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.
Any Roland TR6s or TR8s owners around? How’s it going?
Are you in love with your instrument? I’m fancying one of them but I’m not sure which.
Are the TR6s owners wishing they had the 8s or would you just want the 6? The 8 looks fantastic to me.. but the so does the 6 with its portability / batteries etc. I was thinking that if I got the 6 and it wasn’t enough then I could always buy another and sync it up.
I doubt that there will be many 8 owners that wish they had the 6 instead. 🤔
I was also thinking that I could get the 6 and then maybe get the MC101 to join it.
Anyway.... are you enjoying them whichever you have?
Comments
The 8s is a great drum machine, but the downside for me that ultimately made me sell it was that it was a LOT of scrolling menus once you want to get more deeper into editing sounds. The mc707 has many of the same sounds and functionality (and then some) but it seems Roland learned from the menu diving and made this aspect much better too.
I was tempted for awhile to get the 6s and 101 as a portable writing option, but honestly that looks like even more menu scrolling to me. Don’t get me wrong, I still think the TR8s is probably the best all around modern drum machine if you only want a drum machine. But if what you mainly want is Roland drum sounds in a nice hands on interface, I think the 707 is way easier to use.
Mmm ... food for thought. I’m not really into the sound design - I’ll be happy enough with the tune, decay and control knobs along with my own samples and the master effects. It is a dedicated drum machine I want.
I’m leaning towards the 8s I think.
Thanks
Why don’t you get the tr8 ( they go cheap) and use it also as a midi controller with your iOS drum machines.
I’m looking to have a TR8/6 s do the majority of my drums whilst the iPads take care of everything else - synths and longer samples etc. They would be a separate entity so that I can swap my attention clearly between them. That and I would more than likely fail to successfully make the necessary midi connections 😀
I see…you would still need midi sync in between your hardware and iOS …as long as both are part of the entire track/song.
Yes, I was hoping to connect them via midi clock using a set of these. Their latency is tiny I’m led to believe.
Yeah, check on those Cme midi thingies… they look similar.
https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/WIDIMaster--cme-widi-master-professional-wireless-midi-black?mrkgadid=3341927569&mrkgcl=28&mrkgen=gpla&mrkgbflag=0&mrkgcat=studio&recording&acctid=21700000001645388&dskeywordid=92700046934908091&lid=92700046934908091&ds_s_kwgid=58700005283400378&ds_s_inventory_feed_id=97700000007215323&dsproductgroupid=373165019894&product_id=WIDIMaster&prodctry=US&prodlang=en&channel=online&storeid=&device=m&network=g&matchtype=&adpos=largenumber&locationid=9031369&creative=353482679457&targetid=aud-375364927414:pla-373165019894&campaignid=2004943121&awsearchcpc=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMImqCVzcCn8gIVRQnnCh3YIQz2EAQYASABEgKXBfD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds
Thanks. Yeah I think there’s a few around. The Yamaha ones seem to be popular, but I feel drawn to the Quicco ones.
Does the A-H variations contain and include the mute settings?
I have both, they both work well (on the Quiccos you have to enable MIDI clock transmission first!) but for use with a hw groovebox, I much prefer the nicely compact Quiccos because they're much less prone to physical damage.
Note that combining hw with iOS is only fun if the iOS app supports MIDI clock properly and if you can adjust latency both in positive and negative directions.
Drambo, Audiobus and Groove Rider are positive examples.
Or, if you don't mind a more fiddly setup, add MIDI LINK Sync to bridge hw clock and iOS LINK.
I don’t think the Quicco devices allow midi din to midi din transmission like the CME devices do they.
I’ll just want to send midi clock only via Bluetooth from Audiobus as @rs2000 mentioned to a TR6/8 with the Quiccos in the back. Would that be straightforward?
Yes, if the TR6/8 can receive MIDI clock then it should work.
Great - it can, thanks.
And here's how to enable MIDI clock in the Quiccos:
https://forum.audiob.us/discussion/comment/488192#Comment_488192
Great thanks for that. I think this is going to help me decide whether to go down this route or not - given my rather poor history with the world of midi - I was hoping it would be a lot simpler (though I appreciate to many people that it is already 🤔). I have several hundred pounds to burn and I’m looking to spend it on something that I can easily integrate for a bit of techno fun. My heads in a bit of a spin at the moment. Thanks very much for all the advice/help.
