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.
Comments
💯 Drambo 2.0
Play is ok, and works as a cheaper Squarp haptax but it's also a bit meh.
Yer Drambo 2 will def wipe the floor with this!
Ok. Finally watched the video from Ben Jordan, and it looks like a fun instrument to play and noodle with, sample limitations aside.
Hopefully some clever @rs2000 @bcrichards drambonauts will be able to replicate some of the fun aspects of the Play as Drambo modules.
Yeah! Including the Plays creative repeat / rachet modes..
I think Polyend Play and Drambo are very different. Play has no synth engine at all. The common ground is that both are a kind of groovebox. Drambo has its strengths in sound design while the Play has its strengths in its sequencer, generative features and the performance sound mangling.
At Superbooth I spent an hour with the Play. I think previously I’ve spent a similar amount of time with Elektron, AKAI and Novation grooveboxes. I’m more a DAW person than a groovebox person. But the Play is really a fascinating device. The workflow is super cool and I was able to become fluid within my hour with it. Any step on a sequencer track has total freedom and any value can be different from other steps on the same track - including the sample. You can randomize anything for each step differently - including the sample and sample length. For instance with just few clicks you can set that all steps of a track have a 30% chance that the sample is randomized over the samples in the hihat folder. This so cool.
The generative fill function can fill whole tracks or selections with randomized steps or generated steps that match selectable EDM styles. The performance mode turns the whole button array into a big mangling playground with stutter effect, filters, reverb, playhead direction, etc. etc.
I really think this is the most advanced step sequencer I’ve ever seen combined with the best performance effect section I’ve ever seen in a hardware groovbox. Watch loopop for a structured dive into its features and Benn Jordan’s video how make musical use of it. I really think about buying a box.
I preordered one over the weekend, I think this looks amazing and has a workflow unlike anything I’ve seen in a Groovebox. I love the idea of intelligent randomization to come up with unique synth ideas (Hydrasynth having the best I’ve used so far) and this looks to be equally good for coming up with new and evolving sequences.
I think this is a very good decision. I’m thinking about combining it with an iPad. Hosting 8 synths in AUM and sequence them from the Play. A dawless setup where a hardware sequencer drives 8 sample tracks and 8 iOS synth tracks with just two physical devices - hard to beat.
Try the sequencer in Drambo. It's quite intelligent and deep.
Agreed.
I was in a studio today getting a new secondhand audio interface
(it still has the protective plastic on the front) and the moment
I said "I use iPads" they lost interest in what I was describing.
I'm not fussed with that reaction actually.
If the gear is what you're focused on then you're not creating music,
it then just becomes a d::: swinging contest or gender equivalent.
They believe that iPads are toys.
On that note...
I'm off to make some music.
At the launch price, and no synth engine, I’d rather pay the difference and get an M1 iPad Pro.
It's hardware
but indeed the price is a bit salty .
Still don't understand how it compares with Drambo
I will need to watch to see what those are but I can almost bet Scatterbrain can do them.
yeah it's disappointment for me too.. too much limited, basicaly no serious sound shaping capabilities, it's like cool midi sequencer (that part is good no doubt) with added simple sample playback engine..
tracker has to me way much better price/festures ratio
Yeah, agreed on Tracker. I dig mine but loses big time to Drambo.
So the last days I spent some time with Drambo v2. The only randomization I know is the note on probability and the random condition of the step components. But the Play has so much more. A step can have multiple discrete probabilities of x% to randomize a certain parameter.
So, how would you do a randomization of hihat velocities within upper and lower limits? Or a randomization of the cutoff frequency?
What do mean that Drambo’s sequencer is intelligent? I didn’t find any generative functions.
If Drambo can’t do that, do you know of any other iOS step sequencer with such capabilities? I think I’m spoiled by Bitwig and also by the Polyend Play since I got my hands on it at Superbooth.
Rozeta bassline and drums
riffler and riffer
edit: sorry ,I though you where asking about generative iOS apps
First thoughts on the Polyend Play for those interested:
Thanks for the video! I'm watching it now, but distracted by the speaker (the audio one, not you, you handsome lug). What is it? It's beautiful.
Drambo has a totally different concept. Everything is modular, even the sequencer tracks may turn into isolated modules in the future so I think there's no point in comparing these two side by side. You can always find pros and cons in each concept.
About velocity and cutoff randomization synced with notes:
About generative functions:
The intelligence is in the racks. Drambo offers a whole bunch of building blocks for generative sequencers that can do all kinds of magic but no, Drambo won't automatically read your mind and build your dream melody, chord and rhythm generator for you 😉
Those are some custom Tyler Acoustic D2x's.
Thanks for the honest and objective overview of the PolyEnd Play @Tarekith
The more videos i watch on this device the less interested i am in buying one. For a future looking device it seems very limited:
. No direct sampling
. No sample slicing/chopping
. Sample limit of 6 minutes
. Mono Samples
. Monophonic audio tracks
. No audio over usb
. No USB Disc mounting
. No MultiOut of audio
. No LFO
. No Master Compressor
. No time stretching
This is what i can deduce from the handful of walk thrus videos I’ve seen so far.
Sure the Randomization, auto groove creation seems cool…but it just feels like it would be a gimmick over time. I use similar features in Atlas and PlayBeat 3 and other generative tools on desktop and iPad.
I guess i was hoping for a Deluge with a great Screen to get meaningful feedback out of. The Play is just feeling like a traditional Step based sequencer version of the Tracker more than anything. If the Tracker had the Auto Groove generator, and 8 independent MIDI Channels, would it really be the same device?
The AutoGroove feature is really the only thing separating this device from the Tracker, Digitakt and apps like Drambo on the iPad is what my Brain is telling my wallet…am i wrong in this assessment?
Well, not sure what you mean by no stereo audio tracks. Samples are mono but all the effects are stereo and you get panning per track too. No master compressor, but it has a limiter that does basically the same thing including side chaining.
It's definitely not a sampler though like you said. It's 100% a powerful sequencer first and foremost, and has just enough sample tweaking options to keep it interesting (for me anyway).
That said, I boxed it up this morning and am going to wait for Polyend to release a firmware update before I try using it again. There's a few too many weird bugs and inconsistencies that keep pulling me out of the flow. I know for a lot of people they are very minor, but I'm too old and jaded to put up with it these days
But yeah, I think if anyone is interested in the Play their first thought should be "whoa, that's an amazing sequencer! Oh hey, it also plays back samples too, nice bonus!". If you go into it expecting an MPC or Octatrack, definitely going to be disappointed.
With LK and Drambo, not seeing how this adds to what I need. Tracker was at least a different workflow. Plus the new MPC updates are much more interesting.
Thanks for the follow up on my post. I’m going to wait to see what Polyend does with it over the next few updates. I really like my Tracker and how it has evolved over the last year, so i am hopeful that the Play will be maturing in a similar fashion over the coming year.
Yeah it’s really this weird fascination i have with Hardware sequencers that makes the Play an interesting curiosity for me. The LED Pads and nice Screen makes it the closest thing to a hardware version of the Drambo Sequencer i have seen.
I definitely don’t need another hardware sequencer in my life…yet 😜
Drambo fills in 99.9999% of the sequencing space for me…but ya know what they say, “there’s always room for more gear…”😉
@Tarekith did you explore the Midi sequencing aspects of the Play? Did it offer the same Chance and Playback Speed and Direction functionality as the AudioTracks mode?
.
I have no use for the midi side of things and stated that in the video, but from what I’ve read that is not implemented yet but Polyend has said it’s coming soon.