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.
Comments
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In Italy prive is 49,99€....where cost 20$????
Other thing, I buy Auria for 40€ but I spend more then 120€ for FubFilter
Wow...woke up this morning and looks like I got some 'splainin to do.
Finally...Thanks very much to my new users...looking forward to the improvements you will bring..I'm on your team...part of what you get for your money. Peace.
I'm taking note of who admits to buying this thing to call them out if they ever complain about an actual high quality app at $5-$10 bucks.
Crazy to see people break for this, but it suggests they are very unsatisfied with their own musicality, which as a guitar player, I've seen happen time and again, as people who want to be players focus entirely on their gear, thinking it will be the magic ingredient or device which will make them a musician out of the clear blue.
I also have to mention, that buying this app at this price only hurts the ios music-making community, because it will inspire others to raise their prices on all of us with no requisite rise in quality. If I could influence anyone thinking of buying this at all, I'd really suggest you buy 10 high quality apps you've been holding out on at $5, or 5 at $10 instead of this.
Not that my opinion should matter to anyone, just thought I'd throw it in.
@AQ808 FYI... I have spent over $400 on the Auria app to date. I wouldn't dream of telling you how much to spend on a new guitar!!
@Trueyorky The thing is, I can take any rickety piece of junk guitar, and after a few small modifications, make it sing. A lot of people severely overpay on guitars and effects pedals in the same way they'd overpay for this app.
Auria gives you not only a very high quality Multitrack Recorder/Mixer, but also access to 3rd party plugins we wouldn't have any chance to use on iOS otherwise, and which on desktops cost 5 times more. There is a comparative advantage and value there. But keep in mind that most of the fabfilter plugs only reimplement and expand on the capabilities Auria already has in its PSP channel strips. Auria already has EQ, Compression, Limiting, Reverb, etc… The plugins just make it easier and generally more interesting. There is significant value in what all of those do together, not just in comparison to desktop production, but also in comparison to anything available on iOS.
Different Drummer doesn't even come close to being as interesting in sound as Propellerhead's Figure which costs the princely sum of 99 cents in the US. Where is the comparative value?
Whoa, I hope ppl aren't calling me out. The only time I've ever complained is when shit doesn't work. Or at least doesn't seem to work. And if I'm wrong I fess up to it.
As for this DD app, it is different. If you are a guitar player and are into metal, this is the only app that I think could probably do a fast enough double kick rhythm. NO other drum app could do this. you want tribal sounds, this shit can do this. An added surprise is the strange melodies it comes up with. if youve been playing guitar for years like me, an e chord sounds boring as hell. open a to d, thats every u2 song ever made. You want Metallica songs, just play 5ths with a the black boss metal pedal. You want punk ramones/green day, just play 5ths through thr orange boss distortion pedal. if you want something that makes you approach music differently, it kinda did for me to a degree. to be fair, is it worth $50? I'm still contemplating that if I knew what I know now. Maybe $20 at most unless you can load up 24 bit samples, can edit the waveform of samples you load in, all the stuff I asked for in my other thread. If you don't need any of this, much less percussion rhythms, it probably isn't worth $2. but shit, I thought I was doing a favor by sharing my thoughts and warnings.
gjcyrus,thanks
That's much appreciated.
Tinks I'll giv DD a miss.
@gjcyrus No worries, I hope you saw my smiley face up there as I was joking about calling anyone out.
I have to ask though, you seriously do not believe that you could go to any DAW you already have, quantized to 64, and do double kick rhythm? If you are really into tribal, isn't drumjam going to 99% fill that need for you? If you quantized to 64 in a DAW and play along on the beat pads, are you not going to be able to pull off something very similar, with the option to copy and paste, and remove certain beats wherever you want to make it sound "progressive"?
I guess that is my point, it isn't just competing with other beatboxes. It's competing with DAWs which are cheaper and can nail this type of sound. Maybe that this does so automatically has value to you, but you would be deciding that you'd prefer not to have as much control over your beats, correct? That you'd prefer a general randomness handed to you rather than create it yourself?
