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.
Just Released: Into the Night by Lady App-titude
In a world where 80s synth pop coexists with 50s film noir, tortured lovers must escape the dangers of forbidden love.
[Link below in comments.]
Comments
You know, actually I would like to hear you compose something in the style of a 1940's or 1950's noir murder mystery movie. Maybe a crooner and a big band backing?
Now I’m excited, I love both themes. The cover is criminally good! 🤩
I have no patience… but I understand this marketing model. Hopefully, it lands on a BandCamp Friday
so you get all the money.
This intrigues me. Looking forward to hearing the final result.
Just released in time for Bandcamp Friday:
https://ladyapp-titude.bandcamp.com/track/into-the-night
Ha!
"A dark night in a city that knows how to keep its secrets, but on the 12th floor of the Acme Building, one chipmunk is still trying to find the answers to life's persistent questions."
I have written jazzy crooner type tunes, but this is not that. Strictly 80s-style synth pop. Only the cover art and lyrics concepts are noir inspired.
Yes, indeed. Today is Bandcamp Friday -- a great day for folks to help support content such as this. As always, FREE to listen, but any contributions are especially appreciated on this one, since I worked with a collaborator on some of the lyrics this time and am splitting any monetization 50/50. Thanks everyone!
Thanks so much. Hopefully the perfect pairing was realized. Cool video coming soon!
Yes, I'm just saying I think your musical style and vocals might work perfectly in that genre.
BandCamp Friday purchased. Good to hear you putting more vocal into these projects. This one has some backing vocal added. I hope you lead with the vocal and put [corrected typo of “out”] the killer instrumental solo in as a middle section. Hopefully you get more positive feedback to trust that you have an audience for your vocal skills. I like where you’re going with this work.
Thanks so much! I'm pretty sure all of my tracks that have vocals have both lead and backing harmony vocals. I've used pitch transpose effects sometimes for the super low parts.
Cool… I will await the track that puts the vocal up front. Perhaps, there is one like that but it seems the rare approach. Sill… your instrumentals are always worth the price of admission. You’re quality control impulses are your defining virtue.
I'm afraid I don't follow your comments about "vocal up front." The vocals are exactly where they should be on all of my productions. I actually put an enormous amount of work into the vocals and take great care to make sure that the vocal is the loudest part and that every word is intelligible, and that every syllable falls exactly in the right spot and is held the right length, etc. The key is balance. To make the vocal as absolutely "upfront" as possible. If it were any louder it would be distracting and inappropriate. But thanks for your wonderful support. I think you and I have discussed such things in the past and determined that you might possibly have hearing loss in certain frequencies. I suggest headphones for the best listening experience, especially if one is trying to make out every word of the vocals.
While I'm here, enjoy this little piece of promo art for the track.
I didn’t make myself clear… the vocal doesn’t enter until the 45 second mark in the arrangement. I think it should enter around the 15 second mark and that instrumental section at 30 seconds should be a break after the chorus, IMHO. Delaying the entry of the vocal sets the listener up to expect an instrumental.
Take it for what it’s worth to you. I was perfectly happy with the instrumental music and just was a bit shocked to realize it was a song. Then I thought what I generally think… that’s a strange way to arrange a song. You want people to recall the song and start singing along after a fairly short intro.
I really like the production, Lady. It is well-mixed and very well arranged. In some ways, I agree with @McD about starting the vocals sooner in the timeline, but in other ways I disagree with him due to the fact I don't think you're trying to produce a modern "made for TikTok" Pop tune. You're doing your "Lady Apptitude" style, and doing your thing.
Edit: I also love the song itself, just making sure that's also clear.
@McD Mate, "vocals up front" is a production term that means "make the vocals louder in the mix". It doesn't mean "start the vocals sooner". 😉 Just fyi.
This is very accomplished on multiple levels, congrats! FWIW, I didn’t think the intro was too long, it’s the kind of length common in dance music, giving a DJ plenty of opportunity to mix it in right after another track.
I think the whole thing would work very well at a slightly slower bpm. Loved the outro.
D'oh! Wow, OK, it seems I've totally misunderstood the comment. Thanks for clarifying! So, it seems this is a conversation not about mixing at all, but about arranging.
In terms of the arrangement... I'll just say.. This is a very common way to open a song -- perhaps TOO common! It builds up in layers. Starts with the drums, then the bass, then the chords, then the lead. I say this is too common, because that is often how things are composed nowadays. It has been so natural to build things up like this, ever since the era of drum machines and loop environments. However, while I try to avoid that cliche, I end up using it all the time, if it works for the song. And in this case I think it works really well for this one.
As regards how soon a vocal should come in.. I think there are many examples of songs -- including major classic hits -- where the vocals don't come in until much longer than this. Wish You Were Here comes to mind immediately. Or Locomotive Breath! Or Papa Was A Rolling Stone! That goes on for several minutes before the vocals come in. I'm pretty sure I've had this conversation online before, possibly here, and remember citing these same examples. I think that it doesn't matter at all when vocals come in, as long as what's happening during the build up is compelling enough. In this case, the vocals appear in less than a minute -- which is well within standard unwritten edicts of pop music.
