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
This looks excellent!
At the same time I would say that some knowledge in digital circuit design would be very helpful and I doubt that there are many musicians out there who do.
Good points. You have multiplexers and demultiplexers in Drambo but you'll have to build your own shift register, e.g. by using S+H stages. Again, some digital circuit knowledge required.
I doubt that any Drambo intro video would cover this kind of depth.
No matter if you want to do digital circuit clones, physical models, synth or effects design, you'll always need the knowledge of some theory on the subject.
Maybe that's why people are struggling with Drambo or modular systems in general: To do more than just the basic well-known stuff, it's the theory and your phantasy that will guide you in the first place, not the choice of many colorful modules that do nothing on their own.
Thanks to forums like these, the work can be split: Functional racks or tracks or chains of modules could be built by the more involved members and then be combined by everyone.
A sure buy for me when they release it...
Nest is a strange one for me. I'm relatively technical, know my way around modulars and enjoy tinkering with procedural midi toolsets. But Nest feels like too much effort for not enough gain. However, I'll have a dabble with the desktop demo to see how things click.
When it comes to midi sequencing I appreciate immediacy most of all, and Nest appears to be many things but immediate isn't one of them.
ADC type modules do exist in VCV and miRack, check out Hetrick modules. They have a few modules that replicate Xaoc Eurorack which also appear to have inspired Nest. Also, I believe Hetrick released those modules for Reaktor, even before the Xaoc hardware existed.
Having watched the videos and played around with it a little, I think it’s strength will be extending any other synth to be more modular. Didn’t spend much time on it yesterday, but I already have some ideas on how to sequence some other synths beyond the capabilities of their own internal sequencers.
Nest is a beast that takes time to master. The more you fiddle with it, the faster you’ll find the workflow. I can get some pretty complex beats and melodies patched up with relative ease now, but it did take many weeks of tinkering to learn to bend it to my will, and to discover the tricks that are unique to it. IMO, the initial foray into Nest may not be the most immediate, but with familiarity, the workflow is as fast as any other sequencer. Of course, ymmv 😊
I had the same experience with SnuVox. It was easily 6 months before I was comfortable working with it and getting good results.
First impressions are that it seems like a user will run out of modules quite quickly, but then the limitations may force us to be more creative.. will see. But the one thing that raises my hackles a bit is that we couldn't have had a list of scales to choose from. If an app is going to off scales then it seems only polite not to make them go looking these things up constantly.
For the scales, there’s a function to change the root note of the scale. So if you know C major or C minor, you could just change the root note to get all 12 major and minor keys. Not the same as a scale list, but it covers most bases quickly.
What are the limitation of the demo version?
It’s pretty generous. A timeout after 30 minutes / 30 days, and no saving.
Played with this some more, and I think when the iOS version is released this will become a partial replacement for Mozaic. You can do some insane things with MIDI with this beast.
I've been playing around with this for the past day and I'm in love. I really wanted to that to be the case but was concerned in the back of my mind that this was going to be $100 down the drain for a romantic idea - something that looks extremely powerful and fun but that I'd never get around to putting in the time to break through that initial learning curve. Very happy to report. - the learning curve isn't that steep - at least not to get to the point where you're able to have a lot of fun (I'm sure it will take plenty of time to figure out what every function does but luckily there's plenty of fun to be had using just a small fraction of what's possible). Once you get the very broad strokes and start playing with it just a bit, it's actually way more intuitive than I'd have ever guessed it could be based on the UI and the way Sugarbytes themselves has framed the learning curve.
As soon as you understand the numbering system that dictates the way the signal flows and how the modules communicate to one another - you can really just plug and play while hovering over terms or modules you're not familiar with to get the help/info bubbles to pop up. The numbering system is extremely simple. Everything sends/receives either binary (0 or 1 which they call "digital") or "analogue" which sends 0-127. So it's basically on/off and then your standard 0-127 for things like pitch and velocity. When more than one signal is connected to the same input, the two numbers are simply added - the total being your end result (one signal sending 10 and one signal sending 20 to the same input or module - the result is 30). This is visually represented on the screen in a very clear cut way that makes it become second nature quickly.
One thing that I have found helpful is that Nest can act as a VST host for a handful of plugins and it also has a built in synth on board. To start out, I just used the internal synth to get a hang of things. Then quickly began using it to host other VST synths to open up all those modulation capabilities. I haven't even run it inside a DAW yet - only standalone which seems the simplest way to learn and should translate fine when eventually running it in DAW.
Anyway, for those who think it's too complex - I seriously doubt it. I never managed to figure out Audulus, can barely use Drambo and really struggled with Reaktor, MiRack and Softube to start. This is easier to use than any of those have been - at least for me. Worth a look - maybe watch the first tutorial vid (I watched 5 mins of it. which was enough to get the very basics). Then just plug away! It's a lot of fun!
^^ This.
That’s pretty much been my experience, and I too started with the internal synths, as there’s so much to experiment with before you even think about broadening your sound pallet.
