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.
7XDXFM App Pre-release Demos on YouTube
There are some pre-release demos of a new 4 OP FM app called 7XDXFM from Beats n Bobs on YouTube. I couldn’t see a link to put on here. It sounds really good.
Comments
Very little to no information on Google so some more context would be appreciated
Is that app UI built in Keynote?
😆
I’m on the beta for this and it’s fantastic. Rob Wilmont, the dev, has some other great and cheap app on the App Store.
It’s an FM groovebox similar to the Digitone and it’s very fun. Interface takes some getting used to, but I love it personally.
I want this. When do you think it will go live?
Haha
I’m not sure, but I believe pretty soon. I can try and contact the dev and see if I can get a better estimate. It’s got some really cool features I think everyone will like.
I like software that is pure function with simple and understandable controls, like our friend @NeonSilicon makes, but this developer could really use some UI refinement. If he wants some "free advice" in that arena, I'm sure there are plenty of folks here who could contribute something if not just feedback.
Full tutorial out on the dev’s YouTube channel, looks and sounds interesting, despite the workaday/plain appearance
Hi. I just noticed talk of this app on here which was nice. The name is slightly wrong which may make it difficult when looking for information about it. It’s called 7XFM. There is now a compilation video of 9 live demos made using the app, cut down a little bit.
It should be out very soon. I haven’t found any bugs recently. Apple have it in their hands.
Hi Rob, just wanted to say that I think it was your apps that were some of the very early things made me love and that got me into iOS music making and synths. There was a grid like synth interface with a few waveforms. A couple of apps then kind of took over that design, geosynth? but I always liked your initial one the most. Anyway, just wanted to show a little appreciation for that and thought it might be nice to know.
It’s still for me my favourite layout and design, as I think keyboards are kind of obsolete as an interface on a touchscreen outside of habit.
Thanks wingWizard. Really good to hear that. I’m not sure which app it was and some of my older apps I’ve taken off the AppStore, but these recent ones from me are part of a range so have the same layouts. There’s the 303 one, 808 drum machine and 7xwave for samples. Just wanted to imitate the Electribe/Volca style but ended up adding other bits and pieces. This FM one has taken much longer than expected (learning FM fundamentals) and hearing kind words makes it feel much more worth it. Thank you.
I came across your 7XFM app by chance on the internet and thought I would see if it was on this forum but it wasn’t. When I listened to it for a short while on one or two of the demos, I thought it sounded really good so I mentioned it on the forum to see if I could find out a bit more about the app, also others get to know about it.
Thank you!
Ps Im still releasing videos about it.
I have added extra info in the youtube description but you wont see it embedded here.
Its a 7 track 4 operator synth with effects, loop sampling and usual Link/MIDI and Audiobus/AUM compatible for audio routing.
Im just finishing up the manual now
That’s great thank you.
Can’t wait for this to finally be released, gonna be buying it day one!
The status of your (iOS) app, 7XDXFM 4 OP FM Synth Groovebox, is now "In Review"
I love this. I love the UI because it works with the old school sound. It’s refreshing, actually. It’s all big, simple and right there. My eyesight isn’t gone yet but with most apps you’re gonna have to do a little look before switching to some other function. This is like, even peripherally nothing is out of sight. Normally I’d be like ‘hmmm’ but I love it in this context so much that I’m willing to throw down fisticuffs to defend it.
And I love the demos, that 27 minute comp 🤌🏽. I like how the filter and echo sound. Overall it looks fun to experiment, mix and play with. It brings me back to a time and place in culture and history I was too young to experience but I can feel it in these demos. This has me hyped. Anyone sticking their nose in the air over the UI 🖕🏽
Well that’s a nice gesture 🤷♂️ For aesthetically minded users…nanoo nanoo. 😶🤦🏽
The UI is the Pontiac Aztec of Music UIs on iPadOS. There i said it.
It will still get you to where you need to go…but i can’t get beyond the UI. I want to be inspired by the UI i interact with to make music.
Utilitarian UI can still be beautiful. The new Scaler app for iPadOS being a great example of this UI model.
I am reacting this way cause i don’t take kindly to people giving me the bird on a forum or in public.
Not cool. Not cool. That is some high school BS. Just cause i don’t like the way UI looks is no reason to tell me to F’ off.
But whatever.
I’m off this thread. Out.
