retrospect, but you'll keep moving.
Start with the app that's fun, and there are a LOT out there. Make a game. You have to come up with 7 one-minute tracks by the end of the week.
@ExAsperis99 thanks mate... And i'm gonna ping pong on what you said. The inspiring + fun side of things. I have some experience with audio and midi routing and yet, sometimes I just feel I spend too much time trying to figure out why app A doesn't work with app B. (This kind of stuff happens a lot and it's easy to notice by the posts around here)
So keeping it simple = fun
What are your goals?
What do you like to listen to?
Do you already know how to play an instrument?