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.
JWM - The Audiobus Friends EP (created in the OP-1 Field, mastered in LP4i)
This is the result of my little experiment in asking you wonderful folks here for some prompts.
A huge "thank you" goes out to @ecou @abf @chrka @HotStrange @michael_m @rottencat and @dendy for their prompts! Couldn't have done it without you mates. ❤️
About the song "Elijah", it has uncensored cussing in it and may come off as juvenile, but if you ever got to know the 40-year-old disaster I once considered my brother, you'd understand just how mad I am. "Elijah" isn't his real name, obviously.
So about Elijah. He basically obsessed over art, because he suffered an injury that incapacitated his ability to create his own art. Back in 2019, I used to make him art of his OCs, which he'd either ignore or outright snub while pining to have art made of his OCs by "one of the greats" (aka artists in his niche genre who are a bit more skilled than I am. Well, gee Elijah, I'm so sorry that I don't have as much practice in digital art as I do with creating music.)
Elijah never worked a day in his life until he became a family member's sole caregiver. In fact, this is how he became injured. With his injury that never healed, he could get on social security (he's "Murican"), which I tried to help him with. He balked at the idea of talking to a benefits specialist, because "it causes him social anxiety to talk to new people".
And he constantly moaned and whinged online about how unfair his life is despite me trying to help him. He's basically an ungrateful loser, and after I created him a sketch and was snubbed once more, I went "no contact" with him. That happened in early November, my feelings were bottled up and ready to pop, and creating the "Elijah" song was that therapeutic release for me.
Sorry about the "trauma dump", but oof. Luckily Elijah wasn't from this forum. 😂
Anyways, there are more notes about the tracks in the Soundcloud description. I hope you enjoy the EP! Cheers! 🍻
Comments
Yesss it’s out! Congrats on 2 releases so far! This is excellent ❤️ 👏
You really are on a roll right now. These all sequence together really well too.
I was surprised to hear the sound of your voice. I don’t know why I expected it to be different though. I guess we all have these ideas about what people look or sound like before we know.
Grazie mille! 🚬😏💨😶🌫️
You and our other friends somehow created a perfect chain of key signatures. 😁 So, credit isn't really me here.
🤣 I know, right? My actual voice, no processing or tuning. Okay, so on "AI Overlords" I used the vocoder on the OP-1 Field. Sounds bloody fantastic! Most of the other tracks my voice is on consist of me speaking.
I sang slightly outside of my vocal range on "Elijah" (I'm more of a tenor, but I attempted a baritone range), which kinda made me go a little out of tune in spots. However, the song isn't meant to be some polished Pop/EDM fodder. It's Post Punk, and after @chrka suggested use the Portastudio tape (which the OP1f has!), I wanted it to sound more like lofi Outsider music. I'm talking Wildman Fischer, the Shaggs, Captain Beefheart, etc. I even placed the vocals a bit further back in the mix and saturated them with reverb to make it sound "naive" and "raw". 😅
Would you believe three months ago I used to consider The Shaggs as a joke? I was wrong, obviously, and I've learned to embrace the whole "outsider" aesthetic. Why should I waste time on polishing my mixes to the point they sound like everyone else's music when I could be creating more original, edgy, raw, bizarre and daring music that is truly original and offers me unparalleled creative freedom?
I mean I'll still create more polished works in NS2 and Koala eventually, but that OP1f tape workflow frees my mind and helps me to think outside of the box. That being said, I solemnly swear to never sample a barking dog and turn it into Jingle Bells. 🤣 There's a difference between making Outsider Music and abusing my OP1f. 🤣
Also, to the keen listeners out there, I also used the same melody in "The Exit" as I did in "AI Overlords" as a way to bring the EP full circle. 😉
no contact is all the rage these days
Well a lot of folks do that as a knee-jerk reaction. It took me over four years to finally come to that point.
Impressive what you can do with a little white box of tricks. Years ago I had a Casio VL-1 but I think things have moved on 😊
Not keen on the sweary vocals but I understand why you did it. Enjoyed the rest of it though 👍
Yep, a couple of people were surprised as to what I could elicit from that little white box of tricks, lol. Some people feel limited by it. I'm more into pushing it as far as I can without breaking it, lol.
Lol, yep it was a vent song. Sweary vocals are a rarity for me, and yes it was rather juvenile of me I admit. I usually try to keep things clean. That song was a long time coming though (believe me lol), and the Post Punk suggestion was just the right medium and genre to finally bring my feelings to the surface and go ham.
For my next EP, there will be one song with vocals on it. This time though I'll be recording in the instrumental and then laying my signature autotuned vocals on top. (I attempted vocals yesterday, but they sound somewhat pitchy as well as a lack of confidence.) Those vocals will be 100% clean as per my usual standards.