They're worth it, really. Wireless MIDI is so convenient. And you only have to do the sysex trick once, they will save their configuration even after unplugging them.
👍 Cheers. I’m not sure about how to send SySex in order to do the enabling, is this done via Bluetooth on a Quicco app? or some other way perhaps?
Got AUM?
You can use the free Streambyter AUv3 (thanks to the great Audeonic developer!) to send Sysex messages.
Connect the Quiccos, add a MIDI routing from Streambyter to the Quiccos and hit a key on the virtual AUM MIDI keyboard to trigger sending the sysex message.
Ah - that’s great. Much appreciated. Cheers.
I have all them sitting right here: TR-8S, 6S, MC-707, and 101. Sounds like you just didn't hold down the shift button...LOL. As there's little to no menu diving on the TR-8S/6S, everything is on a 1-level, which means a lot of menu options under a single button press. The way Roland made long menu lists easy to navigate is by having the menu organized into categories. You just hold shift as you scroll to move through the categories. You can usually find anything in less than 5 scroll wheel clicks. The TR-8S/6S are actually easier to get around than the MC-grooveboxes in my experience. Shift+ button to enter the secondary function or edit mode for a button, then shift+scroll to move through the categories of functions. Super-easy and becomes second nature after a while.
Maybe menu diving is the wrong term, and my apologies for that. But you do spend most of your time scrolling up and down menus looking for parameters, regardless if you have shift held or not.
Interesting opinions …on my side, if you’re for live jamming , tr8s is the winner
That’s interesting because I haven’t committed to any of them yet.
I’m very exited to have discovered Jamm Pro only very recently (don’t know how I missed it) which is proving to be a great source of drum manipulating and glitching fun. Using it only for drums splitting a kit over the four lanes is a blast. I may end up getting another iPad With my cash instead for this reason. If anyone is reading this and thinking of having a look at it - just to let you know before you spend your cash - you will need spec higher than an Air2 for it to work - it just won’t handle it on mine. The Air4 however is a dream.
If you haven’t heard of this app you really really need to get a look at some YouTube videos.
Cheers
Sounds like you didn't get too deep into the TR-8S...or maybe you had just a TR-8 and not an 8S. In the 8S there are 3 different sound engines: ACB for all the classic Roland sounds, samples with a bunch built-in plus user sample import from the SD card, and the FM engine that sounds totally different. You can morph between different combos of operators/waveforms and even do classic DX-style basses, percussion. and electric pianos (although you can't play them chromatically on a keyboard without 3rd party utilities). Not to mention FX on each track, global reverb/delay/master FX, parameter automation (motion), the Scatter glitch FX and a LFO. The 8S has a HUGE range in terms of sound design. I'd say as more than any other single drum machine aside from the Rytm or Tempest, but they at least double the price (3.5x if you consider getting the 6S). The only real limitation of the Roland is the fact internal sequencing is based on the classic x0x style, so it's strictly to the grid (with swing). No offbeat/microtiming unless you MIDI trigger from another sequencer.
ACB isn't just analog modeling...it's also modelling stuff like 12-bit converters and low res on the sample-based Roland machines like the 707,505, 626, etc.
If Roland sounds aren't your thing, then it's not your thing. Fair enough...to each his own. However they are the bedrock of the majority of drum sounds used in electronic and popular music from the 80's to today. You gotta respect that. Is there even a signature, recognizable "Elektron Rthm sound"? Not that I know of. To call a machine that has analog/digital modelling, FM synthesis, and samples all in one unit "stale" says more about your lack of imagination and/or patience with sound design than the unit itself, because really the possibilities are pretty much endless. Now if you considered the original TR-8, those Behringer pseudo-clones, or the Volca Beats as "stale", i could understand...as they're all firmly retro-based, but the TR-8S is in a whole different ballpark in my opinion. It can create many sounds not possible on any other Roland machine (except for the little 6S).
Very occasionally I've spotted an Elektron device has been used in a track. It's from the sequencer though, not the sounds, so I can never tell which Elektron.
I have no dog in the fight. Have never used a Roland or Elektron (except for the 1080 BITD).