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.
Creating music together online? Experiences?
Hi.
It's becoming increasingly difficult to find time to meet up with my band. We're all busy with work, family life, etc.
So, I'm thinking about a way to meet up online and create something together for a few hours at a time. Does anyone have any experience with this?
Would it make sense to use a platform like Twitch (which I don't know a lot about) and stream from
my iPad? We all have access to recording gear at our own homes. The other guys could then send me files via Dropbox or something similar, and I could insert their ideas in the project on my iPad.
Would that work and would they be able to hear the sound from the project on my iPad well enough? Do you have other alternative ideas/platforms for online collaborations?
Comments
My boss's husband used Zoom to collaborate with his band. I know there's an iOS version but I've never tried it.
Endlesss https://apps.apple.com/us/app/endlesss-multiplayer-music/id1439811325
I don't have much experience of using real instruments with regards to online sharing.
All of these, AFAIK are real time collaboration tools.
Endlesss
https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/endlesss-multiplayer-music/id1439811325
Sonobus
https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/sonobus/id1523236365
Audiobridge
https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/audiobridge/id1448840069
Endlesss works exceptionally well. Though I don’t know if the fact that it’s loop-based and not real time streaming audio is better or worse for your use case.
Sonobus may be the next best option if you’re looking for a real-time jam session.
Thanks a lot, everyone. Really interesting options. Didn’t know about any of them, except Zoom for meetings.
My basic need was a platform where I could share my iPad’s screen and sound with the other guys. Simple as that. Me controlling the recording session in AUM or Cubasis and then sending mixes and takes back and forth via Dropbox. A bit clunky, but it could work. The top priority is that the other guys can hear and see what I’m doing in e.g. AUM - and that we can talk together at the same time.
But something like SonoBus looks really interesting. Does anyone know if it’s possible to route an incoming signal (the lead singer doing a take) via SonoBus and straight into a track in Cubasis? I’ve only just downloaded the app, so I’m still skimming the surface of it. Are there any good tutorials online for SonoBus on IOS?
Endlesss looks like a lot of fun, although maybe not our thing. But worth checking out just to see if it offers an interesting and different workflow.
PS: does anyone know if it’s possible to share the screen and sound from a DAW on the iPad with Zoom? And whether the sound quality is reasonable enough or if it’s really low quality?
I've had a look myself.
You could do it but it would require two devices rather than only using one device.
One that is the transmitter and receiver for SonoBus and one that is the recorder.
As a direct input straight into Cubasis 3?
I don't think so unless it's a hidden function.
I'm looking at SonoBus for online streaming and improving the
audio quality in regards to Zoom by using Zoom only for
the visuals and using SonoBus for the audio.
The Zoom iOS app only uses mono and the sound is heavily compressed.
@galmandsværk
Have a look at ninjam.
Ninjam is a plugin that comes with Reaper. It works great for jamming.
The ninjam server shifts the audio sent by an adjustable number of beats. The tracks received this way have no problems with latency or delay. The timeshift works very forgiving for little mistakes in freeform jams.
It does not work for practicing songs however.
For people who use other daws there is an opensource plugin called Jamtaba, that can connect to the ninjam servers.
You can check out the the results of this kind of online jamming at
http://ninbot.com/
@Gravitas @Alfred
Thanks for both of your responses. I had a feeling that Zoom's own sound wasn't going to cut it. Need to look further into Sonobus to understand how to connect it with Zoom for the audio.
Will check out Ninjam. It looks a bit complicated for my needs, but an interesting tool for collaborative synced jams.
No problem.
I think the best way to visualise using this together with Zoom is to use
Zoom only for the visuals and mute the apps internal sound.
Create a private group on SonoBus for the audio and away to go.
I'm going to be testing it later on this week or next
using this method so I'll comment on my results.
SonoBus works really well for me. As long as all users have a decent internet connection and use wired connections instead of WiFi.
Scroll down on this thread for the longer post by sonosaurus for a guide on how to get audio out into separate DAW channels. It’s not the exact scenario you are describing but should be a good starting point.
https://forum.audiob.us/discussion/43076/use-sonobus-to-expose-daw-tracks-to-aum/p3
Great! Thanks for sharing the link 👍
I totally get why a tool like Endlesss isn’t your thing as it certainly has constraints to natural music making. It wasn’t until I opened myself to the creative possibilities of finding “a new thing” that it clicked for me. Once I let go of my preconceived idea of music making and gave in to the well designed experience in Endlesss I found that I created in new ways and with new people and enjoyed it immensely. Others here disagree with this point of view and i get why. Just offering my POV.
I find it hard to describe just how profound the experience of using Endlesss was. It is a lot like in person jamming in ways and in a sense allows for a different form of controlled experimentation you just can’t do any other way. I have tried to get meat space friends to jam with me in it but it is the old horse to water thing. I begged them to log on with me at the same time but they would just say ‘wouldn't that be confusing?’ and simply approached it on their own isolated time like sending little sequenced ‘dawed’ packets and merely described it as ‘OK’. Sigh! Endlesss with people on at the same time is magical. I guess they are more spreadsheet styled composers anyway. But yah, for people who have a live bent Endlesss can be transcendent.
I don’t use iOS Endlesss, but I do use Endlesss studio on a laptop (I bought an old cheap, small 2014 MacBook Air for the job). This way I can feed an AUM session over IDAM or Studiomux and have the joys of all my iOS apps available for an online jam.
I host the Endlesss plug-in in Ableton Live lite. It was £60 I think for Endlesss, but from the very first jam I had with my long-COVID-lost musical collaborator I knew it was money well spent.
Another thing - and I’ve never used it - is Bandlab, a DAW app (originally Cakewalk on desktop) with online collaboration at its heart - i thought it looked too good to be true… I’ve downloaded it, but never got round to using it (as I’m happy jamming in Endlesss rather than make ‘proper’ songs). Might be worth checking out though, I couldn’t find anyone saying anything bad about it (which actually made me suspicious).
A friend I have collaborates making acoustic tunes using ‘Acapella’, which layers video and sound from the various participants. Again, I’ve not used it, mine more ‘a good face for techno’
EDIT: just had a play with Bandlab, seems pretty good - though I appreciate not necessarily the real time solution perhaps @galmandsværk is seeking. Unfortunately for me, the need for a “decent internet connection” puts me out of the SonoBus game, that’s the beauty of Endlesss and it’s nearly live loops, it feels like real time even though it’s not.