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
Still 1.0.4 here...
Big changes on the iPad UI and also dedicated sample editor window on both iPad and iPhone, no more upscaling. A new free big pack with 20 or so drumkits and a bunch of instrument kits. Amongst a bunch of other things. But, still absolutely no iOS integration whatsoever (no ACP, virtual midi/sync, AB, IAA).
Big update, one the biggest this app ever had, but still no ios integration .
Bummer.And still no buy for me...
This is such a shame because it is the best beat machine on iOS, its simple and fast, still there js always iFunbox
@thesoundtestroom said:
Yea this, it's the fast and simple workflow (plus all the great sounding available IAP kits) that makes it such a fun app to use. Besides iFunbox, I believe exporting it as "Maschine" project or whatever it says, will put all the loops, and a mixdown of the track available via iTunes filesharing. But iTunes filesharing is just soooo slow and messy..
I already bought it long ago, and I also have a couple of packs. But it's way to late to the party. Way way to late.
It's nice because I already have Maschine 2 on my Mac, and it can import stuff.
Still missing some features, but I agree with @thesoundtestroom and @ChrisG.
Seems like these guys want to go solo. Such a shame for them, they're definitely losing money. But how can it be that a company doesn't do their homework before releasing an app?
This is a really fun app to use, for fun. It's so close to being useful and sounds great, it's a shame that they don't make it work as a real tool to make music. It's been deleted from my iPhone for a while because I can't dedicate the space, but I jotted down many quick song ideas with it. Unfortunately I couldn't do much with them afterwards.
I'm thinking of export to soundcloud as a private track and somehow with Audioshare import it back and audiocopy-it
I have to develop on that at home.
this would be THE drum machine if they only integrated iOS.
What sets this apart from impc?
@alexbuga said:
I made a video workaround ages and ages ago, so I'll post the link here, but in the next few days I'll be reviewing the iMaschine update and showing you a much better way of getting your loops into your other apps super easy
But for now here is the old video
@DaveMagoo said:
In terms of features, absolutely nothing. In fact, it lacks so many features that going from iMPC or Beatmaker 2 you would be losing a lot. The one feature N.I. seems to be banking on is that you can do some limited creation on the IOS version and then export them to use in the desktop Maschine software. That's all well and good, but why impose artificial restrictions on users? iMPC projects can be exported and used in their desktop MPC program yet they offer the essentials such as MIDI, audio copy/paste and IAA. I wish they would add Audiobus as well but for now IAA will do esp. since it will be available as both an input and output in iMPC Pro. N.I. is either insecure in their products or extremely greedy in their thinking by not adding essential features to iMaschine after over 2 years of no updates. Folks would still buy Maschine even if iMaschine had more than basic features. By snubbing their noses at IOS customers they are turning folks away from their Maschine products.
As far as comments about "no iOS integration", I realize this is the audiobus forum but iOS music production ≠ Audiobus.
The point of iMaschine is to be a portable sketchpad on iOS for Maschine desktop users since you can bring in iMaschine projects directly into Maschine on the desktop. Also, iMaschine outputs standard audio files, so in addition to bringing full project files into desktop Maschine, you can still use the audio samples in other tools.
It's obvious that NI never intended iMaschine to be a general iOS production tool to be used in other iOS hosts/platforms. As a Maschine user, this is the update I've been waiting for with sample loop point editing, sample import from iTunes file-sharing, native iPad support, new XY controller, improved file browser and quicker interface, ability to rename and delete samples, and additional features like History, swipe undo/redo...etc.
@Shortbus, I agree with everything you wrote.I use Maschine as well as the MPC Studio.I just think it is a shame that NI never developed iMaschine more like Akai/Retronyms have developed iMPC. Many other Maschinists feel the same way. I still will find ways to integrate iMaschine into my IOS workflow. Glad to hear that the files are standard audio files. My device is equipped with iFile so moving them around will be no problem. I will also give thesoundtestroom's technique a try:)
@mrufino1 said:
Well, they do make tools like Komplete and Maschine. Tablet computing would need to overtake desktop by a large margin before NI puts out iOS tools on the same level as their flagship tools on the desktop. I would love to see full versions of Massive and Reaktor on the iPad. In the meantime, iMaschine is a very fun complementary tool for Maschine.
Thankfully companies like Moog, Steinberg and Korg didn't adopt that approach
@shortbus said:
I agree, but while that may be true it's beside the point. iMaschine doesn't include even MIDI, IAA, "Open In," or really any other functions that would make this tool as useful as it really could be (and that are developer agnostic).
I've owned Maschine for a long time and never once did I use iMaschine due to it's inability to interact with any other apps. At the very least, "Open In" should be included as it makes sample transfer so much more convenient than iTunes syncing.
While I agree that NI probably never intended to have iMaschine be a general iOS music production tool, it's a damn shame, because they're so close to having a great one.
