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.

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AUM for Mac?

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Comments

  • Further to my last, having read the thoughts above: an AUM-branded Mac ‘front end’ to a connected iPad running a multi channel variant of IDAM, or a comprehensible version of the Iconnectivity matrix as a midi/audio bridge to Ableton would have my complete and undivided attention, as I would still be able to use all my iPad-only apps direct, live and interactively into Ableton. That would definitely be worth spending money on.

  • I’m a bit disappointed, AUM for mac means lot of time spend to port the software to MacOS, and less time to add new functions to the iOS version.
    Thre’s already far too much tools for audio production on MacOS,while its still very difficult to produce professional result on iOS.
    This also means delaying one more time the possibility of a full blown professional audio solution on iOS.
    Can’t blame him, as there’s certainly more money to make on MacOS than iOS.
    But for me this sad news.

  • I'm not sure if I'd buy this for the Mac simply because I'm not sure this is something I need/want on my Mac.

    But if I did want/need it I would have no problem paying for it again.

  • @Jeezs said:
    I’m a bit disappointed, AUM for mac means lot of time spend to port the software to MacOS, and less time to add new functions to the iOS version.
    Thre’s already far too much tools for audio production on MacOS,while its still very difficult to produce professional result on iOS.
    This also means delaying one more time the possibility of a full blown professional audio solution on iOS.
    Can’t blame him, as there’s certainly more money to make on MacOS than iOS.
    But for me this sad news.

    Don't worry, so far it's just a side project / experiment, investigating what would be possible and if it would make sense. Currently I'm hindered by my trusty old macbook pro which is stuck on MacOS Catalina, where for example there isn't even a function to get icons of AUv3 plugins (they ported this over in Big Sur).

    However, I am currently working on Mac builds of my AU3FX plugins.

  • @j_liljedahl said:
    However, I am currently working on Mac builds of my AU3FX plugins.

    ... and AU3FX:Push for iOS? 🙏🏼

  • Huge AUM user on iOS. Wouldn't use on MacOS. I just use Bitwig or Ableton.

  • edited November 2021

    @j_liljedahl said:
    I'm currently experimenting with porting AUM to Mac. It would involve quite a lot of work but I think it's doable. My idea is to offer it as a separate purchase for Mac, and I'd like to hear from my users what you think about this! Would you be interested in paying for a Mac version of AUM? Or would you think it's "unfair" to buy it again as opposed to making the current version universal iOS+Mac?

    People ask for timeline. Wonder if a seperate app would work. So you dont have to redo aum. It would work as a split view also and somehow show the timeline in split view. Maybe a rough scale. Say you overdub. There would be a marker. Click app so its then full view. Records aum stems. Mainly based on audio effects and mastering. Clip launch maybe from aum ( or record threshold ) drag and drop ( split view also ) Maybe still use aum volumes for mixing. I guess. So even though a seperate app. Still routes to aum mixer channels for effects but also can load effects on DAW page.

  • @wim said:

    @j_liljedahl said:
    However, I am currently working on Mac builds of my AU3FX plugins.

    ... and AU3FX:Push for iOS? 🙏🏼

    Yes, that too :)

  • @sigma79 said:

    @j_liljedahl said:
    I'm currently experimenting with porting AUM to Mac. It would involve quite a lot of work but I think it's doable. My idea is to offer it as a separate purchase for Mac, and I'd like to hear from my users what you think about this! Would you be interested in paying for a Mac version of AUM? Or would you think it's "unfair" to buy it again as opposed to making the current version universal iOS+Mac?

    People ask for timeline. Wonder if a seperate app would work. So you dont have to redo aum. It would work as a split view also and somehow show the timeline in split view. Maybe a rough scale. Say you overdub. There would be a marker. Click app so its then full view. Records aum stems. Mainly based on audio effects and mastering. Clip launch maybe from aum ( or record threshold ) drag and drop ( split view also ) Maybe still use aum volumes for mixing. I guess. So even though a seperate app. Still routes to aum mixer channels for effects but also can load effects on DAW page.

