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.
DrumPerfect and Cubasis
A question for those of you who have experience working with DrumPerfect and Cubasis. DrumPerfect was highly recommended to me by other members. I saw some videos and it looks awesome but $15 is a little pricy. Before I buy I wanted to ask if it plays well with Cubasis.
- Does Cubasis record DrumPerfect MIDI patterns to a MIDI track?
- I read somewhere that in the beginning DrumPerfect doesn't have a MIDI in? Has that changed?
- Does DrumPerfect sync with Cubasis MIDI or IIA clock? If so does it stay in sync?
Thanks.
Comments
DrumPerfect has no midi in or out (AFAIK), but does have midi clock that does a reasonable job of syncing with other apps. It seems to sync well with Cubasis IAA. The dev is very approachable and adding new stuff all the time.
With apps without MIDI that require to bounce the audio down to a track in your DAW. Isn't there a problem with the final mix down of the entire song at the end? I'm used to having everything in MIDI so I can balance, add effects, etc to get a great sounding mix for a song.
Aaaand you can do that with audio. Mixing did exist before MIDI came along...
Of course I know that. It's just that in my opinion when you are making electronic music you get a better sounding mix if all of your tracks are MIDI.
Well, you're entitled to have an opinion...
Yes that is true! lol Another thing I thought of is that it is nice to be able to access your drum track from the piano roll instead of having to do everything in two sequencers.
But seriously this brings up a good question. What's your argument for not having your drums running from your DAW through MIDI when you are doing your final mix? Why is it better to have to bounce down to audio separately?
DrumPerfect, when set up properly, produces a performance. MIDI is a rather coarse medium in which to try to store all the nuances of that performance. I'd rather have the audio version as rendered by DrumPerfect. Also, playing back an audio track in the DAW uses less CPU and RAM than generating sounds on the fly by sending MIDI to another app residing in memory, so I'm less likely to get glitches or crashes. I generally only use MIDI if I'm auditioning patches for a part I've already written or else I'm using a controller I like to play to record an app that has an interface I don't like.
You've made some good points. I never thought of the CPU and RAM load. I didn't have a problem on my MacBook, but I can see where it would be a problem on the iPad. DrumPerfect looks like it's right up my alley with its' humanizing features. That's one of the things I like about REX files in Reason. Fitz's bosa nova track sounds good too. You guys sold me! Thanks for the advice.
For me DrumPerfect is not just a drum player - it's power is in some of it's random functions, some of which you choose, and some of which are under the hood.
I have created midi drums before, adding variations myself throughout. And have also used Reason's rex percussion. DrumPerfect is something else.
In some ways, using IAA or Audiobus it's like having midi. You have a song mode, and you can run this live along with your track. It's even got a grid mode. Great for quick edits.
But it adds the slight variations that make a subtle difference in a performance, and you just have to press one button. Plus you can add more, either subtle or not so. Rolls, or extra beats that play occasionally. You create the patterns, but in the end you've also got something similar to having a really drummer. You've got to learn to use it, but in the end it's really powerful.
I like the idea of slight variations with the touch of button. And you are saying through IAA DrumPerfect syncs up perfectly with Cubasis?
Is there a decent tutorial out there for the newer version of this?
Not that I know of. Read the manual, it's fairly clear, start small, save your patterns and build up to using all the features as you become more familiar with it.
@Michael_R_Grant Good question (must be good; I want to know the answer too
and @PaulB good sensible answer darn you 
There is a forum. It's a bit under used at the moment, but given there are now people with experience of the app, and Marinus is really helpful with solving problems, it would be good if it was used more. Maybe ask a question there?
OK I bought DrumPerfect, setup AudioBus, and I was able to record audio.
Unfortunately from what I can tell DrumPerfect's sequencer doesn't start/stop from Cubasis transport controls. Is there a way to sync them up? I don't see it listed under IAA.
Using Audiobus and not IAA open Cubasis as output, Drumperfect as input. Turn on midi clock on the first page of DP. It seems to be on as default but check that Cubasis is sending midi clock and this seems to work fine to me. Checked with metronome.
Don't understand why DP is not showing up in IAA. Create audio track in Cubasis, open routing, click on mono input, choose Inter-App and it should be there? Might be best to close all Audiobus and just use Cubasis with DP as IAA. Seems more consistent (ie. the BPM doesn't shift around).
Thanks Fitz. It worked! Cubasis transport controls work and IAA records it.
So in this case you set up two audio tracks starting with IAA and then AudioBus. It's weird but fun. Is this method used a lot?
Normally I just use DP with IAA for live play along (bit like midi), then export inside of DP either loops or songs and copy into Cubasis (or Auria). You can also export (to Dropbox) individual drum parts, then import for editing, keeping everything separate for fine tuning later.
@Fitz You said "live play along". Are you talking about an audio recording of an instrument, or are you playing an iPad instrument through MIDI?
What I mean is Drumperfect can run along side Cubasis using IAA. And you can change things. But when you need the resources you can create the audio from DP and then close it. Later, if you save it, you can reopen DP for more editing.