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.
Are these the only apps that’s ideal for live music
Loopy Pro, AUM, EG Nodes, Keystage, Maybe GarageBands Live Loops. Any other apps that are great for live. These are the only ones I know about. Launchpad would have been good for the list, unfortunately it’s not like the ones mentioned above. The only ones I’ve tried so far are Loopy Pro and GB. I haven’t used much of GB Live to get around knowing it. I’ve heard about the others like AUM being good for a live creation. Is AUM better than Loopy. And is GarageBand just as good as these other apps, because I never hear it getting any recognition. With the little I’ve used it, it’s alright.
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Logic Pro also has Live Loops mate. ☺️ Koala Sampler could be up your alley too.
Drambo and miRack and BAM are also able live performance tools...and I am sure there are many others that are slipping my mind.
Among the apps you mentioned, so much depends on how you like to work. One of the things Loopy Pro has going for it is that in addition to being an able host, it has integrated realtime recording and playback for either loop style or linear audio and has integrated work surface design. I originally thought that I would use it within AUM but now use it as my host 90% of the time.
This has inspired me to dig back into Loopy Pro for some live ambient fodder. 😃
I don’t have Logic. How’s it’s live fair with GB, more the same or no. Koala’s not a host, but I assume it’s a monster when used with Loopy or even something like AUM or Nodes. Apps like LaunchPad, BlocsWave have the good live feel similar to Koala. It makes my stomach cramp and disgusted that Amplify hasn’t made them Auv3. What’s the best way to use Launchpad, or is just importing audio the only way.
Edit: I’m interested in Launchpad
I haven’t them except for Drambo and I’ve only used it for synthesizing. Even that part I still don’t fully grasp. I never thought about using it live yet until I learn how to work the modules first.
Groove Rider GR-16 should be on the list of apps that are good for live. It's not an AUv3 host, but it can run standalone or as a plugin in a host. GR-16 Standalone has Launchpad Pro MK3 support (that model only, I think?).
@majorwizard047 - you mentioned Keystage. Camelot Pro is similar in scope and has been around for some time.
Launchpad is a fantastic app. Very simple and friction free. And crazy fast to load.
When I use launchpad I make my songs in BlocsWave then export them from there to launchpad. I use 100% loops I’ve made myself. I’ve literally spent years adding random and not so random loops and stems to BlocsWave.
Launchpad is a ton of fun to jam with — when you open a project whilst playing another it then keeps your existing project playing and you can blend in the cells from the next project.
I could definitely imagine using it live. But it’s been a long time since I’ve played live gigs. And I have no plans to play live in the future. If I did I would definitely give Launchpad a go — at least I’d rehearse with it so see if it worked for me.
I paid for the IAPs in Blocs but I don’t think I’ve even paid for launchpad, as I do all the actual creating of project in BW.
if I did play my solo project stuff live I could see myself with two iPads — or one iPad and something like a circuit tracks (as you can feed the audio from the iPad through it) or hardware synth so I could play live over the top of the loops which would make up the rest of the backing track. Maybe a JD-Xi or Korg keyboard with built in mic for live vocoder.
If I had two iPads the other would be for something like Samplr or Borderlands.
I use logic as my main DAW and it’s the hub of everything I do. I used to use it live — it played back my backing tracks and I played live keyboards using logics’s instruments and also played my bass guitar through Logic’s bass amp sim.
If I was still gigging with my old band I’d stick to that old Logic workflow. It was rock solid. I had one of the original intel white plastic MacBooks and it never skipped a beat.
But for my electronic solo stuff today? I don’t think I’d use logic. I think I’d do what I mentioned above as my first choice centred around Launchpad. The fact that it isn’t an auv3 host is a bonus as it makes it less likely to fail.
I would render the loops with fx so wouldn’t worry about adding reverb etc. and I’d overuse the performance controls like stutter/repeat/delay lol.
I often have an fx layer as its own stem. I like adding the fx bus back into the ‘wrong’ places — especially with granular fx.
