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.
App Store Reviews for Apps we Love!
I feel completely spoilt by the quality of awesome music apps that I have on my device.
Spoilt for all the hard work devs put in to making their apps the very best they can be for those of us using them to create music.
The free updates, bug fixing, incorporating user-requested features, the general maintenance and customer care involved from being a developer.
I recommend my favourite apps whenever the opportunity arises. There's a kinda joy in doing a little bit for the developer and also for introducing something new and wonderful to others.
Thing is, I really haven't left many reviews on the appstore.
There are apps I've been using for considerable amounts of time, that I consider 5*+ that still don't have my glowing review where it matters most.....the appstore, where possible future users are put off by the odd ridiculous and unnecessary low review.
The honest, high rated user reviews are needed.
I'm not sure if it has been laziness. I genuinely think, I have held off writing reviews, until I have a good understanding of the app and can therefore provide a well informed review for those possible future users to take into account.
Did I mention it could be laziness?
So....to any developers that read this....thank you!
I probably own your app....I probably REALLY like it....I just apologise that I haven't put it up in writing just yet.
I intend to change that. I've just had a quick glance at my iPad, and forecast a minimum of 60 reviews to crack on with.
So....onto writing reviews for apps I love
...who is with me?
Comments
I agree and there are def some odd negative reviews that are ridiculous. Have even bypassed some apps because of them and then turned out buying and loving the app. Saw a review the other day that was 2 stars and said something like awesome update I love your app so much but blah blah blah and complained about one feature that specific user wanted....what the crap is that?!?!?!
Yes, please!
When I read the reviews, I try to gauge the "experience level" of the reviewer and their needs to see if either a positive or negative review was warranted. ive also seen reviews where a lot of ppl gave it a low rating when in actuality, the app was doing some other thing that was never, ever available which alone warranted the cost or was just perfect for my specific recording needs.
that being said, ive also bought apps that many ppl have liked but when i bought it, got bored of quickly and havent used since.
if an app is a few bucks and it sucks, ill usually let it slide but if its really expensive and it sucks with a lot of bugs, then ill leave a warning review. Whether its cheap or expensive but it rocks, ill leave rave reviews everywhere including telling random ppl i meet (if i find out theyre into making music) haha. i met a fellow musician last week at a bar and started telling him about audiobus, bm2 and impaktor!
Yep, I love passing on cool app tips..just a bit of good 'ol Karma.
Regarding app store reviews, I have a kind of quirk, where I gravitate towards reading the 4 and 2 star reviews first. For me, these can seem to be more considered....why did it drop a star? Why is it a 2 not a 1 star app.
Then I read the 5 and 1's.
Developers though, really should have a way to respond to reviews publicly ... ON the appstore.
The amount of times I read "Giving this ONE star until it gets AudioCopy/Paste, or feature X etc..." and the one star review remains months, years after feature X has actually been added.
Although we do have all that info in front of us now...review date and with IOS 6, version history date and details too.
But the lack of a viable response structure to idiotic reviews must be so frustrating for the devs.
Until then...I guess they'll have to rely on Karma for justice.
As @Sebastian said, Yes Please!
Thought of this thread when I saw the below review come in today for guitarism during a temporary sale. Note that he not only shares his thoughts about the app, but also refutes other negative reviews he's seen with specific facts that they got wrong. Stuff like this is worth its weight in gold! (If it weighed anything, of course...). And guitarism's ranking bumped up immediately after this review was posted, so its effect on sales is very real.
Of all the guitar interfaces on iOS, this so far is my favorite one.
To the reviewers who might have missed a few of the features:
You can indeed edit any chord in the six primary chords, and you can also turn on a feature called tilt cords, this allows you to tilt your device in one direction or the other and you get six more chords in each direction.
By my count that means you have 18 chords in any key or song, each of the chords are editable both by primary note as well as type of chords. This includes 7ths, major 7ths, minor 7ths, sus 4, 9ths of many flavors and many others.
Just saying…
Also, it looks like one reviewer reviewed just before the latest update, or maybe right after and missed the new features of audio copy and paste, and of course Audiobus support, which knocks this out of the park.
In the credit where credit is due dept: I first heard about this app on Chip Boaz's wonderful podcast "iOS Music and You". Thanks Chip!
If anyone stops to read the update history in the App Store entries (I always do, I learn a lot about the developer and the app that way), this developer has progressively moved forward for at least two years.
Bottom line: This is a great app and easily worth $10.
Full disclosure: I just got it on sale for 99¢. But I was planning to buy it eventually no matter what. Was on my must-have list.
But again giving credit where credit is due department: I use an app that's free called AppPriceDrop. They give you alerts whenever an app you're looking to buy will go down in price. You can set the price. Wonderful tool and I have gotten a lot of good deals that way for apps I want to buy (including apps that drop in price from X to free). You can also do this on their website Applesliced.com. That includes alerts for Mac apps as well.
I just got my alert this app went down to $.99. And I was there like a laser beam. Looking forward to putting this in my Audiobus chains.
I hate illiterate one star reviews on the App Store. There are so many of them, and they often get app features hopelessly wrong. "yor guitar app mite b worth 69p wiv a sequencer and drums lol deleted lol this no garrageband".
If I was a developer, I'd want there to be a small spelling and grammar test before anyone is allowed to write reviews. It's amazing how the spelling and the content ALWAYS matches up in terms of quality! #snob
@Michael_R_Grant The reviews I dislike the most are the 'give me feature X and I'll give you 5 stars'. Like a hostage situation. I don't negotiate with terrorists.
I have many apps and although I do read the reviews I also try and find some videos to watch. Most of the time if you see a video by the dev the app always looks amazing then you get the app and it's not so good, but only because you have to take the time to learn the app. I'm also guilty of buying apps that I know will never fit into my actual workflow but I just want to mess with the music, this is great fun if the app is free or 69p
I have yet to see a review I've made show up on the App Store. What am I doing wrong? AM I doing something wrong? I'd review every app I have or had but I don't see the point in light of this. Suggestions would be useful, I hope...
I agree with you, I always review my favorite apps every update too, and when an app is free a review too maybe not with the five stars but at least 3, in the iOS music apps we have a lot of apps that are good, i came from the ios photography scene and you can see a lot, a lot of garbage, but in the iOS music not so much yet maybe because is starting to have a boom.
But the best developers deserve a good review and i almost since day one can see when a new music app is good, and for me in my ipad bought it apps i have like 60% of good apps and like 40% of awesome apps. I dont have the biggest collection of music apps yet. But i have the best apps for me and my music.
And i think a way to say thanx to the developers is giving reviews every update.
Stars and comments for future buyers. Saying the best of the app.
@Brain it generally takes about a day or two for a review to appear.
I have had NO review appear at all, ever.
Yes - this kicks me up the arse to do some app reviewing. I have done a few, but will do more