Lol, I think you're taking it too personally & seriously. It wasn't directed at anyone specific, but I knew there'd be some snobbishness about it. It's not like I was seething with rage and putting my combat boots on 🙄
Still though, can't get over the UI? What's more important? The sound or the look? And does it not aesthetically fit with the sound in a way anyway? Does it need to be that serious? Isn't this supposed to be fun in the end?
Speaking of HS, not being able to appreciate the substance of the app because of how it looks doesn't seem like a step up. Or 💩 on someones ui.
Or '/gasp/ I'm leaving' lol
Lighten up dude
See I even thought this was funny but I wasn't looking down on it.
I wasn't even paying attention to the other comments because I went straight to the YT vid and commented before I finished it because I was excited.
App was rejected because they want to see video of it in action first. No other reason. Although video was added but hey ho. Fingers crossed that’s all.
Just to keep you updated.
Nightmare Rob, good luck getting it back through 🍀
“Pontiac Aztec of Music UIs on iPadOS” Lmaooooooo priceless because I know why you say this.
I feel you man, no knock on the developer it’s kind of like food… we eat with our eyes too.
I’m a UI nerd myself, being a graphic designer and coming from the Dieter Rams/Apple/Metro/Minimal/Modern school of thought so I get snobby sometimes because I prefer the apps I use to be “pleasing” to look at: clean lines, good proportions, clever animations, consistency and most importantly, striking color choices. “Pleasing” for us minimalists can be “I don’t see what the big deal is” for others.
I have loosened up my perception for a few apps recently because they were too functionally great to ignore, but I feel you man because I too struggle looking at UIs like this 😂
And at the same time @shazbot I hear you because there have been a few new apps that recently dropped that were “pretty” and also “pretty” hard to see SMH. UIs can definitely inspire artists whether it be super simple or nodding to the design ethos of the masters. There is definitely a fine balance between aesthetics and functionality.
Bravo to the developer for making cool apps and sharing his gifts with the world!!!
I've generally empathized with the 'sorry, the UI is an eyesore' and dismissed (I initially did that when someone recently posted about his 7XWAVE app) but the 'album' video above kind of floored me. And given the 'icy' digital vintage sound of FM, I find the UI fitting and don't think it's careless.
Assuming the price is gonna be similar to his other apps, I feel like it has a garage-sale-find that will add to the enjoyment of using it; an old instrument with its own uniqueness. I know there won't be individual outs and am almost certain you won't be able to midi map the faders; like the UI I'm sensing the developers limits and accepting them because I can appreciate what it already has to offer.
So, just because I accept it as it is doesn't mean I don't have taste or appreciation for stellar UI/UX implementation or am ignorant about that aspect and its importance. I'm just not elitist about it.
It's like assuming if someone said they enjoyed some stupid mainstream flick they must not have the education and cognitive capacity to absorb and contemplate the depth of some non-linear abstract film.
I have some additional respect for indie developers that invest their efforts meticulously into every aspect of their app (hopefully without the cost of losing some form of health) but not all developers have the same resources and experience (or standards, for that matter).
On the flipside I may have some extra appreciation for it because of its lack of pretentiousness.
I think it's especially important for artists (that includes developers) to have higher standards so the audience/user has a deeper connection and inspiration from what's being communicated but chauvinism is counter-productive. Let's not get so myopic from our seat in the tower that we can't and/or won't bother to see the spirit in something on the ground.
While I understand that visual aesthetic (which is a personal thing) matters a lot to some, there are ways of saying that something isn’t to one’s taste that isn’t flip/insulting/demeaning/mean.
I’ve actually grown to enjoy the UI of his apps. They’re all easy to use, fun, and unique. That said, I’m a love of all things gaudy and kitsch so maybe I’m not the best voice of reason here 😆
I tend to prefer plain interfaces to be honest; I set all my work machines backdrops to mid gray and I’ve always loved the workhorse look and feel of blender 3d. I find it helps with creative work no end to have tools that fade as much into nothing as possible, but then I often do ten + hour days on stuff, so it’s easy to get tired eyes and brain from bright or over complicated looking things…
I really like the look of this, wouldn’t have noticed anything wildly different about it without the arbiters of taste and decency on here. 😂 Give me clarity and a fast UI over, well over everything really. Will be buying boss, thank you being on the forum.