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 Store

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

Song of the Month Club - July

What is the Song of the Month Club?

It's a place where musicians come to give and receive feedback on their work. Anyone is welcome, whatever their level of ability.

The spirit of the club is to contribute: if you submit a song for others to comment on, you should also have the courtesy to listen to everyone else's contributions and give as much feedback as possible. Posting a track and not listening and commenting on others is not cool.

The purpose of feedback is to be honest. Essentially you should give your truthful impressions of the song, whether good or bad. Negative feedback, if done in the right spirit and with courtesy, is often the most useful and can help the artist to grow and improve.

All submissions are welcome, don't hesitate if you want to contribute. Instrumentals are very welcome, and songs with vocals are especially encouraged, so if you are thinking of experimenting with vocals this is a good place to get started.

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Comments

  • edited July 2015

    A list of final entries (so far), only including the final versions, not WIPs:

    Marcel - No Happy Endings:

    https://app.box.com/s/lrh2qzidgg5sqhypy6znnnuc974ep0vn

    Necrome - Kong Bai Ge Cover:

    https://m.soundcloud.com/gary-goh-1/kong-bai-ge-cover

    AndyX - Bossa Nova Memories:

    https://m.soundcloud.com/andyxuma/bossa-nova-memories

    BvsMV - Radiance:

    https://m.soundcloud.com/bvsmv/radiance

    AlterEgo_UK - The Dream:

    https://m.soundcloud.com/a-multitude-of-one/the-dream

    touchconspiracy - Deeper Into You:

    https://m.soundcloud.com/touchandcreate-com/deeper-into-you

    supadom - Candyman:

    richard yot - Sinking Slowly:

    https://m.soundcloud.com/richardyot/sinking-slowly

    Igneous1 - Unrestricted Charles:

    https://m.soundcloud.com/formbank/unrestricted-charles

    Jocphone - Nil by Transport Clan:

    https://m.soundcloud.com/jocphone/nil-by-transport-clan

    JohnnyGoodyear - Don't You Worry:

    Matt_Fletcher_2000 - Lost Thoughts:

    https://m.soundcloud.com/matt-fletcher-2000/lost-thoughts

    Tyburn Technology - Informal Informer:

    https://m.soundcloud.com/callumrdgrs/informal-informer-techno

    LostBoy85 - Moraira Sky:

    https://m.soundcloud.com/leo-b-5/moraira-sky

  • Just to get the ball rolling here's a teaser for my entry for July. Hopefully I can get the finished article done within a week or two.

  • Sounds good @richardyot ! Nice instruments, nice setup, nice layers. I like it. Personally I'd like to hear more variation in the chords, but I am a chords progression guy.

  • edited July 2015

    Last night and today I made this instrumental. Not shure yet if I will change it to a complete song with singing. So this is not an 'official contribution' for this month. The chord progression is loosely based on The Cure's song The Same Deep Water As You. There lies one of the arguments not to use it, cause it might be perhaps too much stolen from The Cure.

    Dreamy, slow, simple, sad. No drums, no bass, no singing. Just two guitar tracks and some strings.

    https://app.box.com/s/bbjh0avsw2o4scdgtehn709va4kch2tt

    Edit: By the way, to those of you who don't know the song I mentioned, here it is:

  • @richardyot Very gently moody, but then I ruined it by wanting Tom Waits to sing on top....

  • @Marcel said:
    Last night and today I made this instrumental. Not shure yet if I will change it to a complete song with singing. So this is not an 'official contribution' for this month. The chord progression is loosely based on The Cure's song The Same Deep Water As You. There lies one of the arguments not to use it, cause it might be perhaps too much stolen from The Cure.

    Dreamy, slow, simple, sad. No drums, no bass, no singing. Just two guitar tracks and some strings.

    https://app.box.com/s/bbjh0avsw2o4scdgtehn709va4kch2tt

    Edit: By the way, to those of you who don't know the song I mentioned, here it is:

    Dreamy. But more than anything wistful.

