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.
Example X2+AUM+AudioBus setup
@pr4y_4_beats asked in another thread how I have set up X2+AUM+AudioBus together. I figured the quickest way was to just attach the AB project.
The project is a work-in-progress template containing:
- X2 with a sync track + 4 AUM tracks pointing at AUM channels 1-4
- AB containing 4 instances of Loopy Pro. The idea is that the first instance is the “recording” instance and the other three are “arranger” instances where you transfer the recorded clips for arrangement. Maybe one lead guitar, one bass and one rhythm, for starters. I’m not sure if I prefer this way of doing things or just recording directly into the arrangement clips but it does make the arranger instances tidier by not having their own recording donuts.
- Each Loopy instance goes into AUM
In AUM you change/point the LoopyArranger(A) mix bus to the instrument lane you are currently recording. Doing this means you can record the dry signal in your ”recording” Loopy and run the instrument through the same FX chain as the instrument you are trying to record will end up using. So, for example, if the lead guitar were being recorded for arrangement on AB Loopy instance B then I would set LoopyArranger(A) mix bus (coming from AB Loopy instance A) to point at FXBus(B) and lay out my lead guitar effects on the FXLoopyArranger(B) lane (before the mix bus that takes it to the Master Bus). You import the dry recording to the appropriate arrangement instance once you are done and paste it where you want it to play on the Loopy Pro timeline.
There is some detail missing here on how to record the Loopy Pro clip as that is a whole topic on its own. There is some personal preference involved but I like to use the retrospective recording option (now that espiegel123 properly explained it to me!).
In AUM there are also 8 instances of KQ Sampei. These are listening on MIDI channels 1-8 and only 1-4 are active by default to save resources. If you do not have KQ Sampei then unfortunately you will need to reload a new instrument and set up the routing manually. Each lane has AUM as its input and is filtering out all channels apart from the one it is listening on, going 1-8.
I do not think that the X2 and AB program configurations are transferred with the AB preset, so here are the bits I think are relevant to set:
In AB, Make sure Ableton is disabled. MIDI Clock Sync -> MIDI CLOCK SOURCES is set to “Virtual MIDI” and IAA Sync and Audiobus start/stop are both disabled.
There are two main tests you need to do to make sure it is all working:
- Make sure the MIDI is all connected - try playing something on each of the four AUM tracks. You should hear different sounds coming from the relevant AU modules loaded in AUM.
- Make sure that the MIDI Clock is synced between X2 and Loopy - you need to switch to the timeline view in Loopy Pro and move the X2 transport around. When you hit play then the timeline in the Loopy Pro arrangement instances should be following the X2 timeline.
Once both of these are working then you are ready to rock.
This is not new info, there are a few others on here who are working with this setup and others who have been working with AUM+X2+AB for some time now. I am pretty late to this party so there might be better ways of doing this 
Sorry it is a bit wordy, I really should learn how to do videos…
Edit 1: updated to v1.1 thanks to SevenSystems advice about using Virtual MIDI for the clock source.
Comments
Thank you for putting such effort into my question! Not being familiar with Loopy Pro a lot of this went over my head lol. I’ve used AB X2 and AUM on stuff before but for Audio I just recently bought multitrack recorder from 4pockets.. It kinda seems simpler to me? Idk thought cus I haven’t quite figured out multitrack recorder entirely…
And I still get confused making sure all the start/stop transport controls are synced and figuring out what the host should be… for example in AUM and x2 when I have a section from x2 looped I would like if AUM would “Loop” too and start playing from 0.00.00. In terms for someone totally unfamiliar with loopy pro, what would you say the advantage of LP is over multitrack recorder for timeline arrangement in a DAW-less set up such as the ABUX2 (Audio bus, AUM, xequence2 mix and I just coined that pseudo-Acronym nickname so let’s make it catch on cus it’s way easier to type then Audio bus, AUM, xequence2 each time)
Unless you are using multi-out AUs or side chaining you could do your synth hosting in loopy pro which would consolidate your synth hosting, audio recording and playback.
Great setup, thanks for your effort in sharing this.
Small suggestion: you don't need Xequence Source for the clock -- you can instead just choose "Loopy Pro" as the MIDI destination for the sync instrument, and then enable "Virtual MIDI In" as synchronization source in Audiobus.
This will also give you better timing and less (zero) jitter than when using "Xequence Source".
Oh and btw, I didn't even know Loopy Pro was this powerful. I always thought it was just another kind of "looping toy for the kidz" 🤪 maybe it should get a more PRO (TM) name... Xoopy!
I guess it is now also the new reference for getting perfectly working audio tracks with Xequence. I should mention this instead of Beatmaker 2 in the manual.
(of course @Michael could also mention Xequence as an amazing MIDI sequencer with perfect clock and SPP output for use with Loopy Pro 😇🤪)
Thanks man, I will make this change later. Should simplify things considerably!