I'm quite happy with how this arrangement ended up, but there were a few things that were new for me, or places where I had to weigh various arranging choices. For example, this may be the first thing I've written that has a "call and response" interplay between the chorus repeating a line and the lead vocalist riffing off of that with phrases. This is a common device in salsa music.. The other thing is the ending. I had the song, but how do you end it? I considered various options, including returning to a synth solo and fading, because it bothered me somewhat that the solo synth appears at the beginning and then never returns. But in the end I went with the slow down and rubato vocal ending (another thing I don't think I've ever used in a song before). I wanted something that would convey drama and disappearing into darkness and the unknown.
Otherwise, it's a pretty standard song form: intro, verse, chorus, bridge, verse, chorus, ending.
Thanks! Yes, exactly. And this is a far shorter build up than most of those kind of dance music examples.
Ha! Yeah, well that's what can happen when you compose the music first and then add the words last, which is typically how I work. I end up with these phrases that are nearly impossible to sing, certainly beyond someone with my limited vocal abilities. I will actually have to sometimes rephrase the words because a certain series of consonants is too hard to say at that speed. Stuff like that. I did actually slow the tempo down a bit from what it was originally.
And the main thing that gave me the idea for the ending was exactly because I struggled so hard with the fast moving phrases. I decided to slow it down at the end to give the vocalist at least one opportunity to sing a phrase with sufficient time to add more expression.
Well done, as always, Ms Apptitude. There was a time when the vocalist was just another instrument in the band and took his/her solo like the rest. That changed, of course, the human voice being the most direct instrument to the heart and other body parts.
Merci beaucoup, Monsieur Lineman!
FYI, the new "Into The Night" video is now up on Youtube!
Great video.
I think you should do a project that starts organically from a vocal. Something you could perform at a keyboard or with a guitar. You have a voice that could carry an album. And the arrangements ng chops of Michael Omartian or the guy that partnered with Basia.
Basically I’m just encouraged you to sing… and there’s a clear progression over the last year or so.
Do you shoot any video for your projects?
I pulled the track into StaffPad and slowed the BPM to 120… the vocal holds up really well with the tempo change.
This is a feature of StaffPad that they added two updates back. I’ve used it on some @Linearlineman projects to see if I could add extra strings to his work. Being able to adapt the audio file tempos without pitch changes is pretty amazing. I’m sure desktop DAW’s can do this but on IOS there are few tools available.
I tried manipulating a @Lady_App_titude project before and she requested I delete the files and will do so again but it was a good test case for adaptive audio. I might try adding some string or brass parts just for the “post” production practice.
🤮 Can't begin to express how much I hate the idea of this. But one has to accept that people are free to destroy your art for their amusement as they see fit. There are cases where I wouldn't mind so much. At one point back in the day, I even thought of releasing one of my tunes as stems for Launchpad, something that people could play around with and remix for fun. But something like this? I especially hate the idea of doing something like this to one of my little baby birds, barely out of the nest, something that hasn't even had a chance to be alive and breathing in the world in its original form for more than mere hours. I've done my share of remixing, sampling, etc. But not to something the second it was released, before I've even had a chance to get used to what it was intended to be. But it belongs to the universe now. Have fun! (I guess.)
It’s just an exercise in production techniques. There’s no danger of me sharing my results because I understand your point of view.
On the positive, you’r getting more exposure to your work by continuing discussion on this thread and hopefully getting additional sales at the BandCamp site to help you continue to create more work. I paid $10 to experiment with your work so I think experimenting is fair. I’ve been looking for a good use case for this time shifting capability
and I was happy to see I could hear your track at a reduced tempo and still have a believeable vocal without robotic artifacts. I think I over did it at 120 and can just type in 130 BPM in the tempo track and hear the change immediately. The technology we have on IOS now is truly stunning.
Back to the conversation about video: have your started shooting video too? iPhones and Android phones have really impressive cameras now for shooting video even in low light situations.
Okay, I think this needs to be said, and I apologise if it's a bit too blunt. I will say that there are more succinct, less dramatic ways of expressing one's disinterest in having anyone remix, sample, etc their work as well as disinterest in constructive feedback.
I mean, full disclosure, I've made a fool of myself in the past on this forum, but I try not to do so these days. It isn't worth it. I also don't take offense when someone is trying to actually be helpful regarding production techniques, share tips and tricks, offer constructive feedback, offer what they would do differently, etc.
There’s always room for honesty, tho’. Misunderstandings abound but honesty is to be valued above all.
Watching the new documentary about the “We are the world” recording session I am reminded of Quincy Jones’
advice: “Leave your ego at the door.”
Honesty is just someone’s truth.
Again… support our group of Bandcamp artists by purchasing their work as a tribute to self-made art: @Lady_App_titude, @Fear2Stop, @jo92346 and @linearlineman who keeps seeking connection to the muse well into
his 70’s. Simple recognition fuels their souls.
That's fair. I know you have good intentions mate, and what you said rings true.
For sure.