  • @Marcel very nice WIP, I really don't think it sounds that similar to the Cure song, which I am very familiar with having known it since the late 80s (pretty sure it's from Disintegration, which I bought when it was first released). I think you should definitely take it further.

    Thanks for the feedback too. I'm shocked that you don't think there are enough chords in my track, that progression has four chords, which is already two more than I normally use, and the middle ones are minor 7ths!

  • edited July 2015

    @richardyot said:

    Thanks for the feedback too. I'm shocked that you don't think there are enough chords in my track, that progression has four chords, which is already two more than I normally use, and the middle ones are minor 7ths!

    Oops, four chords? Hmm...I guess I am not that good at determining chords. For me it feels like it could do with a chord jump, with a variation. Perhaps not more chords, but at some point structured in a different way. For me it feels like it is a constant repeat of the same thing, but don't get me wrong: I like what I hear very much, it is just that for me it would improve...hmm, don't know how to say it ...You now start every part with an A (i think) , so if you would some part somewhere start for instance with an G, it could make it even better. But this is just an idea, a suggestion, do whatever you think is best.

  • Actually, there is more to the song than what I posted, including a different progression in the chorus (jumps from minor to major). It's just a fragment of a WIP for now. Thanks for listening though, even if you only heard half the chords :D

  • edited July 2015

    @JohnnyGoodyear said: Dreamy. But more than anything wistful.

    Interesting observation. Makes me think. Although the word has several meanings, according to http://www.mijnwoordenboek.nl/vertaal/EN/NL/wistful . Anyway, thanks for input.

  • edited July 2015

    @Marcel said:
    Interesting observation. Makes me think. Although the word has several meanings, according to http://www.mijnwoordenboek.nl/vertaal/EN/NL/wistful . Anyway, thanks for input.

    I was thinking (or I usually am thinking) of the time gone by and the pain of opportunities missed or things to do with certain types of landscape no longer available to me, meals that can never be made again (the cook being long dead) or girls who are now grandmothers.

  • edited July 2015

    @JohnnyGoodyear - lol! Thanks for explanation! Wasn't too shure about what you meant, but it is now clear to me.

  • @Marcel despite my jokey reply, your feedback did give me some food for thought. The reason that the underlying harmony is hard to hear is because the bass line doesn't follow it. The synth pads are playing a four chord progression over 4 bars, but the bass is only playing over 2 bars, and the progression is lost beneath all the other layers. So I shall redo the bass so that it actually follows the underlying harmony, and hopefully the whole thing will then sit together much better, so once again thanks for your comments.

  • edited July 2015

    My contribution

    No Happy Endings - https://app.box.com/s/9bc9kphb7ittu7qz80ftu4mwcxso78de

    Unshure about:

    -1. The vocals, perhaps I should re-record the vocals and do a coughing, cleaning the pipes session before I start singing.

    -2. The whole project, it might be too uninteresting, for me it is not too uninteresting, so, on second thought, there must be other people who like it too.

    @JohnnyGoodyear - your observation of the instrumental I posted earlier inspired me to write these lyrics. Not shure if I should thank you, cause I'm in a depression right now........no I am not.

    I wanted to add the lyrics here, but the text editting options are so limited here.....I once saw a nice text here, with italics and normal sentences below each other, I wonder what codes were used.

    Edit: Johnny gave some tips about text formatting, I am happy about that. So here are the lyrics:




    No Happy Endings

    Whenever you are in my head

    I get so lonely

    This love for you I can't forget

    You were the only

    Whenever you are in my heart

    The pain is glowing

    I feel the joy, there was no start

    What's left is knowing

    No happy endings for us now

    I met you later, no again

    The heart gets colder

    I can't forget you're part of me

    We're getting older

    No happy endings for us now

  • @Marcel very nice work. I like the intertwining guitar lines, and love the sad vocal melody - you've definitely got the hang of getting a sad feeling in your songs. I also like the pause at 3.20, gives a bit of breathing space to the song.

