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
Both are good products and do the same thing technically. The design of the Zoom is more ”mobile” and the Minifuse more ”desktop”. One advantage of the Zoom is the ability to run on batteries, not needing any external power. The Minifuse however is powered via USB making it mobile as well.
Though I am still trying to find musicians outside of YouTube in the real world, carrying synths or other instruments however small, mics, cables and interfaces and recording music outside in fields in the rain, in a windy harbor or on a snowy mountain top. I just can’t find them. They must be invisible. It makes me believe at least the majority of us mostly enjoy fiddling with our stuff on a desk of some kind, on the couch or at least indoors… where there is a power outlet close by.😁
So this ”can run on AA batteries”… oh well. To each their own.
/DMfan🇸🇪
Oh I have, long ago – it’s overrated
For the desire to test new stuff I own a lot of Behringer gear: microphones, headphones, interfaces, effects, monitors. With each purchase I hope that they have finally built something interesting, but no way: every time the product turns out to be an insult to my ears.
Speaking of FX, for sure the Boss pedals are far better
No, I'm not the usual Behringer hater and in fact I'm amazed by what they did with the clones: Odyssey, Minimoog, 808, 909, 303, etc. and from what I've heard in demos, the Dual Phase pedal should be the new hit clone: I'll try it soon.
That doesn’t count. It’s not windy, it just looks nice and cozy.
🤣
/DMfan🇸🇪
Did you see my mention of the Lewitt Connect 6 earlier? I have no direct experience of one (someone here did try one and reported sending it back dissatisfied, but not because of its device sharing capability). It's the only alternative to the Audio4c that I'm aware of for what you are looking for. The good news is that it's a relatively new product, so at least one company is looking to develop in this area. I'm not sure how versatile the routing is, maybe just one stereo channel each way?
My interest is the same as yours as I am using IOS with Ableton / Mac. At the moment I'm using Studiomux as it's still working on iOS 15 (not so on iOS 16 and unlikely to be fixed). Apart from 2 way audio on multiple channels (which works with varying degrees of success depending on what apps you want to use), it's really good for making all you desktop midi sources available individually for routing in AUM.
Ooh, thanks @steve99, I missed that somehow. I did see one yesterday, but missed the connectivity. I do hope we'll see more hardware like this in the coming months and years. There's certainly a place for it.
Now to go look into it, and see how it performs, and is priced.
Studiomux won't help me as I'm already well onto iOS16.
I have both the U24 and U44 and both have been fantastic for me - I went up to the U44 recently as I wanted 4 inputs, but it needs a £60 accessory for the extra 2 analogue inputs. I had the accessory anyway from my sound recording kit, not sure I would have gone for it otherwise. Really versatile interfaces, with 5 pin midi too and I like the form factor of having most of the connections on the top. Although they are quite chunky, I find them more practical for mobile use than something like an iRig duo which gets very untidy once everything is plugged in.
I think though they've been superseded now (not saying you can't still get them) - I think the newer ZOOM interfaces have 'loopback' which could be useful for podcasting purposes?
Thanks. That's helpful to know. I've been looking at the Zoom range. I'm afraid I have no idea what loopback is, so I'll head off and learn right now…
I’m in similar situation. I own the ICA2+ and I also use headphones a lot (with correction and CanOpener). You are right that the ICA is noisy and I have my doubts the headphone amp is really good. Since there are no Mac drivers it also has a relatively high latency. Last but not least I need more inputs. Anyway, I like to keep the ICA for its virtual audio channels between Mac and iPad.
The M4 is so much cheaper but the M6 has the two headphone amps. On Mac you can create combine multiple audio interfaces into an aggregate device and now I‘m thinking to combine my ICA with the Motu M4 or M6. Then I would have 4 high quality channels from the Motu and the ICA for iPad stuff and a second headphones a monitor for a musician. Sounds like the combo could be an alternative to buy the M6 but I have no experience with working with aggregate device.
Unfortunate you have some higher latency, I'm on PC and the latency for my ICA4 is ultra low. yeah the ICA is just amazing for midi and audio from iPad to PC/Mac but i'm lusting for the motu headphones out.
those M4's second hand can be cheap man, maybe worth a try...
i have the arturia audiofuse studio and it never failed me …
BTW, another option for headphones. I recently listened to a podcast about mixing with headphones and on the show was a professional sound engineer who works mostly on headphones and he praised a dedicated usb headphone audio interface that is about 250 Euro but in his opinion is as good as much more expensive amps: AudioQuest DragonFly Cobalt.