@shortbus said:
I should clarify what I meant- it's a shame they won't integrate it into iOS music workflows. They can of course do whatever they'd like, but for me it's fun to use but not much else. Then again , I'm really not focused on electronic music although I love to make lame attempts at it, so take my opinion with that grain of salt.
What kind of universal app is this! Doesn't 'universal' mean cross compatibility to iphone & ipad without paying twice? Yes it does...
Why is my iphone still asking me for £2.99 when I have already updated for free on my iPad?
Am I missing something here?
Please help...
Thanks
.@Diversetfb1 said:
You don't have to buy it twice. It's a free update. I've updated it both on my iPhone and iPad.
@shortbus Thanks or taking the time - i'll try again and see if theres any difference.
are you using iOS 7 by any chance? I have an iPhone 5c and assumed 7 was what NI based the update on didn't they?
Hope people don't mind me post this here, figured this was a good place in case the app is making anyone consider the larger hardware
http://tarekith.com/maschine-studio-review/
thanks for the balanced review Tarekith. I was considering the larger hardware since the recent price reduction. However the app. "update" has had the opposite effect on me. It made me NOT want to purchase N.I.'s hardware. The fact that they crippled it so severely is such a turn off to me. I don't expect iMaschine to be a full fledged DAW or anything close, but c'mon, not even copy/paste? Are you kidding me? The beauty of Audiobus and IAA is that an app. such as iMaschine doesn't have to have all of those features such as powerful synths, sequencers, effects, etc. For N.I. to deny that capability as well as other IOS features which took years to develop is really a slap in the face to any musician. Yet they promote the new update as ".. the world-leading iOS app for creative beatmaking". Really?
So, I was curious enough about this to pick it up, have been fully forewarned about the lack of any convenient export or compatibility features. Doug's video, and some other random ones I saw on YouTube seemed interesting enough to give it a go, with the option to use the iFunBox method to keep beats if I made anything especially interesting. Haven't tried the export yet, but here are my other impressions of iMaschine, having tried probably 15-20 other drum apps:
If you can get over the fact that it doesn't care about your workflow or AudioBus in general, $4.99 for this degree of content (now that you get the free Quantum Pack) is a pretty fair value. There's a pretty huge range of kits and samples in there, and everything is high quality.
This app reminds me a little of Drum Beats+ in the sense that it's a fair intro price and some reasonably priced IAP's that are all useful and intriguing, but at a pretty big hard drive cost to actually store it on your device if it isn't something you are regularly using. About 200MB for the app itself, then 150MB (I think) for the Quantum Pack, plus more if you download others.
The "killer feature" of this app, if it has one, is probably it's "MPC"-like note repeat and quantization playing of samples. You can use the pads like touch pads, or they will play BPM-synched in 1/4, 1/8, 1/16, triplet, and 1/32 notes. For those unaware, that means that if you select the 1/4 note, and press the button in between beats, it won't play the note until the beat arrives. This is not at all a feature unique to iMaschine - apps from Figure to bip to 20 other drum machines have it - but it's well implemented here.
The basses sound decent, and the synth sounds and pads aren't terrible either, but there isn't enough variety there (again, unless you load up like a gig's worth of IAP's) to make this a standalone studio. Like they advertise, it's more like a portable sketchpad. Or if you find a way to export audio that works for you, you could create individual bass lines or drum beats to use in a multi-track recorder.
I have found myself loading it up and using it. Of course, that novelty could soon wear off, but given how limited it is and yet how much I still want to create with it, it's clear that they have something good here in terms of a basic interface with good sounds. At the same time, if I'm being honest, something like BeatMaker 2 or even EasyBeats 3 that lets you use your own samples could arguably do everything it does AND actually function in your iOS workflow.
I have all IAPs but one, and the size is 1.2gb here. I do purchase those little 99c packs becouse of all the great drum kits in 'em. All the sampled instrument-hits/loops etc I couldn't care less about really. It's also really easy to grab all the content via iFunbox (and I guess delete unneeded content to free up space), it's all already neatly sorted into sub folders for you, so importing the drums elsewhere to apps supporting the various iOS audio/midi standards is fast work.
@ChrisG said:
Wow, that didn't occur to me to grab the .wav samples using iFunBox. Although, again, I like doing work in iMaschine, it's just that it isn't that friendly to export the end product. Great tip though.
Edit: How exactly to you pull the kits out with iFunBox? I located folders called "Kits" and "Instruments", but they only seem to have file names in ".iMgrp" format. Where are the raw audio samples?
Any favorites of those sample packs you would recommend? My interests would be heavy 808/909 style electronic beats, or straight rock kits. Like you, the club-friendly sample stuff (vocal hits, etc.) don't really appeal to me. There are demo tracks, so I will listen through a few.