Yes, Loopy in timeline mode is the best I have personally found so far, though there are a number of good options these days. It has moved me away from the audio triggering way of doing things; it is amazing to be able to have audio play in sync from wherever in the X2 timeline without needing to go back n bars to trigger it.
Yes, even I wasn't aware that Loopy was able to handle this so well -- this is probably the closest to getting usable audio tracks in a Xequence setup that you can currently get. Kudos @Michael too
Loopy Pro is sheer unbelievable!
If you have some bucks left, give it a try!
This is a serious recommendation.
It's already the better part of a complete DAW, a dynamic arranger and offers a user-definable multi-page layout and GUI for everything.
At least, have a look here:
https://loopypro.com/manual
and probably this too:
https://roadmap.loopypro.com
But maybe first some tutorial videos to grasp the possibilities?
🙏
Yeah I'm very surprised. Now they just need to hire some Irish dev for licensing their pianoroll editor 🤣
X2 and Loopy perfect partners
ok, can someone point me to a good video that explains this set up, how to route it all and how to use it you guys make it seem like the golden standard but im not a real producer apparently lol because this is mostly going over my head.. im a visual learner, but it seems i need to get on this because i have been looking for a way to get x2 and audio to perfectly sync together… if anyone has a video for like, total noobs that would be so helpful/
and shoutout to @Michael and @SevenSystems for appearing in a thread that was made to answer a question i had in a different thread! you guys are some of the few TOP DONs of the iOS game, i wonder if you could even work together and combine x2 with loopy pro into one big package (thats what she said)?? idk
but thank you both for your iOS producer contributions they are game changing and invaluable
@pr4y_4_beats I may be wrong so apologies if I am, but it sounds like you need to try and get used to Loopy first before trying to glue everything together. Forget about trying to get all this stuff working in sync until you are confident about using Loopy in standalone to sequence a few loops using its timeline and your preferred recording method. As I mentioned, my preferred method is retrospective recording because I use Loopy for recording live instruments and it is an efficient way to try and get a good “take”.
There are a load of links here to get you started https://wiki.audiob.us/doku.php?id=loopy_pro Once you are able to use Loopy then the AudioBus project should start to make more sense.
How much experience you have with the other bits of the project - AUM, AudioBus and X2?
As far as sync, it is as simple as turning on Ableton link with start/stop in Loopy Pro and Xequence 2.
For sending MIDI from Xequence to Loopy Pro, make Loopy Pro’s virtual midi port the destination.
In Loopy Pro,
@pr4y_4_beats @espiegel123 actually, you should be able to get full, instant synchronisation between Xequence and Loopy Pro (that includes absolute song position, not only inside a bar) by using MIDI Sync:
0) Disable Ableton Link in both apps
1) In Loopy Pro, go to Settings -> Synchronization, and unter "MIDI Clock Sources", enable "Virtual MIDI In"
2) In Xequence, create a new instrument, set its MIDI Destination to "Loopy Pro", enable "Send Sync", and in the "..." options, make sure "Absolute" is turned on
3) Loopy Pro should now follow Xequence's transport completely, including tempo, start, stop and position (for some reason, Loopy Pro will only update the transport position when Xequence is playing, not when you only position the cursor in Xequence's ruler)
This seems to work most of the time from my brief tests, but absolute song position is not always correctly synchronized. I'll look into that more when I get a chance. Not sure if it's a problem in Loopy or Xequence.
@SevenSystems : good to know.
Let us know any success or dissuccess (?) stories!
I just tried this out (with just Loopy Pro and X2, no Audiobus). Playback works as expected. Audio kicks in just where it should in the timeline.
However, pressing record in Xequence doesn’t start playback in Loopy Pro. That’s a problem when wanting to record some midi against audio playback.
I don’t know if that’s an @Michael or an @SevenSystems thing.
Interestingly, hitting record in X2 does trigger playback in Loopy when hosting in AudioBus.
I've just looked at Xequence's output in a MIDI monitor, and the output from hitting "Play" or "Record" is exactly the same (apart from a potentially different SPP due to count-in).
Odd. I have no idea how else Loopy would be even able to tell whether Record or Play has been pressed, as there's no way to tell via the MIDI messages.
Out of curiosity, what if you use link rather than midi clock?
Midi clock is needed for Song Position Pointer. Using Link and Clock at the same time gives unpredictable results. Most often it results in recording stopping after just one bar.
I am using count-in. I'll do some more experimentation later today to see if I can narrow this down. I should have mentioned that X2 was hosted as an IAA in Loopy Pro. I should try it not hosted as well.
In the meantime, I'll add Audiobus back in to the equation, which isn't a bad idea anyway. Thanks @MisplacedDevelopment .