    Havent used a DAW. So maybe im writing bollox. With an aum timeline. Not sure what people mean. Maybe the ability to rewind aum? Lets say you made an app called aum timeline. It can be used as an au so it could be used bottom of screen but also split view. Bottom off screen for main timeline stuff and split view for when working with aum volumes. The app would need good audio features. Aum channels stream record to the timeline app and to make it so you can still use multi channel effects, whilst the audio be on a one page timeline. Audio streams would also be placed in a file player that sits in the effects slots. When engaged ( like how the file player has a filled circle ) It would then be a looper. If engaged it would shut off the synth or audio unit. Then play the file so you can still add effects. Obviously there would be a mode where the arrangment of audio stems would stream as an arrangement but still routed to aums faders. For people who dont have a controller for faders. On DAW app. When you select a channel. It would quickly scroll aum. So DAW app would still be useable when not full screen but the aum volume you want to tweak would conviently be available. The Daw timeline would maybe scroll/rewind aum but I guess only midi stuff thats written to a piano roll. Dont think rewinding applies to generators or pattern apps anyway. App would maybe be usefull for people completing tracks on ios and even people who transfer to another machine. They could maybe transfer arrangment made in aum and not arrange in other DAW but if they decide they want to redo a part. It would be a case of redo in aum but easier and more syncronised with the project elsewhere.

  • I’ve been thinking about this idea. My initial thought was “I don’t really need AUM on my Mac as I use MainStage” but now I rather think “yes it would be amazing to have it on Mac so I can plan and try out my iPad live rig at home on studio monitors then transfer the session to iPad”.
    I probably wouldn’t touch MainStage anymore as AUM has a more straight forward interface, amazing midi routing and always gives me that feeling of a child in a toy shop when I open it :)

    So here is another vote for porting it over.

  • @jacou said:
    I’ve been thinking about this idea. My initial thought was “I don’t really need AUM on my Mac as I use MainStage” but now I rather think “yes it would be amazing to have it on Mac so I can plan and try out my iPad live rig at home on studio monitors then transfer the session to iPad”.
    I probably wouldn’t touch MainStage anymore as AUM has a more straight forward interface, amazing midi routing and always gives me that feeling of a child in a toy shop when I open it :)

    So here is another vote for porting it over.

    Just opening an AUM session on iOS that was made on Mac might not always work, because the available plugins are not the same.

    Unfortunately, even the same AUv3 ported from iOS to Mac might not work, for example my own AU3FX plugins needs a new 'manufacturer' code on Mac because auval says it must contain at least one uppercase character, so I had to change 'kyma' to 'Kyma' - which would make a cross-platform host not see it as the same plugin. And I can't change the iOS version to 'Kyma' as well, because then it would break any session using those plugins :(

  • I'm 100% in for a MacOS version of AUM.

  • edited December 2021

    @j_liljedahl, Do current apps that are universal have issues such as you describe? A patch made on model15 or in Drambo have issues being seen and used back on iOS?. I don't have an M1 mac, nor do I plan on getting one (I gave up desktops except for the one I have to work on at work)! But the idea of AUM not being seamless between the 2 platforms would make me less interested in a mac port.

    That being said, I can see how it could possibly open the doors back up to people using vst hosts again instead of full daws for laptop performances and such. Being that most people I know that use MainStage have a love hate relationship with it.

    A question I have is does your vision of this see AUM as a standalone host only? Or would this work also as a plugin? Like a little submix of applications in a single channel/track in logic run as a vst/AU?

  • @j_liljedahl said:

    @jacou said:
    I’ve been thinking about this idea. My initial thought was “I don’t really need AUM on my Mac as I use MainStage” but now I rather think “yes it would be amazing to have it on Mac so I can plan and try out my iPad live rig at home on studio monitors then transfer the session to iPad”.
    I probably wouldn’t touch MainStage anymore as AUM has a more straight forward interface, amazing midi routing and always gives me that feeling of a child in a toy shop when I open it :)

    So here is another vote for porting it over.

