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.
Alternatives to IK Mixbox?
In Oz this costs $125 so juts wondering if there are any alternatives, for iOS?
I have IFX Rack from GM, maybe I'd be better off adding to it??
Comments
What’s the general use for it? Most DAWs come with a form of most of those fx and there are a lot of free alternatives for the single plugin types.
Sorry should have said it's for iPad (for use in AUM and Camelot Pro) - afaik, IFX Rack only has some convo reverbs in-app, so not a lot I can add to there
If it’s for AUM, then you can get a ton of those types of plugins for free by searching the App Store. I like koala fx for multi effect stuff which is $4 USD.
Thanks - I was reading about Mixbox on the IK site (and as I already have a slew of IK programs for the PC including ST4 (full version) and a lot of efx, I thought the idea of their efx being available for iPad was interesting, but not at $125! I'm still waiting on B-3x to come down from $200 (well $199 haha)
Isn’t Mixbox AUD$75 at the moment?
What is it you feel you are lacking in the effects you already have?
Nope just checked appstore - $125
Not sure it's that so much as I know already how good the IK efx are...I mean, IFX Rack is decent, but not in the same league really.
I’m sure mixbox is good, but it just looks like a basic set of daw fx, most of which can be gotten for free with deeper controls.
It is honestly way more than that. If you’re not impressed by the analogue emulations of classic compressors and EQs then take a look at the Leslie Rotary the Inverse Reverb, for example. Really great effects that are different from other iOS fare.
I’m not completely familiar with mixbox but if you want multi effects then there’s plenty on iOS.
https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/audioeffx/id1173816162 is one that springs to mind. All the Toneboosters stuff is great and covers a lot of ground and often has more than one effect in one app.
Weird, I used to think that AudioEffX developer was VirSyn but it’s not the case, perhaps they changed the name?
Also if you want an upgrade in sound or more character from some of the ‘bread and butter’ type stock plugins I think the Toneboosters plugins stack up pretty well against IK and are well priced.
And you can also add something like ToneStack pro, which I’m not suggesting is sonically the same but you can make pedal board setups which are fun and add some of the more esoteric guitar pedal type effects to your setup and can be chained similar to mixbus. Not the same but much cheaper. :-) an probably good enough unless you have a fantastic studio monitor setup where you can hear the difference. ;-)
I don’t have mixbus on the iPad to compare big I’ve got some IK plugins on desktop and tried the mixbus demo when the group guy came out but I wasn’t tempted to get it. The stock plugins I have in Logic are enough for my needs, there are so many of them that it’s possible to get what I want almost every time and the stock plugins are much lighter on cpu. And they’re good. Good enough for my ears anyway :-)
There currently isn't something that is quite comparable, but developers like Bleass, Audiodamage, FAC etc. should be able to provide you with most of the stuff that is in there.
What do you think you need? Because Mixbox really has a ton of stuff, anything more concrete?
The other key aspect of MixBox that's hard to match at the same quality, is the ease of setting up multi-module effect chains. Each module can have its own dry/wet amount and it's simple to experiment with different module ordering. If you're less experienced, MixBox ships with a ton of effect chain presets and IK regularly release new free 'artist' presets.
Wow, you must’ve just missed the sale. I checked only a few hours ago and it was on sale.
The good news is that IK constantly play with their prices throughout the year and Black Friday is just around the corner for those willing to wait.
haha, typical of my timing
Yes I'm hoping B3 will be on sale as well.
Thanks, I'll check them out
It's true. Toneboosters makes terrific apps. What they lack is a single interface, like MixBox CS. If at all possible, I recommend owning both.
@richardyot : are the aliasing issues present in only the filters or is it also in the saturation , compressors and eq (though eq’s are filters maybe they don’t have the same issues?)?
There is no oversampling in Mixbox, so potentially any module could suffer from aliasing. However it seems worse in the filters.
For what it’s worth I happily use Mixbox in most of my projects at the moment and I think the compressors and EQs are great.
And for perspective there are other well-regarded plugins, such as the original MagicDeathEye, that don’t have oversampling and yet still sound great.
By the way, as of right now the price for MixBox CS for iPad is listed at $47.99 (per their web site).
https://www.ikmultimedia.com/news/?id=MixBoxCSsale2021
From that link:
Might be a good idea then to remove that link if it no longer applies.
glad i bought it in the very last second
Another great point for Mixbox is loading 8 effects in one auv3 slots. Over 5 tracks that is 5 vs 15 or 20 auv3. I never compared but it must make a difference in the end on ressources being used.
Yep. For example GB only allows up to 4 inserts. Mixbox completely solves that limitation.
It's showing 80 euros here .... and further, it is now not showing up in the Oz App Store
EDIT: sorry was looking on iPhone - on iPad it's there and yep still $125
the sale lasted only til 4th of october