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.
Sound design for meditation / meditative ambient and soundscapes
I have begun a project doing sound design for meditation, creating meditative ambient, soundscapes and atmospheres. I aim to create warm, welcoming, meditative ambient experiences.
I'm pretty well set up software wise on my iPad and iPhone. Among other things, I have a couple of synths I really love, and some very nice presets from @Spidericemidas and Sounds of Izrael. I am also discovering the wonderful world of sampling, and exploring ways of working with it in ambient.
I keep coming back to Aparillo, feeling it has potential for me, if I can learn to use it subtly. But I'm not sure. I wonder if anyone can comment on Aparillo, and if there are any presets out there for it, that I should know about.
Yesterday, an iOS music making friend recommended Pure Synth to add to my toolbox. I was immediately drawn to the Createmospheres expansion pack, and bought it, only to find I have to pay for the factory pack first. So any comments on the value of Pure Synth and Createmospheres for my intended purpose would also be welcomed.
I love Mitosynth, especially since discovering Spider's presets for it. I've had it a long time. I keep also wondering about Grain Science, it's sister app, as I love Mito so much. Is it still a valid creation tool today?
Other favourite tools are Samplr, Borderlands, SoundFruuze, PaulXStretch, and I have the effects department well and truly covered, thanks to purchases over the years.
I also have some great sounds on my Mac too, which I'll also bring into the equation at times, especially the beautiful Lekko and Blisko from Felt Instruments, but I'm just wanting to check these last synth choices today, and I'm done.
So once again, as I have waffled a bit. Would the following apps be of value in my meditative sound design explorations?
Aparillo
Pure Synth + Createmospheres expansion pack
Grain Science
I forgot to add, one of the reasons I was pointed to Pure Synth was that I am looking for some clean and mellow electric guitar sounds to bend and warm with effects, and didn't know where to begin.
Any recommendations for good sources of noise? A variety of both electronic white, pink and brown (are there any other colours?), and some natural sources. But in an app or a sampler. I have started to gather samples of my own for this too.
One other app I keep wondering about is SampleWiz 2 from Bleass, to import my own samples into, primarily, but I'd really appreciate any comments on it in general, for this purpose.
I'd love thoughts and comments from anyone who knows these apps, and understands or appreciates the genre of meditative ambient.
Thanks for reading my ramblings, and have a great day!
Comments
Aparillo is the only one I can comment on. So worth getting. I did an hour long walkthough on it that is easily one of the best walkthroughs on my channel and took a very long time to research and make - a good week of full time work, easily. I'd be surprised if watching it doesn't make you want Aparillo!
As for presets, Aparillo already has tons, literally hundreds. I actually made a bunch of banging presets for it when I made my video, but they seem to have vanished somehow.
Wow, mitosynth looks good, as does grain science. Pity they aren't auv3
Yes, MitoSynth is so good, I don't care about the auv3 absence. If you try it, do get @Spidericemidas presets for it. They're meditative by nature.
I highly recommend the sounds available in "DecentSampler" (free app). The FREE sound packs from Venus Theory displayed in the browse section are wonderful. For each free version there's a corresponding much larger sound pack for sale. "Chimera" is my favorite.
"Dave Choir" sound pack might also be useful for this purpose.
I think investing in AudioLayer and learning how to layer your own sounds would help you feel more ownership of the results since the sounds would have your fingerprints on the smallest details. AudioLayer can also to programatic "auto sampling" of any app in AUM or AudioBus by sending the app MIDI can recording the sounds into folders. Or course, you can use AUM to stand up a rack of apps and using the buses send a mix into AudioLayer and save the work of manually building layers too.
A great way to create a long sample that morphs over time it to use an LFO app and connect it to the volume sliders of multiple apps in AUM with them 180 degrees out of phase. So a note triggers 2 or more apps and the sliders move making the sound morph slowly for long sustained ambient purposes.
I put up an AUM project at Patchstorage that has the details in place for a quick set up. You would need
Rosetta Suite or mLFO for the LFO generator:
https://patchstorage.com/3-lfo-apps-with-aum-midi-control-routing-to-bpm-volume-and-filter-cutoff/
I used the free NUMA Player app for the targets... it has a couple nice presets for ambient and some good keyboards, strings and bells.
Thanks, I have and love, both Decent Sampler, and AudioLayer. Although I mostly use AudioLayer to play a couple of felt pianos I love, from the days before Decent Sampler was around.
I'd really appreciate any pointers about LFOs. I have struggled to grasp both the concept and the method, despite being painfully aware I need to master the art of LFOing. Could you offer any guidance in the right direction as to how to start?