@krassmann @Danny_Mammy I bought a MOTU M4 when it was released three years ago. I’d been using a Focusrite Clarett which I sold after comparing them side by side. I also had an Audient ID4 mk2 for awhile but that went too.
The M4 is an exceptionally well made interface. Its sonics are pristine, its preamps have enough clean gain for low output ribbon and dynamic mics, and MOTU got the ergonomics just right. (I didn’t care for the big knob on the Audient.) It’s also the only unit at anywhere near the price that has “professional” metering.
Unless you need two distinct monitor mixes, the single headphone amp may be enough. I use Sony MDR7506’s and whenever I’m recording someone else, I attach two pairs to the M4 using a simple splitter cable. Works perfectly well. I don’t think the M6 would make sense unless you needed four mic inputs. And even if you did, you could run an outboard preamp or mixer into the M4’s line inputs.
Thanks for the advice. Given that a second hand Motu M4 costs 200 Euro, it’s a lot of bang for the buck. Does it also wirk well with the iPad?
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Don’t waste your money, I had a Cobalt (and the Red prior to that) and the stock $9 Apple lightening adaptor blows it out of the water in terms of sound quality.
It works perfectly. Plug and play. Here’s my setup (sorry about the wide angle distortion). iPad M1 connected to USB-C hub built into the Dell monitor. MOTU M4 and little Korg keyboard also connected to the Dell hub. I can swap a MacBook for the iPad but I rarely use the Mac anymore.
Interesting, the professional engineer was so convinced if it. He praised the quality of its amp and DAC. There are a lot of highly positive reviews of the device. Although many preferred the Apogee Groove. Meanwhile, I think I better buy a high quality audio interface. The Motu M series seems to have expensive audio parts inside with excellent measurements. I never read anything about the quality of its headphone amp, though.
@Schmotown, nice and compact noodling station.
If someone is interested in the Cobalt I suggest checking out some websites that actually measure the devices output and don’t purchase based solely on opinions based on how it sounds. It’s definitely got a boost to its volume that will sway a lot of people I think, but also a ton of distortion and not very good stereo separation. Also, it always defaults to 96k, so you need to make sure any apps you want to use it with support that or allow you to change the SR.
It’s not terrible, but if you’re after a clean and transparent DAC the Dragonfly series are definitely not worth the money IMO.
@Tarekith @Schmotown Looks like I found the answer to my question. The Motu M series seems to have simply the best headphone amp in this range of audio interfaces. No need to buy a separate headphone interface. The device will fulfill all my needs: superb audio quality inputs and outputs AND the best headphone amp of its class. Jesus, what a cool interface 😍 I think I'm sold.
Here are the measurements of audio interface YouTuber Julian Krause comparing headphone amps of some popular interfaces
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/motu-m4-interest.11035/
@krassmann I would be surprised if you don’t love it.
Last week, I helped my son record a Chinese New Year song for his final project in Chinese class. Tuba and baritone as well as vocals by him and my wife, all tracked through a Beyerdynamic M88TG (lately, my favorite mic). The Beyer has a low output and the vocal parts were soft, almost whispered, so I had to crank the MOTU’s preamp nearly all the way up. No problem. If there was any hiss, it was imperceptible. And I had two pairs of headphones sharing the single output on the M4
I'll happily admit that the headphone amp was one of the driving factors for me when I got my Audient ID4mk2
Both the D.I. input and the MicPre are for me a very audible step up in quality compared to the UR-242.
Paired with the iLoud Micro Monitors and a few headphones (MDR-7506's and Austrian made AKG K701's) it's a pretty decent combo that I'm super happy with!
I do have an USB-C hub with an additional USB-C port for devices as well as USB-PD charging port so hooking up the CME Xkey 25 via USB makes it all a very portable combo with only 2 wall-power sockets needed.
Only downside with the ID4mk2 is that it's pretty power hungry compared to some other interfaces.
I can reduce the power requirement by using a USB3.0 cable instead of USB-C but then I'd loose a bit of extra ooompfff for the headphone amp which is noticeable when using heavy to drive headphones.