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.
Best desktop/iPad DAW solution?
Looking for a DAW for both Mac and iPad which I could seamlessly move back and forth on when working on a project.
I know there’s GarageBand, Cubase/Cubasis, and even Korg Gadget, though I’m not sure how well all those work.
Maybe there’s another way, using stems, or something along those lines.
And yes, there’s always SunVox.
Main thing I’m looking for is ease of process, not extra steps involving importing/exporting, etc.
Thanks in advance for any ideas.
Comments
A big challenge in this area is that a lot of audio units that are available on iPad are not available on macOS and vice-versa. So even if you have a tool that can work cross-platform, you have to be careful what instruments/effects you're adding to the mix. AFAIK GarageBand and Roland Zenbeats will have the most "seamless" experiences. It's one reason I'd really love to see Logic Pro come to iPad, because GarageBand Mac is missing some important features (notably the clip launcher).
There's Multitrack Studio. I haven't tried it myself.
Zenbeats can transfer a project/song wirelessly , but it's a long time since I've tested it (on WIndows)
also , AUs must be rendered to audio first , I don't know if ZB3 does it now automatically (it would be cool)
Ableton and use iPad as a VST/Module/Sequencer
I'd say Zenbeats if GarageBand ain't your thing.
FL Studio has FL Studio Mobile, but that's a different scenario. FLSM is a somewhat Gadget-like self contained DAW with a plugin for FL Studio. It's not the same thing as a cross-platform DAW. Instead, you can work in the mobile version and then export that to the FL Studio plugin. But the plugin is just a container for the FLSM sub-environment. Everything remains in that environment, hosted in the full FL Studio DAW on the desktop. I probably didn't explain that very well.
I wouldn't get your hopes up too high for seamless cross-platform experience. Especially if you use a lot of plugins.
This is my preference as well.
Also, there's Cubase and Cubasis.
MultiTrackStudio lets you move projects both ways between the desktop and iPad. There are a number of AUs which will load seamlessly, including preserving presets. These include KQ Dixie, Model 15, Sunrizer, Animoog Z, Mela. Also, any sound fonts loaded into the MTS sound font player and are available on both platforms will load seamlessly.
There are other AUs which are available on both platforms but have different plugin IDs or whose plugin state is not compatible, for example DRC, Synthmaster, mood, OB-Xd, Flowtones. For these, the latest release of MTS has a unique 'Substitution' feature which lets you substitute one plugin for another when moving between iOS and the desktop and also comes with new Universal Control features that let you copy MIDI/audio or whole songs directly between open copies of the app running on iOS and desktop:
https://forum.audiob.us/discussion/50220/multitrackstudio-4-5
The AU issue is solved by freezing tracks in Cubasis. Of course you can no longer manipulate the midi data but that should be accomplished on the iPad before exporting. FX no problem.
Until Apple bring us Logic for iOS Cubasis/Cubase is your best bet…
Jump in on the Steinberg forums for suggestions. The Cubasis team are HIGHLY responsive. Cubase not at all ☹️
Reason Compact and Reason
Sorry, couldn’t resist 😆
Your best bet for full cross-platform compatibilty (assuming you're porting projects back and forth) is likely Korg Gadget, because it is closed and will maintain your midi.
If you only need to send them from ipad to mac/pc, then Garageband, Zenbeats, or Cubasis would likely be the winner there as you can bounce your AU audio and work with third-party stuff. Both Zenbeats and Cubasis also run on Android devices, I believe.
n-track was an option when i was looking at this
That’s a good point.
Just tried dumping some stems/phrases into AUM and it may be my best bet, as it lets you loop audio files, and I can play around with different ideas. That’s mainly what I was looking for: A way to continue work on a project.
Drambo works on both! No audio tracks, but worth a shot.
I bought Korg Gadget for iOS and MacOS and it works seamlessly back and forth if this is your priority. Gadget works exactly the same on both platforms. But if you are expecting to have advanced capabilities on the laptop then this solution does not deliver.
If your priority is to use the iPad as a scratch book and then extend, refine and master the track on the laptop then Gadget can be used as well. Gadget can export a project as Ableton .als file to Dropbox. On the laptop you can open this with Ableton or Bitwig and if you have Gadget or the Gadget collection of synths on your laptop the tracks sound exactly the same in Ableton and Bitwig.
Bottom line: Gadget on both platforms offers you two workflows. A roundtrip workflow with Gadget and a iPad-as-scratchbook workflow with Gadget -> Ableton/Bitwig.
Update. I forgot to mention that if I want to use an iOS synth that I don’t have on the laptop and I want to continue my project on the laptop with Ableton/Bitwig I use the iPad as a sound module. I have an iConnectivity audio interface that allows to connect the iPad and the laptop at the same time and offers Midi and audio channels between both devices (my model “Audio 2+“ offers up to 14 mono audio channels from iPad to laptop)