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.
TouchOsc: Can it not run in the background?
I am trying to use TouchOsc side-by-side AUM, but I find that TouchOsc is unresponsive if not in the foreground. Can anybody confirm that this is the way it is with TouchOsc?
(I have TouchOsc setup with bi-directional control with a Faderfox EC4. And TouchOsc also passes on the CC to AUM. Which works perfectly when TouchOsc is in front, but if I then go to AUM, TouchOsc apparently stops receiving and sending.)
Comments
Does TouchOsc maybe have a "background" setting, similar to background audio in IAA synths?
I did look for it with no luck. I assume that TouchOsc is just made to run in the foreground which kind of makes sense, as it is made to be a hands-on controller.
Yes, understood. You could do a similar thing with StreamByter or Mozaic. I've made a script for my Xtouch Mini that converts its 8 encoders into 8 banks of 8 CCs. Previous values are loaded when you switch banks, so you're always moving the knob from the correct position. The disadvantage is that I cannot use the on-screen controls in the music app, because then the knobs will be out of position. That might give you some ideas for a script.
If you have Mozaic, the Controller Feedback and Restore script may help. Same disadvantage with onscreen controls as @uncledave describes, however.
Ok, sounds like Mozaic is the ticket for what I am aiming at, but it does sound a bit intimidating for a person with no coding background.
You might want to contact the TouchOSC developer about adding background operation if Mozaic is too intimidating. I asked about something once and got a very nice response almost immediately. The developer didn't want to implement my request, but was thoughtful enough to listen and respond as to why. https://hexler.net/contact
Another workaround would be to run TouchOSC in popover mode to keep it alive. It will get in the way though.
Before buying Mozaic, you might want to peruse the available scripts at
https://patchstorage.com/platform/mozaic/ or
https://wiki.audiob.us/doku.php?id=mozaic_scripts_list&s[]=mozaic.
There are dozens of scripts that have already been written that might be useful for you without the need for coding. Often people will write scripts for others if the idea can work and is explained clearly.
BTW, if it's true TouchOSC doesn't run in the background, that is a big deal, and a significant hinderance to many use cases it could have on iOS.
I messed around with using TouchOSC on my phone and using midimittr to connect to my iPad.
Since I'm just starting out with this app but already kind of fascinated, what would those be?
I guess you can program some kind of automation into the buttons etc? I noticed you can add "springs" to the sliders for them to gradually return to a set value after you let go of them...
Well, there will always be those times where, even though you have a great control surface built, you need to switch over to another app. If TouchOSC stops doing it’s job during those times, it could cause problems.
If TouchOSC really doesn’t run in background, it’s the only app of that kind on iOS that I can think of that doesn’t.
The OP of this thread is using it to interface a hardware controller to other apps. He wants to use the on-screen controls, but also wants to use the hardware controls while TouchOSC is in the background.
So if I understand the manual, the app can also be used as a converter, to receive some type of message (a trigger) and generate something else. Linking with another instance on a different device should mean that one device can be used as a touch surface for the other. But of course this is pretty useless if the app doesn’t run in background.
Any updates about this?
I've used TouchOSC multitasking with it both in splitscreen and as a slide over, it received midi from my midi controller no problem.
I never tested it explicitly in the background. If it was a dealbreaker for picking it up, I find using slide over to be unobtrusive, especially if you never actually plan to open it up.
Edit: If your goal is just conversion, I'd say that Mozaic or StreamByter might be better options.
iPad needs an AUv3 control surface App with a versatile, highly configurable, control layout editor. I'm bewildered why no developer has yet made one.
Nurack by 4-pockets has a Midi AU, and in that Midi AU there is a module called "Midi Mixer". The controls in Midi Mixer can be edited and moved around, sliders can be converted into knobs, and they can be relocated and assigned to control App parameters of other Apps running in an AU host like AUM.
Using Nurack for this is a hack-way of building a custom controller because it's not well designed for that purpose. But for those with determination and patience it might be made to work.
The nice thing about Nurack is the interface is made to look like hardware, and there are some options for switching control styles to give your creation a custom look.
It would be nice if Paul from 4-pockets could repurpose the Nurack technology and create a brand new AU-App for constructing custom controller surfaces. All the layout tools already exist in Nurack, it would just need to be transformed from a custom effects layout App, into a Control Surface layout App.
@horsetrainer
MidiDesigner has been available for almost a decade
https://mididesigner.com
It lets you build your own midi controls and interface. The OSC app way interesting because it had game controller support.
Don’t be bewildered. iOS music app development is not reliably profitable..particularly for large scale projects. Things like configurable controller are even more niche. I imagine a configurable layout editor AUv3 won’t happen till either a dev needs one for their own uses. Or a developer that has the pieces in their toolkit already to make such runs out of ideas that they think would be more productive.
