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.
Music creating on an iPhone
![[Deleted User]](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/18901fafd55be10e4efa9d375d6f77a1/?default=https%3A%2F%2Fvanillicon.com%2F901952fbf5ea143455ec53326809f0d1_200.png&rating=g&size=200)
The user and all related content has been deleted.
Comments
Depends on what I'm using. Koala and, surprisingly, Korg Gadget are amazing for iphone. Koala is fun if I'm in line and get bored. Gadget is great for quick ideas that I can send to ipad for later without any worries about plugin compatibility.
I have an iPhone SE 2, and the screen is smaller than one of the pro iPhones. However, I've been able to start projects on my iPhone in Gadget and transfer the projects to my iPad to finish. I've also attempted Ambient in Loopy Pro on my iPhone. Never tried Koala to produce Ambient on my iPhone (I have produced Ambient in Koala on my iPad), but I think that's what I'll attempt next to be honest.
I've also produced music in NS2 on my iPhone SE 2, but nothing substantial, and I eventually deleted NS2 from my iPhone, lol.
Some apps work really well and I prefer on the phone over the iPad. Auxy, Blocs Wave fit into that cubby. Gadget is a little fiddly to me on a phone screen. GarageBand works nicely… until you start using AUs… and then they don’t all play super nicely with the more compact screen.
The fiddly factor/weird AU display has been the show stopper for me. There’s been a few times though I’ve matched my app usage across both devices just so they’re “cross platform” - it’s worked well enough in that respect.
Check out this post to see what analogcortex is doing on the iPhone
https://forum.audiob.us/discussion/50637/rat-bastard
Definitely doable on an iPhone.
I have 2 albums of songs that mostly started out on iPhone.
Lots of examples here:
https://youtube.com/channel/UCRi8ccHo-raPMoJ5KVSLA5w
I find sampling, especially into Koala works well on the phone. Groovebox, Figure, TriqTraq and NS2 have worked as nice sketchpads. An unanticipated benefit is that after you’ve made music on the phone the iPad feels luxurious, (even if it’s an air 2) 🙂
I made this entirely on my iPhone SE 2, including the video.
I had just DL’d and opened Rymdigare for the first time and inspiration struck after only a few minutes of exploring the it. I got the idea to make something inspired by the Adult Swim bumps, which to me possesses a crude and minimal aesthetic. It only made sense to complete it on my phone.
https://youtube.com/shorts/_ZdGb73ZQiM?feature=share
BTW, I haven’t watched that in a decade. Is Adult Swim still around? And do they still have Bumps?
I’ve made the vast majority of my music on my iPhone. It is the only way I can be productive because I always have it with me and I don’t often have a lot of dedicated music time. So I just fit it in where and when I can.
My past workflow was a bit much. I had Cubasis 3, EG Pulse, Bass 808, BLEASS Alpha, Lagrange, and TB Flowtones. I would then bounce it over to my iPad for mixing and mastering. But all of the composition happened on my phone. Example:
Nowadays, I mostly make lofi using Koala to chop drum samples and I throw in drum loops made in Beatly Pro. I compose, mix, and master all on my iPhone. Example:
I also sometimes make little pixel art animations and pair them with chiptune loops made with Beatly Pro, again all in my iPhone. Example:
Ultimately, it can be done. It does take some patience working with a smaller screen, but I also do all of my professional work on a single laptop screen whereas most others in my role have at least two monitors. So I’m used to a minimalist setup.
Another vote for Gadget, Koala, Groovebox and BlocsWave.
I'd like to add Drambo (for sound experiments on the go) and Flip Sampler (for a workflow focused on sampling).
Groove Rider, Nanostudio2 and Cubasis 3 also work surprisingly well as long as you're using one of the large iPhones.
With Gadget, it makes sense to work with templates that are already populated with typical instruments.
I find it extremely exciting to be able to work with my best-of picks of my REX/RX2 loop collection literally anywhere. No other iOS app can do that.
This video and article are my recommendation to non-members of this forum. (I think forum members have probably already watched/read them before.)
How The Internet's Steve Lacy Makes Hits With His Phone | WIRED
https://www.wired.com/2017/04/steve-lacy-iphone-producer/
I like his "Steve Lacy's Demo EP", but didn't know it was made on iPhone. So there was a period of time when I listened to it, going back and forth between two impressions: poor sound quality but good songs, and good songs but poor sound quality.
Did this many moons ago on an original SE
https://soundcloud.app.goo.gl/2StcpBaPAbdrJL1s6
Mix isn’t great but whole track start to finish on phone.
I do 100 percent of my musical work on my iPhone . It’s pretty good especially since I own an iPhone 8 Plus and use 3D Touch to control note velocity etc. I don’t find the smaller screen a big hurdle, in fact it sometimes making playing keyboard easier
I create > @ChancedMusic said:
👍
There are some apps that are only available in iPad, but there's a lot you can do on an iPhone, I feel. The only thing that is a bit painful is trying to read settings and such in some apps. I need some good reading glasses for that.
A lot depends on the workflow with the apps you have. I have often used Nanostudio 2 on an iPhone 8+ , which seems big compared to NS1 on my iPhone 3GS, and I have created a lot of music with the iPhone. I like to get as far as I can on a piece with the iPhone, then AirDrop the project to iPad to use iPad only apps in NS2. This workflow lets me make use of time otherwise wasted, and when I have time with the iPad I don’t have to start from scratch since I have plenty of projects started on the iPhone. That helps me avoid the ‘writer’s block’ issue too. Starting something on the iPhone seems like “just for fun” and I don’t second guess myself as much as when sitting down to compose proper on the iPad.
The big thing for me was realizing I don’t have to finish songs on the phone, I can just use it for capturing those important initial ideas when I’m out of the studio. Doable, but the later stages of production are where I get bogged down on the smaller screen. Thus I tend to focus on self contained apps like groovebox.
I use AUM on my iPhone 13 when I'm out and about. With the phone, interface becomes everything. I always appreciate when developers customize the mobile version to be easy to use on the phone. When a complex screen is simply ported from the iPad to the phone, it can become unusable. Bleass stands out to me for their interface design.
I use the iPad to learn apps so I don't need to fumble around as much on the phone. I had to figure out FAC Drumkit on the bigger screen, but now I'm comfortable using it on the phone.
Although it can get complex if you need it to, the phone feels like a better place to focus on one or two tools at a time.
Lately I've been putting Gauss on every channel and creating sloppy loops, then sampling them back into Koala.
Haha, thanks for the shout out!
For me, the convenience of composing, producing, and mastering on my iPhone 8 plus is worth whatever it is I’m sacrificing by doing so.
The 2xb303 6x806 7xwave and 7xdxfm apps were designed to work as well on iPhone as iPad. It’s compact design had iPhone in mind.
Ravenscroft 275
I meant playing a virtual keyboard with a synth..
I used to do lots more on my 8+ compared to the 12, the screen shape feels odd on 12, and I’m doing more desktop stuff now.
Still use Gadget on my 12 though.
The quickest way I found was to make chord progressions in an app like TONALY and bring it into GarageBand
That said, there are a ton of ways to create music on the iPhone. I have an entire playlist dedicated to this.
Draw and then manipulate in Xequence. Very fast.
It’s certainly less than ideal, but it is possible.