In addition to soft synths, you can also send to hardware (the videos on their site show this), and that’s going to be my next step.
Right on, man that would be a lot of fun. Sadly, I have no hardware synths. (yet!). I can only imagine what blast that will be though!
Another little tidbit for anyone who has found Sugarbytes to be somewhat hit or miss in the past (I find them to be much more hit than miss but have also had more than one occasion where their plugin or app really drew me in only really never end up using it in the end). On that note, II spent way more time with less satisfaction trying to figure out Obscurium to a level where I could say I was truly enjoying myself versus Nest already (I still believe there's something small I'm missing to actually unlock that plugin's potential - it seems like it should be a creative wonderland but that's not what I've found to be the case!)
I can't imagine anyone who likes tinkering with modulations not falling in love with this one really.
Alright, that's the end of my lil pitch! Been quite a while since I've found a new app/plugin I was this stoked about! lol
The hosting of other plugins will be problematic in iOS apart from in the standalone. On the desktop a plugin can act as a host to other plugins so Nest could be a plugin within Ableton, and a bunch of other plugins could be hosted within Nest. This is a very flexible way to work. Unfortunately, Apple restricts this capability in AUv3s on iOS.
My guess would be that hosting is available in a standalone version, but I would be good with that - it would effectively be a MIDI host in much the same way as something like Xequence is.
Just posted in another thread as well, but I just uploaded a multi-track sequencer for miRack to Patchstorage, which can be used to sequence both melodic parts (4 tracks included) and drums .
It uses some of the concepts found in Nest, but adds other modules as well for exploration (based on what miRack has available). It primarily designed to be used as an AU midi fx to sequence synths and drums.
More details here: https://patchstorage.com/aviary/
Let me know if you have any questions. Also, please share if you make something cool with it.
This looks so amazing, yet complicated for the uninitiated breadboarders. Hope it comes to iOS. The idea of designing my own sequencer has me extremely intrigued.
Give my sequencer a shot above. It's like ~90% of what Nest is, and you can use it as an AU.
Looks interesting. I'm not sure how to use it with let's say, Moog Model D.
I use your patch as an effect? Or as a midi in AUM?
I don't want a complete tutorial and take a lot of your time, but can you just give me the basic if I want to use your patch in AUM with Moog Synth iOS app?
Thanks
No need to feel intimidated! Nest is great as a learning tool. I used to get my logic gates mixed up all the time, didn’t appreciate comparators, and didn’t think ‘bits’ and ‘music’ belonged together in the same sentence.
It’s funny to say, but I feel my sequence programming has improved, and even my outlook on other modular systems has expanded too. I think that’s one hidden benefits of Nest, that it’s a learning tool. You’ll learn a lot about logic, and look at midi in new ways.
Nest seems difficult at first, but the workflow is pretty straightforward: every wire has an integer value. The value of that wire is displayed at its output port. When the wire is plugged into an input, then its value is displayed at the input as well. Two or more wires may be stacked at an input. When wires are stacked, their values are simply added together.
The numbers follow the midi spec. So every 0, 12, 24, 36, 48, etc in Nest all represent the notes ‘C’ in different octaves. If you take a decay envelope with a duration of 2 bars, and you multiply it by the number 36, then you have a pitch sequence which starts at C1, and takes 2 bars to fall to C-2. You can then quantize that envelope so that all the notes it ‘picks out’ of that 3 octave range are in scale. Then, to spice things up, you can add the number ‘5’ to the same input as that envelope, by stacking the wires. Now you’ve transposed the sequence by a perfect 4th. Add a ‘7’, and the envelope sequence is transposed by a perfect 5th.
If you want to offset the lowest note in that envelope sequence, just stack another wire (e.g. for 2 octaves higher just stack ‘24’ from the ‘constant’ knob).
Nest = music is math. And in the case of our examples, the scope of the math is really easy! Just some basic addition and multiplication, with lots of visual feedback so you can always follow signals, and always hit precise values without any guesswork.
I'm not the demographic and am glad I'm not.
Sure, just load miRack as a Midi AU. Open the patchstorage patch in miRack. Set Model D to only receive midi on Channel 1 in its AUM Midi settings. Hit play. Add more synths, repeat but switch midi channels.
In miRack, make sure the midi output modules are directed at the Host.
Thanks! I will try this with my iPad in hand later tonight.
I think the breadboard idea might be making it seem more daunting than it really is. If anyone has some basic knowledge of modular patching it really shouldn’t be hard to get to grips with this amazing tool. The videos on the site are excellent, and really make it easy to understand the various modules.
Any update for the iOS version? My money is ready!
Mine too. It has insane possibilities for MIDI on iOS.
Yep! The fun factor of Nest is very high!
How it compare to Numerology on Mac?
I haven’t used Numerology, but from what I know of it I think the capabilities are very similar. Nest uses the modular synth paradigm, but not sure that Numerology does.