    Just opening an AUM session on iOS that was made on Mac might not always work, because the available plugins are not the same.

    Unfortunately, even the same AUv3 ported from iOS to Mac might not work, for example my own AU3FX plugins needs a new 'manufacturer' code on Mac because auval says it must contain at least one uppercase character, so I had to change 'kyma' to 'Kyma' - which would make a cross-platform host not see it as the same plugin. And I can't change the iOS version to 'Kyma' as well, because then it would break any session using those plugins :(

    Ouch that sucks! It would have been so much nicer to have a way to run auval against iOS audio units.

    It would definitely be a pain on your end, but maybe a dialog that would let the user replace the loaded AU in the project would be useful. I suppose it could get complicated with presets if a user picked a new AU to replace one in the project. I don't suppose there are going to be many AU's that are on both iOS and macOS that would do this, but you wouldn't even have any way of knowing if the same AU on two different platforms used the same preset format for the data.

  • I'll also add that AUM being one of defacto apps devs test against, you might encourage more devs to make apps universal.

  • I think the main point of AUM on MacOS is better host support for iOS based apps than apples own hosts - just like on IOS.

  • Are we also allowed to put suggestions for the mac port of AUM in the "Unnecessary j_liljedahl app requests" thread?

  • @AlmostAnonymous said:
    @j_liljedahl, Do current apps that are universal have issues such as you describe? A patch made on model15 or in Drambo have issues being seen and used back on iOS?. I don't have an M1 mac, nor do I plan on getting one (I gave up desktops except for the one I have to work on at work)! But the idea of AUM not being seamless between the 2 platforms would make me less interested in a mac port.

    I would assume most devs making their apps universal (same app purchase can be installed on both platforms) would take care to make their data compatible, and often store it in iCloud so it "just works" from a user point of view.

    AUM would not be universal in that sense, but cross-platform so there's one version for iOS and one for Mac. They would be a bit different, for example there's no VST on iOS and there's no IAA on MacOS.

    The stored user data would be compatible between the two platforms, but I have no control over the data stored by plugins. And more importantly, some plugins will exist only on one of the platforms and that means you can't load the same session and get the same results, of course.

    A question I have is does your vision of this see AUM as a standalone host only? Or would this work also as a plugin? Like a little submix of applications in a single channel/track in logic run as a vst/AU?

    Standalone host only.

  • @NeonSilicon said:

    @j_liljedahl said:

    @jacou said:
    I’ve been thinking about this idea. My initial thought was “I don’t really need AUM on my Mac as I use MainStage” but now I rather think “yes it would be amazing to have it on Mac so I can plan and try out my iPad live rig at home on studio monitors then transfer the session to iPad”.
    I probably wouldn’t touch MainStage anymore as AUM has a more straight forward interface, amazing midi routing and always gives me that feeling of a child in a toy shop when I open it :)

    So here is another vote for porting it over.

    Just opening an AUM session on iOS that was made on Mac might not always work, because the available plugins are not the same.

    Unfortunately, even the same AUv3 ported from iOS to Mac might not work, for example my own AU3FX plugins needs a new 'manufacturer' code on Mac because auval says it must contain at least one uppercase character, so I had to change 'kyma' to 'Kyma' - which would make a cross-platform host not see it as the same plugin. And I can't change the iOS version to 'Kyma' as well, because then it would break any session using those plugins :(

    Ouch that sucks! It would have been so much nicer to have a way to run auval against iOS audio units.

    It would definitely be a pain on your end, but maybe a dialog that would let the user replace the loaded AU in the project would be useful. I suppose it could get complicated with presets if a user picked a new AU to replace one in the project. I don't suppose there are going to be many AU's that are on both iOS and macOS that would do this, but you wouldn't even have any way of knowing if the same AU on two different platforms used the same preset format for the data.

