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 created the file using either 2.3.5 or maybe 2.3.6 (the most recent AppStore version), no beta at the moment as far as I am aware.
Hey. You completely missed the official 2.3 release
you're still on the 2.3 beta, which Xequence considers older than the official release...
To go from beta to release, just go to the App Store, search for Xequence, and tap on "Update" or the cloud icon and it'll replace the beta. (no data will be lost)
Yeah - I just did that. Didn’t know that testflight betas are not updated on the same basis that the official release. I thought that an app version (no matter what version it is) first goes into testflight and then goes official.
Yeah, betas will not automatically update to the official release. But seems like it's sorted now
Cool. Thanks for letting me know
I’m not that observant as I thought I might be. Anyways - I’m happy that at least I didn’t post here issues I’m having with the app while still being on 2.0 
…or 0.99
First part of the work to streamline the handling of key and scale in a project -- the slightly re-layouted key and scale selector.
Also, I'm considering to add a project-wide default key and scale. The "Key" and "Scale" settings in each instrument would then have an additional option "Use Project Default" (separately for key and scale). This would eliminate a long-time frustration of mine -- the constant need to change the key and scale for imported or newly created instruments (or instruments in a project template, which could in the future then just left at "Project Default" and would thus automatically acquire the correct key and scale).
Comments / suggestions?
Excellent idea!
I love this idea!
👆 I also like @wim idea on the first page of this thread of having the piano visible while in the arrange window.
A few other things that would be nice is:
scale lock external equipment (🎹 midi controller) to match the chosen scale on a track like Atom 2 piano roll & Scaler 2 does.
A note repeat/ratchet/arp module for the instruments & drum pads would be amazing
Apple Pencil ✏️ side tap to toggle & un-toggle draw ✍️ mode, similar to atom 2 and helium would be a nice workflow addition
The ability to control the playhead via external equipment (without audiobus)
I’d gladly pay for these in an additional Pro extension IAP (separate from the mpe one)
Thanks
Good good... firmly on the mid-term roadmap
Slightly harder to do than the rest, but... kept in the back of my head.
How do these achieve this... for example, say your current scale only contains C, E and G -- what happens when you hit C#, D, or D# on the keyboard? i.e. how do they choose which note to "re-route" the played note to?
Has been on the roadmap for a long time, and it's still there... let's keep our hopes up! 😊
That sounds quite easy. Xequence's sales don't justify the purchase of an Apple Pencil
but I'll add this one for the beta team to test next if I get around to adding it.
Thanks, yes, MIDI control of basic transport / editing functions is very firmly on the mid-term roadmap.
Not at all!
@SevenSystems there’s a couple ways atom and scaler approach it 👇
Here’s the options in scaler 2, I selected the scale white keys option and it’s made the selected scale playable only, and only on those keys.
Atom Allows you to remap the keys to white keys, 16 pad layouts, silence the out of scale keys, shift up, down, etc.
All these are incredibly useful options for using with hardware. If there’s anything else I can do to help please let me know.
————
Also another thing that would be cool to see for Xequence (at some point) is the support for scripting like atom 2 has for hardware devices so that we can get tight integration with launchpads etc.
And @SevenSystems I’m gonna reach for the stars ✨ a bit here with another request... I’d really like to see retrospective recording (or ‘capture midi’ as it’s known on Ableton)
And is ‘show in background’ possible for multiple clips/tracks that are not in the same ‘instrument?’
For instance I might want to draw in 808s to follow the time/bar placement of my kicks, while following the root notes of a piano or chord, so being able to have both visible at the same time would be great
Definitely would be nice to have. One of the easier things actually! I'll double-check the roadmap...
It is possible for a single track that doesn't belong to the same instrument, but not multiple tracks. See here:
@ipadbeatmaking and thanks for the screenshots regarding re-mapping keys!
IMHO it does not need to be a fully editable piano roll. I think it’s already good if you get a read-only piano roll as visual feedback, showing which notes are being recorded while you play on the keyboard.
Imagine a text editor with a mode only to type, and a mode to see… even vi didn’t do it!
Haha, yeah, that would definitely be easier... I wonder though, should I add keyboard shortcut support and should :q! also quit Xequence? 🤔 (or should that be a separate App -- Viquence? 🤦)
@SevenSystems qwerty keyboard shortcuts and mouse/trackpad support (for magic keyboard case etc owners) would be great!
Also, is there any way to load saved instruments (IAP) faster than going thru the connections and hitting the ⬆️ button? It’d be cool to have it along the top on the main screen. Being able to drag n drop em in would be cool.
