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.
AirPods Pro 2
Just received mine yesterday and I have to say I was surprised at how much difference there was compared to the Pro 1's. Much more than I was expecting!
Overall just better sound quality all around, especially on the low end. More open sounding on the top end too, better sense of space in the newer ones. Still a little narrow soundstage compared to my better headphones, but overall the better sound quality is instantly more noticeable.
The real upgrade though is in the new noise cancelling functionality. Transparency mode is WAY, WAY better now, much more open and natural sounding. It feels less like you have earbuds in, you can just hear more going on around you while still getting the benefit of slightly muting really loud sounds. Back to back with the Pro 1's, and the 2's just feel....faster. There's no processing lag anymore, which was something I never really thought was bad with the Pro 1's.
The normal noice cancelling mode is hugely upgraded too, much less muffled sounding and does a lot better job at cancelling out low end noises.
Sadly no differences with latency at this point, so not sure these are something you're going to want to use while making music. I use mine with sequencer apps and things that don't require any real time playing, but the lag is still real for that.
But as a daily ear bud for listening to music while out and about, the thew Pro 2 Airbuds are much nicer upgrade than I was expecting.
Comments
Do they stay in your ears? (and, I guess, did the v1)
I lost my v1s in a house move, but before that I was constantly having to push them back into my ears, whatever tip size was on them. The worst was if I tried to eat while wearing them, the jaw motion would make them leap out after three chews.
I ended up buying a pair of Status Between Pro and some memory foam tips to replace them. I love those, barely even notice they're there. But they have no ANC and are lacking some of the quality of life things that the AirPods had like automatically reading your messages to you.
Just had a look at the price - almost £250 on Amazon. No thanks - I'll stick with my Sennheiser cans and save the money.
@Tarekith
Everything you mentioned are the reasons I will be getting the pro 2’s at some point
Shame about the latency, but nothing that I didn’t expect
But still happy with my pro 1’s and with aftermarket foam tips they never fall out
Shame apple took away the 3.5mm jack when they didn’t need too, or without a latency free solution
Fingers crossed that they realise and return the 3.5mm to at least the so called iPad Pro models ( that would be a reason for me to update my iPad Pro in the future, but until then I think I will still get another 3 years out of my iPad Pro, unless certain apps come out on an iOS that I can’t update to )
Have you tried them on anything Atmos?
I have always used the foam tips from Comply, they give me a more comfortable seal and definitely help keep them in my ears. I wear them mountain biking on rare occasions and never had any issues.
Only with a couple songs on Apple Music out of curiosity. I'm probably not the best person to ask though, as in general I really don't like spatial audio and Atmos for headphones.
Just got mine a bit earlier today. While I haven't given them a music shakedown, I'm super impressed by the increased noise cancellation. It's kinda ridiculous how good it is.
Now I really want the Max refresh to hurry up, and it had better switch to USB-C, Apple.
Thanks @Tarekith and @Gdub - I love Comply tips so good to know they hold with those on. May well get some v2s.
There is literally an industrial sized jackhammer mounted on a crane breaking down boulders in the lot next to my house right now and I can barely hear it with the Pro 2's. Scary how well they work.
I use my AirPods with the Amplify Groovebox app all the time for this reason, more than good enough for that.
I had the same experience as a poster above.
I thought they sounded good but switching the factory tips for foam improved both the sound and ability to stay in when I’m exercising.
They stay charged through a whole week of going to the gym as well.
Good to know that the 2’s are better for future reference.
@Tarekith you have a pair of 846's, right?
https://www.shure.com/en-US/products/accessories/rmce-bt2 +
https://us.creative.com/p/accessories/creative-bt-w3
i'm getting about under 10ms using the LL codec.(the new shure transmitters dont do LL)
slight nudge of the quantization and its playable in studio situations.
Yes. I use the 846s as well, thanks for the tip on the transmitter! Honestly though, if I’m sitting down to do something serious enough to bother bringing the 846s, I don’t mind just using the apple lightening dongle. It’s usually always attached to the 846s actually, so I don’t notice it much.
One more thing I forgot to mention about the AirPod Pro 2’s, the new volume controls are sooo useful. A little fiddly, about 10% of the time I pause things by mistake. But overall so much easier than asking Siri or digging in your pocket for your phone, etc.
How is the new Find My features with it? I’ve lost a bud multiple times and the problem with the 2nd gen is as soon as you would open the case it would act as if it was just located and loose the location of the one you actually have missing. I think I read it can find each individual earbud and also the case as well.
The battery life really about 6 hrs as advertised? If so that’s worth the price to me eventually.
Not gonna rush out for em quite yet cause I just had to replace a squashed Apple pencil.
I'm pretty sure the new Find My functionality only applies to the case, not the buds themselves. At least, that's how it looks here when I tried it.
That I don't know I rarely use them for more than two hours at a time before they go back in the case. I'll report back if I have a chance to test that.
iOS 16’s new ear-scanning feature is great, and works for both old and new AirPods Pro. You use the FaceID camera to 3D scan your ears, and it makes a custom Spatial Audio profile. It’s surprisingly good.
Has anyone tested the latency with the new iPones? The new AirPods Pros are 5.3 BT, with it being unknown what codecs are available, and what low latency improvements possible. I notice no difference with my iPad Pro, but I don't have my iPhone 14 yet.
But I have read that 5.3 IS CAPABLE of halving latency, which would be great.
Also, there's hope you could get a compatible transmitter, if the new Apple stuff isn't up to snuff (which is possible). To think that Apple would gimp the APP2's potential in regards to this, is unsettling, although maybe expected.