    Yeah, replacing an AU and then trying to load the previous state into the new AU could have all sorts of weird things happening, since I can't guarantee the state will be compatible.

    For my AU3FX problem, I guess the best way would be to add another component description that uses "Kyma" and show a popup in the plugin if user loaded the old one, asking them to switch to the new one instead. But it would mean my plugins would show up twice in the lists, which is confusing and ugly. I wish there was a way to hide an AUv3 plugin so it can only be instantiated if the AudioComponentDescription is known, then the old could be kept for backwards compatibility but not show up in lists. There is a kAudioComponentFlag_Unsearchable in AudioComponentFlags, but I don't think it's possible to set this flag in the extensions audio component Info.plist.

  • @j_liljedahl said:

    @NeonSilicon said:

    @j_liljedahl said:

    @jacou said:
    I’ve been thinking about this idea. My initial thought was “I don’t really need AUM on my Mac as I use MainStage” but now I rather think “yes it would be amazing to have it on Mac so I can plan and try out my iPad live rig at home on studio monitors then transfer the session to iPad”.
    I probably wouldn’t touch MainStage anymore as AUM has a more straight forward interface, amazing midi routing and always gives me that feeling of a child in a toy shop when I open it :)

    So here is another vote for porting it over.

    Just opening an AUM session on iOS that was made on Mac might not always work, because the available plugins are not the same.

    Unfortunately, even the same AUv3 ported from iOS to Mac might not work, for example my own AU3FX plugins needs a new 'manufacturer' code on Mac because auval says it must contain at least one uppercase character, so I had to change 'kyma' to 'Kyma' - which would make a cross-platform host not see it as the same plugin. And I can't change the iOS version to 'Kyma' as well, because then it would break any session using those plugins :(

    Ouch that sucks! It would have been so much nicer to have a way to run auval against iOS audio units.

    It would definitely be a pain on your end, but maybe a dialog that would let the user replace the loaded AU in the project would be useful. I suppose it could get complicated with presets if a user picked a new AU to replace one in the project. I don't suppose there are going to be many AU's that are on both iOS and macOS that would do this, but you wouldn't even have any way of knowing if the same AU on two different platforms used the same preset format for the data.

    Yeah, replacing an AU and then trying to load the previous state into the new AU could have all sorts of weird things happening, since I can't guarantee the state will be compatible.

    For my AU3FX problem, I guess the best way would be to add another component description that uses "Kyma" and show a popup in the plugin if user loaded the old one, asking them to switch to the new one instead. But it would mean my plugins would show up twice in the lists, which is confusing and ugly. I wish there was a way to hide an AUv3 plugin so it can only be instantiated if the AudioComponentDescription is known, then the old could be kept for backwards compatibility but not show up in lists. There is a kAudioComponentFlag_Unsearchable in AudioComponentFlags, but I don't think it's possible to set this flag in the extensions audio component Info.plist.

    Could one solution be to have an “export for desktop “ option for projects (and desktop version would have export for iOS). This would make the project as compatible as possible with any name changes for plugins, and could also indicate to the user which plugins and functions won’t survive the conversion.

  • edited December 2021

    If AUM were to be available on mac and serve as a bridge in some way to allow me to use AUv3 compatible plugins that I already own inline within a DAW on macOS, I would not hesitate to pay for this.

    For example, I have Fabfilter Pro bundle on my iPad that I got for call it $85 at a steep discount, all 7 of them Pro-C 2 to Pro R. I don't have it on the mac, because it's really f-ing expensive ($700 +-). How different are the ios and macos apps underneath? Are they the same Fabfilters or not?

    If you could do this, in a way you'd be arbitraging a valuation discrepency in the marketplace. In this case the price of iOS apps relative to macOS versions of the same code.

