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.
Comments
Less assets. No audio samples and little to no image files being used. The UI appears to be vector based which relies on code for shapes and colors.
It may well be written in native C++ or other code, without the bloat that can come from coding it based on frameworks or libraries.
As a parallel, very simple apps written using the Microsoft Visual Studio framework require large runtime libraries to run, even if they themselves are very small - the MS Visual Studio runtime dependencies need to be included when distributing the app otherwise it won’t run.
This sometimes explains why apps without resource or sample libraries can still be larger than they would be if were coded natively.
There are many factors to this...
One could be the frameworks and SDKs, 3rd party libraries etc. that are used?
Some use larger sample-libraries for sound generation?
Some apps use bitmap graphics (where you need to add assets for all supported screen sizes) that take up storage space compared to a vector based UI (Some apps ship with un-compressed TIFF assets, some with compressed PNG or JPG etc.).
Then there's naturally the way they are actually programmed...
Some programmers simply write more efficient code than others and optimized the crap out of everything
One of the reason some social media apps are 'bloated' is mostly down to regional adaptations and regulations and the frame-works they use, so instead of picking what parts of the framework the apps actually use they bundle 'everything' (FB, Google etc. do this).
Since the concept of 3rd party shared libraries/frameworks between apps doesn't exist on iOS each app has contains a duplicate of the used frame-works which adds to the overall bloat...
Considering that the storage space on devices grows year by year there's no real motive to keep the app-sizes small.
Same goes for 'optimizing code', there's always a faster device to run on in case the current one gets too slow...
YES 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾
I think you cannot move it. Use master tuning instead. Not a problem in host anyway.
Yes, when you save the destination folder is below, click on it. I didn’t figure out how to save without “save as”, like regular direct overwrite, seems you can’t.
@rvr thanks!
Still no video on YouTube. I will know of the sound is much that great like the desktop version. Maybe @Stuntman_mike will give is a little demonstration 😅.
Pretty sure I will do a spoken walkthrough on these but need to fully read the manual etc first, and figure out all the ios workarounds for touch
There is no detailed walkthrough vid for this on youtube, quite surprising. But definitely a need for an ios specific walkthrough due to the manual not containing info about how mouse + key combos translate to ios
Hi! Not so much a full on demo, but took Twin 3 for a quick, boom bap test drive:
AUM + Drambo + Scaler + Twin x 3 (one self made patch, factory bass patch and factory pad patch) + @bleassapps Compressor + @gospelmusicians Splat-to-Clat + Knock + Pro-Q 3 + Pro-L 2:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/CpEkRhbDfid/?igshid=MDM4ZDc5MmU=
That would go for all of the FabFilter apps, there's so many not super obvious things hiding in there...
For example when using Pro-Q 3 and the 'UI' doesn't fit in the regular sized plug-in window the only way to use it are using these 'hidden' / 'not so obvious' gestures where the double-tap-drag up/down, left/right are a must...
But in all fairness, the same applies to the ToneBoosters AUv3's as well as they to contain a bunch of similar gestures that are not super obvious and the manual just briefly mentions gestures but not in any greater detail.
With more and more desktop-ports being brought over the gesture standardization will become a total nightmare when each developer has their own 'vision' of how their apps should be used when it comes to gestures.
One of the FF quirks I find funny is the way to do 'fine adjustment', ie. one finger on the knob and another finger to swipe up/down for finer value adjustment. Korg solved this by quick-swipe on the knobs when micro-adjusting a value and in Thor by pulling the finger further away from the knob for increased resolution value changes.
The best 'number-entry' by far I've come across is auGen X and the other apps from the same developer with a custom numerical entry pad. (I'm not fond of the iOS/iPadOS keyboard popping up for simple numerical entry).
One thing that can and does drive me nuts is that the gestures are not 'unified' ie. each app its own way to do gestures, one app may use double-tap to reset a value while in another it's used to enter a number, assign a modulation or something else.
This is yet another reason why I'm reducing the app count, it just takes too much energy to remember all the different gestures in apps from various different developers when the same gestures does a different thing in another developers app...
