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
I use iphone almost exclusively, I have an ipad but my daughter uses it a lot so I'm usually stuck using my 13pm.
I have also been trying to figure out the best work flow on iPhone. I make trap, dnb and dubstep type beats. Out of the best available I've found these the best optimised for the screen size:
Drambo, Cubasis 3, Gadget 2, Nanostudio 2, Koala and AUM combined with LK.
I still haven't settled on one, I keep switching between them all..
Drambo can be your friend.
Here’s my suggestion…
You can get earlier versions in great condition used as well around $70-90
(USB dongle also needed)
This will make the experience much nicer overall.
Add this to hold your phone and you have a sick little coffee table setup…
And oh yeah, DRAMBO!!!
Multitrack DAW is universal and is super user friendly and light on bullshit. It can also host AU fx now I believe and has good built in fx. If I was wanting to mix Koala stems on iPhone I’d use this. As for sequencing and composing, like others have said: Drambo, NS2, Gadget, GR-16, Korg Electribe Wave, plenty of options
Uber quick demo of Loopy Pro recording audio tracks for NS2 on an iPhone. I was in loop mode, but you could also lay out non-looping tracks in Loopy Pro's timeline vew
Loopy Pro for NS2 Audio Tracks
Im the same way with most of the same apps except add zenbeats to that list. I mostly have been hovering around koala, AUM (with xequence2 instead of LK although I do own LK i like X2 better), zenbeats (once you figure out its workflow its a pretty awesome app and imo the workflow is smooth once you catch on to it), ive had flip for a while so im gonna try getting into that more, i just REALLY REALLY hate the ‘import’ feature that almost every single music app has in order to add my own samples to it. It just like, kills my creativity almost immediately, thats why i love koala so much, and i just got Sitala because i heard it words directly with the files app.
Maybe there is a way to import large amounts of samples into an app at a time, idk. I use audioshare mostly except for splice sounds which download onto my files device until my 3 month free trial runs out in 2 days then im moving them all to audioshare. Also have AudioCopy and 5 or 6 hiptop/trap packs from their store…
Well midi thru is kinda all i know in X2.. for koala i just record into another instance of koala or just use AUM to record a specific instrument, but with other apps like synths and romplers (Chomplr as mentioned) i use it as my timeline for AUM.
If i have routed it wrong, please remind me. So with X2 and midi thru ON, you want each instruments midi SOURCE to be… what?
And then back in AUM you want to simply route each instrument to X2 destination, using only a specific midi port for each channel, correct?
Or do you route it different?
Also, if i were to use audiobus for the quick switching back and forth, i just need to load AUM in one channel input, X2 in a midi channel input and the output to the audiobus channel that AUM is on,
Then enable midi thru and basically do the same thing? It’s been awhile since i used audiobus as a middle man between them lol
And thanks for the response.
I'm dead, LOL! 😂😂😂💀 Ain't no such thing as halfway crooks! Rainbow-coloured-hair punk-lookin-ass lil posers. 🤣 (I grew up in the 90s/2000s with REAL Hip-Hop.)
Anyways, Beathawk has some decent 90s/2000s HipHop packs. Could be great for laying out drums.
And if you want a simple no-fuss environment for laying out audio, I second Multitrack DAW. It's an OG from the early days of iOS music production.
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/multitrack-daw/id329322101
MIDI Thru is meant for using Xequence as the "central MIDI hub" in your setup -- i.e., use any number of connected (hardware) keyboards, control surfaces, etc., and choose the instrument you want to be played in Xequence (by selecting an arranger track). That's really the only situation it is useful for... otherwise, you can keep it turned off.
If you want to record something (MIDI output of other apps, hardware, etc.) into Xequence, it's enough to either enable that app in "MIDI / Recording" -> "Sources", or alternatively, enable the "Xequence Destination" source and then route your other app to "Xequence Destination".
Yes, basically...
You're somehow obsessed with MIDI Thru 😆 what MIDI Thru does it take ANY inputs into Xequence (i.e. anything that's selected in "Sources"), and then send that data out to the currently selected instrument. It isn't needed for recording or sending sequencer data at all...