Again, that is not intended as any personal attack to you at all, just tough questions that have to be at least asked.
Me putting DD through its paces...
@technemedia - while I am not a fan of your pricing policy and your marketing style prior to soundest room, I will say that I appreciate you seeming to be open to feedback and wanting to provide customer service. I'd like to praise you and all the devs on audiobus forum who do this as there are many apps that I'm sure we've all bought where the developer pretty much has abandoned. Also, your app was not misleading and it has delivered a unique experience but I see lots of potential room for improvement. Good job!
@AQ808 - before I purchased it, I actually had second thoughts due to the principle of it. iOS presented options for broke musicians, and if I support this, then like you said, pretty much many apps might start charging more. Hell in this thread alone, there have been business/economic strategies discussed that put us musicians in specific boxes/categories/markets. What is the ideal "price point" to charge for an app? And ya know what? That's capitalism. That's the free market. That's USA dude and love it or hate it, that's why we're a free country. Now from our standpoint, we also have a choice. Instead of buying every single cheap app available, maybe we need to be more picky about what we buy and look at apps the same way they look at us musicians. As a number. What is my expected return on investment for every app? What is the history of this particular developer? What exactly are they offering that can help me in my music? ive bought a bunch of cheapo apps and some mid range cheapo apps that have ended up being useless to me that i bought purely for noveltys sake. but ive also bought some brilliant ones who im happy to sing their praises all day. This was an app that I actually had a need for. To make unique rhythms because man, as cool as many drum apps are, they're all kind of the same aren't they? So I bought this app and told myself no more useless apps from now on. It's gotta bring me value or I'm just gonna pass.
@AQ808 - I bought it too, so add me to your list. I think your assumption that this suggests a lack of musical capability might be true in some cases, myself included, but I see it more as another tool to help me get there, not something that will make up for it. I relaize that a lot of work goes into being the musician I would like to be.
I don't have any buyers remorse at this point. The app is truly unique, and I'm enjoying what can be done with it, although there are still aspects I haven't figured out yet. I agree with @gjcyrus on how this can fit into some different areas of music, and I tend to enjoy the syncopated, surprising styles that it does work with.
Also, I agree that I'm not yet sure that I agree with the price point, since I've seen a few deficiencies in the apps stability. I can't pinpoint anything that I've been doing when it happens, but it has crashed on me about 5-6 different times since last night. I'm running the latest iOS, on an iPad 4 32G, with no other apps running, and I've rebooted on a couple of occasions as well. I also have had some problems in getting some apps to recognize the midi. I've tried running the wavesets on individual midi channels and running them aggregated into a single channel...even trying different channels. Some apps work with it and others don't. Getting basic beats is more difficult than getting more complex beats, but it seems possible if using the right waveform, rests, and dynamics, along with the other approaches that @technemedia suggested.
I think someone already suggested it, but I would like to see more waveshapes. Sawtooth, in particular, would be a great add to allow ramping of the various parameters.
@AQ808 - dude, don't put me in a tough position especially on this forum where it's like 80 percent devs and 20 percent non-devs. While I dig Thumbjam and tonal energy, drumjam doesn't do it for me. DD can do waaay more unique shit than drumjam. Don't get me wrong, drumjam gets the job done in most cases but its not unique. You might as well sample a loop off any jazz or rock album on oldies radio or current radio and find a more unique drum loop.
Oh, as for creating our own general randomness, what are we even doing on iPhones/iPads? I'll be the first to say lets just play it live with actual instruments! But I want to stay open minded and look at technology as additional tools.
One more thing I'd mention about Figure which many may not know is that on any beat type in a kit or any instrument, you can turn off the Euclidean beat divisions and play freestyle, you can then crank the shuffle or tempo, tweak the filters on each in real time. Once you have a loop together, you can play it like an instrument through audiobus, dropping and adding things, changing Euclidean rhythms mid-song. I'm just saying, try to understand all the capabilities of something like Figure before throwing down $50 on this app.
