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.

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Audiobus is the app that makes the rest of your setup better.

Audiobus 2/IAA/Clock Sync

I've asked a similar question in the Loopy Update thread, but I'm worried it might get overlooked there. Wanted to start a new thread for it as I think a lot of folks are going to be interested in this one. It's my understanding that if apps are updated with the new sdk you guys released, IAA will actually be used in the background. I'm a big fan of IAA 's clock sync. It appears to be MUCH better than the flaky midi clock sync currently used in AB. However, I'm seeing that (at least the apps released so far) don't use this form of sync, though. In fact, the recent Beat Machine update even instructed folks to use the midi clock sync still. That's more than a little disappointing to me, and I'm curious if this is just going to be "the way it is". Would love to hear from Seb or Michael on this one.

Comments

  • I didn't instruct folks to use clock sync, it's just in there because of midibus. Beat-Machine has IAA sync and it works better than clock sync.

  • The new IAA clock sync on SeekBeats is wonderful. IAA clock sync does seem to be more reliable than the MIDI sync found on iOS.

  • @dreamless, thanks so much for the reply. The comment from the thread I was talking about was this one;
    "Also turn on clock sync receive and start / stop / continue receive to use it with loopy and other midi apps."
    (thread: http://forum.audiob.us/discussion/4278/beat-machine-updates-coming-/p4).

    If loopy is updated to the latest SDK and now supports IAA, why would we need to turn on the midi clock sync? That's where my confusion started. When I tried to get it to sync with Loopy wihtout using midi it didn't work. This is probably just a bad expectation on my end, but I still wanted to ask for a little clarification. Totally agree about the clock sync for IAA when using IAA, but curious about the Audiobus implementation of clock sync. Maybe it's just a Loopy thing, but would expect that app to have all the "bells and whistles" of the new SDK, considering...

    By the way, not sure if I've ever thanked you directly or not, and I'd like to while I have your attention. I think Beat Machine is a great app. It pulls off the perfect blend of power and simplicity for me. I finally hung up BM2 since the last update (not that I'll ever delete it from my iPad....never!). Great app, and your participation and support you've given your customers in this forum have been stellar. Kudos to you.

  • edited August 2014

    Thanks! I don't think AB2 implements clock sync or IAA sync. I implemented them both myself (with midibus and by examining apple's crazy IAA sample code). AB2 just publishes the app as an IAA audio node. And this only works if you open the node in the host as an IAA instrument. Being connected through AB isn't the same... it's audiobus. How do you open an IAA instrument in loopy? I only used loopy with audiobus so I had to use clock sync.

  • I guess it's just a misunderstanding of how I thought the new Audiobus was going to work on my part. From the descriptions of the new features, I just assumed that when both the host and the node were both updated with the new SDK that Audiobus would default to IAA instead of their traditional method of connecting the apps. I'm using Audiobus with Loopy as the host. That's the source of my questions.

  • Audiobus and IAA are two separate pipelines for audio. You can even get them both going at the same time and hear the small latency difference between them. AB2 just makes it easier for a dev to publish an app as an IAA node. There's no sync. I've got loopy HD on my phone and I can't find a way to open any IAA audio instruments. @supadom brought to my attention that beat-machine was lagging behind a little with clock sync when used with loopy and i'm fixing that right now. IAA sync works great with all the hosts I have tried. I had to implement it myself though, it's not in the AB sdk.

  • Sorry to butt in but I thought that Audiobus had very little to do with midi in its current state.

  • I think the thinking might have been something like: IAA supports clock sync-> AB2 opens up IAA support for AB apps->AB2 will let you use IAA's superior clock

  • I think Loopy's IAA implementation is just for track or metronome output as an instrument. I think Loopy doesn't send a clock signal via-IAA.

  • I thought this too, until I recently started debugging it with DrumJam and the new SDK. It appears that when Loopy is put into an output slot in the new AB, it actually becomes an IAA host due to the new magic IAA internals of AB and then it provides the IAA tempo/beat transport sync to apps on that chain! I have a message in to Michael asking what the real situation is, because knowing what is really going on behind the scenes can definitely affect us!

  • edited August 2014

    Thanks, @dreamless. I really feel like I've read a different thing than what you're saying. I thought that IAA would be used in liu of the old Audiobus method (within Audiobus, no requirement to also connect the host and the node outside of Audiobus - which seems...clunky) after the apps are updated to the new sdk. Really would love to hear from the Audiobus guys on this one for some clarification.

    Edit: Thanks @sonosaurus. Your post came through as I was submitting mine. What you're saying is exactly what I was under the impression the new sdk would do.

  • Seems like a long time ago but I remember having a conversation with Sebastian (or was it Michael?) from which I gathered that they were considering a global audiobus clock but seemed like it was more musing rather than a plan. This was when IAA was about to be released so it was hard to make specific plans when something as radical as IAA was about to drop. Saying this, it will probably take a long time before IOS environment stabilises enough for a complete midi consensus and I have a feeling that Apple will ultimately have to be the driving force.

  • On the flipside to that though, it seems like a universal clock sync code for iOS could be soon. With IAA becoming an Apple-developed standard for musical app communication, and IAA implementing their own good form of clock sync. And then Audiobus (the equivalent option before IAA) integrating IAA into their new interface...it seems like all signs point to the IAA clock eventually being the universal answer. I'm hoping that eventuality is sooner rather than later.

  • Yep, I remember those conversations. I believe it was said that a "master clock" may eventually make it in, and that it was definitely discussed. However, as you mentioned, since that time IAA came along. And even with all it's quirks and undocumented features, it blows midi clock out of the water. Like by a mile, in my tiny humble opinion. So when it was said that the new SDK would actually make apps use IAA, I was thrilled, if maybe a little naive. Still, I'm optimistic about what @Sonosaurus said above as it was exactly what I thought the situation was going to be. Like Michael, that guy is a mad scientist, and if he's communicating with Michael I'm confident there's going to be at least some news on the horizon. I am keeping my hopes up that the new SDK means exactly what I always thought it meant. No more midi clock mess. No more latency.

  • Not to discourage from progress because that will always drive on but at the moment in my little loopy world I am quite content. I only use midi for syncing turnado and effectrix to loopy and have to say they stay solid as if they were born that way. On the other hand I've been trying to hook up synths to beatmaker and it all dragged along like an old trolley. Most recently I've been trying to incorporate a drum machine into my set up but the only box that play game was seekbeats but unfortunately for all its greatness it is just too ram hungry. Anyways, for the moment I put my mind at test and work with what I have. I totally know where you coming from and hope that one day soon this stuff gets properly resolved. There's enough music gadgets for ios to finally click tight. But as I said, until 2gb Ram IPad comes out I'm staying put. (The last line is total bullocks! lol).

  • Yep, agree about working with what you have. My comments have been more focused on the potential I thought was on the horizon.

  • @boone51 said:

    Yep, agree about working with what you have. My comments have been more focused on the potential I thought was on the horizon.

    I know man. It's got to happen soon. Bloody frustrating though.

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