Cheers!
Yep it's a real pain in the ass! I don't know if you noticed, but Audiothing implemented a fine adjustment after I mentioned that the app needed it. So now in their apps, at least the last few, long pressing on a knob will allow fine tuning
Why I didn't notice this so much with volcano and saturn was that I basically found myself preferring to use a mouse with them. For twin 3, mouse for drag and connect works so much faster and better than touch gestures. Grrrrr...
This is my current list of unsolved questions. FF have not been of great help in answering these.
How, on iOS, do you adjust a parameter for all oscillators at once? (alt key on mac)
On mac, command + click allows multiple selection of non adjacent filters. How to do on iOS?
In the xy pad, I can't get it to show me the destinations etc for the y axis
How to adjust source level control?
Manual states: on the right, a drop down menu lets you change the slot's source or target. I see the drop down menu but am unsure how to actually change the source or target. I tried long pressing but that just brings up the box to enter a numerical value.
When an xlfo is set to tempo sync mode, I find it very hard to click the dots around the knob to jump to predefined offsets for dotted and triplet synchronization. Instead what happens is that I often accidentally end up activating the balance or glide controls.
It is very hard to adjust the balance knob in the xlfo when a lot of modulation controls are set up. Normally on FF knobs the outer ring controls (eg the pan knobs) give a lot of leeway in regards to where exactly the user touches. But in the mod section, when I try to adjust xlfo balance, instead what often happens is that either a) the offset / frequency knob moves instead or b) the whole mod section starts moving as the interface thinks I'm trying to scroll. Is there a certain knack to it? If so, users need to be clearly informed.
@Samu I can't see how to do the hold one finger and drag with the other to do fine tuning. Even if this worked it would be hella unintuitive and very clumsy, but can't get it working on twin 3.
Anyone who has figured out the above - your input would be highly appreciated!
It is tricky, but try this...
Once you've started to move a knob or node with one-finger, put another finger on the glass and continue the movement up, down, left or right using both fingers for finer resolution.
(The above works in Saturn 2, Pro-Q 3, Timeless 3, Volcano 3 etc.).
I still have 16 days Trial of Twin 3 on desktop to go so I'm in no rush to get it for the iPad...
...and I'm still quite meh on some of the features that are missing (one-shot mode for the XLFO, tempo-sync for chorus, phaser/flanger and reverb pre-delay etc. etc.).
As for the other questions, I can't check the iPad version of Twin 3 since I don't have it yet...
I do wonder if the FF devs have an account here on AB forum?
Cheers!
Thnx Samu, will try that double finger technique later... Madness to have such an implementation but it is what it is I guess 😂
It's amazing what one can do with a good compiler, a custom library, and no data to speak of.
The FF apps are 20x longer (in bytes) than a novel, and yet they are 20x smaller than most other apps.
I'm reminded of that guy (Steve Gibson) who still writes all of his Windows apps in assembler:
https://www.grc.com/smgassembly.htm
Five instances of Twin:
Twin 3 is the first app I've used where I wouldn't even attempt to use it without a pencil.
Yeah I'm kicking myself that I lost my pencil and didn't really use it enough to buy a new one. I'll try this with mouse later, also a good call I think, from my memory of past experiences with fabfilter apps
I'd still be interested to see if a pencil would solve any of the issues I mentioned in my previous post. Doubt it! :
This is my current list of unsolved questions. FF have not been of great help in answering these.
How, on iOS, do you adjust a parameter for all oscillators at once? (alt key on mac)
On mac, command + click allows multiple selection of non adjacent filters. How to do on iOS?
In the xy pad, I can't get it to show me the destinations etc for the y axis
How to adjust source level control?
Manual states: on the right, a drop down menu lets you change the slot's source or target. I see the drop down menu but am unsure how to actually change the source or target. I tried long pressing but that just brings up the box to enter a numerical value.
When an xlfo is set to tempo sync mode, I find it very hard to click the dots around the knob to jump to predefined offsets for dotted and triplet synchronization. Instead what happens is that I often accidentally end up activating the balance or glide controls.
