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.
Arturia MiniFuse 4
The release was probably a bit unnoticed because of the MiniFreak and MiniLab 3. Actually the device looks like a good 4 channel audio device for the iPad. Although not mentioned in the specs, it can be assumed that the device is class compliant. The integrated USB hub with two USB-A ports and the DIN Midi ports makes it a great connectivity hub for Midi hardware. Price is also attractive. Not bad. What do you think?
Comments
Looks cool , along with ML3 I wish I had 250 spare!
Arturia’s generic USB hub is brilliant and I don’t know why it’s such a rare feature. I’ve got some deep-rooted brand loyalty for Apogee, but the USB port only supports basic CoreMIDI, only sends and receives from the MIDI device’s first port, and always identifies itself as “Duet USB.”
Anyways, I’m done griping about consumer goods. I think Arturia is onto something.
I managed to get a second hand AudioFuse (for about the price of the new MiniFuse 4 so luckily no buyer's regrets) and the USB hub is one of the best features. I already have a 5 port usb hub but it's amazing how quickly they fill up. Now everything is chained, everything midi shows up in AUM, super handy. Also USB power is cool, I have one plug for the USB hub and one for the AudioFuse and everything is powered from that.
Will it power/charge an iPad?
This was high on my list when it was announced (largely due to Doug’s demo of the two channel version), but due to the delay I went with the MOTU M4 instead. I did ask Arturia at the time if it was class compliant, and they confirmed all their interfaces are.
Dc coupled too so you can use it to send cv to modular gear.
I have some buyer's remorse. I was waiting on this, emailed and tweeted Arturia to see if there was any news on a release date, heard nothing so ended up buying a MiniFuse 2. I think this was over a year from announcement to release.
Very curious about this - if it does, then instabuy for me ..
Question is how big power iPad needs ... i'm a bit a fraid it's more than 250 mA
Wrote question to their support, asked if both lighting/usbc iPad models are charged when connected .. will let you know when i get reply ..
@dendy The USB-A ports deliver 250mA (#4) but there is nothing said about the USB-C port (#5). Would be really nice to know. Since the device is not bus powered but has its own power supply, it could be that it does PD. But I doubt that they had the iPad in mind. Powering a laptop would require a much bigger power supply than the device would need.
I'm afraid you are true. Not even Apple has too much in mind iPad as tool for musicians, which is extremely sad after all those years of progress which music apps on iOS made
here answer....
Thanks for that. I'm quite please with my M4 right now, but in case it dies it would've been nice to have an alternative that allows me to declutter a bit with its built-in hub. Without power delivery that's not the case though.
I upgraded my MiniFuse 2 to a MiniFuse 4 but I can't seem to get any noise out of it. The only way I've managed to get it to make a sound is by setting up audio inputs in AUM, but if I connect any hardware 1/4" jack to the MiniFuse without the iPad connected, nothing. That used to work with the MiniFuse 2 so I have no idea what I'm doing wrong. Even my DJ mixer is producing nothing.
This turned out to be a very odd decision (or error) on Arturia's part - the device shipped with the outputs muted and there was no way to unmute them without installing its software on a laptop and using that to unmute them.
Is it possible to connect an ipad to the minifuse hub?
Might be but I don't think you can pipe bi-directional audio to the computer via that.
If you're lucky you might be able to send midi back and forth as that port is primarily intended for midi-controllers and software dongles and doesn't provide more than 250mHa of power so it can't even properly power a LaunchPadPro Mk3...
Thank you. I understood. I'm still looking for an interface for my laptop-so far everything is a little sad. Arturia is only suitable if you send audio when connecting the card directly to the ipad. Okay, I'll keep looking.
The Arturia MiniFuse4 does not supply power to my iPad Pro. Everything else is great, and it’s a great interface to run various apps on the iPad Pro, but it does nothing as far as powering/charging the iPad Pro.
Wondering if you or anyone else could help me get my head around a few details.
If you unmute the outputs in the software, does this persist after the computer has been disconnected? Or does it revert to silence again?
I’m assuming we’re talking about outputs 1 and 2 here, right?
I’m also curious as to whether outputs 3 and 4 could be used for any kind of input monitoring without a connected device…
I often run my MinuFuse 2 without an iPad or Mac connected, wondering how flexible the 4 is.
@handed
After you do the first configuration the fuse keeps all settings (yes, I also don’t get Arturia’s decision to make you run their software before the fuse show all inputs and outputs) that includes muting, but also gain levels and so on. So after the first setup it can run on its own.
However, I don’t see a way to route audio to outputs 3/4 without having a laptop/ipad connected to it, so you would be limited to the two headphone outs for monitoring. If you have a specific scenario in mind, please let me know, and I can try it out and report back to you.
Otherwise, except for not charging the iPad via usb-c, the interface is great and does all I could want for my purposes.
A (maybe stupid) question if I may ask - I can’t seem to get two sets of headphones working with the minifuse 4 and Logic. Am I missing a setting?
I have a Minifuse 2 and it’s good, but Behringer is cheaper and is rock solid too . They are all made in China and basically use the same or similar components.
The second phone out only sends what’s being sent to outputs 3+4, and in logic4ipad the setting to send a track output to those is a bit hidden… maybe that’s what you are missing?
Thanks! I was hoping for a band recording situation that two headphones could be employed but I guess not!