  • @Carnbot said:

    @j_liljedahl said:

    @NeonSilicon said:

    @j_liljedahl said:

    @jacou said:
    I’ve been thinking about this idea. My initial thought was “I don’t really need AUM on my Mac as I use MainStage” but now I rather think “yes it would be amazing to have it on Mac so I can plan and try out my iPad live rig at home on studio monitors then transfer the session to iPad”.
    I probably wouldn’t touch MainStage anymore as AUM has a more straight forward interface, amazing midi routing and always gives me that feeling of a child in a toy shop when I open it :)

    So here is another vote for porting it over.

    Just opening an AUM session on iOS that was made on Mac might not always work, because the available plugins are not the same.

    Unfortunately, even the same AUv3 ported from iOS to Mac might not work, for example my own AU3FX plugins needs a new 'manufacturer' code on Mac because auval says it must contain at least one uppercase character, so I had to change 'kyma' to 'Kyma' - which would make a cross-platform host not see it as the same plugin. And I can't change the iOS version to 'Kyma' as well, because then it would break any session using those plugins :(

    Ouch that sucks! It would have been so much nicer to have a way to run auval against iOS audio units.

    It would definitely be a pain on your end, but maybe a dialog that would let the user replace the loaded AU in the project would be useful. I suppose it could get complicated with presets if a user picked a new AU to replace one in the project. I don't suppose there are going to be many AU's that are on both iOS and macOS that would do this, but you wouldn't even have any way of knowing if the same AU on two different platforms used the same preset format for the data.

    Yeah, replacing an AU and then trying to load the previous state into the new AU could have all sorts of weird things happening, since I can't guarantee the state will be compatible.

    For my AU3FX problem, I guess the best way would be to add another component description that uses "Kyma" and show a popup in the plugin if user loaded the old one, asking them to switch to the new one instead. But it would mean my plugins would show up twice in the lists, which is confusing and ugly. I wish there was a way to hide an AUv3 plugin so it can only be instantiated if the AudioComponentDescription is known, then the old could be kept for backwards compatibility but not show up in lists. There is a kAudioComponentFlag_Unsearchable in AudioComponentFlags, but I don't think it's possible to set this flag in the extensions audio component Info.plist.

    Could one solution be to have an “export for desktop “ option for projects (and desktop version would have export for iOS). This would make the project as compatible as possible with any name changes for plugins, and could also indicate to the user which plugins and functions won’t survive the conversion.

    There's no way to know if a plugin changed name, or what the corresponding name and/or AudioComponentDescription is on the other platform. Plugin state data would just be assumed to be compatible. Also there's no way to know which plugins exist on desktop but not on iOS, or the other way around, except as mentioned any IAA apps or VST plugins.
    I would use iCloud to sync documents between devices so there should be no need for manual export.

  • edited December 2021

    @kidslow said:
    If AUM were to be available on mac and serve as a bridge in some way to allow me to use AUv3 compatible plugins that I already own inline within a DAW on macOS, I would not hesitate to pay for this.

    For example, I have Fabfilter Pro bundle on my iPad that I got for call it $85 at a steep discount, all 7 of them Pro-C 2 to Pro R. I don't have it on the mac, because it's really f-ing expensive ($700 +-). How different are the ios and macos apps underneath? Are they the same Fabfilters or not?

    If you could do this, in a way you'd be arbitraging a valuation discrepency in the marketplace. In this case the price of iOS apps relative to macOS versions of the same code.

    Yeah, well that's not possible. I can only port AUM, not other developers plugins!

    Or perhaps you meant more like IDAM but better? So running AUM on both devices and piping audio over network? That would be cool but a huge task and there already is studiomux etc for that.

  • I think I read in one of the relevant threads something about plugin categories.
    Maybe that could be abused to hide duplicates and such. If adopted users will slowly migrate pressuring devs to include it. The big pot sooner or later would loose relevance.