It is very hard to adjust the balance knob in the xlfo when a lot of modulation controls are set up. Normally on FF knobs the outer ring controls (eg the pan knobs) give a lot of leeway in regards to where exactly the user touches. But in the mod section, when I try to adjust xlfo balance, instead what often happens is that either a) the offset / frequency knob moves instead or b) the whole mod section starts moving as the interface thinks I'm trying to scroll. Is there a certain knack to it? If so, users need to be clearly informed.
Even on the Mac alt + knob only works on a few selected parameters like level.
You can't as an example change pulse-width, waveform or relative tuning on all oscillators at once.
It just causes more frustration to investigate which parameters can be 'alt linked' for editing so It's faster to do it one by one.
I'm so happy I'm no longer an insta-buy-junkie or I would be pulling my hair when I bump to these kind of issues considering it's not a 'low budget' iPad app...
(It was clearly NOT designed with iPad touch-interface in mind but rather as a 'Well, we are FF and everyone loves us and will this sh*t no matter what because we're FF ffs).
And now when I think about it, why is there no per-oscillator send to the effects and why can't one oscillator modulate another oscillator for basic FM?
Twin 3 is nice but definitely NOT a must have super essential app...
Yep, there's an arrogance there that has led to sloppiness, I'm glad you agree. Great idea about per oscillator send to fx, by the way. Maybe email them, though I kind of doubt they're very open to these sorts of suggestions. That said, the FF modulation system beats almost any other apps out there. I'm very much in a love / hate thing regarding FF 😂
If you want to learn synthesis, Twin is rock solid. The modulation setup is pretty great. But if you want to go beyond that, it's very limited. No shape control on oscillators, no msegs, fx are super basic, no custom no waveforms or wavetables.
If it had wavetables at the very least, it could complete for a super intuitive and user friendly synth like Tera Pro. As is, you're paying a premium for the brand name. One advantage over TP is the mod matrix is nearly unlimited where TP has two maximum slots per control.
Ditto!
The XLFO even with its few quirks is one of the best LFO implementations out there being a combined Step-Sequencer / Custom LFO Waveform with small touches like the 'note-lock' making it easy to use it for melodic sequences or chip-chords without too much hassle and the Legato/Glide options is very well implemented.
Don't know how familiar you are with TB apps but TB FlowTones is a pretty capable synth with quite deep modulation options.
The effect section knocks Twin 3 out by a large margin...
And regarding the love / hate relationship with FF I'm in the same boat...
...I prefer Pro-Q 3 over TB Equalizer and prefer TB Barricade over Pro-L2, TB MBC is a lot more capable than FF Pro-MB and the list goes on...
In Twin 3's defense it can be as easy or as complex as one decides to makes the patch.
The strength is definitely in the Filters and Modulation routings but it can easily get out of control and get super messy to overview.
I mean only a small color blob to indicate what is modulated?
Twin 2 had a better overview where the destinations and depths were clearly shown above the modulation source.
Oh well, time will tell if I get Twin 3 for my iPad or not...
Cheers!
Yep. The FF manual for Twin is a great learning tool for subtractive synthesis. The modulation options for Twin 3 are probably the best you can get on any platform, but for sound design potential it's hard to outdo Tera Pro. And soon it will be even harder, when the new TP update comes out. 😉
😱
No idea.
Looks like a clipping/sizing bug:
Works for me. Tap and drag. Probably impossible without a pencil.
No problem with a pencil.
Works for me.
I don’t fully understand the displaying of DSP, but shocked to read someone got 8 instances. I haven’t tried, but just playing the default patch on high quality the dsp is 49% in AUM with 0 other open apps (and I’m on the latest Pro). Like, the reports on all these forums of DSP usage always leave me wondering if something’s wrong with my iPad cause it doesn’t seem like I could run all the things people do. But admittedly I haven’t tried.
This isn’t truly important to me, the way I work I don’t ever need multiple instances, but shocked to hear you got that many, even if high quality was off.
I expect FabFilter will address the obvious bugs in this first release.
It's not like they're promising AUv3 support (or audio editing) and then never delivering...