Thumbjam No Sound in Mixer (and other problems)

quiver

Hello,
I am trying to resolve an issue I have while routing Thumbjam via Audiobus into FL Mobile.

When I connect Thumbjam to FL Mobile (in audio tab) and check the mixer for signal, the mixer does not react, I can hear the sound playing but there’s no indicator that mixer receives the audio (and I can’t record it in FL mobile) - however, this only happens when I change the buffer size in Thumbjam settings from “auto” to whatever number available.
If I use Thumbjam with default “auto” buffer size the sound is super glitchy - but is detected in mixer and I am able to record it in FL Mobile (recording is glitchy too obviously, so this is no good)

I have tried to route another app (Bismark bs16-s) and it just sounds glitchy from the get go (i couldn’t find an option to change the buffer size or other way to prevent the glitches so can’t test if it works in similar way as Thumbjam (Or doesn’t)

When I try this I do the following steps - launch Thumbjam (or Bismark) first, launch Fl Mobile, launch Audiobus, route the apps in audio tab >> get the glitchy sound / no sound at all — get stuck.

All the apps I use are latest available versions. I am using them on IPad Pro.
I have tried this while using audio interface (Apogee Duet for IPad and without it, nothing works)

I would appreciate any help in figuring this out as I have no idea what I’m doing.

Thank you !

espiegel123

@quiver : if you route ThumbJam to Audiobus but not FL Mobile does it sound correct?

Have you tried changing FL Mobile’s buffer size and/or sample rate?

quiver

@espiegel123 said:
@quiver : if you route ThumbJam to Audiobus but not FL Mobile does it sound correct?

Have you tried changing FL Mobile’s buffer size and/or sample rate?

Hello espiegel123, thank you, just tried this out and yes, when I route Thumbjam to Audiobus without FL Mobile - the sound does work correctly! Unfortunately I can’t find an option to change buffer size or sample rate in FL mobile, not sure if it’s possible there?

The conflict definitely starts once Fl mobile gets in. I’m not a frequent user of Audiobus but I think I never encountered this problem before and was able to route apps without crackling sound and changing the sample rates. So it got me confused and I was not sure if I was doing the right thing changing the buffer size in the first place.

uncledave

@quiver. The buffer size is a system-wide setting. The normal way to do this in your situation will be to open FL Mobile first, with no other audio apps running. (Force quit other apps by swiping them away in the iPadOS Task Switcher.). Change the buffer size in FL Mobile. Other apps, including IAA apps, must follow this setting, and it should not be possible to change the buffer in those apps.

You would normally add apps to the DAW by selecting them in the DAW's menu and letting it open the other app. Only try starting an IAA separately if it cannot be started from the DAW.

Finally, what buffer size are you trying to use? Some apps have trouble with very large buffers, like 2048.

quiver

@uncledave said:

This makes complete sense! However, if I quit all audio apps, launch FL mobile first, and let’s say add Thumbjam as an IAA - it does open it automatically but there’s similar problem where I hear the sound in Thumbjam but am not able to record it. While Bismark works perfectly fine as IAA and I use it quite often like that.

But then, if I add Audiobus in FL mobile, it does not start Audiobus app automatically so I have to launch it manually, only then it will see it and I am able to route things in a way I described in my first post. I would think that it’s just a Thumbjam thing but Bismark does not work with Audiobus the same way it works as IAA.

I haven’t found how to change buffer size in FL mobile itself. I will ask this same question on their forums too and see if they can help.

When I change the buffer size in Thumbjam I set it to 128 or 256

Thanx!

wim

@quiver said:

When I change the buffer size in Thumbjam I set it to 128 or 256

Buffer size and sample rate has to agree in all apps that you want to use. Audiobus should take care of that for you. Buffer should be set to Auto in Thumbjam. If you change it, then it must agree with the buffer settings in Audiobus. FLSM should also adopt these settings, even though there isn't a place to change them in the app. If not, then it's not really IAA/Audiobus compatible. Sample rate differences are often associated with garbled sound. I suspect FL Studio or Thumbjam aren't dealing with them properly.

Thumbjam works for me loaded directly in FLSM. Is that an option for you? In my experience, FLSM has always been a bit flakey when it comes to Audiobus.

quiver

@wim said:

@quiver said:

When I change the buffer size in Thumbjam I set it to 128 or 256

Buffer size and sample rate has to agree in all apps that you want to use. Audiobus should take care of that for you. Buffer should be set to Auto in Thumbjam. If you change it, then it must agree with the buffer settings in Audiobus. FLSM should also adopt these settings, even though there isn't a place to change them in the app. If not, then it's not really IAA/Audiobus compatible. Sample rate differences are often associated with garbled sound. I suspect FL Studio or Thumbjam aren't dealing with them properly.

Thumbjam works for me loaded directly in FLSM. Is that an option for you? In my experience, FLSM has always been a bit flakey when it comes to Audiobus.

Makes sense, thank you for explaining!
Loading Thumbjam directly in FLSM doesn’t work properly for me (I get no sound from Thumbjam - No sound directly in app and no sound while trying to play it via FLSM)
For instance loading other apps like Bismark in this way works fine!

I have posted a similar thread on FLSM mobile forum - I hope they can chime in and advice on this too.

What I find strange is that Bismark doesn’t work via Audiobus in the same way as Thumbjam doesn’t. My first thought was that Thumbjam is just not compatible either with Audiobus or FLSM. But it works for you!
I will try other apps and see if it’s only these two that have issues.

wim

It's always a good idea to try shutting down and restarting the device, if you haven't tried that already.

wim

Another thing ... you have to be running the apogee duet in order for anything to work?? That doesn't sound right at all. My experiences testing just now are with no audio interface involved.

quiver

No no, I don’t need an audio interface. I just mentioned I tried it with an interface and without it (just to test if the problem occurred due to me using Apogee in general) But no, it doesn’t affect anything - I get exact same problems both ways.

I did restart everything updated and so on.

In fact, I have another IPad Pro (3rd gen with the latest IOS update) it has all the latest versions of Audiobus, FLMS and Bismark (no Thumbjam) and I just tested - it has exact same issue:

Open FLMS >> Add Audiobus >> Open Audiobus >> Add Bismark >> No sound in FLMS but Audiobus mixer visually reacts to me testing the sound 🤕

Open FLMS >> Add Bismark as IAA >> Works fine ✅

So, no sound in apps while routing via Audiobus. Some apps run as IAA but not via Audiobus and some don’t connect at all (no IAA no Audiobus)

quiver

I will try to Use Audiobus to connect these two apps to Garage Band and see if I run into similar issues. Maybe it’s just FL mobile studio (however you say Thumbjam works for you as IAA but for me does not!)

Ideally I would need to use Audiobus + external apps with FLMS directly (i do all my work there and it’s the most convenient way to record synths into my projects)

**Update: ** Audiobus connecting Thumbjam to Garage Band works (with sound, able to record) so FL is the issue?

@wim Are you able to use Thumbjam in FLMS as IAA only, or both as IAA and via Audiobus?