I’d rehearse like mad too — make sure everything was rock solid. And I wouldn’t keep trying something that wasn’t working. If launchpad didn’t work I’d toss it without thinking twice — but I get the feeling it would be my first choice for live use for my kind of music.
Ultimately it’s entirely up to you. Nobody can choose apps for anybody else. It’s what you like and what fits with how you want to play live.
I would try and avoid using complicated setups. Simpler the better. Hence Launchpad being my first choice with a separate device for live instruments.
The more I think about it the more I think I’d have one iPad running Launchpad with audio fed into a Novation circuit tracks. And the tracks would add fx if needed and live synth. I wouldn’t bother syncing them. And I’d have a complete alternative set on the circuit should the iPad fail. And another full Launchpad set on my iPhone which I could swap out for the iPad in seconds — I wouldn’t want to disappoint the three people in the audience after all.
I forgot about Camelot. I don’t know much about it. I’ve seen it’s good enough to have a force of a community behind it like keystage, koala, Drambo, Loopy Pro, Logic, GB, Aum. It looks like EG Nodes is slowly becoming one of those apps.
At least I hope Amplify Music can add a similar Auv3 Effect system like Wavebox to their apps. For example how Wavebox by Luis Rivas can “apply” the Auv3 effects, “apply” as in freezing the effect into the audio sample once you get your desired fx and it closes the Auv3 FX app once applied. There’s also the option to undo the fx for whatever reason. This would be great thing for BlocsWave and LaunchPad and you wouldn’t have to worry about a greater chance of an opened Auv3 to mess anything up while working live. This would be better instead of having to export from another app as to adding your auv3 fx within these Amplify apps. It’s a drag of having to be FX’ing your loops in a Daw and then exporting into BlocsWave and Launchpad. This one feature can make a big difference.
Exporting into BW is not a drag for me. It’s what makes it so good. I love that it’s so simple and lightweight. I don’t want it to load auv3s. I have other apps that can do that. I use BW precisely because it’s simple and stripped back. I already have all the power I need in other apps.
It would make more sense to me to stop worrying about what an app can’t do and appreciate what it can.
If auv3 fx are a requirement for you, use loopy pro. It already does what you want.
Surely most apps are suitable for live performance? It’s not something that’s inherent in the app; it’s how you choose to use it.
Remix Live by MixVibes is great too, I just hate the monthly payment!!!
I was looking at Remix Live and you can purchase all the lifetime features separately to make it the complete app. Some of the add ons are even bundled together which makes it more cheaper. I think with the subscription is useful if you want access to the different varieties of MIXVIBES soundpacks which is great if that’s what you want access to all there packs. But for just getting all the other featured functions it would be better to just buy them all onetime for around 70$-80$ and own it forever. And also you can purchase soundpacks and own them. There’s the import/export samples add-on that you can buy and that way you can just import your own files. That’s what I’d rather do is pay the 70$ for everything and if I want certain soundpacks then buy those to own, but I’d rather import my own stuff. RemixLive has more going for it than LaunchPad. Mobilemusic Pro has a video and it’s almost like a full fledged Daw. It’s not completely bounded by subscription, that’s what’s cool about it. It can be expensive in iOS standards, but looks totally worth it.
Two apps I think deserve a mention for specific live uses are spacefields and Enso.
Narrow in application, but very effective in their niche.
You definitely don't have to understand synthesis to use Drambo as an awesome live tool. Just load AUv3 instruments in container modules.
We also can’t forget Endlesss.
it all depends on your genre, your workflow and your preferences (e.g. synthesized sounds vs samples/loops and stuff like that).
for me, those are Drambo & BAM for dancefloor-oriented stuff.
i put a whole non-stop live set in a single project. MIDI FX plugins allow me to add lots of variation to my patterns and avoid having too many scenes (where it's easy to get lost) at the same time. that's it.
Koala may not be a host, but it's definitely capable of live performance, mate.
And, I haven't dug into Logic's live loops enough to compare to GB just yet. I'll have to have a play with live loops in Logic to see how they compare.
Yeah I was gonna chip in with exactly the same sentiment….
Droneo would be amazing for a live performance…
I guess the OP was assuming we all make syncopated “beats”- based music?