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.

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Audiobus is the app that makes the rest of your setup better.

Well this is bizarre - 7.1.2 with reverted apps is broken again after working fine for days :-(

Hi folks,

So, helping out another member, I reverted apps as I've mentioned elsewhere in order to check that a particular AB chain which was stuttering badly with updated apps on 7.1.2 would work fine with older ipa's. As I've described in other threads, I reverted such apps to their pre-AB-SDK2.1 ipa version and everything was GREAT again.

Instead of running the chain at an AB buffer of 1024 - barely - on a mini Retina, I could again run the chain at 256. The other member here had the exact same experience. I.e. they reverted their apps, test, all good again - for several days.

Then - they report - last night AS they were using it, it started breaking up again. Nothing changed.

I thought - "can't be" - I'll check - and sure enough, the exact same chain is now stuttering badly for me - at 512 again - let alone 256.

In fact - even without any FX in the chain - it's stuttering badly.

How on earth can this have happened? Nothing changed. iPads have been reset apps removed and restored (again the reverted versions). In fact the other member erased his iPad and started over. I just now went through and checked all my app rev levels and they are what I had had working perfectly after reverting the other day. Not errant IAA processes running. Memory fine. Tried with wifi off as well.

So, today - unusable again - and I have not updated them, nor Audiobus, nor iOS.

THIS IS TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE. I now have a brick again as far as using that chain goes.

Does anyone have ANY idea what might be going on here? Anyone? I do not live on top of an alpha particle source. Neither does the other member.

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Comments

  • Have you disabled background updates? Otherwise the apps get automatically updated when you have the wifi on.

  • I never have any auto anything on on any iDevice. I have confirmed all the ipa levels are the same as when I reverted them to pre-AB updates the other day.

  • This just "stopped working" for the other member. As they were using it. ?!?!?

  • What if you restore everything (again, I'm sure) and just keep it offline? Do not have ANY data from ANY app running at all. Just KEEP it on airplane mode with wifi off.

  • Been there. Done that. @TGiG as has the other member. Not sure what you mean by "any data".

  • I was afraid you'd say that. Hmm.

    About "any data". From what I understand some apps draw cellular data, hence airplane mode, but also some apps send data such as crash reports and other information without any visual indications. I'd think that it should work as a stand alone legacy instrument

  • Hmmm @TGiG - yes - but not sure that's true in this case. Appreciate the input though.

  • No problem, simply trying to brainstorm! Your current predicament sounds so frustrating that it must have a simple answer

  • Appreciate that @TGiG.

    What troubles me is why it should have stopped working - both for me and another user. It just stopped working "in a blink" he said to me as he was using it last night. I hadn't tried it since checking it out for him before, last week, and, after reverting the apps as I had described to older ipa versions, successfully using AB with a 256 buffer as shown below. I tried it again and was back to crackles. I cannot now run this again with < 1024 without crackles. This on a mini Retina.

    Note: I do not normally run this setup. The other user does - live - for paying gigs - so needs it to work. But, this should not have just stopped working fine for me either.

  • My guess is the overlords got hip to your plan to not update to iOS8 and tossed the old monkey ratchet on your device...

  • I can say, that just yesterday my iPad 4, 7.06 JB, stopped updating apps over the air. The update button would display, but would only open the app and not update. After working for so long, with no system change, it stopped. I know it's unrelated behavior, but the timing of something breaking yesterday should be mentioned.

  • This is like what happened with CSSpectral for me. I d/led it and it worked fine for a day or so and then it went to sh/t. Weird.

  • @Zetagy said:

    I can say, that just yesterday my iPad 4, 7.06 JB, stopped updating apps over the air. The update button would display, but would only open the app and not update. After working for so long, with no system change, it stopped. I know it's unrelated behavior, but the timing of something breaking yesterday should be mentioned.

    Well,with a JB running,i wouldn't be THAT suprised if one day things stopped working out of nowhere.Problem with JB (combined with high performance tasks like audio) is that no one can really say what's happening in the background to cause stress...i'm totally on most developers side in this case:they just don't have the manpower to figure out all possible configurations with JB devices to find out whats going wrong.It would just suck up development support for all people who use their device"legally" (or,in another words:in the way apple meant to use and that you agreed when you bought the device and signed an apple ID).

  • Thanks for the lecture, sorry for mentioning.

  • @Zetagy said:

    Thanks for the lecture, sorry for mentioning.

    It wasn't meant to be a lecture to you,you where just the tip of the iceberg to say something that engaged me for a little longer now.It was meant generally,don't take it personally ;)

  • What is a mechanism for apps to stop working (whether JB or official OS)?
    SOMETHING has to have changed, right?

  • edited October 2014

    Agreed @Zymos - but - not "stop working" entirely. Rather, stop working well, as they were just a couple of days ago. So, what could have changed? What are the variables here? I'm not sure I know. I know I didn't change anything to do with those apps - at all. I installed a couple of things, Laplace for example, but I did not change anything to do with the apps already installed. I did not change anything on iOS - nothing in settings etc. So, what else could change here?

    ?!?!?!?