Thanks for the Patch link!
Which LFO product do you own?
They can send out a steady stream of CC (continuous control) events. The various apps support several waveforms similar to a synth (Sine, Cosine (90 degree delayed sine), triangle, sawtooth).
In AUM there's a MIDI Control page where AUM features can be assigned MIDI Channel and CC's as automation controllers. My patch implements 3 LFO apps so I might hit one your already own. When you hit play the AUM volume sliders with go into motion. Hopefully this will speed your understanding of how to set up more apps using your favorite LFO app(s).
If you don't have Numa Player, you should get it... it's free which is why I used it. But you can replace any Numa Player with any app and the "CC Plumbing" should work but if not it's just getting to the right page to set it up again.
Rosetta LFO by default sends out CC's on channel 0 (channel 1 in AUM) and CC's 13, 15 and 17. All can be changed to suit your set up.
It's also useful to test the AUM MIDI Learn on Synth App Filter Parameters and have slow morphing filter in the mix. I think the trick of good ambient to to have change without edges so that the sounds are liquid or airy in nature so the listeners mind can float while being nourished but never jolted. Too much "music for sleep" has events that just take me back into the world... I start to drift and they make me alert with some sudden bell tone or deep bass hit.
I'm sure there are artists that serve the purpose of sleep I just haven't found the perfect one yet that can complete with a dark quiet room.
I'll have to check out that AUM patch McD, cheers!
Have you watched my Rozeta Suite videos Ando? One of those covers how to use Rozeta LFO in AUM.
Thanks. I have mLFO, LFOH, and lfoch.
I think there's something I can do in one of Bram Bos's apps too? I forget which. Rozeta or Mozaic?
No, but I'm about to, now you've suggested it! Off to YouTube I go…
Yeah, Rozeta suite contains an lfo! I must say I really love midiLFOs by Art Kerns. He really makes beautiful interfaces
+1 on all those Venus Theory DS packs btw - absolutely phenomenal!
Ooh, I have that too! I just found it. I'd wrongly filed it under MIDI, rather than in my new LFOs folder. Brilliant. : )
For someone who doesn't know how to use lfos, you sure have a lot of lfo apps Ando! 😂 😂 😂
That's me @Gavinski. I guess I kept hoping to find the one that would teach me the ropes!
Also, a little secret you don't know about me, is I trained in electronic product design, so I'm always wanting to explore how things work… even if I'm not always successful!
Which of these four might you recommend I start with @Gavinski ?
For me Rozeta has the largest widgets in it's interface because it only offers 3 LFO's. The others tend to offer so many but once you start putting LFo's on anything that has a knob and MIDI learn you'll want a lot of LFO's. But I will often just keep adding Rozetta's just because I know it and it's fast to configure on more channels or with new CC numbers.
Still, 1 mLFO instance can drive something like 20 CC's.
MIDI learn will just grab the first event that comes in so you could end up with a lot of end points listening to Channel 1 CC 13 from Rosetta. So, knowing the range of CC's from mLFO would allow you to just change the CC listening point in AUM.
I think you could start with any - midiLFOs has a beautiful and clear manual
Then that will be my starting point. Thank you! Off to find the manual now. It's a diving deep kind of weekend for me.
I would highly recommend Animoog Z. Every time I noodle around with it with the built in loop recorder somehow beautiful ambient drones just happen naturally
Definitely, superb app
I shall dig in there and see what I can bring out of it. I have it gathering dust on my iPad. Today is a good day to dust it off.
Dipping a toe in there right now, it's already inspiring me. Great stuff!
I find that music limits my meditations. I cannot go deep into the jhanas with music on my mind. I don’t listen to music while meditating, but I always have music in my head. I have to turn it off to get into the deeper meditative trance states.
I don't either. But I host a twice weekly 25 minute silent gathering online, and during the 15 minutes prior, I play meditative ambient music, whilst I let arrivals in, and they settle. Then the bell, and we enter silence together.
I must also note that meditative is indicating something meditation-like, not meditation itself. It's a leaning towards, rather than a definitive. Trance states are another thing again.
I still use Mitosynth a lot. Had a lot of fun making those meditative presets. Not bothered about AUv3 in any apps really. It's very handy, but certainly not an obstacle if something doesn't have AUv3, and it won't stop me making good use out of it. Sometimes I still like to record things the same way as I used to on 4-track tape. One at a time. Makes me still feel involved in the process. More manual. I record Mito as audio tracks in Cubasis2. Unplug it from the track and plug it into the next track....