Loopy can be used to create useful controller layouts but has no script ability. Maybe some day Bram Bos will create a Mozaic sibling for designing layouts…or maybe the TouchOSC dev will feel inspired to port to AUv3…but I won’t be surprised if they don’t.
I wonder if that's going to change soon.
Protokol, the great MIDI monitor from the same developer, suffers from the same issue: It doesn't work in the background which limits its usefulness as a generic a MIDI monitor.
At least it supports slide-over mode.
I don't see it mentioned that it's an AUv3 that can be loaded in a host to control other AU's?
It isn't AUv3
@horsetrainer sorry I was focused on the midi building bit being able to be done on your iPad and I missed you saying AU3
I'm interested by the idea of a user-designed-layout , AU3 Midi control interface, because we currently have so many powerful AUv3 synth and effect apps available on iPad...
We can already load several Apps into AUM, and layer them, run them trough effects in various ways, and in general use those AU Apps to build musical things with capabilities that extend far beyond what any single App might be able to do on its own.
That way of using individual AUv3's might seem in essence like a kind of modular system that uses AU3's as modules.
So we currently have all this modular power capability on our iPads... But no comprehensive way take full control over it, to might make the fullest use of it.
What a customizable AUv3 controller would do... Is allow one to explore "simultaneous multi-App parameter control" to the fullest extent. It's the idea of linking a single Control to operate multiple parameters in two or more Apps. And adding additional single controls to operate other "Parameter sets" in the hosted Apps.
The potential of what might be done is immense, because of the combination of possible configurations is huge.
The reason for having a customizable AU3 control surface, is to be able intuitively use whatever one builds with this paradigm using a layout that makes sense to the user.
That way the projects one builds and wants to use again can be state saved as a type of sudo-App. And the custom interface allows a user to recognize which slider, knob, or switch does what. Because the control layout is unique and can have labels.
For example....
The CS80 is a cool vintage synth. It's essentially two identical simple synths with the exact same set of controls laid out, one above the other the front panel.
We have lots of simple synths in iOS, and many of them have additional functions too. But their layouts don't all look the same.
So say you wanted to experiment with a CS80 type synth... Start by building a custom CS80 looking layout with two sets of of identical synth controls using the hypothetical AU3 controller App.
Next you can use two same, or different, iOS synths, and just hook up the controls you need to get simple CS80 type synth function out of each.
Combine their outputs in AUM, and start programing each synth using the controller App.
Now you can program two separate synths very quickly from a single interface. You can't easily do something like that now because you'd have to keep bouncing back and forth between two AU synth interfaces, while trying to remember the layout of each, and what does what.
If you want to add an effect to your custom CS80. Load up the AU effect of your choice, then add what's needed to your controller layout to make use of the effect in a way you want.
Staying with the concept of a CS80 interface... lets say you loaded four synths into the host. You could then use your CS80 controls so each synth single set is linked to control the parameters of two synths each. Now from one interface, you are easily and intuitively able to control four synths, and an effect unit. Try to do that as fast by programing each AU individually.
When you have a patch you want to keep, state save it.
I'd like to see AUM with this type of controller capability built-in. Maybe also with patch selector type state-saver of some kind. If this type of modular system became popular, maybe AUM could provide a container for "builds"... that could be opened to edit in the default view, then closed so a build could be loaded into only one slot with a way to open just the interface the user made to control their build.
I think such a thing would be extremely cool. People might also share their projects on patch storage. Providing a list of required apps to make it go.
I have to say I'm sceptical of this. Most iOS synths, even relatively small ones like DRC or Viking, use multiple panes to present their controls. The screen is too small for easy access to all the controls on one surface. The idea of replicating this in a DIY setup would be very challenging. Plus, you'd need to configure all the MIDI mapping to AUv3 parameters.
But you can experiment with this right now using Mozaic, or combine the LK MIDI Controller with StreamByter. You can script the controls to simulate multiple layers to be able to control many parameters.
I'm looking at this as more for building selective parameter control interfaces. It's not about providing all the parameters from a number of AU apps. It's about wanting to accomplish something that can only be done using multiple apps, and determining which parameters need to be on the controller to accomplish that goal.
Such as having one slider on the control interface mapped to parameters in multiple different apps. What that one slider accomplishes is dependent on which parameters are chosen, and how a control change is programed to effect each.
A single relatively simplistic controller interface could potentially be set up to manipulate several apps to result in very complex results that would be almost impossible to achieve without an independent control interface.
I agree the concept requires experimentation to see how interesting the results could be.