  • When I used to troubleshoot my computer builds, I would strip the PC down to just the bare essentials (CPU, ram, video, MBD) to see if it would boot ok. I would recommend trying something similar. Delete off all your music apps and reinstall just a bare minimum number of apps to test AB. Maybe AB, your DAW, and a synth that you use regularly. Then if that works ok, start adding back more apps one at a time. In other words, change only one variable at a time.

  • ^good advice- see if you can even find a minimum configuration that works well.

  • Hey @Coloobar - appreciate the thought. Deleting 200 music apps off an iPad that hasn't changed and on which the exact same bus route was working a day ago, (i.e. installing reverted versions of said apps as a means of resolving the issue of updated apps not working in exactly the same way, having tested the solution at 256 buffer size - several times - and it working fine, but not now working) and then reinstalling them would likely cost me more in equivalent lost business hours measured in $ than a new iPad Air 128. Not an option - nor the answer here.

    I haven't changed any variables at all to do with these apps, nor any other operating parameters with my iPad - neither did the other user. It just stopped working for the other user as he was using it. That is not user error... Something else changed outside of his interaction with his device - and - when I replicated the exact same circumstances, mine had stopped working also. So, an external change was made. That's what needs to be found. The only two variables here are something Apple did or something that happened with Audiobus at the backend / registry end.

    Your advice is good advice however for someone who only has a couple of apps that they work with. It's the sort of advice I've given others for the past 32 years working with and building computers also - and I recommend the approach where it has a valid basis for thinking that it would resolve something. So, yes - I agree in principle but not here in practice :-) I appreciate your input and thinking it through with me here however. Thank you! :-)

  • What are your options?

    I don't say this cheaply. Having read this thread and with you having given indication that you are an experienced user, it may be appropriate for you to assess, as regards time and money, what you can reasonably do next, however unpalatable that might be.

    Coloobar's suggestion is one option. What are your others?

  • edited October 2014

    Oh, and, just to put it in perspective. Here's the route for this iPad mini Retina to-date:

    1.) Purchased new on the 6th September.

    2.) Updated to 7.1.2 ( I think it had 7.1.1 on on delivery)

    3.) Loaded with current apps that I use.

    4.) Loaded up the apps with several GB of patches - e.g. Alchemy comes to 2.6GB with the patches installed and takes quite a while - and handholding - to get to that point.

    5.) Updated apps along the way until about 10 days ago.

    6.) Added some more apps along the way that I'd purchased recently - i.e. since the 8th, namely iProphet, Laplace, Caramel, apeFilter, iPulsaret, Scalegen and Gestrument.

    7.) Stopped updating any apps about 10 days ago as it became clear problems were occurring with Audiobus SDK 2.1 updated apps even on 7.1.2

    8.) Reverted about 30 updated apps to previous versions. Including Audiobus.

    9.) Tested fine. All good. No more problems at all - including the above AB chain I posted.

    10.) Nothing.... Nothing.... Nothing....

    11.) Fired up the above chain and now it's not working cleanly again for no apparent reason.

    The other user I've been referring to went through a similar process, but much more cleanly, with a completely new iPad purchased on Friday. Loaded it with just the above apps in the chain shown, was working with it - had been for quite some time, and then it just started crackling and he could not get it to stop - after trying all of restart, reset, erase, reinstall apps. And, yes, he too used older ipa's. (Newer ones not working was why he reverted likewise in the first place.)

  • I think the other options are @JohnnyGoodyear

    1.) Apple say something

    2.) App developers say something.

    3.) The Audiobus team say something.

    4.) All three say something :-)

  • As you know, those are sub-options reliant on others and all belong in the same item on the list.

    1. The strip down, begin again option
    2. The hope someone says/does something option

    Again, I'm not intending to be facile here.

    Let's hope for number 2. It's the weekend. If you don't come across a magic button in between times, and if none of the guys here can add anything, perhaps someone will come to work on Monday morning and have some light to shed.

  • Agreed @JohnnyGoodyear . The main reason this has come to light again for me has been in testing the setup on behalf of the other user. As I mentioned near the top of the thread, I don't normally run three simultaneous apps in the input slot.

  • @MusicInclusive Well, you have certainly put me off dabbling with that too much. Proof yet again that a friend in need is a, well, friend indeed etc. Good luck.

  • Could it be duration of use? Memory or temporary storage getting used or fragmmented and not being freed up? We already know that the iOS cleanup routines are a bit iffy. Perhaps the old version of cMemory might help?

  • edited October 2014

    The other thing I'm aware of is that unplugging and plugging in headphones has in the past caused a reset of the audio buffer size, even when it's been set and in use by another app. Perhaps something similar is going on?

  • @PaulB - Appreciate the thoughts. The old version of cMemory (which I have) won't run anymore. The update that provided the clean function is no longer available via the app store. :-/ Further - the problem occurs immediately on restart / reset - so no memory fragmentation - fresh. All good brainstorming as from others above though.

  • are you both using a midi keyboard controller?have you tried the configuration
    without one?

    are any of those apps the 64 bit versions?
    ...what ones are 32 bit?

    running iv-ani and gs at the same time with the 3 effects and ab may be pushing your system close to its limits.??

    same result if you remove one of the input apps?

    same result if you replace the 3 effects apps with master effects?(think it has those three effects and may not be as processor/ram intensive as three individual effects)

    all I could think of for now.hope it shakes it off tho.

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