    The vocals need to come up in the mix though, it's hard to follow the lyrics when they are mixed so low.

    Good use of minimal instrumentation to create an atmosphere.

    I don't know too much about text formatting on this forum, but to italicize you can put an asterisk either side of the text. For example: * italics * without the spaces between the asterisks and the words is italics

    I've seen Johnny Goodyear use bold, but I don't know the secret to that particular trick.

  • @richardyot said:
    Just to get the ball rolling here's a teaser for my entry for July. Hopefully I can get the finished article done within a week or two.

    Very smooth - I can just picture George Michael in a Hawaiian shirt, Pina Colada in hand crooning over the top of this one. 80's cool.

    @Marcel said:
    My contribution

    Nice, lovely flanged guitar with a very full sound. Needs more vocals, but the voice is great - some backing harmonies would work on this too. Your stuff always reminds me of Robert Wyatt and Kevin Ayers - not sure why, just the vibe maybe. Good stuff.

  • edited July 2015

    Just to ruin the mood, I'll post this effort. Not sure if it's going to be my 'official' SOTM but unless anything better materializes it'll have to do. I was working on some more musical, structured songs but thanks to Auria corrupting the tracks I've had to abandon those, and so I'm back to my old 'play it live and hope for the best noisy weird fest' for now. This is an Egoist/Cyclop powered live take, with added frills from iFretless and Yellofier Electrified mangling @johnnygoodyear 's voice.

  • @Monzo I think that's actually the weirdest and least "musical" entry you've made so far, it does make wonder what was lost on those corrupted Auria tracks, but I guess I'll never get to know.

    It was pretty hard to catch J Goodyear's vocals in there, I think they were mangled beyond recognition. It might be interesting to hear a version where they are more recognisable, I think some vocals in the weirdness would help to ground the piece a little.

    As a matter of taste/subjectivity I've always liked weirdness when it has some beauty to contrast against. Sygur Ros are weird, but eerily beautiful as well. When I think back to all the experimental music I've listened too over the years, in the end very little of it has stayed with me, I guess my ears crave melody. The right blend of melody and quirkyness is delicious though, Syd Barrett for example, weird as hell, but lovely too.

  • @richardyot said:
    Monzo I think that's actually the weirdest and least "musical" entry you've made so far

    You're probably right, I've removed it. I don't think there's much point posting it into this thread as it doesn't really fit the brief. I'll see if I can get something more musical together, or maybe just start a 'noise of the month' thread and put stuff in there.

  • Not sure if there was any need to remove it, we're broad church. You should be free to submit what you want, I really don't think there's a specific brief.

    The way I see it, we are free to post, and free to comment.

  • edited July 2015

    this is my first iOS recording (in Mandarin though!)

    the piano sounds are from Korg Module's Ivory and strings are from Thumbjam. Done through Auria :)

  • @richardyot said: Monzo I think that's actually the weirdest and least "musical" entry you've made so far

    Damn I missed it! @monzo is it on your soundcloud?

  • @monzo HEY SO I WAS BORN AND WAS EUTHANIZED BEFORE I EVEN WOKE UP THIS MORNING WHAT THE FUCK.

    :)

  • @marcel There are lots of little bits of formatting things for these silly text boxes, as Richard points out the key is the italic thingie which is the * before (no spaces) and after the chosen word.

    Other things use the < and > brackets, again without a space, so bold can be achieved by putting < b > (remove the spaces though before and after the 'b') BEFORE the word or phrase you want to bold and then < /b > (again remove the spaces, but if I leave them in this example you won't be able to see them because they become active and 'disappear'), with the backslash before the 'b' indicating where the bold letter/word/phrase should stop being bold.

    As for lyrics, if you want to make things 'start again on a new line' add < br > to the end of the line and it breaks it etc. (remove spaces)

    Lots of others but these three get most of the job done. Perhaps we should come up with a style guide thread :) I would certainly like to see your lyrics...