And then maybe help me in requesting midi out for Figure from Propellerhead as a $5 IAP instead.
@AQ808...no way this will alter the iOS market which is tuned for high volume and low bucks but surely you've gone to a guitar store and bought a $200 pedal...I sure have going back a long time...and many at that...even when I couldn't afford it. Why? Because I wanted my Strat to sound different on some tunes and that was that. Paying a bit more for something shows you are all about the Music. If you can make 1 tune with a killer new drum track that sounds unique or fresh...it's worth it to some musicians. Nothing will please everybody, but that's cool. IMO, telling people what they should do with their money is sort of like going into a nice restaurant and telling someone, hey you should have bought 10 Wendy's instead of that Pasta Primavera. Maybe they are vegetarian.
@gycyrus thanks for your thoughts and feedback and a cool new customer! I think soon you will discover a new realm of the quadruple kick with a complex dynamic wave and phasing very soon that would incinerate a mortal drummer's leg.
My customers always say it best. Here's one I got a few days ago from one fine guitarist that has had DD for several months now (and yes paid the Big price):
"...Every time I use the app, I'm really stunned!!!!!!!!!!!!!...I do experiment a LOT with virtual midi and WHOA!!!!!!! Where will I stop my discoveries??????..."
Give it some time and hopefully you will find, save and record some hidden gems that nobody else will be able to dial in exactly like you because DD is all about personal discovery and inspiration. Thanks all.
@gjcyrus Lol, I think the dev/non dev ratio is probably the other way around. That's still quite a high proportion compared to most online communities though.
One more thought on pricing folks...I come from old-school boxed software. What was cool back then is I could control pricing and so someone could just call or email and I could give it to them for much less or work a deal and send them a code. You could offer bundles or have a 5 minute sale or anything you wanted and we did it all the time. Your software, your business. With the iTune store you get the awesome distribution but you lose all control over the individual transactions so it's become more impersonal and harder to work with individuals on their budget. Hopefully it will evolve to be more of a free market because I loved that. Also if you do a severe price drop it's automatically broadcast so Everybody goes and locks your app in forever at that price...which is all clever and good but it doesn't give me the freedom to sell my app to one individual at a private price...it's instantly public. Oh well.
@funjunkie27 - sorry to hear you're having similar problems. I'm running an ipad mini and its crashed a few times as well as not being detected by midibridge and glitchbreaks. But don't get me wrong about the busy rhythms. That's why I bought it but it would be nice to also have ability to do an easy beat (or I still have to learn how to do em)
@technemedia - thanks for frequenting this thread. If you continue to be this accessible and listen to your customer's needs, I can see the value add to your app. much appreciated. Do you ever plan on setting up your own forum or will you ride out this thread?
@AQ808 - sorry dude. Yeah just saw the smiley face haha. I'll try the figure trick, thnx for that tip. Gotta make a point here though, how easy would it be to speak to propellerheads dev on a regular basis and would they be as proactive as tech media has been in speaking with his customers?
Anyways, I'm in a weird mood right now. My gf just caught me wanking to porn. And she also complained why am I always typing on this forum and that now she knows what I do all night. Sorry TMI. Later guys
Lol! I can't believe you just told us that! Now I'll always be wondering if you're typing one handed while posting to the forum.
Talk about creative flow...
Very interesting results.
My perception on pricing for DD, having watched iOS music for the past year:
As is, it's worth $10-15. It has value as a configurable, extremely unique way to create rhythms, with essentials like MIDI out, Audiobus, user sample import.
To be worth $30 (max), it would have to be the absolute leader in drum/ rhythm creation on iOS. This would include:
What it already has, which is a highly innovative way to create rhythms that are unique.
killer MIDI implementation: assignable instrument MIDI out per channel, recording MIDI patterns, MIDI editing grid, MIDI export... or at least most of these functions, if not all.
