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.
Is 4Pockets a Good Replacement For…
So I honestly haven’t been keeping up with 4Pockets lately and I recently decided to look at the app list. It seems like they have a lot to offer and I’m wondering how some of them match up to the competitors. I’m considering changing up my workflow a bit, especially with Loopy Pro on the horizon. I’m looking for some solid tools that are lighter on the CPU and I believe I’ve heard that 4Pockets is pretty good in that regard. I also love their SidechainFX.
I know there are threads for each of these apps, but there are a lot to work through here and pages and pages on each. Hoping someone can give me a brief breakdown of some of the following.
- Helium vs Digikeys vs Xequence 2 vs Atom 2
- DigiStix vs EG Pulse
- Visual Multi-Band Compressor vs TB Compressor and Barricade
- Visual Reverb vs TB Reverb
- Visual EQ Console vs TB Equaliser
- SideBand vs Grand Finale
Comments
Number One:
Helium vs Digikeys vs Xequence 2 vs Atom 2
Helium is a midi recorder generator and to some extent arranger/launcher
Digikeys is a sample based sequencer (mostly) with the attendant audio workflow of levels eq and sends
Xequence 2 is a midi composer it is tight in its clock and is a superb editor and arranger with a none to shabby generative capability
Atom 2 is a super flexible recorder editor and launcher - one specifically designed for recording and launching at its heart. It has (IMHOP) the best midi editor destructive and non destructive in an AU.
What would I use ______ for
Helium has a good lock on in AUM midi linear composing
Digikeys the same for sample playback/triggering in AUM
Both are perfectly capable and usable with some minor niggles in just finding things. Helium is better in this respect than Digikeys which suffers a bit from interface overload while providing flexibility.
Xequence 2 I would use for longer, even epic, midi sequencing. It’s editor and channel routing looping etc all give you all the control you need (including CC/Mod recording and editing)* The absolute bonus is Xequence 2 does NOT NEED TO BE HOSTED! It is not a detraction that it isn’t AU. Getting midi in and out is painless.
Atom 2 I would use for looping launching recording and editing midi inside AUM, but it works inside other hosts as well, such as Cubasis. It will eventually receive cc/mod editing and if the quality of the initial app is followed it will be spectacular. Arranging jams (especially using external midi gear like launch pads) are its forte.
In my use cases
Atom > Helium
Atom = Xequence
Helium ≥ Digikeys
Hope this helps
*Helium also provides CC/mod recording and editing
😅 I know it’s hard to believe but 4Pockets is actually a single person. Basically his apps are very solid but many people are not in favor of his UI design. Question of taste, though.
Here I like to add to the extensive post of @audiblevideo that Atom 2 does not really loop properly in Cubasis when Cubasis is looping, too. Both sides blame each other for that behavior. If you are into Midi looping with AUM you should definitely also consider LK.
If you want a drum machine I would choose FAC Drumkit over both apps. It has much better means to shape the sound, i.e. superb envelopes. If you want a sample player I would expect that Loopy Pro is the better choice.
As I said his apps are solid but I would always prefer TB effects. They are almost on par with the FabFilter apps but without the price tag. Very high quality while still being resource friendly. Superb value for the money. I keep coming back to them although I bought the FabFilter bundle some time ago. 4Pockets has some effects that no one else is offering on the iPad, i.e. a harmonizer.
(some overlap here with what the others said)
For me Xequence 2 remains the daddy for linear multi-track sequencing but is still a standalone app. I don't know if Loopy Pro supports IAA apps or whether you would still need to host things in AudioBus to benefit from state saving.
Atom 2 is the choice for accurate and stable recording of MIDI note and controller data. The addition of patterns and integration with controllers makes it a very flexible clip launcher. Both this and Helium let you create multi-channel/track MIDI and "ghost" tracks in the background. blueveek put a lot of effort into making Atom 2 perform well over a large number of instances. There were reports that it struggled if you tried to stuff larger MIDI compositions into a single instance but it was probably designed with a focus on smaller chunks of MIDI being reliably triggered.
For me DigiKeys scratches a different itch to the others as it is a sequencer on a strict grid. You can import your own samples created in Chameleon and it makes quite a nice self-contained groovebox for coming up with patterns which can be chained into songs. It can also be used as a multi-timbral instrument as each track responds to MIDI on different channels and IIRC also supports multi-out, meaning you can drive each instrument through its own external Cubasis/AUM effects chain.
Helium can complement Atom 2 even though they do cover a lot of the same ground. It suffered from MIDI timing issues when first released which are mostly fixed now but I would still use Atom to record anything I was playing off the grid. I use Helium mainly as a utility app for the occasions that it offers a feature that Atom does not have. This would be normally one of:
Like Krassmann said, I would add LK to this list as it is being actively developed and is much easier to get to where you are trying to go than the others if you are looking at a clip launch workflow. It recently added more flexible time signature options and there are some nice triggering changes coming in the next release.
I do not have EG Pulse so can't compare them but DigiStix 2 was recently released with a whole load of new functionality so it would be worth checking that out if you weren't aware of it. Depending on what you were trying to do with these apps then the new 4pockets app Neon may be another one to consider as that offers a number of sample-based functions that were not available in an AU before.
Thank you everyone for your input. Very helpful stuff.
One thing I didn't see mentioned which for me is crucial is that Atom 2 is the only one of these that can record MPE midi.
1 is tough I have all 4.To me Digikeys doesn’t really fit in this category it’s more of a piano sequencer, not a full blown piano roll. I mostly use atom 2 for midi recording and sequencing and x2 for bigger midi projects or midi multi stem exports from other apps. Helium is good though.
2 I like Digistix/Digistix 2 over EG Pulse. I find fiddling with the probability, velocity etc, is easier in DS plus it has 5 velocity layers, or round robin.
3 TB
4 TB
5 TB
Nothing against 4pockets but Toneboosters makes top of the line apps at a very fair price.
I have no idea why the font size is different in that last post….
Yeah I very much appreciate ToneBoosters, but I start to run into resource issues when I get past 10 channels in AUM. My main curiosity is whether or not 4Pockets is lighter on CPU and would afford me more flexibility.
@DukeWonder no 4Pockets are not any "lighter" on CPU than TB
Ah okay thank you for confirming
There are several from Virsyn and Eventide, plus the Harmonizr app.
It's the # at the beginning of the line where you wrote "#1". That's markdown for Heading 1. You can put a backslash before it if you want it to be ignored as a regular character
\#1will render as #1.I ended up picking up TalkWorks, DrumSurgeon, and TimeMachine as I didn’t already have anything to compete with these.
You made each line a MarkDown title line
Thank you.