  • edited July 2015

    @JohnnyGoodyear - Really thanks a lot!! for this small formatting guide. Been searching and searching, but couldn't find it. Very happy with your tips :) I have added the lyrics within the comment where the song is.

  • edited July 2015

    @Jocphone said:
    Damn I missed it! monzo is it on your soundcloud?

    It's on another account, my noisy one - it's not very exciting but I'll add you as a friend and you can punish your ears by following the trail of feedback and farmyard noises...

    @JohnnyGoodyear said:
    monzo HEY SO I WAS BORN AND WAS EUTHANIZED BEFORE I EVEN WOKE UP THIS MORNING WHAT THE FUCK.

    You were 'mangled beyond recognition'. I think it's probably a bit too loose and noisy for this thread, and any feedback on song structure and making it more accessible would be wasted on my intentions for the thing. I'm going to start a noise thread, probably, for stuff that's more 'sound art' type of thing though I'll probably be the only one posting in it.

  • edited July 2015

    @Monzo - That thread would at some point probably contain a discussion of the definition of sound art. What piece can we consider as sound art? Is one constant tone art, for instance. Is originality the only criterium to consider something art? Is the recording of a highway, tweaked with some echo and/or other weird effects, art? Ordinary stuff recorded, or sound art? What criteria can one use to distinguish one from the other.

    I am teasing a bit, I think I can do that cause I like what I heard of your work (and I do consider it art). Partly teasing, cause I also think that the above questions are valid and make sense.

    @Monzo - You say that you probably shall be the only one posting in it. I suggest you develop multiple personalities, then you won't be the only one anymore. The weirdness of your work suggests that this is an option. :)

  • About commenting on my song : Really thanks a lot @Richardyot and @Monzo for taking the time to listen to it and commenting on it. I am really happy that you both like it. :)

    And the remarks you both made about the vocals: thanks a lot for that, I shall think about it, I already am thinking about it. Thinking of a way to improve it: perhaps with a backing vocal, and also perhaps tweaking the voice as it is now, so that you hear more what I sing. Also considering a re-recording of the voice. Anyway, thanks a lot both, for your input. Appreciated.

  • edited July 2015

    Hey guys. First post into the SOTM club. Thanks to all for this great space, and to @richardyot for his friendly CEO role!

    @richardyot - I like this kind of sound, melodic and drummy. Looking forward to your final entry.

    @Marcel - nice track, very emotive. I agree with the previous comments that more / louder vocals would probably be welcome!

    @necrome - It’s a pity I have no idea whatsoever what the words mean, but you have a very nice voice.

    @monzo - Unfortunately I missed the opportunity to listen to your noises! Maybe you’ll repost at the Weird Noise thread??

    Finally - this is my entry for July. I wanted to try my hand at really using Yamaha Mobile Music Sequencer for a complete track. The track was sketched there, then audio and midi exported to MTS for adding voices and instruments and further tweaking.

    Many of my childhood vacations were in Rio de Janeiro, and I wanted to capture a little of the late 60's - early 70’s beach, bar and Bossa Nova old vinyl vibe.

  • @Marcel said:
    Monzo - What piece can we consider as sound art? Is one constant tone art, for instance. Is originality the only criterium to consider something art? Is the recording of a highway, tweaked with some echo and/or other weird effects, art? Ordinary stuff recorded, or sound art? What criteria can one use to distinguish one from the other.

    I guess sounds that have been put together in a non-song type composition would qualify as sound art, but the thread's open to all sorts really :)

    @Marcel said:
    Monzo - You say that you probably shall be the only one posting in it. I suggest you develop multiple personalities, then you won't be the only one anymore. The weirdness of your work suggests that this is an option. :)

    Funnily enough I've had a punter in already! I do have a few Soundcloud personas, less than I did. They're handy for posting up new things as they cover a range of styles.

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