I'm pretty sure using MIDI Sync inside Audiobus will also give unpredictable results, as Loopy Pro will then receive TWO start events almost simultaneously... not sure which one comes first or has precedence, and if this will still give sample accurate song position sync...
I guess more configuration options are needed (i.e. a toggle to disable Audiobus Start / Stop sync...)
AH NO HANG ON, Start / Stop sync between Xequence and Audiobus is only via Ableton Link I guess, so as long as that's disabled, it should be fine 👍
I'll investigate this more.
@SevenSystems in the AB project Loopy is hosted as an AU and X2 is configured to send sync directly to AB, which then uses its Virtual MIDI as the clock source. In this case (where Loopy is an AU rather than standalone), I don’t think Loopy should be seeing any MIDI Clock other than from its host, AB. I guess this is may not be as accurate as sending it directly to Loopy when it is running in standalone mode but I have not noticed any issues so far.
Edit: the AB config instructions also turn off all other modes of sync, including AB start/stop, Ableton Link, and IAA sync.
@wim when Audiobus is involved, how do you route Xequence's MIDI Sync to Loopy Pro? Do you host Loopy Pro as an AU in Audiobus, and then put Xequence in a MIDI lane and send the sync to Loopy via Audiobus MIDI? Or do you send the sync to Audiobus ("Audiobus 3" MIDI Destination) and enable "Virtual MIDI In" as a sync source in Audiobus? (both should work in theory... the second variant is probably better because that should sync everything that's running in Audiobus to Xequence...)
Hah, almost double post, I just asked @wim exactly those questions
Both should be equivalent in accuracy really, if @Michael 's implementation is fine, which I'm sure it is
The "sync Audiobus to Xequence via MIDI, then Audiobus syncs AUs via AUv3 host sync" option (that you're using) is probably better because then everything inside Audiobus is automatically synchronized. (the AUs hosted in Audiobus won't receive the raw MIDI sync from Xequence, Audiobus will however pass that on "in a different format" to the AUs.)
Amazing stuff. This is probably the first time ever that Xequence's MIDI sync support is actually useful on iOS 😂
I dunno. I haven't tried it in Audiobus yet.
I started X2 in standalone. Then I added it as an IAA in Loopy Pro for convenience. I disabled Link all around, set up an instrument in X2 pointing to Loopy Pro and enabling Sync and Absolute. I then set synchronization in Loopy Pro to "Virtual MIDI In".
That was my only test so far other than trying enabling Link, which didn't work out so well. I'll fiddle about some more a bit later today.
I did not touch Loopy Pro or Xequence for quite some time.
Just now, I tried to repeat what @wim wrote and failed miserable 😅😅😅
That's not a question for help - I will just need to read the manuals again.
First, I could not find Sync and Absolute in X2...
And then, after adding X2 in Loopy Pro and adding Sunrizer as an AU, I was not able to configure MIDI to arrive at Sunrizer. I tried nearly 20 minutes.
I never ever had this in AudioBus, AUM or ApeMatrix ... just telling.
Somehow, the process is not intuitive - for me, that it.
Why I am writing this?
To motivate something like a MIDI matrix like in AUM for Loopy Pro, @michael 😅😅😅
And about X2, I seem to remember that one should better not use Xequence Source and Destination, but I often confuse this - maybe adding a toggle to the settings to disable source and destination per default?
This way, one could re-enable it when needed, but just don't see them normally ...
But this may belong to your workflow thread, @SevenSystems
While a routing matrix would be handy, it is pretty straightforward in Loopy. Add your synth. Add your midi source and then tap in the destination section and choose the synth. If you send the midi from
xeq to loopy by choosing Loopy Pro as the destination then add Virtual Midi as your midi source in Loopy.
It's in the instrument options. "Send Sync". Absolute/Relative is in the extended options (...)
The toggle for "Virtual Source" already exists and is off by default
(it's in "..." -> MIDI / Recording -> MIDI Output). About "Xequence Destination" for MIDI Input, it's a double-edged sword: The timing of incoming MIDI will be better using "Xequence Destination" if "Use incoming timestamps" is enabled and the sending app implements them correctly. On the other hand, when selecting the MIDI In Source directly in "Sources", there will be no timestamps so recording will be less accurate if quantization is off, but you get the benefit of automatic source names in Multitrack Recording...
We're all just so spoilt by so many options shmoptions that we don't know where our head is anymore 🤣
Thanks, @espiegel123
I did use Loopy Pro as target in X2 and enabled Virtual MIDI In and Out in Loop Pro.
But hit me, I cannot select anything as destination for X2.
I have no idea, if I am simply both stupid and blind or if I misconfigured something so that this does not work.
And I already used Loopy Pro some time ago, so I forgot all details 😅
As I wrote, I need to re-read the manual - it is quite updated meanwhile.
I use this just to show-case that it is not really intuitive... which was my point.