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
Thanks for that heads up! I have been trying to use that 'Audio Mastering' app, without much success. From a very brief look at this one I think I might get on a lot better with it. For a start I can actually hear the sound changing when I adjust the parameters, especially the EQ.
Make sure you turn them on first in AM
I did! But somehow changes, especially with the EQ, weren't really obvious to my ears/speakers/headphones. Its a good app - I just seemed not to be making much headway in actually improving my mixes & masters (although that may say more about my skills in mixing and mastering). I suspect that once I've understood the delights of multiband compressors and stereo enhancement by playing with the presets I might then be able to make more sense of AM.
Its a complex area!
@kitejan HUA! (Heard, Understood and Agreed with
http://tarekith.com/assets/pdfs/Mastering.pdf
Looks like all of Bias' apps are 75% off. Nice!
@Coloobar said:
Useful - will read that - thanks (wasnt it Tarekith offering the free mastering a little while ago? Or am I getting confused?).
I've always wondered what my music would sound like properly mastered - but when it comes parting with quite a lot of money (for an albums worth) it never somehow seems worth while. Maybe one day :-)
It's parting with a lot of money and then not liking the result that's the real kicker. There are different approaches to mastering...
@PaulB said:
Never thought of that!
Unless your tunes are getting a wide release (especially by a bigger label) or you simply have the money to spend, mastering your tunes yourself is the way to go. Don't waste money by going with some really inexpensive noob charging $5 a song or something.
But you really have to thoroughly learn the software you're using and know your primary listening device(s), whether those are monitors, bookshelf speakers or headphones, inside out. I use Sennheiser IE8 IEMs primarily, and also some Audioengine A5 bookshelf speakers (plus their S8 subwoofer). I've carefully listened to everything I have with these IEMs and speakers, and I know their sound signatures and quirks inside out. My IE8 IEMs, for example, have a high mid bass curve, for example, so that's something I always keep in mind.
Test your "final" mixes on at least a few things other than your primary listening devices, especially Apple's earbuds/EarPods and a common unmodded car stereo. You might want to buy a commonly owned model of Beats headphones to test on.
Read Tarekith's mixing and mastering guides!
Mixing and mastering is definetly an issue for me. I spent an hour or two trying to 'master' one of mine last night and I honestly say - I ended up either something that sounded worse! I know it's practice, and knowing my equipment, and my listening environment - but I find it really hard to know how to apply the tools to the track - and when I should fixing the mix rather than master.
Wise words above about commercial vs DIY mastering. I think I would just like to know how much my tracks could be polished - but i don't take what I do very seriously - I just like doing it and like knowing how the technology work and all that. Therefore (unless a signing somewhere is on the cards :-) ) it's going to be the DIY approach for me. It just would be nice to get to the point where it actually IMPROVES the track :-)
No shortcut apart from "doing it".....
IMVHO, if you're working on your own tracks, forget mastering as a complicated multi-step process. Focus on the mixdown and just use a limiter in the "mastering phase" to get the volume up, that's all you need to do. No sense applying all these other processors to try and fix the sound of the song when you have the ability to go back to the mix and adjust the individual elements.
Kitejan - Send me your track via the uploader on my website and I'll do a free mastering pass on it for you. Always good to at least hear what's possible once
innerportalstudio.com
Thanks for posting. I'm new and I'm finding out this is a good place to find sales.
@tarekith: seriously? Wow - thanks! Will upload the track I'm working on / struggling with/ going-to-abandon-it-in-disgust tomorrow morning. I take the point about keeping the master simple - I think I'm of the opinion of less-is-more - but the temptation to use everything because I have access to everything seems to get me :-)
I have been doing everything in NanoStudio and usually I have just been applying some light compression and cutting bass below about 30-40Hz (nothing I'm likely to play my tracks on goes down that far and I've read it's good practice to roll off the low bass to de-clutter the rest of the mix) on the master output. So when faced with a mastering tool it is tempting to throw lots of EQ, multi-band compression, and stereo imaging enhancement at it!
Jan
Don't feel bad, it's a very common problem, lots of people overcook things in the mastering phase thinking they need this huge plug in chain to get the job done. I bet I do 90% of my professional work with just an EQ and limiter, very rare I need a single band compressor, much less a multiband one
Just to finish my posts on this thread. I took Tarekith up on his generous offer and here is my track, with his mastering:
Jan