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.
Opinions on spending $5 (or not)
I have $5 left on a Father's Day gift App Store card of $15 & I would like to solicit opinions on the best app or apps to spend it on.
The following $4.99 apps are those I've had on my wish(y) list... which would you choose, and maybe why?:
AudioReverb
EGSY01 Analog Synth
iVoxel
Jasuto
SoundPrism Pro
Filtration
The following are less expensive apps that I could mix n' match from; which would be your choices, and maybe why (or why not)?:
Real Grand Piano - .99
Synth 76477 - 2.99
e-l-s-a - 1.99
Giant Isopod - 2.99
Drum Beats+ - 3.99
Glitch - .99
Yellofier- 2.99
VocaForm - 2.99
AUFX: Peak - 3.99
AUFX: Dub - 3.99
Electronic Piano Synthesizer - 3.99
Temperament - 2.99
(NOTE: Pushing a buck or two over may not be a big deal if I sweet-talk the missus, so if more of them could work their way in it could be a go.
OR... save what I have towards something like Audulus, iFretless Bass/Sax, Caustic, Gestrument (full), MorphWiz, SampleWiz, Grain Science, SeekBeats, MIDImorphosis, Stria...
Keep in mind that I have NO exterior noisemakers or gadgets; I don't play the guitar, none of that fancy outboard stuff some of you fellas have. Any apps that would abet these sorts of things would probably do me no good at this juncture, if that were their forte'. And I have an iPhone 5...
Thank you for your input!
Comments
AudioReverb and AUFX: Dub would be my vote(s), for what it's worth. I use them quite a bit on all sorts of projects! Real Grand Piano sounds great, but not the most "user friendly" in my experience....
AUFX:PeakQ would get my vote. I use it with Audioshare on completed tracks in the mastering process since there are very few apps for mastering for the iPhone.
Out of the apps above, I'd choose iVoxel because it's fun to use.
AUFX:Dub is also very versatile since it can be a delay, a chorus, a flanger and other things.
This is almost impossible to say what you would like with any accuracy, though I will say that some of the ones on your "save towards" list like iFretless Bass and Caustic are the ones I favor more than the other under $5. The AUFX apps, if you have interested in an FX slot AudioBus app, will get the most use out of that list.
Since you don't use external controllers, a lot of people will tell you to use SoundPrism, but while it is cool and beautifully designed, I feel like it does a lot of chord progressions that end up sounding the same.
If you don't have EasyBeats 3 already, grab that for $5 and you can spend hours downloading sample drum kits to import in. That app has infinite functionality.
I think if you are an "IPhone interface only" guy for your instruments, and you are wanting to make music: (based with notes rather than beats) that you would really appreciate Soundprism Pro. Watch some videos to see what it can do. It is a foundational app!
If you haven't got it already - Samplr is ace!
Of the ones you mention - Yellofier, AUFX Dub and SeekBeats are pretty cool.
@noisehorse has a great point. SoundPrism or AUFX: Dub would get my vote but I don't know what kind of music you make or what kind of apps you have now.
I think by "Filtration" you mean Filtatron. If so, great app with a great delay built in. That said, it's dipped to 0.99 many many times.
Unless you're a big fan of DX7 Pianos, Electronic Piano Synthesizer isn't all that interesting. Thumbjam ftw.
The only apps from this list that I use regularly are AudioReverb and the AUFX Q and Dub. They're all fun though. I choose AudioReverb over AUFX Space most of the time.
I like the AUFX apps. I haven't found much use for Filtatron. Yellofier is fun to play around with, but I got it for free. I don't think I've used any of the others you mentioned. Out of those the AUFX stuff is the most useful in my opinion.
AUFX Dub its really good
AudioReverb is the best reverb app.
AUFX:Dub is the best delay app (Echo Pad is good too but I find Dub quicker to use).
If you want an all-in-one production environment and aren't interested in Korg Gadget, Caustic is definitely worth getting.
Looks like AUFX apps gets the nod, and rightly so as @j_liljedahl is a brilliant dev.
Still, I will play devil's advocate and say save your $5 for something you must have.
@syrupcore said:
Yes, I did mean to spell 'Filtatron' but this iPhone spell-check got me this time. I'm typically a spelling, punctuation & grammar Nazi, and some folks here cause me to grit my teeth sometimes where that is concerned... :-). And while we're on that subject: I know the internet is a big casual club where it comes to such things (even those interests who should do everything in their power to NOT be in such a club, i.e. app description writers), but I will say (only this once) that it doesn't matter whether you're driving up to the corner store or driving cross-country, you still have to use the same driving rules... if you grok my metaphor.
'Nuff said. Please carry on!
Well, Real Grand Piano is out - I have enough problems learning the apps I have now! I do have Easy Beats; and I've messed around with the free version of SoundPrism. I do have AUFX:Space, so venturing further down that avenue is not a bad idea... I probably should own all four. I am interested in Korg Gadget, but Korg Gadget devs aren't interested in iPhones, apparently (oh, I forgot... the App Store is a 'craft fair').
Another question comes to mind: I have a number of apps in limbo because I need the space... is there some method of using DropBox or AudioShare or what-have-you to recall previous settings and such from any of these apps?
@Brain said:
Check out Caustic then. It's a great all-in-one solution. As much as I like Audiobus, I'm far more productive when I use a single app to write songs. I think a lot of other people on this forum feel the same way, as apps like Korg Gadget, Caustic and NanoStudio get quite a lot of attention.
@PHᐃNTᐃSM said:
Indeed, which is one of the reasons - well, maybe THE reason - why I jumped on the NanoStudio bandwagon (plus, as a designer/artist I like the look of NS, even if it is fairly skeuomorphic); but with all the different sorts of apps available (and at such fair prices) it would seem a bit of a shame to not take advantage of the variety offered by such.
I own both, but Caustic is great and is still being worked on and improved. It's also a lot friendlier towards adding additional community content. It was great even as a contained ecosystem, but now with AB it's useful in any number of ways.
I'd agree with the Caustic recommendations, esp. after the last update.
I think I'm going to use my $5 + and get Caustic - it looks great & I like the idea of everything in one box, so-to-speak! The rest of the AUFX apps will be right behind that!