A save button along the top would also be useful.
And maybe I’m missing it, but is there any way to use project file templates?
Thanks.
Yes, keyboard and MIDI remote support for basic functions is in the plans. MIDI will probably come first.
Mouse support should already work? Or are you having issues?
Currently not, but in Xequence 2.4, it will be possible to access each instrument's settings popup directly from the track settings in the arrangement, so it'll definitely become a bit easier!
Do you save very often? Remember that Xequence auto-saves (separately from your manually saved project) each time you leave the app, and also in regular intervals in case of a (almost impossible 👼) crash.
Yes, you should already have a 'Templates' folder that Xequence creates automatically on install... but maybe I'm misunderstanding?
@SevenSystems I’m not seeing a ‘templates’ folder on my side. Ideally I’d like to be able to auto launch a template file on startup and not be savable. Maybe I need to delete and reinstall? Here’s my folders 👇
As far as mouse/trackpad support I’m seeing it works for clicking/tapping but not scrolling.
And I’ve got an issue outside the scope of this thread but I figure I’ll speak on it: Audiobus seems to be glitching Xequence regularly. I’m using it with AUM and love the midi assignable buttons and app switching but it’s ’breaking/freezing’ Xequence pretty regularly. Any advice?
Whoops, yes you're right, Xequence doesn't make a Templates folder by default -- I had thought so because I always had it, but turns out I've created it manually years ago. Maybe this is something that should be added.
Regarding launching a template automatically on startup: What I would probably prefer is to make the "New project" button open a definable template project instead of the built-in empty default project. What do you think?
And making template projects read-only is a good idea. I'll add this to the list to investigate.
Adding that to the list to investigate! 👍 Xequence really has never been designed for mouse use (way back in 2017 such a thing was unthinkable 😂) but I agree it should be fully supported!
When it freezes / breaks, can you describe in more detail what this looks like? Does it just become unresponsive for a few seconds and then gets going again, or does it appear to "reload"? Or does it just exit to the homescreen?
That’s a great idea too! I think an option for both would be ideal. Some like one option or the other.
Thanks 🙏
Apple with its plot twists must be annoying to develop thru lol.
Thanks 🙏
Becomes unresponsive for a few seconds and gets going again. Buttons (play, record etc) stop responding. It never fully crashes, but it’s pretty bad. I tried the panic button and that doesn’t fix anything either. Im guessing because midi panic has nothing to do with audiobus. Once the problem starts everything lags really bad from 1-2 seconds to 10 seconds and beyond. It’s rough. At that point I quit audiobus and everything returns to normal, but ideally I’d like to have audiobus in the mix because it makes app switching, midi learning etc so much better.
Haha, plot twists describes it really well. I guess on the one hand, it's okay for a platform to move forward, but I prefer devices / systems to be good at one thing, and not trying to be everything at once. Look at Windows 8 to see how that went! 🤔 and yes, all the plot twists add more and more overhead that distracts from the actual purpose of the app, with ever diminishing returns... [/rant]
Thanks. Yes, I've seen this behaviour, but never got around to investigate it fully. But I have a suspicion it's something that happens at the operating system level when resources (memory, CPU) are scarce, it might be something I have no control over. But it's on the list to check at some point!
What’s crazy is this is on an M1 iPad Pro with 16gb of ram. Nothing else open except those 3 apps: Xequence, Audiobus, AUM (and auv3’s in it) so I never would’ve guessed lack of resources were to blame.
I'll keep an eye on this, I wasn't sure if it's affecting more users. I have the oldest iPad that can still run Xequence, so I thought it was mostly a "me" problem (just like in relationships...) 😜
I like the way Loopy Pro handles it. If no template is defined then the default template is used. If one template is defined then that one is used. If more than one template is defined then a dialog to choose a template, including the default template. If only one template is defined and you want to launch the default template instead then long-press on the new project button brings up the choice.
The default-load handling when there's only one template defined is sort of unintuitive though IMO.
I see, yeah that sounds pretty good.
However, this "template selector"... I'm not so sure. It would introduce a whole new UI to save at most ONE double-tap.
I'm not sure that saving one double-tap for an operation that occurs only a few times a day (at most) is worth adding an entire UI.
Do I sound lazy?
Nope.
But you were talking about making the new project button open a definable template instead of the default empty one. If you do that then there needs to be an obvious way to load the default or other templates. I was giving an example of one way that works well (and is used often in my case).
OK! 👍
An option to split a note/chord into any equal parts.