As far as a controller being able to fit enough controls. Nurack lets you scroll side to side and can let you access to a large control surface by dragging it.
I'm not sure I'm following you here. Apps that can do this have existed for many years. TB Midi Stuff, Lemur, TouchOSC (1 and 2), Midi Designer Pro, Sonic Logic ... probably others have been around a long time.
None of those are AUv3, but all of them can create as complex a "single surface" control over multiple instruments as you can imagine. Some have more capabilities than others.
An AUv3 version of any of the above would be more convenient to have, but wouldn't add any functionality over what is there now. Aside from scripting, Loopy Pro AUv3, can make as comprehensive a control surface as you can dream up.
Why there aren't more AUv3 apps has already been addressed. There's likely a pretty unfavorable return on investment ratio. I don't have data to back that up, but do remember Xequence AUv3 Keys and Pads (both are AUv3 "control surfaces" of a sort) didn't sell nearly enough to repay their development time according to earlier comments by the developer.
Hmmmm loopy as a control surface…
As far as controlling multiple parameters from one knob (a "Super Knob" ala Montage), you can do that right now, using the capabilities built-in to Audiobus or AUM. You can MIDI map one CC to different AUv3 parameters in different apps. Audiobus even lets you set the gain for each parameter, so you could modify cutoff by one amount, decay by another, using one CC controlled by one knob. Not sure if AUM can also do this. And of course, with scripting, multifunction controls could get really complex. Now, Drambo, with its scenes, has multi-parameter control built in to its crossfader (Super Knob, anyone?). So the playground is open. Time to get out of the sandbox and hit the dirt!
@wim @uncledave
Of the existing virtual surfaces I've looked at, TB Midi Stuff would have been the Non-AUv3 one I'd have chosen because of hardware-looking controls. But TB Midi Stuff appears to be an abandoned App, and I've read recent reviews that its become unusably buggy.
I can use Drambo to control multiple AU3 Apps now, but it's not an elegant interface IMO.
My interest in this is based on the idea that individual AU3 Apps often have capabilities that might be useful to experiment with in sudo-modular ways. If I wanted to use certain parts of the sound generating capabilities of three different Apps in some experimental fashion...
Setting each one up and simply combining their outputs is the most simplistic way.
But it's not that great experimentally because each App has it's own parameters that can manipulate/modulate the sound in each. And the purpose of the experiment is to understand how various type of sound elements may be used in sound design to construct unique new types of sounds.
My dilemma when doing this is I can have a dozen ideas of want I'd like to try, but setting up each experiment in Drambo is tedious.
So I'm looking into virtual control surfaces that might allow me to quickly set up controls for manipulating AU App parameters.. But do it in a way where the controller surface can be designed/arranged so it makes ergonomic visual sense to make each "Super Knob" control in a specific layout intuitive for the specific experiment..
The problem of using generic controls like those in Mozaic. Is that using the same layout for multiple different experiments requires a level of effort in just memorizing how the interface is currently set up, and that effort detracts from the fluidity of conducting the actual sound design experiments.
Drambo is probably the best choice for this at the moment, But to me the setup process is tedious, and I find the Control modules Drambo offers uninspiring.
Thanks for trying to clarify, but if I'm honest, I'm as in the dark as ever about what's missing for you. Midi Designer Pro 2 is more than able to do everything you've mentioned so far. I find it a bit ugly (personal opinion), but other than that what's missing? Just that it's not AUv3?
Loopy Pro is capable of everything you mentioned as well, though slightly less flexible in layout options. It can be used as an AUv3.
If you have a second ipad then touchOSC is great. I've been using it for a while and have a bunch of really great presets setup for it. It also has scripting which can be useful when you want to do slightly more complex things. You can use the desktop designer to set them up, and then copy (through icloud) to your ipad. I use MIDI over bluetooth to control AUM and it works fine. You could also use it from your phone, so you could maybe setup some generic synth controllers on different tabs that way?
As far as AUV3 controllers are concerned - your best choices are probably LK (which has some good controllers, but fixed layout) and Loopy where you can design a layout which I believe can be used for MIDI controllers. Maybe overkill though if you don't need Loopy Pros other features.
i totally get what you want. i also wish there was a midi controller auv3. the closest i got working with AUM was TouchOSC in slide over. which is not the same as having a native window in AUM but better than switching between apps all the time. also the surface is rather in the size of an iPhone. but maybe brings you a little closer to the experience you're looking for.
also if you have a desktop licence of TouchOSC you can design layouts in there and sync them in realtime with any device running TochOSC. setting up a perfect layout is quite easy like that.
i was also considering Loopy Pro as a auv3 midi controller but unfortunately wasted my trial period not testing that scenario.