  • @j_liljedahl said:

    @jacou said:
    I’ve been thinking about this idea. My initial thought was “I don’t really need AUM on my Mac as I use MainStage” but now I rather think “yes it would be amazing to have it on Mac so I can plan and try out my iPad live rig at home on studio monitors then transfer the session to iPad”.
    I probably wouldn’t touch MainStage anymore as AUM has a more straight forward interface, amazing midi routing and always gives me that feeling of a child in a toy shop when I open it :)

    So here is another vote for porting it over.

    Just opening an AUM session on iOS that was made on Mac might not always work, because the available plugins are not the same.

    Unfortunately, even the same AUv3 ported from iOS to Mac might not work, for example my own AU3FX plugins needs a new 'manufacturer' code on Mac because auval says it must contain at least one uppercase character, so I had to change 'kyma' to 'Kyma' - which would make a cross-platform host not see it as the same plugin. And I can't change the iOS version to 'Kyma' as well, because then it would break any session using those plugins :(

    Yikes!! Is anyone in contact with the core audio team at Apple regarding these shenanigans?

  • @realdawei said:

    @j_liljedahl said:

    @jacou said:
    I’ve been thinking about this idea. My initial thought was “I don’t really need AUM on my Mac as I use MainStage” but now I rather think “yes it would be amazing to have it on Mac so I can plan and try out my iPad live rig at home on studio monitors then transfer the session to iPad”.
    I probably wouldn’t touch MainStage anymore as AUM has a more straight forward interface, amazing midi routing and always gives me that feeling of a child in a toy shop when I open it :)

    So here is another vote for porting it over.

    Just opening an AUM session on iOS that was made on Mac might not always work, because the available plugins are not the same.

    Unfortunately, even the same AUv3 ported from iOS to Mac might not work, for example my own AU3FX plugins needs a new 'manufacturer' code on Mac because auval says it must contain at least one uppercase character, so I had to change 'kyma' to 'Kyma' - which would make a cross-platform host not see it as the same plugin. And I can't change the iOS version to 'Kyma' as well, because then it would break any session using those plugins :(

    Yikes!! Is anyone in contact with the core audio team at Apple regarding these shenanigans?

    The requirement for 'manufacturer' to contain at least one uppercase character is apparently standard and tradition, and has probably been like that for ever on desktop. Unfortunately I had no idea about this since I started doing plugins on iOS, not Mac. If I had known, I could just use 'Kyma' instead of 'kyma' from the start and I wouldn't have to worry about this compatibility issue :(

  • who would have thought that a capital letter in 'manufacturer' would cripple something.
    so is this one of those things that seem so tiny to not be resolved, but apple will just never figure out how to do?
    Something on the "holy crap we can't figure this one out" scale like merging 2 apple IDs you own.....[ insert rolling eyes gif ]

  • @kidslow said:
    If AUM were to be available on mac and serve as a bridge in some way to allow me to use AUv3 compatible plugins that I already own inline within a DAW on macOS, I would not hesitate to pay for this.

    At one level, iDAM already provides for this - allowing you to send audio from iOS to MacOS, and MIDI both ways, via USB Cable. So, it is already possible to use synth apps in a MacOS DAW.

    However, since the audio flow is only one way, this means you can't use iOS FX with iDAM. Enter StudioMux which does enable multi-channel audio in both directions. Latency and stability issues kind of made me lose interest in that path but others seem to have faired better. ymmv

    The most solid solution for what you mention is either something like the iConnectivity Audio 4c that can route audio between devices, or two interfaces - one feeding the other.

  • @j_liljedahl said:

    Or perhaps you meant more like IDAM but better? So running AUM on both devices and piping audio over network? That would be cool but a huge task and there already is studiomux etc for that.

    Yeah AUM on both devices was one idea and would be a reasonable solution if the latency didn't kill it. Will take a look at Studiomux.

  • @kidslow the beta seems to be performing pretty well for people. Wouldn't bother with the App Store version.

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