Multi-track output to an Audiobus DAW. This would set it way above any other drum app, and make it worth the $10-20 premium over other drum apps.
a great UI that is intuitive and easy to learn. Creating a simply great user experience seems to be a rare skill in iOS music and this would add a lot of value. People want to be able to make great music intuitively and quickly. (note: I can't tell how well DD does this currently, but I have seen a lot of comments about it taking a lot of time to learn the nuances of getting great results)
EDIT: had to add one thing: of course, 24bit/ 96khz processing is a must for a top tier (>$30) iOS app
Now, what constitues a $50 music app? I would say Cubasis and Auria set the standard, being a iOS ported version of a well-respected studio DAW, and an highly capable iOS only DAW. If we're comparing the iOS ecosystem to the PC ecosystem, these are the equivalents of $400 -600 studio DAWs.
So I don't at all understand the approach of creating a "killer drum pattern VST" and then pricing it so a 60% off sale makes it the same price as studio DAWs... Thats crazy talk. And that's what it seems DD is trying to do, except on iOS.
Anyway, i figured I'm entitled to voice my opinion since my April 21st comment brought @technemedia a lot of PR and got @thesoundtestroom a free cool drum app. I do hope for great success for both of you.
and no, I'm not in the market for this app
But I wanted to get the truth out on an app surrounded by a lot of mystique, and it seems to have worked.
@PaulB lol
If anyone knows how to access your crash logs in Settings>General>About>Diagnostics...please email me whatever you can and I'll look into why it's crashing...I'll fix it if I can see what's happening or when so any info is useful. I might have to get an iPad 4 since I develop on a 3 currently. Thanks. I do plan on setting up a Forum and I thank the AB folks many times for letting us ramble on here.
@technemedia The thing is, I did in fact buy an expensive pedal or two in the past, and felt burned once I eventually realized it didn't help me become a better musician at all, and that I wasted a lot of time and money in the pursuit of something which couldn't be bought. It wasn't until I decided to to focus on the actual input side of the equation and work on acoustic guitar that I ever gained any actual skill.
I am looking at these products through the lens of a skilled musician who is looking for tools which advance and enable my creativity, and will level that in a cost/benefit ratio in comparison to what the rest of the market is offering. Paying more from my point of view to people offering "mystical, boutique" experiences is to me the definition of what an "enthusiast" does because they are,, as you said, all about the music, but don't realize that musicality itself can't be bought.
As it stands, this is a bit of a boutique app which promises to imbue infinite mystical musicality to the user. I think you will have a very steep hill to climb in quality before the app will be able to speak to people in my shoes, who can seriously see the cost/benefit ratio of what you are offering and find it severely lacking, or even detrimental to creativity.
As far as suggesting people not purchase this as "telling them what to do with their money", this always infers that opinions have no place in the marketplace. From my point of view, your approach to pricing this app is distorting the marketplace in an attempt to create a "boutique" tier, similar to what has happened to the guitar and effects marketplace.
In my point of view, that type of distortion directly effects me as a consumer, and hurts the music making community as a whole. Just as you have a right to make that boutique tier, I also have a right to share my opinion of it to help make sure that you are not successful in your effort.
Capitalism is all about information, and my participation is directly connected to the fact that I prefer a non-distorted, non-boutique marketplace for iOS apps, and I really believe that the platform has done surprisingly well at it thus far.
@gjcyrus Way, WAy, WAY TMI !!!
I'm guessing "Different Drummer" sold you on the name alone! 
And, I almost forgot what I was going to say... Um... about the Figure dev, that would be @kallepa on twitter. The guy seems to definitely be open to communication.
@gjcyrus Just fyi, I spit coffee all over my keyboard after reading your last post. Thanks for that.
And this thread was going so well... Lol.
I think I've learned more about forum members and their personalities from this thread than I have from all of the other threads combined.
Sounds like @gjcyrus has been beating a different drum for a while.
I hope your girlfriend doesn't hold it against you! So to speak...
Hmmmm....interesting thread. That's all.