I love those presets Spider. They were probably the first presets I ever downloaded for any app. I like your approach to editing audio tracks too. It makes sense to me. Tape… that's a rabbit hole I would love to dive into, but best kept for a bit longer, I think.
Good luck with your meditative ambient project! It sounds really good. Love this kind of thing. Hopefully we'll get to hear a finished piece.
My mate had this record called "Zen Flute", or something like that. We used to listen to it and focus on it for hours.
One afternoon sitting by a stream with the sound of water bubbling past, in one ear, through the mind, and out the other ear, became one of those outstanding and attractive memories that never goes away.
Thank you! I love the Zen flute, the shakuhachi, I used to play one myself for a while. And a hearty yes to sitting by a stream.
You can see a little about the project on my website, at http://ando.life/thesilence
I originally trained as a Zen teacher and meditation and mindfulness teacher. But these days, I'm hosting this space for those drawn to gather together in silence and stillness, who seek company in their silence, like you and your friend. I play 15 minutes of meditative ambient for the period whilst everyone is arriving. I played some of my own pieces (they're on my YouTube channel, and there is a secret Bandcamp page too, that I may revive), but only one is long enough for the entire 15 minutes, so I saw it as an invitation to start making music again, following my cancer journey this past year, which took all my time and energy away from music making.
Meanwhile, whilst I'm working on these new pieces, I'm playing music such as Moby's Long Ambients, which I love for such purposes, and have used for the roll in before events in the past.
I'm so happy, and bemused, that a project called The Silence should stir the urge to make music again!
Not sure if you've looked into LayR synth. It’s seemingly an über pad-machine. Don’t own it yet, (though at the current 50% discount I probably should), but it might be useful for you. Also worth checking out Virsyn’s TERAVERSE.
Then of course, there're the granular and sampler 'usual suspects' such as Samplr, Spacecraft, Borderlands, FRMS etc. which can help you easily design drones, or intricate little ear-candy to go along with drones. Throw field-recordings into these apps, have some good ol' hands-on funtimes, and have the results funnelled out through rymdigare, Otherdesertcities and some mega-verb, or other. These kinds of instruments are not only very suited to touchscreens, but playing them can become a meditation in itself.
Good times
Yes, I have LayR synth. I love the approach, and the quality of sound it produces. It still seems a bit buggy on my iPad though, which has turned me away from learning it fully. I also love that I can run it on my iPhone.
Someone else recommended Teraverse too. I wasn't so sure about that one.
I absolutely love Samplr, Spacecraft, Borderlands and FRMS. I've got a field recorder, and also grab little snippets on my iPhone when I'm out and about. I'm learning and loving Koala too. Pad based sampling has become and unexpected part of my workflow.
I've got Rymdigare, but haven't got to grips with it yet, although I do use and enjoy Tardigrain. OtherDesertCities is a real favourite for delay, along with K7D and YaleD reverse delay. Modley from Klevgrand is another favourite tool. I recently added BabyAudio Crystalline to my reverbs, and I regularly use Stratosphere, Black Hole, and Alteza, my go to reverbs.
I'm asking questions like a complete noob here, because I ended up spending a year out of music production due to getting cancer early last year. Slowly on the mend now, I have time and a little energy to return to my love of ambient, but my memory is a bit rusty, so I'm digging through old apps, wondering how I will create with them altogether.
The one part of my setup that I'm new to learning, is sequencers, so that's fun, I only skimmed the surface before, and never really clicked with them. And I'm looking to choose a couple of synths to learn and work with in more depth. Mitosynth is one, and I'm looking for another. I may already have it. I'm loving Nambu, which is new to me since my long break.
The other gap in my knowledge and tools is looping and sampling, which again, I'm deep diving into now. But I keep wondering if there's a better tool than Koala for me to do live and recorded creating with, for launching samples and loops, and of course, Loopy Pro, which I'm trying to learn, but finding it a bit mind-boggling. All of this, and I'm learning about LFOs this week, which have always confused me.
But the music will find a way out, regardless of tools and knowledge, but it all helps.
My favourite (and yes, it certainly can be meditative) process for creating, is to choose just maybe 3 or 4 apps to work with (not counting the host, which is usually AUM), and sit deep with them. Only adding additional apps once the piece has its direction.
This seems to be a year for pulling all of this together, for developing some ease in the process, and enjoying the deeper learning. One thing I keep coming back to, is MiRack and VCV rack, but this forum, and others, keep reminding me it may be time to learn to build and create in the mythical Drambo!
Who knows, perhaps I will become one of the Drambo masters of ambient yet? I can but sit back and listen, when @echoopera starts sharing his creations.