Hope I could clear things up a little ☺
Thank you lol. I get confused because I sometimes use a midi physical keyboard and I sometimes don’t. But without one I don’t need midi thru on im starting to understand how to route it now, thank you!
Amen man, old school hip hop is where it’s at. There’s a FEW new kids on the block that I can vibe with but as for what HIP HOP and more specifically RAP is, there’s a line that is definite imo and it’s not about a rich n better than you kinda image or sippin lean, it’s about soul, REAL struggle, putting your heart out there, having a message, or even being lyrically smart and doing some storytelling that shows educated rhyme poetry and English skills and poetic devices like metaphors and creative cadence and rhyme scheme patterns + a story with a moral in it or a message that has meaning behind it in a more lasting way than “live fast die young im poppin pills like I’m poppin guns if I fucc w/ a bullet ima die by one, (boom boom boom boom boom!!) if I sip on the sizzurp ima slip on some, fall and land in sum bitches with the big bum bums”
I (can sometimes) Sound cool but it’s totally meaningless
For some reason I just saw this. I already have an Arturia minilab mk2 which is almost basically the same thing, I kinda like it just a little better. I’ve had that akai before and the keys are kinda.. well let’s just say it felt like you had to have strong fingers. The arturia seems to be able to record midi velocity really well near real-life , non digital sounding in quality and depending on what is doing the midi recording. I have a dongle I also have a knock off Apple pen that works well with the phone. I have a blutooth keyboard (QWERTY) and it has a dial with 3 numbers on it so back when I had my iPad I could change easily to type on my iPad, pc, or phone. Well now it’s just the phone for now, and it has a little resting place to lean the phone against, but it has to be in landscape. So apps like AUM which stubbornly want to stay in portrait mode when the main channels are being viewed, it’s kinda annoying.
I really want to learn Drambo to be able to smoothly and easily get into a “flow” state and create boom bap and hip hop but I can’t seem to figure out Drambo. Ugh…..
I have heard about this app. It’s just so expensive. It would put me over my AppStore allowance for like a month lol. (Every paycheck I get 10$ out and either buy lunch with my coworkers or put it into the AppStore. I could take an advance but I’m pretty particular with budgeting and I can’t promise myself that I won’t impulsively go buy lunch with people depending on what they are eating lol. It also doesn’t seem like it’s been updated in a while? At least last time I looked. What about it do you like? Like what about this particular app do you recommend vs other apps mentioned here?
Oh nvm it’s only 5 dollars. I must be thinking of a different app. I swear there was a similar app when I had an iPad that was like 60$ I guess I forget what that was but the name was something similar
That’s awesome! Beatly Pro is maybe my favorite app right now, I love it. What are you using for the pixel art?
I only make music on my iPhone maybe 25% of the time but Koala and Beatly Pro are my go-tos as well. Are you using built in effects in koala or external stuff?
Got a link to that iPhone stand? That looks awesome.
Agreed about Zenbeats. I was skeptical when it came out and really didn’t enjoy it much at first, but the more I use it, the more I can see it becoming my go-to environment for making music on iOS. Even moreso than Cubasis 3. It’s not there yet, but I end up creating something every time I open it.
Here’s the whole image, it’s only 12$, but do some searching because there are all kinds and styles.
The brand name is Omoton…
The Arturia keybed is superior for sure.
I use an app called Pixel Studio of the pixel art.
I use a mix of Koala and other effects. I use things like BLEASS Dragonfly and TB ReelBus as static effects and then throw in Koala effects live as I’m recording.
Yeah, Beathawk is super reasonably priced.
What I like about it is I have a shitload of great sounds I can use, and I can use it as an AUv3 in AUM (or any AUv3 host for that matter). Just a disclaimer - for some reason, Beathawk standalone doesn't want to play nice with my Bluetooth headphones (it sounds like a tin can), but it sounds perfectly fine as an AUv3.
It's stuck in the past, but I got an older idevice with Beatmaker 2
I still love it, but it's quirky for today's standards
It's actually hard to argue with the previous suggestions. GR-16, Drambo, Beathawk, NS2, X2+Aum, Koala, Flip, TriqTraq are good options to play around to try to mimic your previous workflow
OK, great to know I could help!